Is the 4600 still the best NV card ?

[CorCentral]

......... Or is there an Nvidia card (newer MX , etc.) that's better .......... I know the FX will be better but I'm asking about what's available now .

 

[Dark4ng3l]

MX are the buget cards, basically GF2 MX's with faster clock speeds, nowhere near half as fast as a 4600. A 4600 is the fastest Nividia powered card available, but the radeon 9700pro is the fastest video card you can get.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yes nVidia missed out with their DX9 (next gen level) offering and ATI firmly hold the perf crown. Rad9500PRO is significantly better all round than a GF4TI4600, it's best to either get a Rad8500 sub $100, GF4TI4200 for $100-150, Rad9500PRO $200 or Rad9700 for $200+.

 

[Dacalo]

avoid MX like plague!

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well the MX do get a bad rep, but they aren't awful. The GF2MX are completely redundent now the GF2TI and GF4MX are so cheap, plus Rad7500 and Rad9000 are way better too. The GF4MX however aren't hideous, they are simply more efficient higher clocked GF2 cards. The GF4MX420 is actually close to GF2GTS perf but also offers MUCH better image quality, dual display, DVD playback and improvements in TVout too! Okay it's been a couple of years but people were paying big bucks for GF2GTS cards. The GF4MX440 and esp MX440-8X and MX460 are faster than GF2TI, Rad7500 and Rad9000 (non PRO) but of course the technology is now firmly old and I'd certainly take a Rad9000 over a GF4MX due largely to DX8. ANyway, I don't rec GF4MX but they aren't all that bad!

 

[Rand]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
Well the MX do get a bad rep, but they aren't awful. The GF2MX are completely redundent now the GF2TI and GF4MX are so cheap, plus Rad7500 and Rad9000 are way better too. The GF4MX however aren't hideous, they are simply more efficient higher clocked GF2 cards. The GF4MX420 is actually close to GF2GTS perf but also offers MUCH better image quality, dual display, DVD playback and improvements in TVout too! Okay it's been a couple of years but people were paying big bucks for GF2GTS cards. The GF4MX440 and esp MX440-8X and MX460 are faster than GF2TI, Rad7500 and Rad9000 (non PRO) but of course the technology is now firmly old and I'd certainly take a Rad9000 over a GF4MX due largely to DX8. ANyway, I don't rec GF4MX but they aren't all that bad!

improvements in TVout too!

The TV-Out chip utilized is entirely up to the manufacturer, so your certainly no guaranteed better TV-Out on the hardware level. On the driver side nVidia's TV-Out implementation hasnt changed much at all in quite some time, and in any case even the old TNT/TNT2 can utilize any new TV-Out related enhancements on the software/driver side of things so I definitely would not agree that the GF4 MX has improved TV-Out capabilities.
Indeed, depending on the manufacturer and chip utilized it could potentially be considerably worse.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Is the 4600 still the best NV card ?

Yes.

Originally posted by: CorCentral
......... Or is there an Nvidia card (newer MX , etc.) that's better .......... I know the FX will be better but I'm asking about what's available now .

No, there is nothing better until the FX comes out.

 

[spanky]

for gaming... yes

 

[AnAndAustin]

I understand what you mean Rand and it's scandelous that nVidia hasn't made any effort to improve the sw side of all the nVidia cards. The main improvements come in the form of dual display enhancements (the ability to run the monitor and TV at the same time at diff refresh rates) and also standardisation at hw level in the way the TV chips are used (now all nVidia's drivers work which was not true before the GF4 series where many users were stuck with the card manu's old and out-dated drivers). Granted these aren't HUGE improvements and nVidia should def have done more but they are improvements and users of the older nVidia cards should notice these advancements ... of course ATI TVout is still far better! The chips themselves have hardly changed at all and IIRC some can't handle 1024x768 but anyway there are improvements none-the-less.

 

[CraigRT]

it's the fastest for now.
FX will be out soon.