I currently have an ATI Radeon 7000 64MB video card (I know, not great but it serves it's purposes). I just got an ATI Rage 128MB card from a giveaway of old stuff at work and I don't know which card is better. I know that the Rage has more memory which is always a plus but are there other advantages or disadvantages to replacing the Radeon with it or should I just keep using the Radeon?
Posted by Rico (Member # 7533) on :
Off the top of my head, I'd say the Radeon is probably better. For a card like that memory really won't make much of a difference. I'd suggest you double check at their website to see which card is more powerful though, it's all about the architecture.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
Actually I just read up a bit there and it turns out the Rage probably isn't a 128MB card after all. I don't have it with me right now so I can't check, but it looks like the product line that was called Rage 128 had memory ranges of 8-32MB. So I was just confused. I'll just stick the Rage into an old machine.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
Oh, and thanks for the quick response.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
Oh, and thanks for the quick response. Radeon is definitely using the better architecture.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
neither save up and buy an ASUS X800.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
That does sound like a very cool card but I'm not really much of a gamer and there are a lot of things I would rather spend my money on than a new video card.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
I'm sorry but for me, there's really nothing better to spend on unless its is A) rent, B) Internet and C) gifts for girlfriend.
Notice that food and heat is not on the list.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
See, I'd rather buy an acoustic guitar, a better soundcard, a Digital SLR camera, a larger monitor, a tropical vacation, or any number of other things. Food and heat both also rank above a video card. Way above.
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
There really isn't any reason to upgrade your video card that often. As long as you buy a half decent one, it should serve fine for at least a couple years.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
I've had to buy 2 in the past two years. But only because by 6800 GT broke 9 months ago (Bad, bad day).
At any rate, the 128 refers to 128bit, or the number of bits that can be transfered from Video memory for processing at once. Most of the newer cards run around 256 bits, your radeon 7000 has either a 32 bit or 64 bit memory interface. The major difference is that the 7000 has twice the RAM and a better architecture. Realistically, you might not notice a difference between the two in everyday use, unless you have graphical in windows XP turned on (Which is usually the case). But, the 7000 is definately a newer card, so stick with that.