Hey guys, yeah I know this thread is probably long dead - but I was wondering if any of you guys have heard of a brand called 'Xtreama'. It seems new, and most links are australian. I can get a 9800se 128mb for $99AU - here on special (i would go for the legend card, but that's for an extra $140 - and for that much i would just buy a 6600gt). http://westan.com.au/dl/prodinfo/pi_sf_XtreamaSF_Mar05310.pdf It has a black PCB and 'L' shaped memory (memory is 256bit from that guide) and seems to be using the 9700pro reference board (i assume due to the floppy power adapter) - though I could be wrong. The reason I'm after a 9800se is because I burnt out my radeon 9200 (due to power surge) and am using an NF7-m (onboard mx) which doesn't cut it at the least when I want to play decent games. I would get a 6600GT, but at the moment I can't exactly afford it ($300 atleast for a decent one) and the 9800se seems to be the better option when compared to a 5200, 9250 and 9550 - which all seem to be the same price range ($80 - $100). I'm currently running: Sempron 2400+ @ 1.7ghz Kingmax 512mb DDR400 Tiny BGA Abit NF7-M Even without the softmod, me thinks I would atleast have a decent graphics card for the price, though I'm hoping I can softmod it to 9800se - or I will just get a 9800pro for $199. $100 would obviously be a better price, as I can then get a VGA silencer.
Gamedude are a bit shoddy from what I've heard, but if it really is $99 for a 256-bit 9800SE then you can't really complain I suppose another option to consider would be a R9550 128-bit and overclock it (those chips have a lot of headroom) http://pricepoint.com.au/shop/produ...=1616&osCsid=af87d00f2a2370ff43ac601622a25482
They aren't too bad, I've never had any problems from them. I was looking at the 9550 which I can get locally for $99 - But I'll see how it goes. I just wanna see if I can soft mod it haha. I just decided to get a new card because I just got Deus Ex 2 and I need pixel shaders 1.1. Never had that problem with HL2
yes there is no harm but just in case things go south always have a PCI card ready or you are screwed till you get one.
yeah or onboard would work too I think.. Well it should since you choose in the BIOs if you are using onboard or PCI or AGP. I think thats how onboard works.
Setting it to "onboard" automatically disables any AGP-card. AGP-card won't be detected if you wanna flash it so no use in case of recovery. Therefore you should have an old PCI-card ready.
i have agp radeon in my sister's computer... i can clear cmos, no? *edit* I've emailed the retailer, and am waiting for specs - i've been told that these are actually 64bit versions (which would steer me well clear of them). I'm thinking of actually waiting a few weeks and getting a Leadtek 6800le - which I hear have a very good chance of unlocking the 8 extra pipelines and 2 extra vertex shaders.
i have an onboard graphics accelerator. if i were to use a new card, i would need to put it in and it would auto detect. if, in an unlikely event such as my card frying and i took it out - AND if my motherboard didn't detect that i wasn't using it, i would clear my cmos so that the motherboard would revert back to it's default setting of having the onboard graphics accelerator enabled.
Oh, ok. ^^ 1) If your BIOS is set to strict-onboard, an AGP-card won't be detected automatically. Most common switches: - Onboard (strict) - Onboard/PCI - PCI/AGP - AGP/PCI and so on .. If so, you'd have to change to AGP/PCI for example. 2) Would be the only chance to get back to it's defaults in such a situation, yep (again, if it's set to AGP/PCI, the BIOS won't detect that there's no AGP and won't switch back by itself). 3) I was talking 'bout a re-flash situation. And in that case, onboard-gfx is no help at all (I did clarify the reason already). ^^
ah, k. i was going to do it through omega drivers, but seeing as gamedude haven't gotten back to me, i'm going to wait a few weeks and get either a 6800le or a 6600gt... whichever I find more of a better investment.
6800LE??? is that the vanilla 6800? I would go for the 6600GT. I don't think the 6800 is wroth the extra if in fact the LE is the vanilla version.
6800LE is one step below the vanilla version. It's got 8 working pixel pipelines (lower clock speeds?), and 256-bit interface with DDR1. Its main selling point for people like us is that there's a good chance of successfully unlocking at least 4 of the 8 locked pipelines, and probably some of the vertex pipelines too.
Ah I see I knew it was a bad card to get based on cards like ATI SE or nVidia's XT cards. They sucked. SE though is a hit and miss when it comes to soft modding.
true, though if it doesn't work out i can either send it back and just say that it doesn't like my computer and if they can replace it, or i could just overclock it to the max. though i have had a few people with 6800le that have atleast unlocked another 4 pipelines and the last 2 vertex pipelines, so that right there is a 6800 (which i can then clock to atleast 385/850) while saving atleast $150. At the moment any card would be an improvement on my onboard mx, and seeing as I just got my tax return, i'm happy to get anything for that cheap. besides, the card i was thinking of getting, the leadtek 6800le has had a lot of success in terms of unlocking atleast 12 pipelines, and that's all i need.