What would be the ideal graphics card for an old-school ATi TruForm rig?
13 replies, posted
I would like to set up an old school gaming rig that supports ATi Truform, but after reading around various websites and wikis, I am left thoroughly confused as to which cards support TruForm and which don't. For example:
[quote="Someone on Wikipedia"]Beginning with Radeon [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_R520"]X1000 series[/URL], TruForm was no longer advertised as a hardware feature. However, Radeon 9500 and higher (as well as hardware supporting Shader Model 3.0) include Render to Vertex Buffer feature, which can be used for tessellation applications.[URL="http://www.behardware.com/articles/616-2/ati-s-demos-without-vertex-texturing.html"][1][/URL] In the case of Radeon X1000 series, it supports binding up to 5 R2VB buffers simultaneously. Tessellation as dedicated hardware has returned in Xenos and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_R600"]Radeon R600[/URL] GPUs.[/quote]
[SUB]([URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TruForm"]Source[/URL])[/SUB]
Do the X1000 series cards support TruForm or not? The wiki page is not very clear about which cards do and don't support TruForm. Most other websites are just as vague about TF support, if not more so.
ATi TruForm was removed completely with the Catalyst 5.9 drivers, so this rig must use Catalyst 5.8 (or lower). What is the best card that will work under the 5.8 drivers? And would the card support TruForm? If not, what would be the next best card that does support it?
[B]Tl;dr[/B]: I'm really confused. What is the best ATi-TruForm-supporting graphics card available?
Thanks in advance.
I'd say the X800 or something.
[editline]20th August 2011[/editline]
After searching for a bit more, Go for a 9600xt
[QUOTE=Djessey;31850004]After searching for a bit more, Go for a 9600xt[/QUOTE]
What did you find? By that I mean, why the 9600 XT?
(Honest question. Not trying to be rude.)
Can't find the page I was on anymore but there was basically this guy that wanted to play older games like you that needed TruForm and he said he used an 9600 XT.
So yeah, Don't just run off and buy an 9600 XT but I think it has TruForm. Just search some more on that card.
[editline]21st August 2011[/editline]
Scratch that, After some more searching. The 9600XT [b]does infact[/b] support TruForm 2.0.
[img]http://i53.tinypic.com/2vta06c.png[/img]
Source : [url]http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-221.shtml[/url]
I'm fairly certain that there are better cards that support TF, though. Again, I'm looking for the best one available.
Thanks anyway, though.
The fastest ATI cards that supported this feature would be the Radeon 9800XT or the X850XT Platinum Edition. The Radeon 9800 would probably be the easiest card to find though. I have two of them (one Pro and one normal.)
But I remember experimenting with this feature, along with another screen overlay feature that R300 based GPUs had where they could do a screen overlay and change the look of the game.
what are you planning on doing with this?
[QUOTE=demonguard;31852831]what are you planning on doing with this?[/QUOTE]
Running a select few games with TruForm enabled, of course. :v:
Namely Half-Life, C&C Renegade, Quake II, Empire Earth, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Splinter Cell, and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (in 1080p with maxed settings whenever possible). These games are TruForm enabled according to "[URL="http://web.archive.org/web/20080225041723/http://ati.amd.com/fr/products/gamesupport/index.html"]Official ATI's List of TruForm Enabled Game Titles[/URL]".
[editline]20th August 2011[/editline]
Would a 9800 Pro or a 9800 AIW work? Because it happens that I have one of each. :v:
seems like an incredible waste of money to play the whole 10 old games that support it
[QUOTE=Cheesemonkey;31860582]seems like an incredible waste of money to play the whole 10 old games that support it[/QUOTE]
Well, it's also kind of fun.
[editline]21st August 2011[/editline]
Also, it seems that Neverwinter Nights support TruForm, so go install that as well, if you get around doing this.
[QUOTE=Cheesemonkey;31860582]seems like an incredible waste of money to play the whole 10 old games that support it[/QUOTE]
Them to their own.
I spent money on old PIII shit just so I could build a blazing fast box with a single ISA slot so I could run that Virtual Reality Headset even though only three games ever officially supported it.
[QUOTE=E-102 Gamma;31852979]Would a 9800 Pro or a 9800 AIW work? Because it happens that I have one of each. :v:[/QUOTE]
Any 9600/9800 GPU should work (possibly even 9700), just game performance will vary slightly. But it was hilarious playing UT99/Natural-Selection with the tessellation feature on, all of the models got really fat.
[QUOTE=MIPS;31864123]Them to their own.
I spent money on old PIII shit just so I could build a blazing fast box with a single ISA slot so I could run that Virtual Reality Headset even though only three games ever officially supported it.[/QUOTE]
I got an old AMD Athlon / MSI board combo from a client that was upgrading and it had the place on the bottom of the board for an ISA slot, but the slot itself was missing. I scoured the web and found a box of 50 ISA card edge connectors on Ebay for $20, so I bought them and soldered a connector on the board and got a working ISA slot.
AWE64 sound on an Athlon XP, hell yes.
[QUOTE=bohb;31902642]Any 9600/9800 GPU should work (possibly even 9700), just game performance will vary slightly. But it was hilarious playing UT99/Natural-Selection with the tessellation feature on, all of the models got really fat.[/QUOTE]
I had heard funny things about playing Half-Life with TruForm enabled (fat crates). From what I understand, TF tessellates things pretty recklessly if it isn't implemented carefully enough. :v:
Thank you for your help, good sir. You've been most helpful.
Now I just need to figure out what else this old school rig should have... I'm thinking a decent dual-core processor (AMD Athlon 64), 2 GB of RAM, a decent, low-ish wattage power supply, a decent sound card, and a 320 or 640 GB HDD (though 640 GB would probably be overkill). Nothing too fancy.
My dad just came across [url=http://www1.sapphiretech.com/en/products/graphics_overview.php?gpid=133]this page[/url] while doing research on TruForm. It's an overview of the Sapphire X1600 Pro, and it claims that it supports 'TruForm 2.0'. Certain Newegg pages also claim that the X1600s (PRO and XT) support this TruForm 2.0.
I find it hard to believe that the X1600s support Truform. If I am not mistaken, the X1600s were released in November or December of either '05 or '06 (I can't find a definite release date). Either way, they were released after Catalyst 5.8 was released.
Can anyone confirm that the X1600s and the rest of the X1x00s do not support TruForm?
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