Voodoo Combo Users : Help Convince Me

[103er-Fan]

Originally posted by Gurm
The big problem I had with a V5-5500 was the video playback. It was abysmal. You get used to ATI's stellar video playback, or the G400's rock solid playback, and then when you switch it's just a huge disappointment. If you don't watch a lot of movies, this is a very solid card. If you DO watch a lot of movies, don't go there. It's not even as good as an nVidia card in that arena.

- Gurm

Ok, in this point I have to agree, especially DVD quality seemed to be better on the Radeon 8500 I used.
But speaking about movies... no V5 5500 card has TV-Out!

[Gurm]

I'm talking about video clips. The DirectShow renderer on this card is ... to be blunt ... poop.

- Gurm

[TiG]

Thanks lads. Some good points raised there.
I think i may hang out for the ati 9000 to hit the local market. Not that it's fantastic, but at least it'll do what i want (Gaming, dual display and dvd out). Should drive other prices down a bit too.

[Gurm]

Or you could call up someone here in the USA, get them to buy you an 8500 for $100 and send it to you airmail (5 days, $25).

- Gurm

[Marshmallowman]

the Excalibur uses the refrence design, its a dead ringer for the ATI retail 8500, even down to the ati cooling fan, just has differnt coloured PCB.

Its supportd full hyrdravision..etc
However I still have not got around to testing dual head(just theatre mode).

I will give it a try tonight and tell you if its up to scratch.

Their are some clone cards that don't have the second ramdac, this one does, and the powered by ATI drivers may have some functions removed...however you can manually install the built by ATI driver or use the Omega drivers or flash the bios to the built ATI retail bios, so you can get ALL functionallity

My brother has a built by ATI 8500LE and the output quality is the same as my Excalibur retail.

[Marshmallowman]

using the omega drives you get full dual head functionally, but it is a bit glitchy.

I wasn't happy with it, so I took the plunge and flash the bios to built by ati retail...

Now using the built by ATI catalysts drivers and everyhting is good. full hydravision and all the other ATI stuff.

they do leave a lot of things out of the "powered by ATI"drivers so the flashing to retail worked out very well, to all intents and purposes I have a full built by ATI card now...for half the price of a ATI one.

very happy with it, this card should be a nice stop gap until I can get a parhelia at a price I am comfortable with

[TiG]

Thanks for the update Marshie. With the bios flash it's definitely an attractive option at that price. Will do nicely until a 64mb parhelia comes out. For cheep