should i get a geforce4 ti4600 or a radeon 9500pro?

stryder2929

Senior member
Oct 23, 2002
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I just cant decide, i know theyre both good but which one will be better in thelong run..


the radeon9700 is too expensive rightnow so dont substitute that in aas an option


so what do u think...which should i get and where should i get it?
 

BoomAM

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2001
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if i was you, id get the 9500PRO, not the standard 9500 as it has less pipelines (i think).
as even in its beta form w/ 64mb ram and prototype drivers, its almost as fast as the ti4600. when the "proper" ones come out it`ll be a few frames faster and when the drivers mature, it`ll start getting faster than the ti4600. plus, it does DX9 where as the Ti4600 only does DX8, so it`ll be more future proof.
some people will argue the fact the the ti4600 might be better, but the fact of the matter is the 9500PRO is the logical choice between the two.
your choice and from the probably many posts that you`ll get for this you`ll be able to make your mind up.

overall. get the 9500PRO

as for suppliers, i wouldnt know, as im in the UK and im willing to bet that your in the US, so i dont know any US suppliers.
If you are in the UK, then say, and i`ll check back on this post soon and give you a big list of decent UK suppliers.

hope this helps you.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
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The 9500 Pro should be faster than the Ti4600 (especially for anisotropic filtering) and it'll have more features too.
 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
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I'd wait for the regular 9700 (not pro) and compare to see what's the better bang for the buck at that point. There's little doubt the 9700 will outperform the fastest gf4 (nv25) offering, but at what cost, who knows.

BFG10K, where did you read the 9500pro would be faster than the ti4600? In the benches from the AT review, I'm pretty sure the ti4600 beat the 9500pro quite handily. Yah, its only running with 64MB, but as most comparisons show (even with the gf4 lines), the extra 64MB doesn't effect performance that much with today's games. I doubt final silicon and improved drivers will be able to make up that much performance gap.

Also you should consider one of the new ti4200 "turbo" cards with 3.3ns BGA Ram. They advertise them as ti4600's for ti4200 prices (more like ti4400 prices IMO), but I can attest they do produce results like a ti4600. I picked up an Albatron Turbo that got in Friday, and its running nicely in my system at 310/650. I didn't push it more this weekend b/c I wasn't around much.

Chiz
 

BoomAM

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2001
4,546
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QUOTE
" I doubt final silicon and improved drivers will be able to make up that much performance gap."

remember the old radeon card vs the GF2GTS? remember that the GF2GTS was slower by about 10FPS. then remember that with new drivers it was then faster by 5-10FPS. I REST MY CASE. Same with GF3 Ti500 Vs Radeon8500. Drivers can make up the difference in some cases.

Plus when DX9 games get released, while the 4600 strugles with the advanced features, and multiple passes for the textures, then the 9500PRO will steam ahead because of the more advanced core with more pipelines & TMUs.

Until a company have finished tuning their drivers, then the full potential of a particular board is not reached. admitidly it wont be loads faster, but when ATI have a finished board and propely tuned drivers, then the 9500PRO will be faster than the 4600 by a few frames in DX8 games. and in DX9 games that use all or some of the features, then it will blow the 4600 out of the water.
 

Killrose

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 1999
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Get the 9500 Pro. But wait till it's reveiwed in actual retail form (128mb ram and optomized drivers) before your final decision. I beleive it will be a bit faster than the initial reveiws and with FSAA and Ansio it will no doubt top the Ti4600 in nearly all the benches and be about $50 cheaper.
 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
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BoomAM,

The 9500pro isn't a completely new card, its a neutered version of an existing card. Unlike the 8500, which required an entirely new driver base from existing Radeons (it wasn't an All-In-One driver set for all Radeons), the 9500pro drivers should be very similar to the 9700pro, with some optimizations (I guess you can call them optimizations when you have to dummy-down features). Taking that into consideration, I have serious doubts that optimized drivers will make up the 10-20% performance gap from the ti4600, and I'm not even looking at the benches from higher resolutions where the extra 64MB would be beneficial.

Yah, I wouldn't be surprised if the 9500pro's performance increases in its retail form, but don't forget that nVidia has a nasty habit of releasing "New" detonators whenever ATI releases a new product.

I think you might be confused with the standard 9700 and the 9500 pro, as from AT's review:

The Radeon 9500 Pro has two 64-bit DDR memory controllers instead of the four in the Radeon 9700 Pro. This cuts the 9500 Pro's memory bandwidth to half of the 9700 Pro at identical clock speeds, and puts it in line with the GeForce4's 128-bit DDR memory subsystem.

As for all these advanced features that the ti4600 will be struggling with, you don't think the 9500pro will have the same problems??? It may have dx9 support, but chugging along at 25fps isn't exactly what I'd call "Steaming Ahead." I'm sure those people who bought a Radeon DDR b/c of DX8 support are pleased with how their cards are running today's games. By the time games fully implement dx9, a 9700pro may very well be listed as a minimum req.

As for waiting for a company to finish tuning their drivers, that may never happen with ATI. Yah everyone has a reason to bash either nVidia or ATI about drivers, but after owning an 8500, gf3 ti200, and now a gf4 ti4200 turbo in the past year, I can honestly say that only nVidia has consistently delivered on performance upon release. You can wait and hope for a new driver release that will make a card perform to its potential, or you can get a card that works as advertised from the start. The 9700pro is a different story, but its a bit too pricey atm.

Like I said, I'd wait for the 9700 and see what's available at that point. The 9500pro will be around the same price as the gf4's with similar peformance at best. If you can get a 9700 for the price of current ti4600's...that'd be the way to go, otherwise I see no difference in getting an overclockable gf4 now instead of waiting for the 9500pro.

Chiz
 

stryder2929

Senior member
Oct 23, 2002
324
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right now i have a gf2gts 32mb from nvidia which im sure could suit me ok for the time being, so i guess it'd be wise waiting for others to pick up the new radeons and hear what they say about them...


any idea when they come out?
 

BoomAM

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2001
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You bring in some good points chiz, and i do know about the differences between all of ATIs new cards.

All im saying is that the 9500PRO card that was tested was just a 9500 Chip on a 9700 board.

The drivers arnt the only thing that have to be optimised, hardware counts as well, that is why there are some minor differences between cards baced on the same chips.

Plus the drivers for the 9500pro will no doubt be very similar to the 9700 ones, but they still havnt matured yet. im willing to bet, that when they have matured, that a 5-10% difference will be seen between the drivers we use now and upcoming ones.

The reason im saying get the 9500pro over the GF4-4600 is the same reason people are reccommending a Ti200 or 8500le over a gf4mx, future proofing.
Sure it may not be fast when games use the new features, but at least it`ll he able to run it propely. and more fps is only a resolution away!!! lol

plus nvidia have tryed releasing new detonators to close the gap, but a fat lot of good that did!!!

another good point chiz, wait for the 9700 standard, its advertised as being £80 ($100) cheaper than the 9700PRO. thats only about £40 ($50) more than the advertised 9500PRO price. And you will see the performance difference between the 9500pro and a 9700. Plus the 9700 can probably be overclocked to 9700pro speeds as its basically the same card, but clocked slower.