PC VIVO Graphics Card Advice

[SonicMarmite]

My dually is looking like the dip**** is wasting my time, and since I`m having uber 2nd thoughts anyway, if it doesn`t sell I`m going to keep her. Problem I have is this:

I need a video card that can do games and decent quality video capture the kind of level u see on MGV. For the last few years I`ve used an OEM ATI Radeon 64DDR VIVO which managed really decent quality, despite not being specifically for this function in teh way an All In Wonder card is.

The dually chipset, apparently according to ATI, is something that their own graphics cards have all kinds of ****up problems with, to the extent that both the Radeon cards I tried to run on this board (aforementioned Radeon 64DDR VIVO, and my new Radeon 9800 Pro) made bluescreening look tame. On the flipside, the battered Nvidia Geforce 4 MX, and current fitted Nvidia Geforce 5200FX work perfectly with no glitches at all.

So, I`m looking at flogging the Radeon 9800 for hopefully about 125quid ish, and getting one of the VIVO 5600 or 5700 FX cards. All I need to know really is how does the capture quality compare to my older Radeon? Is it capable of capturing vid at 352x288ish resolution without dropping frames like a bastard? Ta for any help tbh.

[mid]

Obvious question: If you're that worried about dropping frames have you considered getting a decent non-vivo card and a Hauppauge PVR 250 or 350 card? With hardware mpeg2 compression on it, there's no worries then. If you're wondering the difference between the two, the 350 also does hardware decompression and has a decent TV out as well.

[Super Stu]

Thought the AIW 9800s (or similar) captured realtime mpeg2?

[mid]

Possibly - I thought the problem was that Sonic's 9800 was unstable, though?

[SonicMarmite]

Nah the 9800 works fine. But it doesn`t work with dual processors. Minor problem atm is that I haven`t got any free pci slots for any extra cards.

[Super Stu]

Oops, missed that sorry. Is there no 9600 AIW then?

[SonicMarmite]

Stu no Radeons at all work with my board. I mailed ATI and they sent me a mail back with about a thousand links for tech help all of which pretty much say Radeon at teh nooo with teh MP.

[Super Stu]

Ah, that's handy. If you've got no PCI slots free, you're stuck with the nVidia FX pish then.

[mid]

Actually, what is taking up all your PCI space? Or is it a tiny mobo (not that I'd have thought so, with dual processors on board)?

I've got hardly anything on my machine, is all, just ethernet and a USB2.0 card.

[SonicMarmite]

My board has 3 normal PCI slots and 2 64 bit PCI slots, but they have the notch at the wrong end so arent backwards compatible like some are. In the 3 I`ve got, I have 2 PCI Raid cards, and a soundcard cos the onboard sound on the motherboard causes insane bluescreening.

[mid]

Aaah. I hadn't accounted for mad RAID shenanigans. Never mind, then.

[DjSatansfury]

Also, just so you know, unless the 9800 is uber special, they are selling the bread and butter version for 135 notes these days

So i doubt you'd get 125 for it, unless you know someone who's gullable

[?pint]

I couldn't understand an f'ing word of Sonic's first post, but you can get upper-end Geforce 4 cards (Ti 4800 etc.) in VIVO versions. Though my 4600 was advertised as being so, they were lying bastards and it wasn't . Then I sent it back and it was replaced with a 4800 ft: