Opinion on Graphic card

[tufunuf]

I recently purchased an ATI Radeon X1300 - Pro PCI Express, 256MB DDR2 card that I am about to install in my Compaq computer. I will probably need to change out my PSU (it has a 300 watt unit now) also.

I would like to get your opinion on this graphics card?

Thanks - Tuf

 

[LeeJend]

The 1300 doesn't use much power and you will probably be ok with a 300W compaq PSU.

The 1300 is a low end card, less powerful than the very old 9800 PRO cards. All ATI cards do however provide better multimedia support than Nvidia cards. So it really depends on what is more important to you general use/multimedia or gaming. The 1300 performance is to low too be considered a gaming card.

This is a pretty good PSU calculator. It shows only 30W needed for the 1300 PRO. Put in the spec's for your system and see what it recomends.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

 

[epk]

All ATI cards do however provide better multimedia support than Nvidia cards.

i've already read that in another topic (i think it was shamus on the "100$ video card").... what exactly is better with ati cards?


afaik, purevideo is as good as avivo

 

[LeeJend]

They have a large amount of extra silicon on the chip dedicated to rendering multimedia video. Things like video in video out (VIVO) are standard on ATI and hard to find on Nvidia. ATI markets the extra capability under their trademark AVIVO.

This will probably get me flamed, but ATI appeared to be changing their strategy from performance to home entertainemnt / multimedia in an effort to get a larger market for their chips. Nvidia was pulling too far ahead of them in raw FPS performance / lower power consumption / lower cost chips.

Since the AMD buyout the ATI direction has been unclear, though I saw some recent financial site info that looks like AMD intends using the new high performance, general purpose shader GPU to stiffen their server and workstation lines as physics processors. Not a bad idea, but not in the best interest of gamers/enthusiasts. Interesting potential though if they can keep the FPS in line with Nvidia's 8800's.

 

[epk]

well, if you're talkin bout connections you're right... vivo nv boards are really hard to find
and i read recently that not all 8 series gpus are gonna have hdmi

i just wanted to make sure that i wasn't about the hardware decoding since they're pretty much the same in terms of quality and performance

 

[tufunuf]

LeeJend,

Thanks for the input. I do video slideshows for people. I bought a 22" Viewsonic Widescreen and found that my shows were not as crisp/clear as I wanted them to be while building. I went ahead and installed an Antec 500 watt PSU, along with the Radeon 1300 card. The results are very good. I won't be doing much gaming at this stage. But, like I had posted on another forum earlier, one day when I get up enough courage:nervous: and my grandson gets enough money saved up, I would like to tackle building a gaming computer with him.

Thanks again for the responses.

Yours,
Tuf

 

[LeeG]

I'm having an issue with a similar setup. I have the Radeon 1300 PCI card, on a compaq computer, and the system won't boot. The system boots once I pull the card. I disabled the on-board video prior to the install. I also tried pulling everything but the card and the C drive and the same results. Specs as follows, any advice would be a big help.

Motherboard: Mitac 6513wu Motherboard
1 gig Intel processor
512 Ram
350 Power Supply

 

[LeeJend]

Define "won't boot".
-Does the system do it's power up self test (POST) (keyboard lights flash, drives spin, beeps). If beeps is there more than one? Count the longs and shorts and write them down. This tells you what hardware is failing. If the system is not POSTing then the card may not be installed right (possible I've had to bend the metal brackets to get some cards to seat in some PCs) or the power supply could be too small (unlikely with a 1300).

-Do you see the boot up VGA screen? If so the 1300 and PC are working

-Does it hang when windows starts to load? If it made it this far the problem is you are booting windows into drivers for the wrong video hardware.

With the 1300 not installed and the on baord video active - You need to go into add/remove programs and delete anything for the on baord video. Then go into Device Manager and uninstall all video cards that show up. But first make sure you have backup copies of the drievrs and programs, you may need them again. Now shut down and install the 1300. Start up and windows should see the 1300 and ofer to install the drivers.

After windows is done basic video should be working and you can go in and install the latest drivers from ATI.

Warning! It can get uglier than this if the old video driver do not want to let go. In that case tools like ccleaner or nasty file remover are required. Post back if the drivers resist removal.

 

[LeeG]

Hi:

Thanks for the reply. I don't think it even gets into the cmos boot. When the card is in and I power up, Power light comes on, hard drive light comes on, but I never hear the hard drive speed up, then the hard drive light goes out and that's it. Nothing on the monitor and I'm sure the PS is enough, the card recommends a 250w PS. I've powered up with case open and the CPU and 1300 Card fans are working. The boot just stops dead in its tracks. I've also tried several PCI slots.


I'll try the full removal, as you suggested; I'll have to dig up the drives first.


Thanks for the idea.

 

[LeeJend]

If the problem was drivers you should get farther into the boo than you do.

To rule out the power supply disconnect the HD and the CD drive power cables to reduce load. See if you get the VGA video boot screen then. If not the 1300 could be bad.

Also, I don't think the 1300 requires one, but make sure that there is not a direct power plug into the video card required. The higher power cards require you to plug a power supply cable (4 pin) into the video card, usually through an adapter.

The first video cards that required the extra power plug would lock up the boot process if not installed. The newer ones put up a screen that says to install the power plug.

 

[LeeG]

I've unplugged everything but the card and the c-Drive and same results and there is no power plug on the card. I doubt the card is bad, but possible.

The only thing I haven't tried is your full removal of on-board video support and upgrading the bios ( I don't plan on going that far ) too busy, but I'll try the full driver removal, that's worth a try, but I agree, it should boot past cmos.

This does give me an idea, this Compaq has a splash screen tied into my cmos, wonder if that could lock it up and I've seen the setting for that. Silly, yes, but I've seen stranger things.


Thanks

 

[LeeG]

I must have been mistaken about the splash screen, I can't seem to find it. Never the less, what do you think of this. My bios is set to Quick Boot, do you think I should try Full Boot. Also PCI mastering is enabled, what do you think the results would be by disabling this. And finally, my bios has On-board VGA enabled, should I try disabling this?

Appreciate your thoughts and time.

 

[ray_gillespie]

I don't think full boot will do much but it's worth trying on the off-chance. Can't do any harm. In normal working circumstances you should disable the on-board VGA but if you're worried that you might not be able to get this card working you could be stuck without any video at all.

Is there an option to boot from AGP/PCI first? That option would be useful as you could tell the PC to look for the new card before looking at on-board. Maybe it's getting its knickers in a twist with two cards.

 

[Arniestan1]

I hope I'm not way off with this, but could it be you are trying to run a PCI express vga in a pci slot?

 

[LeeG]

Hi

I may try the full boot mode. But there is no option for an agc/pci boot. And the card is listed as a PCI, no indications of an express, according to the card and packaging.

Thanks

 

[LeeJend]

You did not mention if the keyboard lights flash. If they don't then the bios post is not running. That indicates a serious issue. I would assume the video card is defective if this is the case since unplugging the extra loads on the PSU did not help. Plugging a good card into a PCI slot should not cause failure to post.

 

[LeeG]

LeeJend and others:

Thanks so much for your time and efforts. You may have been right. I returned the card, and decided to try an Nvidia. The new card works great. Very pleased. Thank you all.


Take care