Is it worth the money? (TI4200 vs. FX5200)

[Daneel Olivaw]

Well, my gf's FX5200 (64bits) on her Athlon 950 gets about 4400 3dmarks. So, yup, he's a bit low. Vsynched maybe? (on my P4 3400, the fx5200 gets 5000)

[Mehbody]

Well, my gf's FX5200 (64bits) on her Athlon 950 gets about 4400 3dmarks. So, yup, he's a bit low. Vsynched maybe? (on my P4 3400, the fx5200 gets 5000)

Not vsync'ing at all. It's probably a problem with the motherboard. I have little trust in the IGP 320, also I think it might be a FSB or memory controller issue. Not sure if changing settings would work..

Except the Ti4200 benchmarks with this shotty board probably next week. Not sure how long my bank and UPS will take, but I doubt it's coming this week. I'm worried about the fans in my case now too, they seem to be becoming louder, if that's possible at all..

[Daneel Olivaw]

To illustrate your feelings on your mobo:
"ATI's Radeon IGP 320 combined with the FIC AT-31 motherboard, to put it nicely, is a terrible platform. We haven't had so many problems with a motherboard crashing and giving us strange scores in years, which certainly makes our job interesting, but at the same time, makes us feel sorry for those out there who pick up this platform"
sorry for you bud.

I recently made a few modifications to my GF's comp. So I looked through a lot of mobos and videocards. I think you would get a huge improvement in performance with one more stick of PC2100 and a mobo like: MSI KT6V-LSR SOCKETA KT600
Its cheap and reliable from what I read. And supports pretty much all socket A cpus.

Of course, changing your whole setup is a good idea too. But cheap ram and a cheap mobo could be all you need.

And again, I cannot stress enough the fact that Halo looks like crap and runs like crap on every setup I've tried. From P3 1.6GHz to P4 3.4GHz with crazy 1GB ram running at insane speeds, a testosterone shot GFFX 5900, with shaders enabled or not, there's just no way to make Halo run good. Gimme UT2k4 and FarCry over it anytime.

[Mehbody]

To illustrate your feelings on your mobo:
"ATI's Radeon IGP 320 combined with the FIC AT-31 motherboard, to put it nicely, is a terrible platform. We haven't had so many problems with a motherboard crashing and giving us strange scores in years, which certainly makes our job interesting, but at the same time, makes us feel sorry for those out there who pick up this platform"
sorry for you bud.

I never saw that when I bought the mobo years ago, then I was just a lowly n00b in need of a serious kick in the head. I think I might have found something in the BIOS settings allowing me to overclock this duron, to about 1.5ghz, but that's not going to help at all, because it's the memory controller that is having it's fair share of problems (and the memory is too slow, methinks). I tested the 2 sticks of 256mb PC2100 in a friends computer, and although it was noticably slower then the 1gb usually in his box, it didn't crash or freeze like this mobo does with the 2 sticks in it. Long live the nforce and newer via/ATI chipsets, for they are probably much better then this one!


I recently made a few modifications to my GF's comp. So I looked through a lot of mobos and videocards. I think you would get a huge improvement in performance with one more stick of PC2100 and a mobo like: MSI KT6V-LSR SOCKETA KT600
Its cheap and reliable from what I read. And supports pretty much all socket A cpus.

Of course, changing your whole setup is a good idea too. But cheap ram and a cheap mobo could be all you need.

And again, I cannot stress enough the fact that Halo looks like crap and runs like crap on every setup I've tried. From P3 1.6GHz to P4 3.4GHz with crazy 1GB ram running at insane speeds, a testosterone shot GFFX 5900, with shaders enabled or not, there's just no way to make Halo run good. Gimme UT2k4 and FarCry over it anytime.

Thanks for the KT600 recommendation.. trying now to decide from a nforce 2 and that KT600 mobo.

Of course Halo is going to look and play like crap. I think that the microsoft game studios/bungie and the other company that helped with porting (gamebox?) made the port really crappy, forcing serious people to spend more money then needed for a super-highend computer or an Xbox.. That's my view on it, at least.

[ragejg]

Umm, about Halo... I've had it running absolutely fine on an SDRAM based XP1700 rig with 256mb ram and a GF2ti... with the DX7 path it ran fine and smooth @ low settings @ 8x6...

8x6 with all the details kicked up, including specular was also attainable in a 512mb rig with an XP1700 @ 1.9... and a GF3 64mb... There were a few hitches in gameplay, but... the same rig with a GF4ti ran the same without the hitches... and a 5900 in that rig allowed for 10x7 and a little AF...

A 5600NU ran Halo just like the GF3 in a similar rig, and a 5600u AND 5700NU allowed for the use of some AF... and a 5700U, well, you can do 10x7 but it gets a bit jerky, so 8x6 with LOTS of AF is fine for that card IMO...

IMO Halo is very scalable... and I'm even speaking of the original version, not the CE edition... I know, I'm one of the few people that don't say it runs like crap, but hey, resolution isn't everything IMO... I played a few great LAN games of Halo with that 15" monitor/1700/SDRAM/GF2ti combination, and I got a good constant 30 fps and had a great time...

[Mehbody]

UPS claims it will be delivered next Thursday. Bleh. That's gonna suck - right before Friday, yes, but i have to suffer through 3 days of school/work. But on the plus side, my flu should be cleared up by then.

I think i'm going to find my unreal disc, find a jedi knight game, add half-life and counter-strike to the game benchmarks, and use chameleonmark also. Phew. Just as long as the card doesn't fall apart with the pressure :P

Halo is much better now with a new mouse, the first of the upgrading... Much more responsive yet the same framerate, this MS Intellimouse optical 5-button is a lot better. I can jump a lot better (somehow, and i put jump on the very first button too..) and in a game last night with friends, i ranked 2nd overall (there was 11 of us), so the framerate

[Mehbody]

(bump)
Installed the ti4200. Little to no performance increase. I feel like shooting myself :p as the card performs just a few FPS faster then the fx5200 and has the same overall smoothness of it. The motherboard is just hosing the rest of the system - the SBPCI128, Ti4200, Duron, hard drive, memory, probably even the DVDRW drive. The motherboard doesn't deserve anything at all..

I've tried only Halo and UT2003 benchmarks so far. 3dmark2001 (or some other problems) freezes the system completely around the start of the Nature demo (on a 17-test run). It's not the demo, it runs fine by itself.. the same IQ of the FX5200, but 10-15fps faster, the only place it really shows off.. Too lazy to update my word file with the results right now, so i have a pretty screenshot with the stats. Perhaps i should try overclocking the card? I'm mainly worried about the freezing.. i thought the only games that freeze for this computer are THPS2 and Spider-man.. (the original, not the movie versions)

Maybe i shouldn't use the DH-zer0point 71.48's..

:mad: :confused: :wtf:

[Mehbody]

Err.. sorry for the triple-posting here.. i just don't think my find it worth of a edit.

I popped on a ram-spreader thingy on my stick of 256mb in there, and i was able to almost get through a test in 3dmark - failed on the pixel shader, about half-way in. I want to go through it all, at least once, to see how fast it is.. but not if it keeps freezing :(

I tried a few more games.. Deus Ex, Unreal, and JK:JA all played very fast before freezing to a halt, at highest settings/800x600, noAA/8xAF. Steam in JK:JA slowed it down a few FPS though, nothing to go cry about. Just wish this card wasn't making it freeze like crazy.. :(

Cough.. with EVEREST Home Edition, my AMD K6-2/VA-503 scored higher in memory tests (PC100 256mb.. remember that?). That's pretty bad..

/me goes to find a money tree to shake. (with enough shaking, i could even buy a SLI system.. but that's for the future..)

[simonuk]

Yes a Geforce4 Ti4200 is much faster than any fx5200, considering that most fx5200's are now the slow 64bit kind the Ti4200 is the way to go:-

GF4 Ti4200 v 128bit FX5200 v R9200 v GF4 MX440 review (http://www.ultimatehardware.net/rad9200/rad9200.htm)

[Mehbody]

After fixing the problem in the other thread, this card, paired with this lame motherboard, only manages to pull -
- 1100 more 3dmarks (2001)
- 5 more FPS on average, in most gaming timedemo and gameplay. Games later then Halo are the exception, with Halo/HL2/SW:RC running about 2fps faster and with Doom 3 running about 4fps faster.

I really need to buy a new motherboard and mobile Athlon.. why oh why did I get a PS2 and games for my birthday.. should have got the new motherboard/athlon/memory instead. And saved about $100, too.. think EBgames would pay me back a good price for all of it? :D

[nIghtorius]

After fixing the problem in the other thread, this card, paired with this lame motherboard, only manages to pull -
- 1100 more 3dmarks (2001)
- 5 more FPS on average, in most gaming timedemo and gameplay. Games later then Halo are the exception, with Halo/HL2/SW:RC running about 2fps faster and with Doom 3 running about 4fps faster.

I really need to buy a new motherboard and mobile Athlon.. why oh why did I get a PS2 and games for my birthday.. should have got the new motherboard/athlon/memory instead. And saved about $100, too.. think EBgames would pay me back a good price for all of it? :D

Is your GART driver succesfully installed? without it your AGP bus drops down to PCI speed (133MB/s) instead of AGP4x/8x (533MB/s / 1066MB/s) and can cause some major slowdown.. not only that.. (reduced bandwidth).. your CPU is also stressed more because the AGP transfers not taking place anymore. (cpu has to transfer this data)

my card (GF6800GT) performs like crap when there is no GART driver installed. 7000 3DMark03 without it.. and 12000+ with it.. (quite the difference)

[JoKeRr]

where did u even manage to find that mobo??

[MustangSVT]

Your computer seriously needs a big overhaul. At my local hardware store, I can get a MSI K7N2 Delta FISR which is a completely packed NF2-400 for $85, and an XP-M 2500+ for $130 and then a decent cooler for like $35. Pair that with a Micron 512MB pc3200 stick for only $60. That's all about $310, and that's all in canadian dollars. You could probably get all for like $200 in US. With Xp-m at 2.4GHz, 1gb ddr400 and an overclocked Ti4200, I managed to do 14,000 in 3D01, so you should really save up. Just $200 will like triple your performance b/c of the mobo/cpu/ram you're running right now (256mb is really really low).

I understand you're probably low on money, so I hope you find a really good deal. If you are really gonna buy something, you should only consider the nForce2 400. It's the only chance you're gonna get to use like a Mobile to get 2.4GHz+. NF2 is the only choice and that's it. The VIA chipsets simply don't compare to NF2..

Anyway, I found the Epox 8RDA3i for $58 at newegg. It's a really good board, prolly better than Shuttle, and it's a good price. The MSI K7N2 Delta LSR is also about $61. Another good deal.

[simonuk]

If you want to see what a GF4 Ti4200 can do with modern software then a good review is here:-

6600 gt v 5900 xt v gf4 ti4200 v r9700 pro v r9600 xt (http://www.ultimatehardware.net/msi6600gt/msi6600gt.htm)

It's not really upto even 9600 xt level but the good old Ti4200 is available very cheaply and is much better than most video cards in it's price range! :)

[Mehbody]

Been a long time since I posted in this thread, and I upgraded my system, with a Barton running at 2.13ghz (185x11.5, most stable overclock) with a ABIT KV7 motherboard. Runs like a charm, and at stock speeds got nearly 11k 3dmarks. Very nice! The FX5200 doesn't even work with this motherboard, for that I'm glad. Paired up with a new stick of 256 (total of 512mb now, but more will probably go in soon), everything runs nicer and faster. Almost every game I've thrown at it runs at high details, 800x600 with no problems, except a select few new games like Brothers in Arms which only hit 'barely playable' with bloom effects on. Which is strange, but they run without the extra gloss, so I'm still happy.