With Doom 3 coming out next month, and Half LIfe 2 shortly after (hopefully), I'm seriously considering upgrading my graphics card. My poor Geforce4MX performed 2nd last in Tom's Hardware graphics card roundup of about 20-30 cards!! [:)]. The Radeon 9600XT costs around $300, and hopefully I'll have that Half Life 2 voucher to go with it, but if anyone thinks I should purchase something different, let me hear your recommendations!
It is one of the best value for money cards available. Although there are higher level cards available, they do cost a lot more. My friend did manage to to find a 256mb Radeon 9800xt for $600 out at the computer fairs in Canberra. It also came with the voucher. The 9600xt is a very good bet.
I also read your problems with 2k4. 2k3 had similar problems with older and lower class nVidia cards. When we used to play it at the AIE, all the grass was missing (and they were running Quadros!). There are some options that were only available in the .ini file that had to changed. I am not sure if that will help your problem, or if it is actually a nVidia problem.
I've noticed that 31st of December date as well - what I've read elsewhere is that some distributors have stopped giving out the coupons for Half Life 2 at that time.. The Half LIfe 2 voucher expires on that date? Ouch... anyone know the details?
I can understand if the graphic glitches are Nvidia related, but the stuff where the vehicles can't even aim properly.. [V]
My card doesnt have a date of Dec 31st on it.
Went to the website and signed up for mine and this is all I saw:
Offer only available to customers who have:
Purchased a qualifying RADEON? technology graphics card after October 1, 2003
-or-
Purchased a qualifying RADEON? graphics cards as part of limited time promotional offers from North American Retailers after October 1, 2003
Okay, I've had a look around and from what I can tell, previously to December 31st all Radeon cards (ATI and licensed) shipped with the HL2 voucher. It seems now that certain vendors (ATI, Sapphire, GeXCube, ASUS) are packaging only certain cards with the voucher, like the newest in their range. 9800XTs seem to carry the voucher more commonly than the 9600XT. The current ASUS 9600XT DOES come with the HL2 voucher.
Have a look at the manufacturer's site for specific cards to see if they're bundling the voucher or not.
The 9800xt that my friend bought is an official ATI boxed version. It was $130 less than the next cheapest 9800 there, but didn't say that it came with the HL2 coupon. Even if he had to buy HL2 when it came out, he would still save about $30. Turns out that when he opened the box, there was a coupon in there anyway. I will have to ask him if it has an expirery date on it.
Actually, I just remembered the many versions of Half Life 2 that is planned for release. The offline version (single player only, and the cheapest version if you buy it retail), the online version, and a special edition.
I would be kinda annoyed if I got the offline version.
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/69_theman.jpg[/img]
ATI are planning to bundle Counterstrike instead of Half Life 2 due to the HL2 delays. Better get your HL2 bundles while they're still around! btw, Nvidia are planning to [url="http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2004/03/04&pa…"]bundle Doom 3 with their cards[/url].
Yeah. I heard that someone at ATI was the one who leaked the Doom3 leak.
Spoke to my friend, and he said that he does have the HL2 coupon without an expiery date, but he had to register it online. They have also sent him the HL1 pack while they wait for HL2 (could be a while :p). The HL1 pack has HL1, CS and something else that I have forgotten...
I've been doing a little bit of reading in Doom3 and Halflife 2 forums. It looks like Doom 3 might not even be out till September (although there was news about a release in a few weeks!), and no one still knows when HL2 is going to appear. Might just hold off the purchase and wait.
System Requirements for DOOM 3: A video card with at least 128MB RAM and Pixel Shader 1.1 support and a 2.5GHz CPU. Also DOOM 3 is expected to be on 4 cds and Multiplayer will include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Tournament and Last Man Standing. Gah!
As much as i want these games in a way i dont...
Ok the current games need about 1ghz, 256 meg of ram and Geforce 3 or 4 to run at full speed with good graphics but now that HL2 and D3 are coming everything is going to change. To get really awesome performance you need around 3.0ghz, in a way the latest parts avaliable but then come the games built upon the engines with extra features eating even more power! In a way these games take a massive leap and look great but unfortuneately make a massive debt too :P. In order to keep up with these we will need like an upgrade every month [:p].
But none the less damn will they be killer games [:)].
As much as id were pioneers of the multiplayer FPS experience, it's sad that they have basically "given up" trying to create new multiplayed gameplay (and even charged extra for it with Q3 team etc.)
Doom3 will only be worth it for the single player game, and mods (maybe)...
On the other hand Epic(or DE) are at least trying new things!
I haven't seen much about HL2 multi, but i hope they won't simply rely on their mods to provide interesting multi.
CYer, Blitz
Remember when Quake 2 had to compete with Unreal? Everyone ripped into Quake 2 and said how crap it was compared to Unreal and it's engine. The Unreal engine was awesome and Mods were going to pop up everywhere for it. A few months down the track, the Unreal engine was barely used and the Quake 2 engine was going strong. Why? The unreal engine had heaps better graphics, so why wasn't it more used? Ever try playing Unreal across a network? More than three people and it would cry. Ever tried running Unreal on a 2.53 GHz system? It still runs like crap. Although Quake 2 didn't have the most impressive graphics (I liked them though), it was a really solid engine. I'm hoping that Doom 3 will keep up that tradition.
Most people have stopped buying id game as a game, and more so as a $100 tech demo. This competition between all the big shooters and their engines wont be decided straight off though. I think that it will take a few months before we start to see what each game really has to offer.
Very true. The Unreal engine has, however, undergone several iterations since its original release. Its netcode was vastly improved upon for UT and again for UT2k3. 2k3 pulled off awesome graphics on relatively low-end hardware. When 2k3 came out I was playing quite comfortably at low settings on a PIII 800/GeForce 2 MX. A later upgrade to a Radeon 8500 allowed for mid settings and full hardware pixel shader support.
Unreal was scratchy to begin with but now its a really solid engine now. Doom3 will be too, I'm sure.
My money is still on Source for the moment though. We'll wait and see.
Edit: Typo.
Doom 3 would have been top-of-the-line setting new benchmarks IF it had been released on it's original date, which was about 1 and a bit years ago (christmas 2003). However, i think they've left it so long the many other companies have similar technology now, and they won't seem quite so flash. Of course i haven't seen it in action yet so who knows!
CYer, Blitz
I have a Radeon 9600 XT ! [:D]
I'm running the unreal tournament 2004 demo at 1024x768 and it's so smooth (I'm sure I can run it at a higher resolution, but I don't really need to). I'm still getting those missing turrets/messed up aiming problems that I had with the Geforce 4 MX though!..
Still haven't received my copy of UT2k4 Special Edition, and I'm gonna register this Half Life 2 voucher that came with the card. Good times ahead [:)]
My pre-order for UT2k4 with Gameswarehouse just got canned.. They can't get it.
Dear Pre-Order customer,
Our supplier in the USA has informed us today that they have been told by Atari US that no further stock of UT 2004 Special Edition will be made available.
We are extremely disappointed that we are unable to supply the DVD ROM special edition to you. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Due to the disappointment and delay, we have negotiated a special price with them which will allow us to offer UT 2004 (CD ROM version) at a price of $59.95 each (excluding shipping) for all our Special Edition pre-order customers still patiently waiting. The stock at this special price is due to arrive early next week.
If you would like to take advantage of this special price, please reply to this email and tell us to change your order over.
We will change your order to the special priced CD ROM version, and ship it as soon as the stock arrives with us (early next week).
If you would prefer to cancel your order all together, please reply to this email and tell us to cancel the order, and we will do so.
If you have already paid for your order (by money order or direct deposit) please let us know if you would like a refund or credit against another order.
Again, we apologise for the inconvenience, and regret that we cannot supply this title.
I upgraded to a 9600XT :) mine came with HL2 and the new tomb raider game. Good card for the $! *so I am not against it*
I am very happy with it - I haven't pushed it too hard yet. Only been playing NWN but it runs just fine with everything turned on high!