new vid card!

**firemachine69** · December 10th, 2002, 12:22 AM

To start off, my important specs -

Pentium 4 (Willamette core) 1.5 ghz @ 1.68ghz
512mb PC133 ram
Gigabyte GA-8IDML mobo
Maxtor 40 gb 7200 rpm ATA-100
1 x 120mm case fan
2 x 80mm case fan

then all the other goodies like USB 2.0 card, burner, etc.

GEFORCE 2 MX 200 32MB video card (what I want to change, BIG TIME)

I've been waiting to buy a new vid card, and I'm not quite sure anymore what would be best. My original bet was a Ti - 4200 64mb, but I'm wondering now if that's overkill for the system that I've got. Can you guys give me your opinion on vid cards? My MAX is 300$ (CANADIAN - so approximately220$ US - and my fav place is www.vibecomputers.com), at my doorstep. And the dealer has to be reputable.

Good luck!

**KenKun** · December 10th, 2002, 12:27 AM

GF4 Ti4200 with 128MB RAM will fit your system like a glove

GF4 TI4400 has faster core and RAM and it is within your budget too.

Gainward, MSI and Leadtek are great makers to keep an eye on.

Welcome to TechIMO

Regards

**Atomic Rooster** · December 10th, 2002, 12:39 AM

I agree with KenKun. The GF4 TI 4200, 4400 or even the 4600 would be perfect for your system. I have the Visiontek GF4 TI 4200 128Mb card and absolutely love it! You can get the GF4's at NewEgg.com. They are one of the highest rated companies at ResellerRatings.com.

**brucecampbell** · December 10th, 2002, 12:54 AM

for that system I would just go with a geforce 3 which will work just as the 4200 for 90 bucks at newegg.com. its all up to you though.

**Inferior** · December 10th, 2002, 01:32 AM

Just as a good? The TI4200 is a significantly better performer than the GeForce 3 series, and most ti4200's will overclock to 4400 specs as well.

**KenKun** · December 10th, 2002, 02:41 AM

Yep Inferior, GF4 Ti4200 outperforms the top card (on its time) GF3 Ti500.

iremachine> With the price range you have, you shouldn`t consider anything less than the GF4 Ti4200 IMO.
Your system is quite new and it can easily handle such a card.

With the Ti4200 you will see a big difference over that MX junk, so be ready for a lot of eye-candies to be turned on.

**Tekk** · December 10th, 2002, 03:18 AM

Originally posted by KenKun
so be ready for a lot of eye-candies to be turned on.

INDEED!!! I bought a GF3 Ti500 a while back and replaced my GF2mx400 and its awesome. I really noticed it in Morrowind. With the GF2mx the water was nice, but with the Ti500 the pixel shaded water was amazing to look at. I was thoroughly impressed.

**Whir** · December 10th, 2002, 03:38 AM

Mmmmm, I have the Gainward bottom of the barrel (read no TV out) Ti4200 and it rocks my world. I know what Tekk is talking about with the water in Morrowind too. Unbelievable.

I would say that I bought this GeForce and will never look back, except I'm ordering a Radeon 9700 Pro tomorrow.

Dual head here I come!

**kimber** · December 10th, 2002, 08:45 AM

Originally posted by Inferior
Just as a good? The TI4200 is a significantly better performer than the GeForce 3 series, and most ti4200's will overclock to 4400 specs as well.

i believe what he meant was that in the above mentioned system you wouldn't see alot of improvement between a gf3 and the 4200.which i tend to agree with.alot of people just throw the badest vid card in any machine and expect to pull frame rates like they see on reviews and it just don't happen.
now if he was running a rdram or ddr mb with atleast a 2gig processor i'd agree but with what i see save some money on a vid card a put what you save towards your next upgrade.another good alternative to the gf3 in that price range is the 8500.

**Inferior** · December 10th, 2002, 12:03 PM

You act like the rest of the computer itself is the bottleneck, rather than a ti4200. That is completely incorrect. A 1.68 ghz p4 will not be the bottleneck that easily...

He would definetely see improvements with the ti4200 over a geforce 3, and for how little extra it actually costs, its definetely worth it.

Make sure you get a 128 meg memory model. It would be very benficial if you ever play any games that have a lot of textures that need to be loaded. With a 64 meg model you would see skips more often when the computer needs to load more textures.

**kimber** · December 10th, 2002, 12:25 PM

not the processor it self but the mb,mem also.it would definitly benefit the upgrade but you'd never see the card at it fullest.
i just upgraged a friends p4 1.5/pc133 to a 8500 from a tntm4 and you can see a good difference but he dont come close to pushing that card.on that system he runs about 7000 take or give acouple ,with the same card my system runs 10,500+.on my lan machine i have a giga kt333 with a 1800+xp and a gf2 pro and hit scores of about 6800.
so tell me weres the bottleneck in those systems?
and the gf4 is about 50% more than the gf3 so thats double the amount not alittle more.
as for 128mbvs64mb save your money.you would see hardly any gain if at all.exspecialy at the res. you'll have to be running.by the time we can fully use 128mb vid memory it will be time to upgrade anyway.as i see it,its mostly marketing gimick.

**vicarious george** · December 10th, 2002, 12:40 PM

I checked out www.vibecomputers.com, and found that they are a little expensive. (I know its Canadian dollars, but even after converting the currecy, they are still more expensive than www.newegg.com.) As far as a video card goes, $150(US) will buy an Aopen Aeolus Ti4200s 128mb from newegg. This has faster 550mHz memory, and will perform above Ti4400 specs. However, if you have the $200, (which you say you do), the newly released ATI Radeon 9500 Pro wins hands down. The new drivers allow it to perform on par with a Ti4600, and in some cases, very close to a 9700 Pro. Either card you pair with your system should still yield 3DMark2k1 scores close to or above 10000.

**Inferior** · December 10th, 2002, 12:40 PM

As for the memory, you would see large benefits from the extra 64 megs if you played any games like Dark Age of Camelot, because of its huge maps, and many player models.

**kimber** · December 10th, 2002, 12:49 PM

as for 4200's.i have 2 friends with the abit 64mb cards.they run very well.i overclocked them using coolbits and on both i can run the sliders to full(cant remember actaul numbers) on the overclock bars and the machines will loop 3dmark for hours.the only problem was on one of the cards you would get minor aticulites.but this was solved by putting heatsinks on memory.
the 4200's are very good cards but since the 8500 i switched sides and from the looks of it i wont be switchen back for awhile.

**agathodaimon** · December 10th, 2002, 12:53 PM

just ordered myself (Sunday) an XFX GF4 Ti4200 128Mb to replace the GF4 MX440 I have in my system now. Cost me only $160 W/Free Shipping at Newegg.com .
Hopefully I'll see some nice results.

**Whir** · December 10th, 2002, 04:44 PM

My Gainward is the 64MB model and I never see any skips. In the 3DMark2001SE tests, yes. Gaming? No.

That system is plenty fast enough to handle the GF3, or the GF4 w/out bottlenecking.

**vicarious george** · December 10th, 2002, 07:37 PM

I don't understand why most of you are focusing on the Ti4200. Don't get me wrong, it's a great card and I own one myself, but I wish I had waited for the ATI Radeon 9500Pro. Given the fact that this card is well within his budget, ($178 OEM from newegg.com), there should be no need for comparison. The ATI is by far the superior of the two cards, and IS the clear and obvious choice.

In case you need a second opinion:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1756

or maybe a third opinion:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk2

or how about a fourth:
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021024/

By now, you've probably already made your decision....
Enjoy your new ATI card!!!!!!!!

**kimber** · December 10th, 2002, 07:54 PM

thats the one i have my eye on.
but i think im going to wait for the thoughbred b 17 or 1800+ first.
should yeild some good numbers for my 8kha+.right now im running a 1600 at 2200(err 1.84).

but as for the gf3 vs.gf4 i just felt he wouldn't of seen a large enough gain between the two for the price.now if ya kick in another 30 or so bucks(from the 4200 price) for a 9500pro then i think thats a wiser decision.that card should last though your next m/b upgrade.

whir
"My Gainward is the 64MB model and I never see any skips. In the 3DMark2001SE tests, yes. Gaming? No. "

dont play alot of fps games huh.

**Whir** · December 10th, 2002, 07:59 PM

FPS games are not the sole qualifier of a 'good' video card. The FPS games I have played on here are all smooth and flawless as max res (which unfortunately due to my monitor is a measely 1280x864).

I don't see how ATI is an obvious choice, either. Benchmarks prove nothing in realworld scenarios. I am NOT anti-ATI. I am planning on picking up a 9700 Pro for work, in fact. However, GeForce is tried and true, and cheaper.

Firemachine hasn't replied to his own post since posting it, so arguing either way is probably pointless.

**firemachine69** · December 10th, 2002, 11:26 PM

Well, I would prefer to deal with Vibe, or my local computer parts dealer. So far I'm leaning torwards the 9500 Pro, but I'll have to wait a little for the prices to come down. My budget is 300$, TAXES, SHIPPING, AND INSURANCE INCLUDED. So that means I have to wait for Vibe to slap off at least another 20$, probably 30$. But that's ok, I don't have the dough just quite yet, so when Nvidia releases the new core, the Radeon 9500 is probably gonna drop like a stone. Then again, maybe there's gonna be huge discounts on the Geforce Ti's, too. Either way, it's going to have to last until it reaches the end of the NEXT system. And yes, I'm going AMD...