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500 mark gain in 3Dmark 03 worth $110?

M

MrMiyagi

Senior member
Hello all,

I just wanted to get a couple opinions so I can decide whether or not to keep the GeForce4 Ti4200 128 mb I just bought.

Best buy had a good deal on these (BFG Asylum) so I got one @ $109 after rebates. Ran 3dmark 03 on my current card, a Visiontek GF3 64mb, and got 972 marks. Poped in the Ti4200 and got somewhere in the range of 1460. Is that worth the money? Opinions please... 😀

In the end it prolly wont end up being a $110 purchase if I can sell my GF3 for $40 or so.

Thanks

my setup:

P4 1.80A
768 mb of PC2700 DDR
Win XP Pro


 
Any amount of money is not worth an increase in a benchmark. Just save your money. I'd only upgrade if i needed to, or if the upgrade would yield better performance in the apps/games that i use/play.
 
Save your money and wait. The difference between the gf3 and 4 isn't too big...and you shouldn't be using a synthetic benchmark to determine your next purchase.
 
Don't base your cards performance on 3DMark2K3; any non-DX9 part is going to get slaughtered in that benchmark based on its weighting scale and game test features. As others have mentioned, run a few games and see if you there's a difference. At worse, run 3DMark2K1 if you need a simple quantification of performance. 3DMark2K1 is a much better reflection of today's gaming requirements, not to mention overall system performance (2K3 basically ignores your CPU and system platform).

I upgraded from a nicely OC'd GF3 Ti200 to a Ti4200 Turbo OC'd to 305/650 (Ti4600) speeds and saw a significant difference. I could basically run 1 resolution higher than my GF3 could with max details, lighting where I might have had to turn down some of the details on the GF3. Your GF4's core should clock to ~300MHz easy; depending on the rated ns of your RAM, you should be able to squeeze more out of that as well. Most of the GF4's that have been shipping in these BB deals are late-models with improved and undocumented 3.3ns BGA memory (good for 600MHz theoretical max).

Chiz
 
Friends don't let friends run 3DMark 03. I agree with the others that GF3 to GF4 won't curl your hair, but if you can run one at Ti 4600 speeds it makes quite a difference in OpenGL games like MOHAA. You can run 2X anisotropic and high texture detail and geometry at 1280X1024 far more smoothly than with GF3, at least on a 128MB model. Whether it's worth spending the money depends on what you expect it to do. If you want really sharp control feel in games, you won't be using 4X AF or 2X AA. If you're not a perfectionist about smooth response, you might be happy with using one or the other feature.
 
Hmmm, thinking maybe I'll keep it then if I can bring it up to 4600 levels. How do I find out what memory it has (3.3ns or the like)?
 
6 months ago. I went from a Ti200 to a Ti4200 Golden Sample. I like the Ti4200 and it outperforms the Ti200, but as others have said, don't expect a huge improvement in real world use. If you OC the 4200, you can get more out of it, but you can also do this with the Ti200. I would say that if you can sell the Ti200 for $40, I would keep the Ti4200. A lot of places are still selling the Ti4200 well above what you paid; a net cost of $70 if you sell your old card.
 
I jumped on that BestBuy deal a couple of weeks ago when they had the PNY 64mb ti4200 8xAGP for $89 after rebates. I needed a cheap upgrade for one of my backup boxes.

I saw quite a remarkable increase in performance going from an overclocked GF3 (225/500) to a 64mb ti4200 in UT2003, Unreal2, MOHAA, SOF2, etc.. 3dmark2001se and 3dmark2003 increases were only incremental, but since I don't care about these artificial benchmarks, it's not a big issue. Bottomline, the smoothness in all my games was VERY noticable. Personally speaking, if you intend for this upgrade to last you a while, I'd spend just a little bit more and get an OEM 9500 Pro (not the non-Pro version).
 
Originally posted by: MrMiyagi
Hmmm, thinking maybe I'll keep it then if I can bring it up to 4600 levels. How do I find out what memory it has (3.3ns or the like)?
Click to expand...
If the RAM modules don't have heat spreaders on them, you can do a google search on the part number. Its the second string of lines, probably starts with a "K". There's a 4-digit alphanumeric code after the "-" separating the first string; Should be two letters. The entire string should look something like:

Samsung 225
K4D26323RA-GC33

The bolded letters are the rated ns, and you can also google the first part of the second string for a link to the mfgs. specifications.

Chiz
 
Originally posted by: MrMiyagi
Well, it must be 4.0 ns then.

Samsung 247
K4D28163HD-TC40

Mfg. Link

Does this mean it's not gonna OC that great?

Gracias
Click to expand...

TRY it. 😛

You can keep asking questions till your cows come home . . . put it in your rig, install RivaTuner (I think it's still the best nVidia O/C'ing tool) and COMPARE IT with your old card . . . THEN report the results back to us what YOU think.

. . . da nada.
rolleye.gif


EDIT: If it's the Beast Buy 4200, the WORST you're gonna eat is 15% restocking . . . most of the time - depending on management - they won't charge you if everything is "neat" in the return . . . 😉
 
i'd never shell out money to increase my damn score on a benchmark.
I'd surely never shell out 110 bucks to go from a GF3 to a GF4, not with some of the great ATI cards out.
 
Update to an old post:

I've got the Ti4200 clocked at 290/594 right now (w/RivaTuner). I guess that's not bad. Only problem is if I get near 300 core I get lockups on 3dMark2001 and some games. Memory might go further, but I've got no sinks on them so I don't want to go too high (although they're not that hot really). My GF3 is already sold for $50 on ebay so there's no debate as to keeping that card 😉 .

Thanks for the earlier input all.

Peace
 
despite the fact you shouldn't use just a bench to decide whether or not you keep the card, if the numbers are showing you correctly, the card is a fair bit faster anyways. it's an OK upgrade for the price.. should run more recent games alot better.

good work 🙂
 
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