Video card troubles

[ranger72]

Hi There Folks!

Here are some of my system specs:

Pentium 4a,2000MHz (5 x 400) 2GHz

Mobo: Intel Medford D850mo/maryville D850MV...Northwood Chipset A80532 Intel Tehami i850(E)

Ram: 768 MBs..Dual Rimm..128+128+256+256+.Rhambus RDRAM PC 800 (400MHz),T-1

Seagate Barracuda..40GB..ultra ata 100 @ 7200rpm 2.0GHz

Current Video Card..ATI RADEON 9500 pro..

Monitor: Phillips FPD1810 19" LCD FlatScreen Digital Monitor...

Audio Card;Sound Blaster Audigy...


I have Two issues to deal with...

I stared with a GeForce2MX400-Nvidia...card...then I wanted to upgrade video card so I got a Nvidia GeForce4 TI 4200...That seemed to be alot nicer than the other...Then about three weeks after I installed the 4200..
Its Fan motor lunched so I took it back and was talked into the radeon card...I realize now by a gamer...

But my question is this card good for photoshopping...animations ....Maya ...things involved in videographics...or are there some opinions out there on this..What is the card most favored by the people here in PSG...


Issue #2

I bought a second Harddrive...to install in my tower the present drive is the Seagate barracuda 40MG..to that I will add a second Seagate Barracuda 120MG....How should I cofigure the two drives....should I make the 120 the new C:\\ Drive? and the 40MG the slave?

some opinions please?

thank you much!

ranger72

 

[Erik]

ATI had a bad reputation for its drivers, but that is past tense now. With the 9500 and 9700pro and its successors, you're absolutely in for a treat.
If it were only for 2D work, the best one would be the Matrox Parhelia as Matrox still has the sharpest images and the best dual monitor support.
Yet, if 3D also plays a role (i see Maya being mentioned), you're better of with NVIDIA or the new ATI's. The ATI is indeed better for the high end games, and for 3D work, it'll be more than sufficient. But it offers no real advantage on the Ti4200. NVIDIA still has better drivers, and also support for dual planes (only the changed elements of the screen are redrawn). Me too, I doubted for a long time, but I finally went for the 4200, not the 9700 pro. The difference in price allowed me to grab a hyperthreading CPU. So my opinion is: there was no need to change to the 9500 pro, but don't worry as the card will be more than sufficient.

As for the HDD's: personally, I would partition both. I would keep the 40GB as master, and set an active partition on it and a logical station (2nd partition), both at 20GB. The other one (you do video?) I would partition depending on your needs. I would also make an image (Ghost) of the installed OS, and another one of the OS with applications installed. Then, if needed, it would be easy to reinstall.

a good site to find out 'bout tech hardware stuff is www.tomshardware.com

hey: you got a very good system, be shure of that. But (no critique meant) never forget it is the artist that makes the painting, not the brushes!

 

[sfm]

if both of the hard drives are the same speed then I guess it wouldn't really matter which was the master and which was the slave

as for video card...... well you have a 64 meg video which I think is good enough....... having said that I have just yesterday bought a 128 meg video card....... because my nirvada mx 400 now loads up as a 32 meg instead of the 64 that it is........ but sometimes it will load as a 16 meg.... figured it was time to get another so went for a 128 meg Asus
sfm

 

[ranger72]

Hi Guys!

The Radeon 9500 PRO that I have has 128MB of DDR Memory..directx 9.0 support.(Microsoft)...AGP 8X/4X BUS...but I'm wondering if there isn't a better card for the graphics artists...or...? is what is good for hi-speed gaming also good for for graphics...developing...etc.


Is there a particular card that graphics artists would all agree that this is the card for me?...

thanks again ranger..72

 

[theKeeper]

I agree with Erik, and i went for the Ti4200 also. Allowed me a better CPU choice at the time. :B

 

[ranger72]

I also liked the TI4200 but the damn fan croaked and there were no more TI 4200s...next choice was FX5200Ultra..NVIDIA..but then another guy said ....dduuuuuude!!!.ya really need the ATI Radeon 9500PRO and mebbe I just got hornswoggled by acouple a young gamers'' mebbee don't really need a card like this ...I just want what is the best for now... thanks..

ranger72

 

[Erik]

My friend: if I may, I'd like to use the following comparison: you have a Porsche and now you wonder whether you shouldn't have bought a Ferrari, or a Lamborghini...
Believe me: "the" best card only exists in the mind of publicity agents who want you to buy, buy and buy.

No card, not even the Wildcat, can ever display more than the driver allows, and this, in turn is based on the OS. Be it a simple 16MB card, a Radeon 9500Pro or a Wildcat, a PC with a PII 350, a PIV3.02 with hyperthreading or a dual Xeon2.8,or a mac G4 dual 1.25: there is no visual difference in the output, except for what the user/artist has created. We are all limited, and we will stay limited to whatever the system allows. (also when we will all be forced to move to 64 bits later on, and will have to upgrade ALL our software...)

'nother question: do you know enough 'bout OpenGL and number nine to tweak your settings, or do you leave them default? I know that for Cinema4D one has to do a few tweaks, but I don't know exactly for Maya...

 

[ranger72]

Hi There Erik!

10-4 on the porsche....This card is as good as any other...it is what we produce as aspiring artists that makes the difference....Since I am brand new to this I have everything to learn!!

right now the settings are at default......and I have not yet downloaded the free (learning) version of Maya but will as soon as I finish configuring the new 120 Disk into my system....Maya requires a significant amount of resources as I understand it.....So I'm getting ready.....But I like Photoshop the best and I want to get back to learning the button tutes that Mark has here and then try more tutes here in photoshopguru's to learn more about photoshop.....

Thanks for the advice on configuring the hard drives...sounds lika plan.

Ranger72

 

[ranger72]

[excited] Hi There Folks!

Well! I have now installed the second hard drive which has actually become the first...So my C:/drive is a Western Digital 120 GB Caviar ata 100 Ultra 8MB cache which is now numero uno....Then my Seagate Barracuda 40GB has become f:/ drive and is numero dos...So Ihave been re-installing every thing and tweaking the system and all else that goes with doing a clean install...I have also learned and re-inforced what i already knew about uninstalling/installing hard disks and operating systems and applications sooo....

I did'nt have much music downloaded so that was'nt an issue.....I created two temporary folders on my desktop...one for my pictures..buttons..gifs..etc..and a second temp. for my documents....then I dragged and dropped each file into its temporary folder.....

then I installed the new hardrive and did a clean install of my winxp pro.....video card....sound card....etc.etc.. and all the proper drivers...now I'm reinstalling all my software applications....and re-creating all my system tweaks....wow whatta lotta work...LOL...but it is going smoothly so far....Knock on my wooden head for luck...

for now I left my second drive as it was....with all my data intact....and I will keep it that way until I am totally satisfied that the new drive has been fully and properly re-installed....that way I can refer to it to make sure I haven't forgotten anything...then when I'm totally sure that all is well with the new drive and I've recovered everthing I want to keep...

then I will clean the forty gig drive of all data and I think I will install one of the versions of Linux on that drive and will start to experiment with the different browsers that are available and maybe I'll find one that I like better than IE 6.0.....Ive learned that there are many possibilities and combinations available with Multi-hard drives....I know this sounds like I am writing a book but maybe this will give less experienced users (like myself) some ideas and go ahead and gather up your courage and do a major upgrade....its a lotta fun.....you learn alot....and if you do everything right you end up with a "rippin" machine..at least for a little while until all your stuff becomes obsolete....LOL..

Anyway this whole process took me away from my feeble attempts to learn Photoshop but within a day or two I'll be back on the boards to do some serious learning....

Thank you all for your comments!

regards,

ranger72 :B

 

[Guest]

I've got some info that I prepared for the board (for Erik) that I didn't finish yet. I will have a look at it and might post it before the end of this week. It has to deal with using multiple drives.

 

[ranger72]

Hi There Gauss!

That is very cool and I will look forward to reviewing your info. as I'm sure Erik will as well!

Thanks Again..

ranger72.......Heh..Heh...Iv'e got the download/re-install blues...... :B

 

[lindaw]

I use multiple drives as well. My pshop machine has two 40gig drives in it, one is for C~windoz junk, D~program files and E~Photoshop files. The other hard drive is for storage for extra pshop shapes, fonts etc. (needed that with Gare's freebies [shhh] ). My coding machine has one 40 gig drive and my laptop has a 6 gig in it. We also have a 600 gig raid so storage is not a problem. As for Linux...you are gonna love it. Getting ready to put another machine together for Linux myself. Hubbs is a big Linux lover. Much better on hard drive and memory usage and I do love the fact you can change anything you want. Glad things are working out for your system. :B