Nvidia or ATI???

[Shauna]

hi i am not very knowledgeable in the world of videocards but i know the basics. I've been looking at performance charts for the GeForce 4 Ti series vs. ATI and it looks like a close race, but Nvidia looked like it was a bit better. I'm thinking of buying a ti4200, but i don't know what make is better. I have a pentium 3 1Ghz processor with 320mb of memory, 133mHz bus speed, and an asus tusl2 motherboard. i'm willing to spend $150 max, but i also want good quality and speed. it will be used mainly for gaming. Is there a difference between, for example, gainaward, leadtek, chaintech, asus, abit, msi, & powercolor for the ti4200? and is ati a better deal, for example the 8500 series?

 

[mrman3k]

I would go for an MSI card, they are very well made as I have one except in the TI4400 incarnation

 

[Ilmater]

Unless you're planning on overclocking it (which you sound like you aren't), then any GF4 Ti4200 will do. Just find the cheapest one. ATI actually has the fastest cards right now, but nVidia's 4200 is still the best price/performance combination. I'd suggest either getting the 64MB one at the top of this page, or, if you would like to spend a little more for the cards with 128MB of RAM, I'd suggest this one. The difference is, the ones with 128MB of RAM have RAM that runs a little bit slower, but having more RAM will help a lot with future games. If it were me, for only $25 more, I'd just get the one with 128MB of RAM.

Hope that helps.

By the way, if you're worried, all manufacturers have to maintain some minimum specifications, and they all use the same drivers, so that's why it doesn't really matter who you buy yours from.

 

[johnjkr1]

I would also recommend the Nvidia, especially on the lower end..the 4200 has tons of speed.....DEFINETLY get the 128mb model....you can get one under 150...also, you might want to get another stick of ram, it seems a shame to pair a 3ghz cpu with 384 ram....

 

[human2k]

a 3ghz cpu? uh re-read, its Pentium 3 1GHZ, your cpu's definitely gonna be a bottleneck with any video card around the $150 price range, read anand's GPU scaling guide and pick which one will go best with that slow 1ghz p3..........or you could just get teh card and upgrade later...

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: human2k
a 3ghz cpu? uh re-read, its Pentium 3 1GHZ, your cpu's definitely gonna be a bottleneck with any video card around the $150 price range, read anand's GPU scaling guide and pick which one will go best with that slow 1ghz p3..........or you could just get teh card and upgrade later...

Yep, the GF series perform better on low-end CPUs, as they are bandwidth limited to begin with and essentially rely on faster clock cycles and RAM speeds for their performance increases (the major difference between a GF4 Ti4200 and GF4 Ti4600 is RAM speed). The GPU on the GF4's are all stepping A3, so they all can be OC'd to around 300mhz with stock cooling. So the question about different makers does make a difference, as Nvidia gave the different makers some liberties in choosing what RAM to put on their cards.

Some makers put slightly faster RAM on their boards to differentiate their products, so a lower RAM rating in ms will allow for more OCing headroom and performance closer to the higher end Ti4400 and Ti4600's. If you don't plan to overclock, just pick any 128MB board that suits your needs (connectors, TV-out, software etc.) other than Gainward and they should perform similarly.

Chiz

 

[Bovinicus]

The decision mainly depends on one question: Do you like to use anisotropic filtering more or FSAA? If you prefer anisotropic filtering, then the Radeon 8500 128MB LE would be the way to go. The adaptive anisotropic filtering algorithm they use increases performance a lot. Unfortunately, the 8500 can only use super sampling FSAA. Multi sampling is much faster, but blurs textures a little more. The Radeon 8500 is also cheaper. It just depends what is more important to you.

 

[SafeZone]

wouldn't the 9500NP be best if he likes FSAA ?

 

[ed21x]

actually I would wait 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure the price of the ti4200 will hit sub $100 level once the GFX is released. heck, by then, even the 4600 might be in $150 range

 

[McCarthy]

Right now is WAIT time without doubt. Buying a card now (other than a 9500 to softmod) is a counter-economical decision to my way of thinking.


And then either 4200 or ATI 9500. Though Gainward 4200's tend to blow up. Visiontek went out of business....get an ATI/Saphire card and don't worry. But wait two weeks either way for repricing.

--Mc