Radeon9200 128MB:good for these programs?

[mecharmor25]

I keep hearing about instability problems in these forums about ATI and them having bad design. I'm considering on a ATI Radeon 9200 128MB because a Geforce equivalent in my area is too expensive. And because of my Geographical location on this planet and the currency I'm using (canadian), shipping would be costly so internet shopping is out....

I will use this video card to run the following:

Epsxe (psx emulator with pete's plugins)
N64 (1964, PJ64, Nemu, ) with Rice Daedalus and Jabo plugins.
Zsnes
WarcraftIII
Command & Conquer Generals (Question: I love to macro about 200+ units before attacking, is this video card prepared for such intensity with NO slowdown?)
Jediknight II
RedAlert 2
Diablo 2

current computer is:
Athlon XP 2200+
768MB SDRAM
50X CD
SoundBlaster LIVE
ECSK7S5A PRO mainboard
Geforce2MX400 (this one will be upgraded)

Question about Radeon 9200
1) is it stable and compatible with my game list??
2) are problems you people experiencing VERY SERIOUS and sometimes NOT RUN at all??
3) Drivers are completely unrealiable? i.e. high blue screen rates, crashes, heavy graphical errors and worst, reinstalling windows may be required?!?
4) or is there very little difference with geforce gpus that you can't feel it except maybe alittle faster?
5) Are there serious problems with the emulators? i.e. epsxe, nemu64...

opinions???

[RF]

I bought my 9000 to play newer games like the ones above, just to hold me tight untill the gpu war seems to level off for a while. The 9200 is similar, but better. Its like a 8500 with upgrades (scuse me if im wrong).

epsxe, pj64: no problems. Good frames.
znes: I can only assume its good, comon its snes.
wc3: ran real well on my system.
C&C Generals: With my current o/c I get around 30fps during fights etc.

edit: As for the catalyst drivers, they are rock solid and havnt given me any problems. As for everything above, they are run on these settings. Sometimes I turn on FSAA or AF if I do have a few frames to spare

9200 is not like an 8500. 9200 has same architecture as a 9000. 9100 has the same architecture as an 8500.

Anyway. Personally I think an FX 5200 will be better. Better Anti Aliasing engine. With both super and multi sampling options.

[hushypushy]

FX5200 is low budget...get a FX5600u for a good 128 mb gfx card. dont get FX5600 (the 256 mb one). it's good...but.....

[zerocopy]

get the 9100 its cheaper than the 9200 and it attains better performance (just make sure to get 128 bit) the 64 bit version is 30 percent slower

[mecharmor25]

What about graphical bugs? transparency problems?
or any other misc graphical annoyances? or is everything all to small to even bother to compare between Nvidia and ATI? But what about the serious problems I hear about in the past year or so about Radeon, is that all changed now in 9200 and above?

oh and just a side question is the GF4-TI4200 really THAT much more powerful than the GF-FX5200 that it is worth 2x the price??

[Badaro]

Originally Posted by mecharmor25

What about graphical bugs? transparency problems?
or any other misc graphical annoyances? or is everything all to small to even bother to compare between Nvidia and ATI? But what about the serious problems I hear about in the past year or so about Radeon, is that all changed now in 9200 and above?

Got my 8500 about a year ago, never had any major issues with it. The only thing I dislike with this card is that it uses Super Sampling AA, which looks good but is very slow.

As for the games you asked:

PSX and N64 Emus: The only issue nowadays is the slow framebuffer access;
Zsnes: It would be very hard to find a video card that doesn't work well with Zsnes;
Warcraft III: Runs fine here, I play this game several times a week;
Command & Conquer Generals (Question: I love to macro about 200+ units before attacking, is this video card prepared for such intensity with NO slowdown?): Ran without any issues here when I tried here, but I didn't play much so I can't tell if it scales well with that many units;
Jediknight II: Never tried this game;
RedAlert 2: Never tried this game;
Diablo 2: Works fine here, just remember NOT to force Anisotropic Filtering when playing Diablo II.

[]s Badaro