Need advice on GeForce4 Ti 4200 cards

[marqmajere]

I'm thinking on buying a G4 Ti 4200 (the 128 meg flavour:) ) and I was wondering on which brand to buy (i.e. Chaintech, Gainward, etc.). I'm going to get it from Newegg but I have little experience with the Nvidia card lineup. Any advice would be great.

Also I noticed that the MX cards are clocked higher than the Ti versions. Is there any particular reason for this?

Thanks

Marqus

[Fotis]

My suggestion would be prolink or MSI.MSI has a great sofware and prolink has the best fan.You can easily get 500mhz memory from either board.
CAUTION!!!!
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT GETTING A GEFORCE 4MX OVER A GEFORCE4 TI4200!!!IT IS BASICALLY A GEFORCE 2 !!!!

[marqmajere]

I should say, how am I to tell which brand would perform better? For instance, the Chaintech model runs at 250 core/222 memory where as the Gainward card is clocked at 225 core/250 memory but has 4ns memory, etc. They are all priced about the same. Would getting a Ti4400 for about $30-40 extra be a good idea or is the performance difference not that great. Perhaps springing for a 4600 would be better. hmmm..... I would love to hear testimonials from people who own a Ti card. (3DMark, FPS on games, video quality, etc.)

The MSI card looks like the better deal out of the two, Fotis. I jsut want to be certian before buying.

thanks

Marqus

[thcdru2k]

as long as you have good cooling and with some luck, a ti4200 is all you need. the extra 30-40 is a waste of money for a ti4400. all you have to do is overclock your card. generally you can get cores to 300 easily, with memory its all the luck of your ram or your cooling. if you do want to spend that extra 30-40 spend it on a card with more features, such as tv-out or vivo.

[thcdru2k]

and obviously the card with the higher mem overclock will generally be faster at default, but you never know that other card could overclock better. but you really don't need that extra 10fps the ti4400 provides cause a ti4200 is easily overclocked to ti4400 speeds.

[Gator]

go with MSI, many of them even come with VIVO (Video input/ video output) features! It's the best deal going! :)

DONOT DONOT DONOT get a GF4 MX card. They are ALL higher clocked GF2's. Yes I am serious. It's the same GF2 core renamed. GF4 TI is the only way to go.

[Gator]

from http://www.newegg.com an MSI TI4200 64ddr VIVO for $156us

http://65.119.30.151/productimage/14-127-056-01.JPG


and from http://store.yahoo.com/iitemcom/leadti4wina2.html a Leadtek GF4 TI4400 128ddr VIVO for $190us

http://www.leadtek.com/graphics/a250td-myvivo/pics/box-board.jpg

[marqmajere]

All of you have been extremely helpful and I really appreciate it.:) My friend coaxed me (pestered me, more like it) to just spring for the Ti4600 and be done with it.

He reasoned that the NV30 won't most likely be out untill Feb./March and then it would be about 4-6 months for the price to come down to a reasonable amount. That's almost a year from now and this 8500 is really starting to bug me. (We're just guessing on the figures, BTW)

It's not that the 8500 doesn't work. It runs great. It's the fact that when a new driver set is released (not the betas) it fixes 99% of the troubles with the previous set. Now this normally would be a good thing but when half of your games are fixed with the new drivers, the other half are usually unplayable. So really it comes down to "Do I want to play Medal of Honor or Neverwinters Nights today?":(

The above mentioned friend has a Visiontek (bought long before they went under) Ti4600 and I noticed a considerable difference in compatiblity in gaming between his card and mine.

The Chaintech 4600 is the lowest price and some folks I've talked to online say there isn't a difference between the Chaintech version and other brands. I'm not too worried about any bundled software (God knows I've got enough:p)

One question though. Do they all have the 2.8ns ram or do some run higher/lower?


Hooked on VonGoober now,

Marqus

[thcdru2k]

yeah, some cards have slower. if your just gonna spend that kind of money than get the Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack! Ultra/750 XP Golden Sample. it is the fastest geforce 4 you will find anywhere. it has vivo, and is the best overclocking card of the geforce4 series. or even better ocsystem.com videocards, with guaranteed overclocked speeds.

here is a listing of the cheapest prices for the best videocards on the market.

radeon 9700 pro including s/h for $322 at www.enpc.com

gainward geforce4 powerpack ultra/750 golden including s/h for $265 at www.gameve.com

and even better at www.ocsystem.com
you can get a ti4200 128mb that is clocked at 320 core and 610 memory which exceeds ti4600 speed for a much cheaper $173.

a ti4600 that is clocked at an extreme 315 core and 740 memory for $285.

both of the ocsystem cards have thermaltake copper cooler and heatsinks.


so obviously the best deal here will be the ti4200 128mb that is clocked at 320 and 610. that is essentially a faster than default geforce 4 ti4600 for about $100 dollar cheaper.

[Chalnoth]

Originally posted by marqmajere
He reasoned that the NV30 won't most likely be out untill Feb./March and then it would be about 4-6 months for the price to come down to a reasonable amount. That's almost a year from now and this 8500 is really starting to bug me. (We're just guessing on the figures, BTW)

More likely, the price on the NV30 won't come down until about February/March, but it will almost certainly be available in some form in late December/early January (note that unless nVidia gets exceptionally lucky, it will be quite expensive at launch...). The official launch date for the NV30 is set to late November currently, though I don't think anybody expects cards to be available right at launch.

Personally, I'm far more excited about the possibility of an NV31 sometime next year. This would seem to be a turnaround back to the days of the GeForce2 MX where the high-end chip was released roughly six to eight months before the low-end version of the same technology. This time it may be closer to a three month delay.

All that said, I really do not think you can go wrong with getting a GeForce4 Ti 4200 very soon (Or a higher-end one, if you choose). Just don't get a Gainward one...they've been having stability problems.

[volt]

They said that once the card is announced it will be available in the next week or two from major vendors. Now they didn't say which :p. I think I read about this at nvmax.com but I'm not 100% sure :)

[FastM]

I have heard GREAT things about SUMA nVidia cards, although MSI may be easier to find.

[marqmajere]

Ordered the MSI Ti4600 on Monday. Should be here late today or Thursday. Much excitement. Must...contain..joy...*gasp*


Marqus

[Gator]

Originally posted by marqmajere
Ordered the MSI Ti4600 on Monday. Should be here late today or Thursday. Much excitement. Must...contain..joy...*gasp*


Marqus

Congrats on your wise decision! Enjoy it!

[marqmajere]

Well, you guys DID help out a bunch. I needed to know what my options were and you did nothing but give me a clear understanding of what was out there. At first I was heading in the 4200 direction, but I'm not a big fan of overclocking so I just went for the 4600. I hope it's worth it. :)


Marqus

[Acid Rain]

Originally posted by marqmajere
Ordered the MSI Ti4600 on Monday. Should be here late today or Thursday. Much excitement. Must...contain..joy...*gasp*


Marqus

Excellent! The MSI is a very high quality card with a great cooler and the best (at stock) thermal material.

Excellent, excellent choice of brand.

[thcdru2k]

have fun with you card..and defiantely don't be afraid to overclock that thing, because its a really good card :)

[Gator]

Originally posted by thcdru2k
have fun with you card..and defiantely don't be afraid to overclock that thing, because its a really good card :)

True, but I think his concern was he didn't wanna have to worry with overclocking. I don't totally blame him, I know my GF4 and CPU can overclock plenty, I've tried it once or twice, but I don't see the need for it unless a program is really demanding. In my case, even with UT2k3 the AthlonXP1700 & GF4 TI4000 at stock speeds was plenty to run things smoothly. So I figured... eh... why bother making extra heat? :D

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by marqmajere
Ordered the MSI Ti4600 on Monday. Should be here late today or Thursday. Much excitement. Must...contain..joy...*gasp*


Congratulations on your purchase. Although I personally have a Visiontek Ti4600, I've heard nothing but good things about MSI. You'll no doubt get many months of trouble-free gaming with a card that's more than capable of tackling UT2k3, DooM 3 and whatever other games are waiting in the wings.

So really it comes down to "Do I want to play Medal of Honor or Neverwinters Nights today?"

When you get your Ti4600 the answer to that question will be a resounding "Both!" :D

[marqmajere]

It just arived today. I'll install it (first going through the registry to get rid of ATI funk:p ) and let you guys know how it works.


Marqus

[LordVampyre]

well.. he installed it yesterday.. and nothing new back.. so either hes off in total video heaven or the darn thing wont work ...

Im in the market for a new card also... so Ive been very interested in this thread.

[marqmajere]

AAARRRRUUUGGGHHHHH!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

This darn thing!! I can't believe this!








*cries like a baby* Why, God, why didn't I get one of these instead?! It worked right out of the box and I haven't had an issue with it yet. And yes, LordVampyre, it is video heaven. Makes my 8500 seem like my old Voodoo3.
I did have one issue with GTA3 and the text in the title menu, but that turned out to be a DirectX problem. A simple patch fixed it. Now GTA3 playes smooth. 40fps average 1024x768@32. Very happy customer. Forget ATI. They do have good products, but Nvidia is headache free. :D :D :D


Marqus

[thcdru2k]

glad we could help :)

[saturnotaku]

Another satisfied customer. Just don't be a stranger around here any more, k? :cool:

[Gator]

Originally posted by marqmajere
...why didn't I get one of these instead?! It worked right out of the box and I haven't had an issue with it yet... Makes my 8500 seem like my old Voodoo3...

LOL! Welcome to my world (me laughs at the 8500 I sold on ebay). I also have another friend who JUST bought a Retail R8500 128ddr last week, and already he's trying to sell it for a GF4. :rolleyes:

anyway, welcome to the fourms :cool: