Observation - RS400 onboard video sucks

[DevilsAdvocate]

I have been trying to use onboard video on this ECS motherboard that I picked up to play with, and it really, really sucks. I have never seen such incredibly poor quality 2D in my life. That is really saying something.

It is nice to have the onboard option, especially when its time comes to become a kid's PC - perhaps the poor quality was because I was using it at 1280x1024 rez on an LCD screen.

Any input?

 

[jdkick]

Double post?

No complaints with the ATI Xpress 200 IGP that i've seen... quite nice to work with at 1280x1024.

 

[Boonesmi]

it shouldnt have any problems with "2D" quality

are the correct video drivers installed? or soemthing wrong with the monitor?

 

[64ninjas]

the only time I've ever had problems with the ati x200 is when I tried windows xp 64-bit edition. 3D performance was immediately cut in 1/4.
as for 2D.. always worked correctly

maybe check to make sure font smoothing is off?

 

[ollandy]

I just assembled one computer using this MOBO for a friend and it comes with a 3.2 CPU. am using a PC4200 with a Windows XP Media Center OS. the mobo handles well the OS. The problem I encountered is when I tried to use an NVidia 6600 card and disabled the onboard video. It looks like the ATI chipset doesn't like the competitor card. I noticed it when I start playing DVD the computer will lock up. Am still using the BIOS that comes with the MOBO. There is a new BIOS release by ECS. Anybody tried to update BIOS to the new one? Also, does anyone knows how to disable that snake graphics when it boots up? thanks

 

[HmmmDonut]

I used an ECS RS480 for a couple of months and I was fairly surprised at how it handled 2d and 3d. Bf2 was even somewhat playable at ultra low.
Sounds like a driver issue or some odd setting is running amuck in Windows.

Ollandy you can turn off that snake option is the bios. I can remember exactly where it is as I don't have the board in front of me right now.

 

[ollandy]

anybody out there who knows how to turn off that snake sideshow on boot up on this rs400-a mobo? I can't find it on the bios. thanks for the help.

 

[fire400]

here's the thing, it's onboard, it's going to use up system RAM and the CPU itself. a Geforce FX series will be stronger than the IGP on that board. for that, it will use video RAM and not system RAM, it has it's own GPU onboard the daughter card, seperately. Plus, the instruction set and engine itself are nearly as generic as any ancient video card tried to boast back in the early millenium.

it used to be, "as long as it has AGP architecture, even if it's still onboard." that's not true anymore for game performance in 3D apps. even if it uses PCI-e architecture, same analogy, onboard video will always suck compared to daughter cards for video.

But I'm just saying, that if your onboard uses AGP/PCI-e architecture and you want to try using a generic PCI graphics card, it would be good if you used it for workstation capabilities, but the transfer rates of graphics data will but cut by about 1/5, thus you'll have crappier video performance trying to move to a single PCI solution.