Pixel Pipelines? Should I care?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roger Buchanan
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Roger Buchanan

I'm thinking of doing 90% miniDV editing and 10% gaming (Microsoft FS).

Do I really need to worry if my card has 8, 12 or 16 pixel pipelines?

As for memory, does 256 vs 128 really make that much difference?

FWIW, I'm leaning towards the Ati 9800 Pro w/256 megs for around $375
Canadian.

Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Alternatives?

Thanks again!
--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
 
Roger said:
I'm thinking of doing 90% miniDV editing and 10% gaming (Microsoft
FS).

Do I really need to worry if my card has 8, 12 or 16 pixel pipelines?

As for memory, does 256 vs 128 really make that much difference?

FWIW, I'm leaning towards the Ati 9800 Pro w/256 megs for around $375
Canadian.

Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Alternatives?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

why bother with a 256 meg of video ram ?
128 will do fine
video need memory bandwidth, games need memory storage, and games are made
for 128meg max currently anyway
just get a 128 meg 9800 pro, it'll do the job fine, hell even a ati 7000
would do the job really
for video work you need plenty of cpu and ram, and a fast hard drive too
prob
(don't get a ati 7000, get something good at least, ati 9800SE or better
methinks)
 
Do I really need to worry if my card has 8, 12 or
16 pixel pipelines?
Click to expand...

More pipelines is definitely better, think of it like lanes on a
motorway (highway). The more lanes, the bigger the traffic jams...
I mean, the more cars you can move in a unit of time.

256Mb is nice, but probably not worth worrying about on a
9800Pro. It's a great card, but you won't be trying to run
anything at 1600x1200 with x4fsaa, which is the kind of territory
where you could easily start to cramp a 128Mb card. A few games
will make use of the extra memory, but to be honest I don't think
you'll notice the difference.

Of course if the 256Mb version is almost the same price as the 128
then by all means buy it. Otherwise put the financial difference
towards your next upgrade.

Andrew McP
 
I'm thinking of doing 90% miniDV editing and 10% gaming (Microsoft FS).

Do I really need to worry if my card has 8, 12 or 16 pixel pipelines?

As for memory, does 256 vs 128 really make that much difference?

FWIW, I'm leaning towards the Ati 9800 Pro w/256 megs for around $375
Canadian.
Click to expand...
Radeon 9800SE has 4 pixel pipelines, the 9800Pro has 8. If you
overclock the RAM/Core of the 9800SE to the same speeds of the 9800Pro,
the 9800Pro is still twice as fast. For 3D gaming it DOES matter.
 
Which version of Flight Simulator? The latest edition will humble even $900
flagship video cards with all the settings cranked up.
 
Roger said:
I'm thinking of doing 90% miniDV editing and 10% gaming (Microsoft FS).

Do I really need to worry if my card has 8, 12 or 16 pixel pipelines?

As for memory, does 256 vs 128 really make that much difference?

FWIW, I'm leaning towards the Ati 9800 Pro w/256 megs for around $375
Canadian.

Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Alternatives?

Thanks again!
--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
Click to expand...

Why not get a AIW 9800 pro? for its capture capabilities.
 
First said:
Which version of Flight Simulator? The latest edition will humble even $900
flagship video cards with all the settings cranked up.
Click to expand...

2004. Though I want one that will use the Combat Modules. For the life
of me this project (the build) is taking on a mind of its own.

--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
 
Roger Buchanan said:
I'm thinking of doing 90% miniDV editing and 10% gaming (Microsoft FS).

Do I really need to worry if my card has 8, 12 or 16 pixel pipelines?

As for memory, does 256 vs 128 really make that much difference?

FWIW, I'm leaning towards the Ati 9800 Pro w/256 megs for around $375
Canadian.

Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Alternatives?

Thanks again!
--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
Click to expand...

If your using a digital video camera (like miniDV) then you want to use a
fiewire card (inexpensive cards and sometimes bundled with editing software
package) for video capture(transfering the video to hard drive). This will
keep the video transfer in a digital form and prevent loss of quality
because there is not really any quality loss when transfering video in
digital form. Using a video card capture input like AIW cards will convert
the signal to analog and then back to digital. This transfer to analog will
loose some quality and is only really used when you have an analog (non
digital) camera or VCR.
The video card does not really do and of the video editing work so just
about any video card will do. Video card memory and piplines does not really
matter for video edditng. The CPU, memory and hard drive performace is what
really help performance of proccessing video when editing. You will also
need a lot of hard drive space for the video.
The video eding software can be anywhere from free to thousands of dollars.
Usually the under $100 US editors do not offer much features.
For your gaming needs, then more piplines will make the most difference in
performance rather than video memory.

For more info on Video editing:

http://www.videoguys.com/dtvhome.html

Good place to shop
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...619963191?O=NavBar&A=FetchChildren&Q=&ci=2847

Lou
 
Conor said:
Radeon 9800SE has 4 pixel pipelines, the 9800Pro has 8. If you
overclock the RAM/Core of the 9800SE to the same speeds of the 9800Pro,
the 9800Pro is still twice as fast. For 3D gaming it DOES matter.
Click to expand...

Is the 9800SE still a decent card? I heard you can softmode to get
all eight pipes on the 9800SE?

Nick
 
Nicolas said:
Is the 9800SE still a decent card? I heard you can softmode to get
all eight pipes on the 9800SE?
Click to expand...

Yes. The softmode works very well (for me, YMMV!). I now get a
3dmark2003 of 5997 on my Athlon 64 3200, 1Gb RAM, 9800 AIW SE (al
standard settings - no overclocking). Which seems to be what 'Pro'
users are getting.
 
Is the 9800SE still a decent card?
Click to expand...

If it softmods, yes. If it doesn't, no. I bought one for my second box in
a fit of gambling enthusiasm and lost. So it's been a relatively expensive
card considering it performs little better than a 9600 under most
circumstances.

In many cases the 9800se is little faster than the GF4 ti4200 it replaced.
The only benefits have come from the dx9 support (which it doesn't have
the horsepower to use well) and better speed with fsaa engaged.

Andrew McP
 
If it softmods, yes. If it doesn't, no. I bought one for my second box in
a fit of gambling enthusiasm and lost. So it's been a relatively expensive
card considering it performs little better than a 9600 under most
circumstances.

In many cases the 9800se is little faster than the GF4 ti4200 it replaced.
The only benefits have come from the dx9 support (which it doesn't have
the horsepower to use well) and better speed with fsaa engaged.

Andrew McP
Click to expand...

But isn't it still a "decent" card? You can run all games with it.

Nick
 
But isn't it still a "decent" card? You can run all games with it.
Click to expand...

IMO the bottom end cards in any range are usually poor value for money and
exist mainly for marketing purposes. The 9800se lures you in with the
"9800" promise and then delivers 9600-ish performance at a similar retail
price point. That's not exactly lousy (after all, the average PC contains
something much slower), but for gaming it's poor value for money unless it
softmods.

Andrew McP
 
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