My Nvidia Ultra 400 chipset opinion.

[GoHack]

I've had my Nvidia Ultra 400 chipset based Shuttle AN35N 400 Ultra for about three weeks now. I'm extremely happy w/it, "ESPECIALLY" w/the graphics quality.

Using the exact same hardware transfered from my MSI K7D-L dual Athlon MP2600+ system, except for the cpu, w/the same drivers, other than the chipset ones of course, the graphics are absolutely awsome. I see graphic details in games that I have never seen w/my previous system, as well as even my P4 system, using the exact same ATI 9800 Pro graphics card.

Games such as Anarchy Online and Star Wars Galaxies. The graphics quality has brought new interest back in the games. I'm talking details such as simple things as signs, which were blurry, if noth unreadable, are now perfect. Everything is so sharp, detailed, w/beautiful colors. This is exactly what I look for in a graphics card. Not one being just simply the FASTEST, as I read everyone aways talking about.

It can't be the processors, since I've used both the Athlon and the P4, w/the same operating system. The only thing that I can think of is the Nvidia m/b chipset and their drivers for it. Since Nvidia's background is graphics, they must of stressed that in their chipset design.

 

[nam-ng]

Now hook your optical output to a Dolby Digital reciever and really enjoy the extra dimension of the games.

 

[GoHack]

Now hook your optical output to a Dolby Digital reciever and really enjoy the extra dimension of the games.

I've got a SB Audigy Gamer hooked up to a SB 5.1 speaker system, which is loud enough. If I set it up though my Yamaha Dolby Digital receiver based entertainment system, w/it's 6.1 Klipsh tower speakers, I may blow the windows out of my house.

It would be interesting to hear how it would sound though?

Unfortuniately, I have no optical output on my SB, or on the built in sound system on the m/b.

My Yamaha receiver has the jacks.

Something to look into in the future.

 

[nam-ng]

The only way to get Dolby Digital in games is nVIDIA's SoundStorm, your Audigy will never do it without software hacks and a huge performance penalty..

 

[GoHack]

Well from the reaction I'm not getting, I guess I'm the only one who has seen an improvement in graphics using a Nvidia Chipset based m/b.

Again, from all the discussions and benchmarks of graphics cards, speed is much more important w/people than the graphics quality is. One would think that it would be the other way around. When new graphics cards are evaluated, very little is ever discussed on their quality improvements. Of course it's not to say, that w/graphic quality, there is a performance penality, so speed does help.

Again I'm happy w/my Shuttle m/b, and while not as fast as my overclocked 2.4 GHz P4 system, the graphics are much better.

I originally bought the Shuttle m/b and mobil Athlon cpu for strickly running the Distributed Computer (DC) program ClimatePrediction. Instead I'm using it as my primary system, w/my P4 system being used for the DC program.

Oh well.

 

[MrWoot]

i used to have an a7v8x with a via kt400 i believe is the name... and that doesn't compare to my new nforce2 board. I also see a difference and am happy with the quality.

 

[nam-ng]

Well from the reaction I'm not getting, I guess I'm the only one who has seen an improvement in graphics using a Nvidia Chipset based m/b.

Don't be bothered by it, most simply can't recognize value of what you said even if simple. Before nVIDIA mobo chipsets, I and my family members only used Intel hardware exclusively. Now we have nothing else but nFORCEs for the last 2 years.

Again, from all the discussions and benchmarks of graphics cards, speed is much more important w/people than the graphics quality is. One would think that it would be the other way around. When new graphics cards are evaluated, very little is ever discussed on their quality improvements. Of course it's not to say, that w/graphic quality, there is a performance penality, so speed does help.

Take everything you read on the net with a table spoon of salt, nothing should be better than your own brain to find out and decides what is best and what is fact.

Even when you read reviews on the net from "respected sources", remember that there aren't lacks for stupid ignorant fools pretending to be experts with important technical reports, opinions, and discoveries. Usually they themselves can't even recognize "facts" from theories, fictions, nor opinions... even if "facts" took a dump directly on their faces.

Something as simple as "a square is a better approximation of a circle than a star" would actually be theory to stupid ignorant fools pretending to be experts. It seemed most of them never actually finished highschool, though it could be their highschool had rather low standards.

Something as simple as "Jittered blending of adjacent pixels caused blurriness in V5's FSAA" would actually needed 6 months and longer of "discussions" for stupid ignorant fools pretending to be experts.

Something as simple as "V5's FSAA = RGMS" would required some of them more than 4 years.

Ever met RAMDAC quality experts who tested 300Mhz RAMDACs with 200Mhz monitors?

Ever met EEs who couldn't comprehend "common-mode interferences"?

Ever met cooling experts who couldn't comprehend "hot-gas bypassed"?

Ever met Pixel Shader experts who didn't know what dot-3 bump mapping was?

Ever met filtering experts who couldn't recognize the simple fact - "Trilinear suppresses pixel poppings and shimmerings better than Bilinear"?

Some of them have master degrees, and I even met others with Ph.D... Some of these idiots mentioned above actually even have "reviews" and "white papers".

Often times "respected sources" are of more significant important to stupid ignorant fools than their own brain, as it only required simple trust, faith, and belief which they had plenty of rather than brain.

Again I'm happy w/my Shuttle m/b, and while not as fast as my overclocked 2.4 GHz P4 system, the graphics are much better.

I originally bought the Shuttle m/b and mobil Athlon cpu for strickly running the Distributed Computer (DC) program ClimatePrediction. Instead I'm using it as my primary system, w/my P4 system being used for the DC program.

Oh well.

You had made a wiser decision directly from your very own personal assessment than most ever capable of, others usually had to be told what's best. And guess what? Your thoughts had little agreements with many other "computing experts" or "expert reviewers" out there.

Let me give you a big hint - most of them can ape "symmetric processing" technical opinions for 10 years straight without ever knowing what "symmetric processing" actually meant.

 

[primea]

Well from the reaction I'm not getting, I guess I'm the only one who has seen an improvement in graphics using a Nvidia Chipset based m/b.

Oh well.

Don't worry about it ... if you're happy now ... you should try the new cards with IQ in the highest setting.

It's really depends on what you are upgrading from ... I moved from a GF3-Ti200 to a 9700PRO ... and I was blown away by the image quality ... and that was 1.5 years ago ..