Any point in upgrading to a Ti 4600?

[eviltoon]

Looking to upgrade my video card. I have a P4 1.5. Time sure flies. Last year this was a pretty mean machine, now I'm wondering if there is any point in putting in a Geforce 4 Ti4600. Will this card be limited by my processing speed. I kind of want to go with the best I can get, but will consider the mighty fine 4200 (128 mb) too. Anyone know for sure if my processor will bottle neck the performace of the 4600?

Thanks

 

[Hauk]

I'll let the real techies answer the bottleneck question. But do remember this: the graphics card market churns out new stuff every six months. With ATI poised to take the crown, Nvidia will launch its next greatest chip, and the price of the ti4600 will become sweetly affordable.

Will a ti4600 (by then offered in AGP 8X) be a bottleneck? Doubtful. The ti4200 128MB will honestly power any existing or near future game with ease while we wait.

Painful Example:
Geforce 3 ti500. A couple months after its release there's a base Geforce 4 that outperforms, over $100.00 cheaper! What a complete waste of cash...

 

[Operandi]

Anyone know for sure if my processor will bottle neck the performace of the 4600?

Of those two components will be the Ti 4600 will be the significantly faster part. Your P4 1.5 will still be faster enough to get good performance out it's not quite up to the task of getting the most out of it.

More importantly though the ATi 9700 is just a few weeks away, and will easily make the 4600 its bitch. Anyone looking at the 4600 should wait till the Radeon 9700 comes out since nVidia will be forced to lower the price since doesn?t stand a chance against the 9700. If you want to upgrade now look at either a ATi 8500 or Geforce4 4200, buying a 4600 at this point would simply be foolish.

 

[lambasa]

Agreed, stay away from the 4600 until the 9700 is out. As there are no games that need a DX9 part, I will get a low end DX8 part to go along with my P4 (like either a 4200 64MB or a 8500 LE 128MB). When games start using DX9, I'll try and pick up a DX9 card for $<150.

 

[MCS]

My AthlonXP 1800+ is definitely a bottleneck for my Ti4600...I think even a P4 @ 3Ghz will be a bottleneck for these cards.

As for whether you should upgrade now or not - what are you currently running for a graphics card? Are your games smooth or not?

 

[AnAndAustin]

It is important to differentiate between bottlenecking the gfx card, and simply not getting maximum perf from it. A Duron1ghz (no disrespect) can gain a nice boost from a 4200 over a GF3 or Rad8500, esp for AA and Aniso. Of course an AthlonXP or mid/high-end P4 are what you really want, but P4 1.5ghz with 4200 is a much better idea than a P4 2.5ghz with GF4MX.

A P4 1.5ghz will happily gain a lot from a GF4TI, it is just that GF4TI cards really lap up all CPU cycles they can get, great news whenever you fancy upgrading the CPU.

The 4200-128MB is really the smart buy at the moment (easily o/c to 4400 or 4600 speeds), Rad8500 if you are on a tighter budget. I believe Rad9700 is highly CPU dependent, so you may well find the perf diff between it and a GF4TI is much smaller when coupled with a 1.5ghz CPU. In any case few of us can afford the $400 price tag, plus AGP8x and DX9 are of little worth to anyone, much better to wait for budget versions of the Rad9700 and new nVidia card.

So you really would be best off with any GF4TI4200-128MB or an enhanced 4200 ('4300') like the 'Asus 4200 Deluxe' or 'Suma 4200 Special Edition' which both use 3.3ns BGA RAM and the longer 4400 type design. By using this they cost a bit more, but offer higher standard clocks (4400 speed) and o/c to around 300/640 (Asus) or 300/700 (Suma). To put this in perspective 4400=275/550 and 4600=300/650!

 

[AnAndAustin]

Check out these links to see how GF4TI cards take advantage of faster CPUs:

AnAndTech Benchmarks with CPU Scaling (Start)
(Start of CPU Scaling Analysis)

AnAndTech CPU Scaling Article 2 (Start)
GF4 Scaling
GF3 Scaling
Radeon Scaling

Do rem that all gfx cards are at defaults, the GF3TI200 will easily hit GF3 speeds (and therefore scaling) while the GF4TI4200 will easily hit 4400 speeds, if not 4600!

 

[AnAndAustin]

3Dmark2001 1024x768x32 (combo: total marks, games1-4 high detail FPS):

P4 1.5 & GF4MX440: 4300, 26, 38, 34, na (no DX8 hw funcs)
P4 1.5 & GF4TI4200: 7700, 33, 82, 48, 41
P4 1.5 & GF4TI4600: 8400, 32, 94, 50, 48

P4 2.5 & GF4MX440: 6700, 53, 56, 60, na (no DX8 hw funcs)
P4 2.5 & GF4TI4200: 12000, 65, 116, 81, 61
P4 2.5 & GF4TI4600: 13000, 67, 127, 85, 70

 

[eviltoon]

Thanks all. Very nice replies. AnAndAustin, you hit the nail on the head when you alluded to the difference between "bottlenecking the gfx card, and simply not getting maximum perf from it." My concern is to gain as much performance as possible. Looks like the 4200 is the best route. Thanks for all your time and input.

 

[jaybee]

Or wait 4-6 weeks and pick up a used 4600. $200 seems a good starting point for people dumping in favor of a 9700