about how much will my gaming performance improve?

[FoBoT]

i currently run a Radeon 7200 32MB video card at 1280x1024 on a Viewsonic PF790 19" monitor (athlon 1.4Ghz, 512MB DDR pc2700, Iwill Mobo)

i am going to upgrade the video card to an Nvidia GF4 TI4200 64MB Video Card (maybe a 4400 or 4600 if i have some extra $ when i order it)

i mainly play America's Army online and am looking for improvement in handling the smoke grenades, when somebody drops a smoke grenade it slows my screen, especially if i am using the sniper scope/rifle

i play a few other games but haven't had any performance issues in those

so my question is:

About how much will my performance increase with the new card? 2X ? 5X ? 10X ? more?

thank you

 

[Slappy00]

when somebody drops a smoke grenade it slows my screen, especially if i am using the sniper scope/rifle

Camp0r hehe...

About how much will my performance increase with the new card? 2X ? 5X ? 10X ? more?

wow 1280x1024 on an unreal2 engine with a 7200!?

man im surprised it even runs

I cant tell you for sure due to your system being unique but the best i can tell you is that it should run smoothly (i donno about a 4200 with max settings @ 1280x1024 though) as long as you dont go crazy with AA and anthroscopic filtering

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Slappy00
... the best i can tell you is that it should run smoothly (i donno about a 4200 with max settings @ 1280x1024 though) as long as you dont go crazy with AA and anthroscopic filtering

so you are saying it will be noticable and worth the $
thank you

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

definately noticeable. definately worth the money. I hate playing any type of computer game with a low end video graphics card.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Absolutely worth it, but if you can afford a bit more than a 4200 go for the Rad9500PRO as the 4400 and 4600 aren't worth it at the mo. Anyway the Rad7200 is quite obviously in between the Rad7000/VE and Rad7500 ...

TomsHW Rad7000/VE review (inc Matrox G450 & GF2MX)
AnAndTech Sub-$200 review (Rad7500, GF2MX400 & others inc CPU scaling from 800mhz to 1.7ghz)

So as you can see the Rad7200 is going to be roughly equivilent to a GF2MX400 and certainly no faster than a GF2TI. The Athlon 1.4ghz sounds pretty slow by today's standards but it is still effectively on par with an XP1600+ / P4 1.6ghz and therefore able to get great perf out of a Rad8500, Rad9000PRO, GF3TI500 or GF4TI4200. Using 3Dmark as a guide here's a rough idea of how the perf will differ ...

Athlon 1.4ghz (gfx card - total, FPS in each high detail game 1-4):
Rad7000 - 2200, 18, 21, 18, na
Rad7500 - 5000, 35, 45, 40, na
GF4TI4200 - 10500, 45, 108, 58, 77

Also check this out ...

TomsVGA Chart Updated Dec 2002

 

[FoBoT]

thanks AnAndAustin
from those numbers, looks like i will see roughly 3X performance

 

[TheWart]

Yea, the Radeon 9500 Pro is a great buy now, especially since you can OC it.

 

[Dreadogg]

I am the smoke gernade master, you hate me dont you? Video card = 150.00 at most at anytime and your up to par, stay in that range dont be silly anything else is ushally overkill for the time, unless you are doing photo or video editing!