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Offline Darrin

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #29 from previous page: December 01, 2004, 03:39:33 PM »
I have to say that I've been using a Radion All-In_Wonder 9200 for several months ($129 from Walmart) and it does a damn nice job on the games front.  Doom3 runs well and looks good (with shadowing off) at a decent resolution and I've also been using it for turning VHS tapes into DVD's using the supplied software.  If you want a good graphics card and a reasonable proce then get one of these.  If you don't need the video input option then the plain 9200 is only $99.

Oh, and I'm using it on an Athlon XP2200...

Pirates for PC!  Got to get that!!!
A2000, A3000, 2 x A1200T, A1200, A4000Tower & Mediator, CD32, VIC-20, C64, C128, C128D, PET 8032, Minimig & ARM, C-One, FPGA Arcade... and AmigaOne X1000.
 

Offline Blomberg

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #30 on: December 01, 2004, 03:42:17 PM »
Quote
I was disappointed by the fact that my GeForce 4Ti (a DX8 hardware card) gets better framerates, even on some DX9 tasks, though.


That makes sense. All of the Ti series are clocked faster (The Ti4200 at about the same, though) and have more memory bandwidth than the FX5200. It's not really a fair comparison, though, as the Ti series were the mid to high end cards, while the FX5200 is the ultimate low end, equivalent to the MX's of the GeForce 4 series.

--Edit--
Nice chart here, btw.

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #31 on: December 01, 2004, 04:32:36 PM »
What's with all the dancing?  I've yet to see any purpose in that whatsoever.

Wayne
 

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #32 on: December 01, 2004, 04:39:51 PM »
Quote
Nice chart here, btw.


Excellent, thanks.  That pretty much makes up my mind for me.  Reading their reviews, it points out that even the current 6800 line still requires multiple power connectors and "highly recommends" a 500-watt PS.  The x800 is a toss-up, but works well with a standard 300-watt PS (which they proved).

One thing I DO NOT like with both is the huge honkin fan required.  I bought my 5200 specifically because it didn't have/require a fan.  I also do not have a monitor with a DVI input, so that's rather limiting.  While I wouldn't run dual monitors, I'd like to keep the option of upgrading to DVI and a flat-panel in the future.

(I had a 17" flat-panel display once, gave me migraine headaches)

Wayne
 

Offline Speelgoedmannetje

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #33 on: December 01, 2004, 10:19:41 PM »
Quote

Wayne wrote:
 I'd like to keep the option of upgrading to DVI and a flat-panel in the future.

(I had a 17" flat-panel display once, gave me migraine headaches)
Phwa, luxury is for wimps!
Just give me the picture quality of the C= PET! But since I do not have that one yet I'll have to stick with my C=1084S monitor :-)
(In other words, I do not have the money for such luxury :lol:)
And the canary said: \'chirp\'
 

Offline magnetic

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #34 on: December 01, 2004, 10:40:15 PM »
Cool!

Thanks for the post. I have the Radeon 7500 agp and the CPU is an AMD 2.2ghz with nice low latency Samsung DDR Ram (256mb) I just dont really want to put that much money into this pc. BUT I really want to run Pirates! and now maybe Call of Duty..


@ Wayne

Yeah, that dancing sure looks silly ---

magnetic
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Offline Ilwrath

Re: Pirates!
« Reply #35 on: December 02, 2004, 03:11:44 AM »
Quote
What's with all the dancing? I've yet to see any purpose in that whatsoever.


Well, the dancing is to win the heart of the girl, and then she'll give you more information or a new mission.  Of course if you dance well enough, then she'll also want a ring, as well.  :lol:  It's kind of a frustrating scene, but pretty funny, at the same time, as one foul keystroke can send you stumbling and crashing into the girl.  I end up cussing under my breath much the same way as I'd imagine my pirate would be at that screw-up.  ;-)

The swordplay gets a little repetative after a few dozen or so captures...  But I'm still playing at an easier level than I really should, just to get together a feel for some strategies on how I'm supposed to progress through my career.  I'm hoping when I crank up some difficulty the swordplay will get more in-depth.  I'm surprised that that scene ran slowly for you.  It's pretty much liquid-smooth on my rig.  (shrug)  Silly computers.

 

Offline Bezzen

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #36 on: December 02, 2004, 01:20:12 PM »
I got it today but haven't got around to install it yet. I've been looking forward to this game for ages. I guess a couple of hours tonight will be spent in the Carribean.  :-D

Got the new Prince of Persia game today as well. A pretty good day, gaming wise.  :-)
 

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #37 on: December 06, 2004, 03:16:03 PM »
Hey Thomas,

Coming back to this question, let me state that normal gameplay is pretty much unaffected on a decent video card (yours should be able to handle it) but the extended scenes -- such as duelling or dancing -- are really, really painful.  

I got a chance over the weekend to try Pirates on a machine similar to mine with an ATI X800 video card, and it was an absolutely remarkable (and more enjoyable) difference.  The picture was 10x better (all the "details" sliders were on max), the colors were brighter and richer.  It was very, very cool.  The X800 however could be considered a little TOO much improvement as things like duels move in faster-than-real-time movement.

The funny thing is, the guy who owns the machine was told by ATI that the card is too fast to handle setting a monitor at 70 hz, so he had to crank it up to 85 hz (the highest his average 17 inch monitor could handle at 1024) just to use it.

I didn't get a chance to try out something like Doom3, which would strongly push the X800, but I would honestly suggest that you (and I -- if I were able) look to buying one of those 6600 GT or even perhaps an X700 card, if you have PCI-express.  If you're like me, the most appropriate card you could find would be a 6600 GT/AGP which can be found for $229 US at the current time.  (direct link to item at tigerdirect.com)

I figure that compared to our current cards (your 7500 and my 5200), 80 fps in Doom3 generated by the 6600 GT would be sufficient (according to the testing at anandtech.com) and would last you a long, long time before NEEDING to upgrade (as we do now).  

I've used my FX5200 for about 4 or 5 years.  I gave about $200 for it (actually I burned out the first two and this is my third replaced under warranty -- bad mobo), so if I can swing the money tree (Christmas is coming!), it may be time to upgrade.

Wayne
 

Offline B00tDisk

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #38 on: December 06, 2004, 05:30:29 PM »
If I may, Wayne, I've been running HL2 in 1024x768 with the bells and whistles all turned on with a GF5200 for a couple of weeks now, and I must say it's performance has amazed me - and this was the card I wanted to yank out and stomp on after the slideshow of Doom3 (even at 640x480).  

I have Pirates!* and it plays very well and looks great at 1024x768.

*Incidentally the original poster has it wrong - Pirates! wasn't an Amiga game first.  IIRC it was available for all the 8-bit platforms long before the Amiga.  I played it on an Apple-II and C64 for ages.  Certainly it got better on the Amiga, but Pirates! Gold for the PC was pretty much head and shoulders above the Amiga version.
Back away from the EU-SSR!
 

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #39 on: December 06, 2004, 05:41:08 PM »
Hey B00t,

Haven't tried HL2.  (isn't it just a doom clone?)  Tried the Doom3 demo on the 5200 and it had be thinking "people would actually pay for this game???"  Frame rates, even at 640x480 were roughly 10 to 12 fps.  

Playing Pirates! was the reason that a new video card is on my Christmas wish list.  Even moreso after seeing the game played on an identical machine with the X800 video card.  I just don't have half a grand to drop on a video card to play Pirates!

My plan now is to wait for Christmas and hope for a price drop on the 6600 GT/AGP.

Wayne
 

Offline magnetic

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #40 on: December 06, 2004, 07:04:58 PM »
Hi Wayne

Thanks for the update. I actually took the Radeon 9000 Pro 128mb DDR (PCI) out of my Pegasos and installed it in my Pc. This should be a major improvement for Pirates! right? I cant really afford a new gfx card at the moment.

Please guys, post your thoughts on this card and the new games here.

thx

magnetic

ps wayne: hows the dancing coming??
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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #41 on: December 06, 2004, 08:11:17 PM »
Thomas,

Looking at this page at Tom's Hardware -- which doesn't seem up to date (doesn't include the 6600 or x700) -- doesn't even mention the Radeon 9000 but it does include the 5200, so all you could do is compare how the two cards play on your own.

 

Offline magnetic

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #42 on: December 06, 2004, 09:23:03 PM »
Thx Wayne

Looks like that chart is only for cards for sale ATM. But its good. The Radeon 9k is better than 9500 and such I think - it has 128bit and lots of Ram...fast core.. but being PCI hurts.. The gfx card market is so confusing as are those stupid names..

magnetic
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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #43 on: December 06, 2004, 10:06:36 PM »
I agree that they come out with so many cards they could just sum it up for us by maker, market, and date of release;

ATI Gamer Video Q2-2004
ATI Multimedia Video Q2-2004
ATI Workstation Video Q2-2004
ATI Business Video Q2-2004

NVidia Gamer Video Q2-2004
NVidia Multimedia Video Q2-2004
NVidia Workstation Video Q2-2004
NVidia Business Video Q2-2004

You could tell

1) Who makes it
2) What it's for
3) Which release it is (in case they release several cards in that year)

Then again, while that's a LITTLE more helpful, it's not much.
 

Offline magnetic

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Re: Pirates!
« Reply #44 on: December 06, 2004, 10:56:45 PM »
Thx wayne

You inspired me to do furthur research. My card is the RV250 core and is Direct X 8 Hw compatible. So, judging by this thread, I should be able to play Pirates! well enough.. i wish it was agp though..

magnetic
bPlan Pegasos2 G4@1ghz
Quad Boot:Reg. MorphOS | OS4.1 U4 |Ubuntu GNU-Linux | MacOS X

Amiga 2000 Rom Switcher w/ 3.1 + 1.3 | HardFrame SCSI | CBM Ram board| A Squared LIVE! 2000 | Vlab Motion | Firecracker 24 gfx

Commodore CDTV: 68010 | ECS | 9mb Ram | SCSI -TV | 3.9 Rom | Developer EPROMs