Best Card?

[Aldaris2002]

I'm considering buying one of the following cards, but can't make up my mind on which one to buy...

ATI Radeon 8500 w/ 128MB RAM - $185
Leadtek GeForce 4 Ti4200 w/ 128MB RAM - $206
MSI GeForce 4 Ti4400 - $256
Visiontek Xtasy GeForce 4 Ti4400 - $243

Based on price & performance, what seems to be the best card to go for?

-Thanks
-Ben

 

[Actaeon]

Fastest Card in there is the Ti4400s... Slowest is the Radeon 8500.

Its kinda hard to say what kind of budget you're on, but I would personally go for the Ti4400 if I had the money, it offers exceptional performance over any other card but its bigger brother, the Ti4600. Though, if you rather not spend so much money, Go with the Radeon, as that card is quite a fast performer, but not nearly as fast as the GF4 Ti's. I would definatly shoot for the Ti4400, as it blows the Radeon away in terms of raw speed . Though the Radeon does come with very nice features, very good dvd playback, exceptional 2d quality, and all that other yummy stuff.

As for which Ti4400, I don't recall either the MSi or the Visiontek having any special features, or any Ramsinks. I'd go with the least expensive one. Check out this comparison of Ti4400s and Ti4600s. Visiontek and MSi both have cards in that review, so you may want to read about them.

By the way, welcome to the Anandtech forums.

 

[tenoc]

The MSI has a game bundle. Click here.

If you don't have them and do want them, factor that into your decision. (The three full games, not the demos.)

 

[cmdrdredd]

Go for Visiontek...great card that overclocks pretty well in general consideing the refrence design. Save a few bucks off the MSi because I don't think you need the games unless they interest you.