Is the KYRO II video card any good mainly under win2k ?

[imtim83 0]

i am wondering how good the KYRO II is because i been hearing it is pretty fast. Like with all stuff turned on its as fast as the

GeForce 3 or something. or just feels close to the same as the GF3 but a lot less money. i am not saying its exactly the same speed as the GF 3 but its not far away. Plus the GF3 is a lot more than the KYRO II. But i would love to know how the KYRO II performences under win2k because i seen benchmarks where nvidia video cards with their drivers did both good under win98 and win2k where Radeon didnt do as good under 2000 as 98. But that was a while back so maybe Radeon video cards got better. Anyone that is using the KYRO II under win2k i would love to hear how you like it so far. And btw doesnt it come with 64 mb of sd video ram ?

 

Any help appreicated

thanks

[Brian Frank 0]

There are two versions of the Kyro II: one with 64MB and one with 32. Hercules makes both versions, and there is another company, but I can't recall who it is.

 

Go look at Anandtech for more info on it.

 

ATI has had a history of driver issues. In fact, they were unable to produce any drivers for one card under Win2k. NVidia does have some sweet products, but I wouldn't mind a little competition. The Kyro II somewhat, kinda can match a GF 2/3 card in some things. Generally, it's closer to a GTS or Pro.

 

As for the Radeon, and anything else ATI puts out for the time being, I'll stay away from. I don't care about 32-bit color if the card won't work right because the company can't produce halfway decent drivers. ATI is killing it's cards with their drivers. Let me sum up how well a Radeon performed: I had a Voodoo 4 4500 AGP 32MB SDR that worked better than the Radeon AGP 32MB DDR. I still have a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP and that runs all my games except one just fine.

[imtim83 0]

ok well i did look there. And i have 3dfx voodoo 3 2000 pci card right now also. I like my voodoo so far but i hear nvidia cards are the best i think.

i dont know how they are in 2d the GF 3 i hear its good but who knows

i may jsut get the GF 3 if i can afford it. I guess the brand name elsa since it comes with a 6 year warranty from that company i think.

and plus the nvidia GF 3 will have more support in the coming years.

[Brian Frank 0]

For the most part the KII is an excellent value for the price. And unlike ATI they don't seem to have a problem writing drivers for it.

I'd have to do some more research, but it looks pretty cool.

[ThC 129 0]

DO NOT BUY A KYROII. This is why, any new games that come out that use any form of Transform and Lighting will perform VERY VERY VERY POORLY like TNT2 Ultra poorly. The problem is because this card does not have a hardware transform and lighting unit like nvidia cards have. So any game that uses DirectX 8 and Transform and lighting (anything coming out within the next year) will perform like poo on the kyroii. Your best bet for a video card is a GeForce 2 Pro or higher. With the Geforce 3 Ultras coming out soon i would recommend getting a Geforce 2 pro or GF2 ultra because they will be cheap soon.

[imtim83 0]

Why not a GF 3 ?

too expersive or not good enough speed improvement ?

i heard GF 3 is amazing!!!

[imtim83 0]

hey one more thing i am getting a new sound card , montior , speakers , and CD-RW? do u have any advice for these of like which brand are good , etc

 

thanks

[BladeRunner 0]

Just try and hold back on your video card purchases.

The NV25 NVidia chipset (The one inside the X-Box) will be available soon and I've got a feeling this is going to upset a lot of people who rushed out and spent £400+ on a GeForce 3.

[imtim83 0]

why will it upset a lot of people ? there will be one for the pc which will drive GF 3 prices wayyyy down ? or it will be about the same price and a lottttt better?

curious

right now all i got now is a 3dfx voodoo 3 2000 pci with 16 mb of video ram

but its better than nothing

 

you have any advice on cd-rws , montiors , sound cards , or speakers ?

 

thanks

[ThC 129 0]

CD-RW: Plextor or Sony drives are good.

 

Monitor: Depending on price your willing to pay: High end: Anything Sony Mid to low-end: Viewsonic makes a damn good product so does samsung.

 

Soundcard: Sound Blaster Live!, SantaCruz or Hercules Gametheater XP

 

 

the reason i said not a GF3 is price wise, IMO the price for a GF 3 is too high when most people upgrade their video cards every 6months to 1 to 2 years.

 

Speakers: I dunno i listen to headphones but Altec Lansing has always made a great set of speakers IMO.

[imtim83 0]

ok thanks

but since i have a abit kt7a raid mobo should i get the Sound Blaster Live with all the problems talling about it and kt133a chipsets. where it causes skips in sound , etc

 

thanks

[Brian Frank 0]

It depends if you just want a soundcard or a whole bunch of extras. The Game Theater XP has an outside box that everything is connected to, whereas the other cards have the connections on the card itself.

I'm not really to up on the SBLive! issues, since I don't own one, but I believe there is a patch out for the Via 686B southbridge with newer Via-based boards, and if I'm thinking correctly the patch is included in the latest Via 4-in-1's (4.3x)

I don't have any of the mention cards: the Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo. Never had an issue with the card working right. On both WinME and Win2k, there were drivers for the Yamaha sound engine with the OS. There are drivers for it, but I just haven't installed them and it works fine with out them.

Of course, make sure you have good speakers to go with that soundcard.

[BladeRunner 0]

Why do I think it will upset a lot of people?

Because I have a feeling that the NV20 (GeForce 3) was very much a stop gap.

I feel the NV25 is going to by quite an upgrade from the NV20, thinking they'll use some of the aquired 3DFX technology.

It will upset people becaue 3-4 months after shelling out £350 or so they'll see their card replaced with something a lot better.

[SHS 0]

NV3 should have some of the 3DFX technology not NV2.5

[JMD 0]

imtim83 I would highly recomend a Viewsonic. I have the 21 inch pro and it's amazing, so is there customer service.

 

When I first bought my screen I had a problem with it they didn't have that model in stak because it was a year end model so they sent a new one up to Toronto from Califonia with no questions asked. I had it at my door step in 2 days.

 

I was impressed.

[ThC 129 0]

yeah customer support like that is hard to find now. Its great to see some companies still care more about their customers than making a buck.

[imtim83 0]

ok thank you everyone