Ati Radeon 8500

[newbee]

@mounatinmyst

They support the 2D modes and such, but not true 3D gaming and such.

snip

I think a lot of money may be wasted on getting all these high priced cards, only to find out that 3D and acceleration is not supported.

A hell of a lot of effort is going into the 2d and 3d engines (both for AmigaOS and DE). So AmigaOS 4 will have some very impressive 2d and 3d abilites.

However, you are also correct in that on a subset of all available cards will have complete drivers written (at least on this first pass!!!).

I would not invest in a "bleeding edge" 3d card at the moment as it is unlikely to be initially (fully) supported, although if it is compatibel with an "old" version you may get some functionality.

The Radeon 8500 has been around for some time now and it is "supported" so I think it is a good compramise between "new and better" and "supported".

I hope that helps your decision process.

Regards
Darren

[newbee]

@poweramiga2002

The Radeon 9000 should work as it is "backwards compatible" with the Radeon 7500 (This is not a money back garantee however).

The drivers are "optimised" for the 7500 so even the 8500 will be missing some "whistles and bells" on the first pass (but should still give a speed boost over the 7500).

Since you have already purchased the 9000 card, give it a go (nothing to lose). however I would not recommend purchasing >8500 for anyone who has not yet got a video card.

Regards
Darren