is powervr any good?

May 13, 2002, 10:00 PM

emm I thought these cards where like dead long ago? what do they perform like? can they still play the big games? im confused.

Judas · May 14, 2002, 03:48 AM

Well.... it's been a year since the LAST kyro 2 release...and an expected kyro 2 se is saposed to show up in another month.... plus the kyro 3 is rumored to be not far after it...

Things are slow and not really leaking out about pvr...

And damn straight.... the kyro 2 kicks the geforce 2 mx400's around.... and give most other cards a sweet run for thier money...you can buy one for damn cheap to ....no graphical problems and the drivers are great...Linux support as well..

it's scaleability with cpus is right up there....and BRAND NEW GAMEs are starting to fall apart on it..... but are still being supported and pushing anywere from 40-60fps at 1024x768x32

IceCold · May 14, 2002, 05:54 AM

Kyro II's are poor performers in games utilizing heavy amounts of DX7 features (Giants is one example), namely from the lack of a hardware T&L engine. Drivers are also a letdown at the same time (check out benchies in JK2 over at Tom's Hardware for a better idea), but performance in 'simpler' games (e.g. Q3A, UT), frame rates are quite respectable, almost matching, and sometimes exceeding that of a GeForce2 GTS. The Kyro II obviously doesn't have a long shelf life, but if anyone's upgrading from anything inferior to a GeForce2 MX, these will prove to be a worthy budget upgrade. When it comes to a point when the card is way too slow (and yes, it already has), then you can always think to yourself that a card of a budget price and be feature rich, with mediocre performance was a wise choice.

But in the meantime, I suggest looking out for Kyro II SE and the Kyro III.

Judas · May 14, 2002, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by IceCold
Kyro II's are poor performers in games utilizing heavy amounts of DX7 features (Giants is one example), namely from the lack of a hardware T&L engine. Drivers are also a letdown at the same time (check out benchies in JK2 over at Tom's Hardware for a better idea), but performance in 'simpler' games (e.g. Q3A, UT), frame rates are quite respectable, almost matching, and sometimes exceeding that of a GeForce2 GTS. The Kyro II obviously doesn't have a long shelf life, but if anyone's upgrading from anything inferior to a GeForce2 MX, these will prove to be a worthy budget upgrade. When it comes to a point when the card is way too slow (and yes, it already has), then you can always think to yourself that a card of a budget price and be feature rich, with mediocre performance was a wise choice.

But in the meantime, I suggest looking out for Kyro II SE and the Kyro III.

Really, if anyone has actually been paying attention to Toms hardware guide.. you will notice that for some strange reason, the benchmarks are cut in half.... the kyro preformace is 2 times that...why? well lets see, what did he do to that card? and what biased tricks did he do.... Oh by the way, what about the UT2003 Benchmark... now that will cause some waves in your arguement...

IceCold · May 14, 2002, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Judas
Oh by the way, what about the UT2003 Benchmark... now that will cause some waves in your arguement...

Yes...Kyro II will be able to run the latest build of the Unreal engine flawlessly, however, with the CPU being hammered with T&L calculations, performance will be significantly low (high CPU dependency??). But those owning fast CPU's will increase performance on the card; as it was able to successfully to outperform the Radeon 64DDR by just a couple frames.

UberLord · May 15, 2002, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by IceCold
Yes...Kyro II will be able to run the latest build of the Unreal engine flawlessly, however, with the CPU being hammered with T&L calculations, performance will be significantly low (high CPU dependency??). But those owning fast CPU's will increase performance on the card; as it was able to successfully to outperform the Radeon 64DDR by just a couple frames.

Exactly - given the right environment, the Kyro cards outperform all other cards in its class. Its never pretended to be a high-end card and excells at what it does - good graphics and speed at a very reasonable price point.

BTW - Nice to see you here Judas

Hope you enjoy your stay

Judas · May 15, 2002, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by UberLord
BTW - Nice to see you here Judas
Hope you enjoy your stay

what's that saposed to mean? Are you expected an admin to boot me?

UberLord · May 15, 2002, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Judas
what's that saposed to mean? Are you expected an admin to boot me?

LOL - it was a welcome you dummy!

Judas · May 16, 2002, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by UberLord
LOL - it was a welcome you dummy!

oh now i'm a dummy?

that's not an answer..that's an insult....hmm.... i don't think i like you very much now..

(example of a womans thoughts) Oh, oh, this should be in a flame war section..

And, i think i might get fried..

Take everything i say with little or no seriousnous... :o

Calavaro · May 23, 2002, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by IceCold
SNIP
Drivers are also a letdown at the same time (check out benchies in JK2 over at Tom's Hardware for a better idea), but performance in 'simpler' games (e.g. Q3A, UT), frame rates are quite respectable, almost matching, and sometimes exceeding that of a GeForce2 GTS.

SNIP

I have JK2 and on the same settings as Tom's I get 60.4fps w/15.84 drivers (52.4fps with 14.28 drivers). Oh, and BTW this is on stock speed. For a card designed to compete with the GF2MX this pretty dang good.
This is on a AXP@1.67Ghz 515MB DDR, EpoX 8KHA+ mobo (etc).

IMO it is good the Kyro II lacks a T&L unitl as my CPU will always be the limiting factor in regard to this (if you can call 1.67Ghz a "limiting factor" that is).

ksamdfreak · Jul 11, 2002, 10:23 AM

Compared to the MX400 you can't tell a difference. I have used them both and use the Kyro II now. For $50 you can't go wrong. The Kyro II kicks ass using 1024 and above screen size. The new driver from PowerVR improves overall performance. A must for the consumer on a budget.

Yeti · Jul 11, 2002, 10:49 AM

http://www.anandtech.com

The Kyro II stats are up there and it is performing on par with a GF2 PRO... not GTS. It seems as the processor speeds went up... so did the Kyro II's performance level. I imagine if you stick it in a Dually P4 system and run multithreaded Q3 or UT based games you can get some Geforce3 or R85k performance.

Speaking of which... what about the MP Kyro II tests with Q3 (which supports mp) ?

I would like to see how that works out.... anyone know of anyone who did such a test?

May 13, 2002, 10:00 PM	#1
Billy Guest Posts: n/a	is powervr any good? emm I thought these cards where like dead long ago? what do they perform like? can they still play the big games? im confused.

May 14, 2002, 05:54 AM	#3
IceCold DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 51 Rep Power: 0	Re: Kyro II's are poor performers in games utilizing heavy amounts of DX7 features (Giants is one example), namely from the lack of a hardware T&L engine. Drivers are also a letdown at the same time (check out benchies in JK2 over at Tom's Hardware for a better idea), but performance in 'simpler' games (e.g. Q3A, UT), frame rates are quite respectable, almost matching, and sometimes exceeding that of a GeForce2 GTS. The Kyro II obviously doesn't have a long shelf life, but if anyone's upgrading from anything inferior to a GeForce2 MX, these will prove to be a worthy budget upgrade. When it comes to a point when the card is way too slow (and yes, it already has), then you can always think to yourself that a card of a budget price and be feature rich, with mediocre performance was a wise choice. But in the meantime, I suggest looking out for Kyro II SE and the Kyro III. __________________ I have a signature.

Jul 11, 2002, 10:23 AM	#11
ksamdfreak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kansas Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	Kyro II Compared to the MX400 you can't tell a difference. I have used them both and use the Kyro II now. For $50 you can't go wrong. The Kyro II kicks ass using 1024 and above screen size. The new driver from PowerVR improves overall performance. A must for the consumer on a budget. __________________ Gigabyte 7VAX 512Mb pc3200 Ram Xabre400 128Mb Video 140 GB HD Athlon XP 2200 Windows XP Pro SP2 1204 Cyberdrive 36x12x48 CDRW Creative 16x DVD

Jul 11, 2002, 10:49 AM	#12
Yeti DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 662 Rep Power: 0	http://www.anandtech.com The Kyro II stats are up there and it is performing on par with a GF2 PRO... not GTS. It seems as the processor speeds went up... so did the Kyro II's performance level. I imagine if you stick it in a Dually P4 system and run multithreaded Q3 or UT based games you can get some Geforce3 or R85k performance. Speaking of which... what about the MP Kyro II tests with Q3 (which supports mp) ? I would like to see how that works out.... anyone know of anyone who did such a test? __________________ --Oh lord not again