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Rogue Nine

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Yeah, well, it's my fault for not paying any attention to anything that AMD is doing as of late. It's usually too damned depressing. :xp:

 

I think people are starting to wrongly focus in on the brute power pissing contest.... when the CPU market is so much more than that... what % of world users want a fully decked out crysis rig?? (replete with over $1000US of GPU hardware!) ...lolz

 

Hence, for most users, as long as AMD can out out some competitive prices on the low to mid end stuff, then their sales will augur will. As for the server and HTPC market, AMD are deifnitely starting to look like they have a an edge.

 

mtfbwya

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  • 1 month later...

hey, real quick: i'm looking to get a new monitor so that i can finally put to rest my old 2x 17" CRT monitors (both monitors are over 10 years old). i'm looking for a widescreen monitor, probably in the 22-24" range. my main caveat is that it needs have a max resolution that can support a full 1080p resolution since i'll have my Xbox 360 hooked up to it in addition to my computer.

 

right now, i'm looking at the following manufacturers: Gateway, Dell, and Viewsonic. i also prefer to use Newegg, but let me know if i can get one cheaper somewhere else, too.

 

thanks for the help. :)

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well, the price isn't that much of an issue since my parents are going to pay for either all or part of it as a birthday present. i've already done some pricing, and anything under $500 should be more than reasonable.

 

**Edit**

i found one that i'm going to go ahead and grab. its an Acer 24" monitor from Newegg. its a good price for a nice monitor; so, i can't complain too much.

 

anyways, thanks for the help. :)

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Hmm, I would've gone for a 22" ViewSonic VX2240W

 

"Why?" You say?

 

I think going above that for a 360 is overkill as anything above 720p is upscaled anyways (there's even controversy about certain games being upscaled to 720p, making the 1080p and upscaling of an upscaled image = ouch!), and you will lose some of the sharpness in the image (some people say that it makes no difference, but if you're a psycho purist like me, it would bother you ;) )

 

Here's an excellent review of that Viewsonic screen, which got the much sought after 5 star rating on LesNumeriques.com, there's even a video of it in action there...

 

If you must go 24" I'd get the Viewsonic VX2435WM, of which you can read the review here (can't seem to find it on Newegg though), though it expresses my concerns about upscaling, and more!

It says that from a PC input, everything looks amazing, but from consoles or other inputs, 1080p gets upscaled (once again!!!) to 1200p, which means another loss in quality! Like I said, maybe it's not that bad, but I know it would bother me personally...

 

Just my two cents ;)

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I would rather have a projector that I could use to change the size of the screen...

perfect for gaming! :D

 

I have one. projectors are ok for movies and some types of games.... the image just isnt bright or pristine enough for games where you have alot of detail on screen. Not to mention that a decent 1080p projector will kick the bejesus out of your bank balance :D

 

@negsun. dont mistake a a gfx cards straining for upscaling ;) Some 360 and ps3 are capable of true 1080, the rest 720. They still look cool on a monitor simply because images are non interlaces, as opposed to your run of the mill TV ;)

 

Stingers monitor is future proof and blu-ray ready. The bluray+PC paradigm shift is almost here ;)

 

mtfbwya

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@negsun. dont mistake a a gfx cards straining for upscaling ;)

I'm not, I know full well that 1920x1200 will strain your GPU way more than 1680x1050, and I'm sure stinger does too ;)

 

Some 360 and ps3 are capable of true 1080, the rest 720. They still look cool on a monitor simply because images are non interlaces, as opposed to your run of the mill TV ;)

I know some are capable of running movies and such at 1080p, but gaming wise, virtually nothing on the 360 has a native 1080p resolution, the 1080p a 360 puts out is an upscaling of whatever resolution that game was made in, mostly 720p or under...Hence the loss of quality I was talking about ;)

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I have one. projectors are ok for movies and some types of games.... the image just isnt bright or pristine enough for games where you have alot of detail on screen. Not to mention that a decent 1080p projector will kick the bejesus out of your bank balance :D

 

@negsun. dont mistake a a gfx cards straining for upscaling ;) Some 360 and ps3 are capable of true 1080, the rest 720. They still look cool on a monitor simply because images are non interlaces, as opposed to your run of the mill TV ;)

 

Stingers monitor is future proof and blu-ray ready. The bluray+PC paradigm shift is almost here ;)

 

mtfbwya

 

you should get one of those super bright projectors that you can see with a lot of lights on, my church has one of those, it's freakin' bright, it gives new meaning to "Blinde by the light" ;)

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Negsun, the quality loss you should be thinking about more is when your GPU drops frames, or simply cant draw them quick enough :) The quality of our kit improves rather than goes backwards...many games I had trouble running at full spec with my 7950GX2 get murdered on 1080p(and beyond) on my measly 8800GTS.

 

In one year, simply because of BR drives alone, having a 1080+ display is going to be run of the mill. PC gamers always look onwards and upwards.... so how could they ever say no to 1080+ display :D

 

M@RS >> are you kidding ?? I do custom home theater installations, I know my projectors undies out! ;) Unless you belong to a super rich church, that feels ok at squandering $50,000 on a theatre grade HD digital projector, you'll find most standard projectors clock in at 2000-3000 ANSI Lumens. I have no need for a 3000+ lumen device in my modest home theater/projection room ;)

 

Even with one of those, you can never have the sharpness that you get when you have your eyes peering at some tiny detail on an LCD/OLED display some 30cms from your face :)

 

mfbwya

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  • 1 month later...

This is the 4850 I'm looking at getting. The one thing I don't like about the 4800's is how hot they run. I've been looking for a dual slot 4850 that would vent air to the outside of the case like the 4870 does (per Q's recommendation) but haven't found any of those around and this looks like the closest I can come to an OEM over-cooled solution. If anybody has any better suggestions I'm open to hearing them. :)

 

On another note, I guess it's an expansion card design standard but I think it counterintuitive that single slot graphics cards have the cooling fan mounted so that it points down instead of up in a tower case. Heat rises right?

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On another note, I guess it's an expansion card design standard but I think it counterintuitive that single slot graphics cards have the cooling fan mounted so that it points down instead of up in a tower case. Heat rises right?

That's why it's important to have good airflow in your case, at least one intake at the front and one exhaust at the back is a must...

 

The GPU you've linked to looks like it's got a Zalman VGA cooler on it, which is like the Mecca of VGA coolers for most PC enthusiasts (before liquid cooling that is), so I'd say it's very adequate, as long as all the hot air gets extracted from your case properly...

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i'm still waiting for Sapphire to put out a 4850 with one of their Atomic coolers on it. those things did an incredible job with the 3800 series, and they should do a good job with keeping the 4800 series running cool.

 

In the meantime stinger > why dont you and your 8800GTS join our folding team. The 8800GTS does some phenomenal work once CUDA drivers are installed.

 

mtfbwya

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i'm still waiting for Sapphire to put out a 4850 with one of their Atomic coolers on it. those things did an incredible job with the 3800 series, and they should do a good job with keeping the 4800 series running cool.

 

Is that the vapor cooled ones aye?

Very interesting. Not having purchased an ATI/AMD product in quite some time I haven't paid much attention to Sapphire and this Vapor Chamber Cooling technology appears to be quite effective. Looks like Sapphire has put out a Toxic version of the HD 4850 (Zalman cooler) but so far no Atomic versions of HD 4800 series GPU's. Also checked Sapphire's forums but no indication that an Atomic 4800 is on its way. Maybe I can wait for another month to see if something comes out but I'm really starting to feel the need for a new graphics card (games, video editing, folding@home) so I don't know if my patience will last that long. :D

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In the meantime stinger > why dont you and your 8800GTS join our folding team. The 8800GTS does some phenomenal work once CUDA drivers are installed.

 

mtfbwya

actually, its a Radeon 2900 Pro, if you remember correctly. ;)

 

and, yes, i'm planning on joining the LF team. right now, though, i'm currently undergoing a maintenance cycle (driver updates, HD defrag, antivirus upgrade, etc), so its probably going to be a couple of days before i get everything going. if its any consolation, i've downloaded the installation files already. ;)

 

@ Char Ell - i would be surprised if Sapphire didn't come up with an Atomic product for the 4800 series, but that's not to say that a lack of one wouldn't catch me off guard, neither. :)

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lolz..stinger I couldve sworn you had a 8800GTS... ah well ;) anyway, for folding you may just want to run the standard, console or GPU client. If you want to be a points mogul... on your setup you could get A GPU client going for your 2900 and at least one cpu core with a console client. DONT mix to gui clients together ;)

 

I'd be extremely interested to see what the 4870 does with FAH. I was a bit dissapointed with the HD3450 folding prowess...

 

mtfbwya

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there's a bit mere to it than that negsun. Nvidia Gpus are faster at folding... even folding project designer said so source

 

The 3450 256 isnt exactly a bottom barrel card, yet it folds 100 times slower than the 8800gts. From all i've read on it, The CUDA functionality is the key difference. Of course, it is probably the only thing CUDA is good for ATM :p

 

mtfbwya

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