Amithlon & GFX-cards: any advice?

[Shadowolf]

Hi!

I am also looking for a new card.

When I got the driver working on the first generation FX cards (5200, 5600, 5800) I expected it not to work with the second generation cards (5700, 5900 and 5950) but in fact it worked fine on the 5900 and 5950, but broke horribly on some 5700s. Not all, just some of them.

Unfortunately my "WinFast A350 XT TDH" from LeadTek with
FX5900 only gives me blinking keyboard LED's.
As does an Asus 6600GT but this was expected.

Any recommendations for a modell/brand with a 5900/5950
on it to go for that actually works with Amithlon?

[Shadowolf]

You guys rock, adding "mem=512m" indeed did it.
I only wish someone told me on the Amithlon mailing-list
around Christmas when I wrote that the 5900XT does not work.

I have a NForce2 with XP2400+ and 1gig of DDR.
And using the TI4200 I do not have to limit the memory,
it just works with kernel 3.10.

I just though 3.10 has pushed that limit a bit at least.

Okay, I tested the 6600GT again and it works,
the 5900XT is in my wife's PC, can't grab that now. :-)

The 6600GT is damaged though, possibly due to overheating
thanks to a failing fan I always have some nasty stripes
all over the screen.

Nonetheless I did a test-run with P96 speed.

| Resolution....: 1024 x 768 x 24         |
| Depth/Colors..: 16777216 colors         |
| Testlength....: 13                      |
.============= SPEEDRESULTS ==============.

| GF4200TI                          | GF6600GT
| RectFill()..............3818 op/s |.....137 op/s
| RectFill() Pattern.......651 op/s |.....146 op/s
| WritePixel().........1658235 op/s |.1685334 op/s
| WriteChunkyPixels().....5964 op/s |....1360 op/s
| WritePixelArray8()......5972 op/s |....1365 op/s
| WritePixelLine8().....122431 op/s |..119386 op/s
| DrawEllipse()..........66897 op/s |...54337 op/s
| DrawCircle()...........66385 op/s |...51251 op/s
| Draw().................17519 op/s |....8825 op/s
| Draw() Hor/Ver.........43759 op/s |...17552 op/s
| ScrollRaster() X.........365 op/s |.......1 op/s
| ScrollRaster() Y.........368 op/s |.......1 op/s
| PutText()..............28155 op/s |...11327 op/s
| BlitBitMap()...........23365 op/s |......80 op/s
| BlitBitMapRastPort()...21985 op/s |......80 op/s
| BitMapScale()............810 op/s |......25 op/s


Looks like hardware-acceleration is at least working
partly with the 6600GT.
What really makes it unuseable is the ScrollRaster() speed.
But this can also be due to the fact the card
is partly fried.

Have a nice day - Shadowolf

[Shadowolf]

Too bad that it's not that the 6600GT is fried...

My wife went to bed early now and I just could
remove the 5900XT from her PC for a little test:


| Resolution....: 1024 x 768 x 24         |
| Depth/Colors..: 16777216 colors         |
| Testlength....: 13                      |
.============= SPEEDRESULTS ==============.
| GF4200TI                          | GF5900XT
| RectFill()..........    3818 op/s |    4676 op/s
| RectFill() Pattern..     651 op/s |     635 op/s
| WritePixel()........ 1658235 op/s | 1477204 op/s
| WriteChunkyPixels().    5964 op/s |    5956 op/s
| WritePixelArray8()..    5972 op/s |    5960 op/s
| WritePixelLine8()...  122431 op/s |  119790 op/s
| DrawEllipse().......   66897 op/s |   62853 op/s
| DrawCircle()........   66385 op/s |   62325 op/s
| Draw()..............   17519 op/s |   17418 op/s
| Draw() Hor/Ver......   43759 op/s |   55315 op/s
| ScrollRaster() X....     365 op/s |     522 op/s
| ScrollRaster() Y....     368 op/s |     526 op/s
| PutText()...........   28155 op/s |   27965 op/s
| BlitBitMap()........   23365 op/s |   26780 op/s
| BlitBitMapRastPort()   21985 op/s |   25180 op/s
| BitMapScale().......     810 op/s |     823 op/s


Now this really looks good compared to the TI4200.
So the top card to get for Amithlon now should be
some FX5900 based one - and I just got one
for me on EBay.  :-D

And while it still has a fan at least the 5900XT
we already have is a lot less noisy than the TI4200.

Have fun - Shadowolf

[Shadowolf]

If I remember correctly, the MSI and Creative Labs (identical) 5900XT models had relatively quiet fans.Do you have one of those?

The one I have here is from Leadtek and it uses the
reference design from NVidia.

The one I just bought is from Creative and although I
have no information what specific modell it is,
it looks exactly like the Leadtek card.

This is it:

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/3dblaster_fx_5900/index.shtml

So I guess MSI and Creative also used the reference-design.

If there would only be a completely silent model with a heatpipe in the 5900-range such as my Gigabyte GV-68128DH.

Remember the days when gfx-cards did not even
had a heatsink and certainly not an additional
power-supply socket?
I hope we see much more fanless equipment in the
next years.

[Shadowolf]

Shadowolf wrote:

The one I just bought is from Creative and although I
have no information what specific modell it is,
it looks exactly like the Leadtek card.

This is it:

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/3dblaster_fx_5900/index.shtml

And it works just as fine as expected.
Plus Oblivion looks a lot better than with my GF4 now. :-)