A workhorse in the company of Speed Racers.
Written: Jan 31 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Price, 32bit support, DVD hardware
Cons: Driver reliability
|
|
|
| Noa_Star's Full Review: Hewlett-Packard Ati Rage Fury |
I purchased this product to help me run the game application Ultima IX. My computer originally came with a Rage LT Pro 4meg and needed a little boost. However due to problems with the game itself, the boost was negligible.
However in my other applications I noticed a big jump in performance. If you're thinking of purchasing a graphics card your going to be boggled down with statistics on speed, and megabites of Ram. Don't worry about any of this. Consumer reports has done tests comparing this product to many of the other top of the line cards and the difference in speed is negligible. Remember when you hear about frames per second that the human eye can only see so many. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 I think, but don't quote me on that one. Needless to say on any application you run, any of these cards will most likely run well over what your eye can detect. So the advantage of having a jillion fps when your eye can only see a fraction of that is just pointless. It's like buying a car that will go 200mph, when you'll never get to go above 70.
With that established, there are factors which due vary from card to card. First off would be reliability, then extra features, and lastly supported code. Reliability on ATI's older products was unsurpassed. They weren't the fastest in the lot, but they always worked. Some of that quality is lost in the Rage Fury, but it's still a workhorse. Installing it will be a chore. The drivers are very tempermental. The instructions have a little left to be desired. I had several errors trying to install the drivers, meanwhile I had only 16 colors. Once they were installed, they periodically deleted themselves and would require a reinstallation. I'm still working with tech support to fix this problem. When it comes to compatibility, everything's good. Most games out now have patches on their website for the TNT drivers, Voodoos, and other chipsets. ATI rarely has a compatibility problem so you shouldn't have to worry about that.
One great advantage of the Rage Fury is it's built in DVD hardware. Now this is only if you have a DVD rom on your computer. Most DVD roms are software based. Which basically means your chewing up your Ram and Processor in order to watch your movie. ATI however has incorporated DVD HARDWARE into the board. ATI truly stands out when it comes to DVD. For instance. On my 400pII with 128 megs of ram and a software based DVD player I'd use over 60% of my system resources to watch a movie. Which meant while the movie was on, nothing else could be. The mouse would be "sticky," and the interactive menus on the movie would run slow. With the Rage Fury, it's like the movie isn't running at all. It barely affects your system resources and other applications. So now you can watch Austin Powers and cruise the web without a loss of performance. It's truly amazing. Also the ATI DVD player doesn't conflict with the screen saver or other power saving devices on your computer like some DVD players do. So every ten minutes you won't have to keep moving your mouse to turn the movie back on.
I've never used the TV out on my Rage, but I've never heard of any problems with it. The only thing I can say about that is if you want to use it be glad you have it. Most cards charge a lot extra for a TV out port.
If you hear 3DFX (makers of the Voodoo) boasting about their glide code as opposed to D3D (direct 3D) don't be fooled. While I've heard glide has it's advantages, it's rarely supported by games. Voodoo's are basically made for the glide code which never made it mainstream. Their handling of D3D has been consistently poor. So if you're just buying this card to run a game that is designed for Glide (the only game I know of is Ultima IX) then a voodoo would be a good buy. Just keep in mind that in the world of D3D which everyone else uses, the statistics don't look good.
Another thing you'll want to look at is price. Most of you will be buying this card to support games. Do you really want to spend $500+ on a card? Believe it or not, when the new Voodoo's come out they'll range that high. Well, if you don't you'll be happy to hear I've seen Rage Fury's priced anywhere from $70-$130 depending on where you go and what sales you can get. I normally see them for about $100 bucks. Way cheaper than the average 16meg chip and about the same as a Voodoo 8meg chip. And it will come with all the features you need. The only downfall is going to be those drivers. Maybe you'll have more luck than me. As a little synopsis:
Speed:
A little slower that some, but nothing your eye will notice
(I didn't mention it before, but also keep in mind that Rage supports 32big graphics!!! Big jump over a lot of other 16 bit cards!)
Reliability:
Iffy. Not as good as it used to be. Drivers difficult to install.
Compatibility:
Very good!
DVD support:
Unsurpassed hardware based.
Extras:
Pretty good if you use them.
Code:
Don't let Glide fool ya, no one uses it.
and Price:
Cheap as it gets.
Check the websites for more information or see if you can find some old consumer reports at Consumer Reports Magazine Online. Goodluck with your new card.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70 w/$30 rebate (circuit city)
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Noa_Star
|
|
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.