I broke down and just bought a Leadtek Ti4400 ...comments? (ATI user)

[shurato]

I haven't used an nvidia card since my old TNT2...been using ATI cards for both of my rigs. I needed an upgrade so I was really torn on which card to get. The 8500 didnt seem to cut it...the R9700 was way out of my price range and I cant justify paying that much for a card even if i had the money. After a day long searching of forums and websites...I finally settled on a Leadtek Ti4400. What do you think? It's too late now since I already ordered it so I cant change my mind but do you think it was a wise decision. I just couldnt put myself to paying 50 bucks more for a 4600 when I think I can easily reach 4600 speeds with this card. (I paid 195 shipped at newegg). And from what I read from the review here, the 4600 o/c'ed really doesnt gain much in terms of noticeable performance gains.

My TBIRD 1.33 would prolly be limiting me from even seeing those gains anyhow. I was gonna go with the MSI but I read that the Leadtek has better 2D quality as well as TV-OUT. Now for one last question...How do i permantly wipe my ATI catylst drivers off my system? Should I format and install? (Formatting isn't a big deal for me...I always like a fresh system but I'd rather not do it if I didn't have to this time around)

Also how do you overclock geforces? I think I read something about coolbits...I feel like a newbie starting all over again...guess i'll have to bookmark some nvidia sites instead of going to Rage3D.com now.

 

[kylebisme]

leadteks are some of the beter nvidia cards in my openion so i must say good call there. however i am curious as to why you say the 8500 didnt seem to cut it? i mean it preforms about the same and can be had for a fraction of the price.

as for how to overclock ya coolbits is the nvidia tool and powerstip is always good. also nvmax and/or rivatuner will come in very handy for tweeking setings, most importantly anisotropy in opengl.

 

[shurato]

From the benchmarks I've read, besides the FSAA and Aniostropic benchies, the Radeon 8500 was clearly behind the Ti4200 and by a quite a margin in some tests. Plus I want to be able to sell my 4400 once the 9700 comes down in price significantly and I feel I would probably get more money for the leadtek 4400 than an Radeon 8500 even given the current price disparity. I play 2 games right now...GTA3 and Warcraft 3...I'm pretty sure GTA3 will run better with the 4400 than the 8500. Also I wanted to give Nvidia a shot this time around

 

[7yler]

I hear GTA3 is one of the very few games that performs better with the 8500 than a ti4200 since it uses more alpha textures than the average games, and the 8500 handles it better than a ti4200.

 

[shurato]

Oh GREAT ...well what done is done...gonna have to live with it I guess.

 

[7yler]

hehe, well I am going be ordering that card in a couple days too. I have GTA3 for PS2 so I don't mind.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well the Rad8500 is still a very nice card for a very nice price, although the price varies a lot dep on country. Still the 4200 is clearly superior, esp so once o/c'ed. 4400 is a very good card and should age and o/c very well. Your 1.3ghz CPU will be getting nice perf out of the GF4TI but there's a lot of gain to be had with a faster CPU ... perhaps wise for your next upgrade? In any case try forcing 2xAniso with 2xAA (or QxAA dep on game) in all the games you play (a tweak tool is best esp for OpenGL) ... you'll get great perf out of your 4400. Great card and a great choice. Enjoy

 

[308nato]

Originally posted by: shurato
Oh GREAT ...well what done is done...gonna have to live with it I guess.

I predict that you will live with it very happily.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Originally posted by: shuratoHow do i permantly wipe my ATI catylst drivers off my system? Should I format and install? (Formatting isn't a big deal for me...I always like a fresh system but I'd rather not do it if I didn't have to this time around)

When ever changing your card it is very wise to try to remove all traces of your current drivers, reg settings etc, even within the same chipset but certainly when switching between ATI and nVidia. If you aren't familiar with the reg, inf files etc then at least uninstall the drivers (and poss utils) for your 'old' card before installing your new card. A fresh install of the OS is wise and sometimes seems necessary, but it's worth trying other things first. Anyway ...

UNINSTALLING RADEON DRIVERS (Take a look HERE):

Guide to uninstalling radeon drivers in windows 2000 and XP:
1. Go into the Control Panel and under the ADD/REMOVE SOFTWARE icon uninstall the ATI MultiMedia software and/or the ATI DVD software.
2. Uninstall the ATI drivers also found in the Add/Remove section. Once removed, it will prompt you to reboot....do so.
3. When returning to windows, the NEW HARDWARE FOUND wizard will come up and will tell you that it has found a new VGA card and will prompt you for drivers. Hit CANCEL!
4. Now, go to START - SEARCH - FOR FILES OR FOLDERS and do a search for all files and folders using the filename ati*.*
This search will normally give you 3 to 4 files found in your c:/windows directory and subdirectories (including the Windows/System directory). Select these files and erase them. Now go to your Recycle Bin and Empty your bin.
5. Next...time to go to your Registry. Go to START -- RUN -- regedit
Here go to key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -- SYSTEM -- ControlSet001 -- Control -- Video . Here there should be 4 entries. 3 of them are default Windows XP entries and the 4th one is put in by the ATI drivers. Expand each one by one until you see ATI entries. Once found, erase the entire key.
Now repeat the same step above for the ControlSet002 key and the CurrentControlSet Key. Normally, whenever you erase a key in the ControlSet001, XP automatically deletes it in the CurrentControlSet section too. So if the ATI key is not found in the CurrentControlSet section, don't worry about it.
Once all keys are deleted, proceed to the next step.
6. While still in the registry, go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -- SOFTWARE section. Here you should find an ATI Technologies key. Select it and delete it. In that same section, look for an Installed Options key. Expand it and there you should find another ATI Technologies key. Select it and erase it.
7. Still in the registry, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -- Software and there you should find another ATI technologies key. Select it and erase it. Once all this is done, close the registry. the registry is now clean.
8. Close all windows and reboot.
9. When in windows after the reboot the NEW HARDWARE FOUND WIZARD will pop up again. Cancel that. Now find the new ATI drivers that you have downloaded and extracted and run the SETUP file. Once complete, reboot and you are done. You may want to reinstall your ATI MMC software and DVD software if you use them.

 

[shurato]

Thanks for all the comments and help...I have 2 Ati radeon's in my machines....this is a HUGE upgrade for me... I can't wait to play warcraft 3 with everything turned up. I also purchased a new enermax powersupply so I can try to O/C my processer. My current ps will not let me O/C much at all. Do you think I should invest in say an xp 1600+...is my CPU really limiting the video cards potential by that much?

 

[AnAndAustin]

Here's 2 of the best links around showing how diff gfx cards improve when coupled with different CPU speeds. Check them out:

AnAnd CPU Scaling with many games

AnAnd Many gfx cards with the 'next gen' UT2003 game engine

 

[shurato]

Holy crap i went bezerk late late last nite.... Here's what happened. I originally had an enermax 431 psu + leadtek ti4400 on order at newegg.com. I was reading very bad things about the enermax with my epox 8k7a motherboard so i decided I was going to return it once I got it this week.

THEN my computer started acting realllll funny over the weekend...even funnier than usual, i found out the northbridge fan was dead...so then I started reading about the xp1600+'s and how great they overclock...after hours of reading, i ended up ordering
an xp 1600+ msi geforce4 4600! + abit KX7 mobo + Antec 1080 AMG case that comes with a 430 Antec True Power psu. MAN I WENT OUT OF CONTROL.

Oh man, how did this happen....

What can I do about my newegg order? Can i just refuse shipment and not sign for it so it goes back or do i have to recieve it then get an RMA for it. I'm out 6 bucks for shipping since the leadtek had free shipping...i'd rather not have to pay out of my own pocket to return the 2 things for a refund. I think the shipment will come tommorow.

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: shurato
Holy crap i went bezerk late late last nite.... Here's what happened. I originally had an enermax 431 psu + leadtek ti4400 on order at newegg.com. I was reading very bad things about the enermax with my epox 8k7a motherboard so i decided I was going to return it once I got it this week.

THEN my computer started acting realllll funny over the weekend...even funnier than usual, i found out the northbridge fan was dead...so then I started reading about the xp1600+'s and how great they overclock...after hours of reading, i ended up ordering
an xp 1600+ msi geforce4 4600! + abit KX7 mobo + Antec 1080 AMG case that comes with a 430 Antec True Power psu. MAN I WENT OUT OF CONTROL.

Oh man, how did this happen....

What can I do about my newegg order? Can i just refuse shipment and not sign for it so it goes back or do i have to recieve it then get an RMA for it. I'm out 6 bucks for shipping since the leadtek had free shipping...i'd rather not have to pay out of my own pocket to return the 2 things for a refund. I think the shipment will come tommorow.

As long as you can afford it, be happy!

I don't know, you might be able to call them up and cancel, since its the weekend, it hasn't shipped out yet.

 

[shurato]

Well the thing is, i ordered it last week, and it shipped out the same day...ordered it really early in the morning and it shipped on thursday i believe. I couldnt even cancel the power supply originally cuz it had already shipped. So its on-route to me, prolly get here by monday.