- Joined
- Mar 29, 2003
- Location
- Plainfield, IL
Please excuse the story. I was bored and thought I'd take a crack at some story telling.
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It was a Saturday not unlike many others. I awoke around noon after another 'late' night binge playing Horizons. My wife and daughter were already awake waiting for me to awake from my coma. Todays plan was a trip to my parents house for a nice birthday dinner my mother had planned. I'm soon to be 29 but I am not panicking yet. 30 is still one more year to go. Birthdays seems to come too fast and frequent these days.
We gathered our belongings and began the 1 hour drive. It was an uneventful drive if you do not count the 45 minutes of mind numbingly children's songs that were requested by my 3yr old daughter. I do not think I can handle another 'Bingo' or 'Old McDonald' song again but madness ensues.
I arrive at my parent's house to see my father holding an extended nozzle connected to a wet/dry vacuum onto the house near a small crevace between a window and the sophet. Bees were adding to the chaos. "This works great!" he exclaimes. "I'm sucking all the bees out and the ones that try to fly back in get sucked up too!" I look around to make sure no one else sees me enter the house.
It was a wonderful dinner. My grandparents were also in attendance. My mother makes the most wonderful stuffed shells with homemade spaghetti sauce. She knows it's my favorite so I get it every year. Now comes the time for gifts. A few cards and a wrapped clothes box.(You know what I mean. We all know which presents have clothes in them) The cards contain some money which is always nice. The box contains a new Simpsons T-shirt and a few pairs of boxers. I briefly lament on the idea of my mother still buying me underwear but thank her for the gifts.
My wife then informs me that my birthday gift is $150 to spend with as I please. Though I work and make a decent salary, to have money to spend with my wife's blessing is a miracle in and of itself. "Jackpot!" I quietly say to myself.
With a few quick clicks of the mouse I adventure over to pricewatch. I proceed to locate a new graphics card, fill out the shipping information, and click the "submit order" button. It is done.
I've always owned a nVidia product. TNT2 32MB, Geforce256 64MB, and my GF3 Ti500. They have all served me well. As of last week I thought the choice was obvious. A new FX5900 for $250. Great price for a great card. Oh how times can change. I, like everyone else frothing at the mouth, can not wait for the extacy that is Half-Life 2. Gabe Newell was kind enough to give us all a glimpse of what he and Valve had to offer. To my supprise it went against everything I thought I knew about nVidia and ATI. I have come to the realization that pure hardware muscle must beat software optimizations. The bar had been set. DX9 for all your future gaming needs. ATI met that bar where nVidia seems to barely be able to hold its chin up to it on top of boxes of various versions of its Detenator driver sets.
One ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB card is due to arrive in a few days. As I count the seconds to its arrival, I thought I would share this little strange, if not quirky story with you all. I do feel some love lost as I switch between what I think is the heart of every gaming rig. ATI, I now welcome you with open arms.
---
Thanks!
P.S. I assume I need to uninstall any dentenator drivers on my XP machine before installing the new card?
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It was a Saturday not unlike many others. I awoke around noon after another 'late' night binge playing Horizons. My wife and daughter were already awake waiting for me to awake from my coma. Todays plan was a trip to my parents house for a nice birthday dinner my mother had planned. I'm soon to be 29 but I am not panicking yet. 30 is still one more year to go. Birthdays seems to come too fast and frequent these days.
We gathered our belongings and began the 1 hour drive. It was an uneventful drive if you do not count the 45 minutes of mind numbingly children's songs that were requested by my 3yr old daughter. I do not think I can handle another 'Bingo' or 'Old McDonald' song again but madness ensues.
I arrive at my parent's house to see my father holding an extended nozzle connected to a wet/dry vacuum onto the house near a small crevace between a window and the sophet. Bees were adding to the chaos. "This works great!" he exclaimes. "I'm sucking all the bees out and the ones that try to fly back in get sucked up too!" I look around to make sure no one else sees me enter the house.
It was a wonderful dinner. My grandparents were also in attendance. My mother makes the most wonderful stuffed shells with homemade spaghetti sauce. She knows it's my favorite so I get it every year. Now comes the time for gifts. A few cards and a wrapped clothes box.(You know what I mean. We all know which presents have clothes in them) The cards contain some money which is always nice. The box contains a new Simpsons T-shirt and a few pairs of boxers. I briefly lament on the idea of my mother still buying me underwear but thank her for the gifts.
My wife then informs me that my birthday gift is $150 to spend with as I please. Though I work and make a decent salary, to have money to spend with my wife's blessing is a miracle in and of itself. "Jackpot!" I quietly say to myself.
With a few quick clicks of the mouse I adventure over to pricewatch. I proceed to locate a new graphics card, fill out the shipping information, and click the "submit order" button. It is done.
I've always owned a nVidia product. TNT2 32MB, Geforce256 64MB, and my GF3 Ti500. They have all served me well. As of last week I thought the choice was obvious. A new FX5900 for $250. Great price for a great card. Oh how times can change. I, like everyone else frothing at the mouth, can not wait for the extacy that is Half-Life 2. Gabe Newell was kind enough to give us all a glimpse of what he and Valve had to offer. To my supprise it went against everything I thought I knew about nVidia and ATI. I have come to the realization that pure hardware muscle must beat software optimizations. The bar had been set. DX9 for all your future gaming needs. ATI met that bar where nVidia seems to barely be able to hold its chin up to it on top of boxes of various versions of its Detenator driver sets.
One ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB card is due to arrive in a few days. As I count the seconds to its arrival, I thought I would share this little strange, if not quirky story with you all. I do feel some love lost as I switch between what I think is the heart of every gaming rig. ATI, I now welcome you with open arms.
---
Thanks!
P.S. I assume I need to uninstall any dentenator drivers on my XP machine before installing the new card?
where'd you get a 9800Pro for $250!?!?!? I've been looking for a 9800np for a couple weeks and found one for $235 that's ALWAYS out of stock. For another 15 bucks I'll just get a Pro 
