ati question

[SS427]

I have seen a reference or two on this site about using the Built by ATI cards and not the Powered by ATi.  Are there any specific things that are wrong with them?  Is there a noticable problem running mame or frontends with mame?  

Looking for solid reasons to not get the Powered by over the Built by version.

ss

[AlanS17]

Well aside from their performance, do you realize the difference, don't you?

Would you rather have a Corvette or a Camaro with a Corvette engine?

[nighthawk2099]

I'd take the camaro... don't really like the corvette body design...hehe... sorry, couldn't resist......

[AlanS17]

I was actually that sort of a reply... Someone had to say it.

[Howard_Casto]

Well aside from their performance, do you realize the difference, don't you?

Would you rather have a Corvette or a Camaro with a Corvette engine?

I don't think this is a fair comparison.  

It's more like buying a car at the showroom or buying one online without ever seeing it.  In theory the powred by ati should be comporable to the "real" ati's as ati is much more picky about who they sel theri chips to than other companies (cough, cough, invidia, cough).  In practice, however, if you haven't heard of the company that's making the card then it might be kinda shabbie.  On the other hand, some cards might actually be better than the "real" cards.  The maya line from gigabyte, for example uses the ati chips but put it on a "hotrod" board for better performance.  They also come with built in tweaking tools so you can overclock by using a simple application.  I got one of these just to see how they work and I was very impressed, particularly in the fact that their drivers support hardware rotation!  

Alsn is right in the fact that you might get screwed though.  
So be careful, and if the price seems too good to be true then it probably is.  

[AlanS17]

I wasn't aware that ATI was so picky. My only experince along these lines is with NVidia cards.

But the ArcadeVGA uses an ATI Radeon chipset and you don't hear anybody complaining about that one.

[RandyT]

I have seen a reference or two on this site about using the Built by ATI cards and not the Powered by ATi.  Are there any specific things that are wrong with them?

This is really only an issue if you are intending to use the S-video out.   3rd party board manufacturers can use pretty much any chipset they want for the S-Video portion, and often opt for the cheapest (and poorest quality).

The S-Video output is markedly better on "Built by ATi" boards.

RandyT

[bigmoe]

FWIW, desmatic has said that for AdvanceMAME, the Built-By is required.