where do you rate a radeon x700 se?

just realised the comp i program on has that graphics card, its my friends pc, anyhow where would you put it ie between gf4,5,6

See if www.tomshardware.com has any info/graphs.

not sure where it fits, but it's definitely very low end.

X700 is not the problem, it's the SE at the end of the name, which usually means in ATI terms, 64 bit memory (instead of 128 Bit or 256 bit...). So it should be pretty slow, but probably faster than a Geforce 4 TI or Radeon 8500, plus you have Direct X 9 features such as shader 2.0.

EDIT: You know what, I've looked, and surprise, it's 128bit memory interface, so you're ok (just that it's GDD2, not GDDR3). It should be a midrange performing card, but of 2004.

Here's a nice review: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?lp=zh_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hkepc.com%2fhwdb%2fx700se-3.htm

Hmmm.... Maybe not mid range performance, but OK none the less.

Similar to a GeForce4TI 4400.

Click here:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=105&card2=136

to compare it to any card you want...

SE = special edition. Should mean good but in computing terms means the exact opposite.

Taskmaster: well I sure had some fun on that site. There are some CRAZY cards out there. I'm a bit out of touch with things, I see that some cards have a separate shader GPU(?) now which gives a huge increase in shader capability. But what are these fancy shaders for anyway?

Everything. Literally. As of DirectX10, there is no fixed function pipeline whatsoever, everything is in shaders.

I still don't know what that means ;-)

fixed function is how blitz 3d materials work, with texture layers, blendmodes etc. GPU shader programs have replaced those and old school blendmodes etc have to be emulated in simple programs.

Quite tricky for artists to get to grips with since just creating a shader for applying a texture or color requires basic programming knowledge.

Yeah, I wouldn't bother unless it's a laptop, then that's about as high-end as most big laptop manufacturers can really provide, unless you went with an OEM like Asus or anyone else that offers high-end gaming notebooks. You mean Radeon Mobility, don't ya?

so basically if i push my blitz stuff ie shadows and it slows slightly in blitzs, its because this card is a bit poo :-)