Jeff's Friend

Thanks for all of the good suggestions everyone. I am more than a little disappointed in myself for not remembering to try to swap out my video card with someone else's as a troubleshooting measure. I have done this before to identify the culprit, but I must be getting old since I didn't remember to try that this time. Now I'm only waiting to find a willing victim... err... I mean friend whose video card I can steal... errr... I mean borrow... yeah... that's the ticket.... I read that thread on www.aceshardware.com, garethace. It just showed me that they're a bunch of bickering children. Some of the other articles on that website look pretty interesting though. Thanks for the link. Is the general consensus opinion that www.tomshardware.com is a good review site, or a misinformed and/or biased one?

I have the DSC-F707 (the predecessor to your camera) and I am very familiar with the settings. I think the biggest reason you're getting a lot of noise is because you've set the camera to "SHARPEN +2". First of all, all Sony cameras oversharpen to some extent even when set to SHARPEN +0 (relative to cameras from other brands). The advantage to sharpening is increased illusion of edge detail. The disadvantage of sharpening is the introduction of noise (patchy color variation amongst adjacent pixels) into areas that are supposed to represent smooth gradients of color (like skin, solid colored clothing, etc.) I would reduce your sharpening to +0. I would also set your ISO to 100 like another poster suggested. Make sure you're using the "JPEG Fine" setting. Using a tripod always helps. And, of course, as with all digital imaging, the more light you can shine on your subject, the less noise you'll get. Digital cameras and camcorders just don't do very well in low light yet....

I have a 300 watt powersupply. And I have a SoundBlaster Live! which is from 3 years ago. I guess that's antiquated in computer terms. orangeshy I would suspect you're on to something with your observations. However, something still puzzles me: this hardware setup has worked fine for 3 years. I haven't changed anything in the past six months, and that was a hard drive upgrade. Thus, my question is: would these issues not arise sooner if the power supply and the sound blaster were the culprits? Thanks for your reply.

No, not using an LCD. My moniter is a Sony Multiscan G400. I suspect that the video card is not overheating because the abnormality only happens to the video. If the video is playing in a window, then only the video is affected and the surrounding desktop, background, window frame, other windows, etc. are completely unaffected. Thanks for your speedy response, Mr. Hess. BTW, can you recommend any sites that review hardware for consumers (for example: "We rounded up the latest GeForce FX 5600 Ultra cards, and here's the best one....", or "We rounded up the latest motherboards from all of the manufacturers and here's how they compare...") Thanks again.

Sorry, I forgot to add one extremely important piece of information: When I throttle down the hardware acceleration of the video card, the problem clears up. I have to throttle it down about two-thirds of the way ; To the point where I have had to disable accelaration of DirectDraw and DirectX. Thanks for your help. P.S. Unfortunately, this bumps up my timetable for how long I can wait to buy a new vid card (if in fact, the vid card is the culprit here.)

A new problem has arisen with my computer and I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me figure out if the problem is the video card as I suspect it is. I'm trying to avoid a situation where I buy a new vid card and it doesn't fix the problem. Anyhow, the problem only occurs when I play video and at very very low resolutions like the bios introduction screen when you first start your computer. The problem also occurs at the low-res Windows splash screen when you are starting up windows. During the low-res intros, random vertical green lines show up on the screen; only three or four, so it's not that bad. At times, there is a lot of "snow"; errors in pixel drawing is the best way to describe it. When the high-res windows desktop show up, no problem whatsoever. Until I go to play a video in windows media player. the video only displays every other vertical line. The media player skin and the background desktop are totally unaffected. No other applications are affected. Occasionally, quicktime movies are unaffected, but if i play them for a while, then they too become affected. It's not a virus; i have scanned my machine with a fully subscribed up-to-date Norton anti-virus. So is this a hardware problem with my vid card? Or is this a software problem? Will replacing my video card cure this problem? My system configuration is as follows: P3-800 MHz 512 MB RAM ASUS v7700 Pure (GeForce 2 GTS w/ 64 MB RAM) Western Digital 120GB HD (7200 rpm) Windows XP Pro Thanks for any help.

Well thank you all for some really great advice. I have decided upon a GeForce FX video card and I will likely purchase a GeForce FX 5600 or 5600 Ultra since they seem to offer the best combination of value and performance. My question now becomes: Is there a big difference between Ultra and non-Ultra? Also, which brand of GeForce FX 5600 board would you recommend for me? PNY? MSI? ASUS? A second question is: Where do you get your hardware reviews from? I used to read the reviews at www.tomshardware.com, but I think their recommendations have been slightly dubious of late. P.S. I have not discounted Greg Hess' (and MANY other people's recommendation of upgrading my processor). Rather, my situation has changed somewhat. I think my current video card has gone bad and therefore I need a new vid card first and NOW! I'll not clog up this thread with my curiousity about what has gone wrong with my card. I'll start a new thread for that.

That's an interesting summary regarding ATI vs. FX, Garethace. I, too, have had the impression that ATI's drivers have been their achilles heel. I will be doing mostly Powerpoint presentations, Adobe Photoshop manipulation, and some video editing, and, of course, gaming. That being said, is the general consensus that GeForce FX is a better all-around performer? Also, Mr. Hess in an earlier post seemed to imply that GeForce FX would offer greater compatibility than ATI. Is that what you intended to imply, sir? What "other things" would the the nVidia cards be better at than the ATI cards? Thanks, Bobby

Thanks for the great suggestions everybody. I have given a great deal of thought to buying a PS2 or an X-box. But ultimately, I like seeing my games in 1600 x 1200 progressive scan instead of the 320 x 240 of NTSC interlace. But it is a GREAT suggestion since a PS2 is cheaper than buying a new vid card anyway. As to the people that suggested that a new vid card wouldn't really help my aging system. I have taken your advice to heart and I will likely upgrade my entire machine as per your suggestions. And to the person who made the very astute and insightful comments about building from scratch versus just buying a complete system for cheaper: I have bought into your philosophy. It certainly does take a lot more work to update drivers and make sure you have components that all work together and so on. It truly may not be worth it for me any more. So thank you all for the good advice so far. And regarding your comments Mr. Hess, I can *DEFINITELY* afford to wait. I am in no hurry. In fact, I didn't upgrade my original P54 (Pentium 120) until the P3 price had stabilized (in my eyes) and the P3 800 had come out. I may be too patient (even sloth-like) about upgrading my hardware; and that may be why I don't even have a P4 yet. Therefore, assuming I buy a new system (most likely from Dell), which video card (ATI Radeon or GeForce FX) will give me the least game compatibility headaches? My understanding is that for games they are quite close in performance. Are most games written for one card and then ported for compatibility to the other? I am thinking of purchasing within the next six months or so.

Dear Schmoron13, A response to what I believe are your misinterpretations about what I have said: 1. I am not using illegal software or pirated copies. Ripping software is not illegal. CompUSA and Best Buy both sell DVD X-Copy. That being said, what makes you think I'm using that software for making illegal copies of movies? I bought and paid for every movie I have ever ripped. I rip the movies from the disc to watch them on my iPaq. What's illegal about that? If a movie's good enough for me to watch more than once, then I'll buy it. What the hell; I've got the cash... :winkgrin: 2. I'm using a P3 because I'm waiting for the successor to the P4 which I anticipate will be coming out within the next 6-8 months. If anyone knows differently, then please correct me. If you re-read my initial post and then my follow-up to that post, you'll see that I already mentioned this. I don't want to buy a P4 and new motherboard and then have the P5 necessitate yet another motherboard purchase. I bought the P3 at the end of the P3 lifecycle. Had I bought at the beginning, then I could have upgraded to a faster P3 without changing motherboards. Does that make sense now? 3. You misunderstood about my game not running on a P4 2.2 GHz laptop. As I stated in the earlier posts, Madden 2003 does not officially support the ATI Mobility Radeon. My laptop has the Mobility Radeon. Therefore, Madden 2003 does not run very well on my laptop. That's why I want to upgrade my desktop. Every other game runs just fine on my laptop, but the only one I want to play is Madden 2004. Make sense now? 4. You seem to think that just because I can afford some expensive gear, that I don't need to pay attention to finances or value. The reason I can afford some of these finer things is that I *DO* pay attention to value. For example, when I bought my P3 800, it cost $250 for the processor. A P3 933 at the time cost $600. For me the choice was obvious. The P3 800 was a better value. Because I bought the 800 instead of the 933, I was able to afford many other things. Thus, value matters, and hence, the reason I posted this topic. I want to buy the video card that the experts (like Greg Hess) think would offer me the best value for my purpose. 5. That brings me to Greg Hess. I am flabbergasted to discover that you think I discounted his opinion. Quite the contrary, he asked for me to provide more information about my system and to elaborate more than I had in my initial post. I did exactly that. How is that discounting his opinion? Other people have also seconded his opinion and, frankly, I think that Greg and the other people are right. I have posted nothing to indicate that I was unhappy with Greg Hess's opinion nor with any of the opinions that concurred. I have nothing but grave reverence for Mr. Hess after a very knowledgeable and influential friend of mine referred to Mr. Hess as "The Man." That's good enough for me. 6. You suggested that I got annoyed when I didn't hear the answer that I wanted to hear. You couldn't be further from the truth. I very much appreciated all of the legitimate responses to my query, and I think the car analogy is fantastic and makes tremendous sense. I did not get annoyed, but I was confounded by Greathace's post. Did you find any of his philosophy to be pertinent to my question about video cards? I asked which video card I should buy. He replied by giving me his philosphy on storage. When I first read his post, I thought had had accidentally replied to the wrong post! Answer my question honestly: Was Greathace's reply even on-topic? 7. Schmoron13, you should get some sleep man! :ngesleep: All work and no sleep make Schmoron13 (self-admittedly) cranky... :winkgrin: So, to get back on topic: Does anyone know when the successor to the P4 is coming? Jeff's Friend

Dear Garethace, :ngesmile: Thank you very much for taking the time to offer your advice. However, I have to ask what the point of your advice is. You are advising me to be shrewd about my IT spending. Isn't that what I'm doing by asking experts in this forum before I make a big purchase? And I'm sure that when you go into a computer store and ask the salesperson for advice (as you suggested) that you must have the same experience that I do: the salesperson knows FAR less than we do. They provide no useful information. As for your suggestions on how my money would be better spent on the following items: 1. Broadband -- I already have it 2. Plextor CD-RW -- I already have one. 3. DVD writer -- I already have one. 4. Storage -- I already have a 120 GB HD + a 40 GB HD + two Sony Memory Sticks + two SD Cards. I don't think I need more storage than that right now. 5. I already watch movies on my iPaq and also on my laptop. 6. I already have movie ripping software and I'm quite proficient at it, if I do say so myself. 7. I already own an MP3 player, and I also own a Minidisc recorder. 8. A European vacation: I have already toured Europe several times; I am already planning another European trip in February; I have gone on African safaris four times in three countries; I have toured India, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Aruba, and Mexico. So while I do appreciate your attempt to help, I really would like advice on choosing which video card would make a good investment for the next two or three years. What I'm trying to avoid is the anger that I felt when I purchased my Palm III for $350, only to have its successor come out *ONE WEEK* later and cause a $200 price drop. I'm also trying to avoid the frustration of buying a fancy new P4 2.2GHz laptop with the latest video card only to not have it be supported by my favourite game. And so, while I do understand your philosophical musings about how precious and important the data itself is, that doesn't really address my question. How would you feel if you walked into a car dealership to buy a car, and the salesman told you, "You shouldn't spend money on that. Go for a vacation in Australia instead!" Thanks for your help. :ngesmile:

Thanks for the expedient replies. Here's what I have right now: P3-800 MHz (waiting for P4 successor to upgrade) GeForce 2 w/64 MB VRAM (3 years old?) 512 MB RAM Sony 19" G500 FD Trinitron moniter I can afford to wait to upgrade if I need to. I don't care if I have the card with the fastest stats. Compatibility is what matters the most to me (especially future compatibility). For example, with the PocketPC, most software is written for the HP Ipaq, therefore, I bought an Ipaq. It's also the same reason I don't own a Mac. Thanks, and I eagerly await your replies.

I feel almost idiotic for posting this here in such a serious professional forum, but a friend suggested that this is a great place for such advice. I want to buy a new video card, and I'm debating between GeForceFX 5600 Ultra (?), GeForceFX 5900 Ultra, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder. Price isn't a really big issue, but value is. I would hate to buy a $400 video card today only to have that performance come for $150 next year. But I don't mind if I spend $400 today and it costs $250 next year. I use my PC mostly for games and internet. Occasionally I make Powerpoint Presentations, edit video, and Adobe Photoshop. The main reason I want to upgrade is Madden 2004 by EA Sports. I have read lots of reviews that like the Radeon 9800 Pro, but I am gunshy about ATI since I have had two ATI cards in past and have been underwhelmed. My most recent fiasco is in my laptop with the ATI Mobility Radeon. I paid extra for it only to have EA Sports tell me that it is not supported for Madden and that's why I'm getting wildly fluctuating framerates that virtually make the game unplayable. I'm gunshy about the GeForce cards because they have been getting lukewarm reviews. What do you guys think? And what advantage does the All-In-Wonder convey? Thanks, Bobby P.S. Anyone know when Intel is coming out with the successor to the Pentium 4?