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Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: Brant on March 15, 2002, 12:23:17 pm

Title: What Videocard..
Post by: Brant on March 15, 2002, 12:23:17 pm

Building a new Mame Box and want to know what the ideal Videocard is these days for Video Out.

Obviously I need Svideo out to a 27 or 32" TV......probably 27" due to $$$$.

Whats everyone using these days, for best results, using Mame32 and such...??

Title: Re: What Videocard..
Post by: Lilwolf on March 15, 2002, 12:32:28 pm

to start off with.. most 33" wont fit in a cabinet.  So before you buy, measure.

Next.  

ATI's you can't go wrong (but the XPert)  great quality.  The vid in/out on the radions will give you TiVo support if you want to watch TV on it which is kinda nice.

Gefoces you have to watch out for.  There are a bunch of different chips and some are great and some are crap.  The TV in/out versions are all good I think.  Some love their end results, some hate it.... but thats probably chip dependent.  So make sure there is a good return policy from where you get it.

btw, I think a high end geforce might be better if you ever play 3d games.  The FSAA is GREAT on monitors that can't handle high res!  

Title: Re: What Videocard..
Post by: darkmanx on March 15, 2002, 01:10:51 pm

hey speaking of, i am thinking of nabbing a radeon 7500, 64mb. anyone have any experience with them and how are they?

Title: Re: What Videocard..
Post by: Mike on March 15, 2002, 02:29:48 pm

You might want to buy a scan converter instead. Then if all your playing on the box is mame, you can use the cheapest video card possible as long as it has 4mb of ram. I've heard more good things about the scan converters lately over using a video card. I do have a Radeon VE and it doesn't do half bad on the tv out once your in mame. The colors look a little dull in windows but you don't notice it inside mame. Again though if all your using it for is mame then you don't need a high end radeon card because you won't be using the 3-d acceleration so the VE should work fine.

Title: Re: What Videocard..
Post by: darkmanx on March 15, 2002, 02:35:00 pm

well im sure i will play some regular pc games on it at some point also so i need a decent card. maybe i will add a scan converter later when i get more money.

Title: Re: What Videocard..
Post by: Steve Johnson on March 15, 2002, 03:23:14 pm

I just completed building a new mame box last evening and went with an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Pro and a Toshiba 27A41 27" TV.

FWIW, CompUSA has these on sale including a $50.00 rebate which brings the price down to $80 + tax.

I'm certainly no expert on the subject but had read a number of reviews from other cab builders that had used these same components.

All looks good from a straight out of the box setup. I'm not as focused on 3D PC games on the same cab so I can't really speak to the quality of how this card will handle those situations in comparison to higher priced ATI (or other mfr) models.

YMMV.

Steve

Title: Re: What Videocard..
Post by: Brant on March 16, 2002, 05:01:31 pm

Thanks for the tip on the TV :)

Seriously, I think this will be a dedicated cab for MAME, although I'm sure I'll fire up the usual IE tyep stuff on it from time to time...and use it as a MP3 jukebox perhaps.......

I have a Geforce3 right now but not with TV Out....
So basically ATI is a sure thing (choice dependent on how much 3D power I want to push..ie: Raedon, etc) or I could try for a Geforce3/4 but that may/may not suck due to chips.

Thanks everyone!