TI4200, TI4800SE, or Radeon 9600

[meatbomb]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on upgrading my video card... an old ASUS GeForce 256 w/ 32MB SDR. Which card (TI4200, TI4800SE, or Radeon 9600, or Radeon 9600 Pro) has the biggest bang for around 150 bucks?

I'm particularly running Raven Shield on a GeForce 256 and at this point anything will be a major speed upgrade.

Thanks!

 

[techwanabe]

You can get a GF4-Ti4200 for closer to $100. So if you ask, people will tell you to get the best one you can afford. So you say $150, expect an answer accordingly.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yeah the 4200 is still a great card for the money. It's about the same sort of speed as a Radeon9600PRO or GF-FX5600ultra but simply lacking DX9 and unusable high AA+AF. The 4800SE is only 10% faster at best but often priced much higher. So the GF4TI4200 is a great choice but if you can afford the extra, love high AA+AF or wish to be DX9 ready then look to the 9600PRO or GF-FX5600ultra but expect to pay roughly 50% more.

The GF-FX5600 (std) and Rad9600 (nonPRO) are slower than a GF4TI4200, so being DX9 ready (or perhaps o/c'ing) is the only reason for grabbing one really ... though they may be too slow to make DX9 worthwhile?

 

[modedepe]

Get a ti4200 if you only want to spend $100. It can overclock well past 4800se speeds, which makes spending the extra for a 4800se somewhat pointless. Btw, ti4800se is the same as a ti4400 except it has agp 8x, and paying extra for agp 8x is a waste.

If you're willing to spend closer to $150 then by all means get the 9600 pro. Dx9 and better performance with AA/AF make it worth the extra money.

 

[TVSET]

I am also looking into these cards.
Ti4200, FX5600 and 9600Pro.
9500Pro is good be cost too much.
How many game out there can use the Dx9?
Can you reall see the picture and speed difference?
Is Dx9 more for the future game?
If so, would it be better get the Ti4200, save the $50 and upgarde later?

 

[Pete]

9600 Pro.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: TVSET
I am also looking into these cards.
Ti4200, FX5600 and 9600Pro.
9500Pro is good be cost too much.
How many game out there can use the Dx9?
Can you reall see the picture and speed difference?
Is Dx9 more for the future game?
If so, would it be better get the Ti4200, save the $50 and upgarde later?

1. There are very few (maybe none, not sure) that currently use dx9.
2. You will see a difference in speed between these cards depending what game you're playing and your settings.
3. Yes.
4. This depends on your budget, how long you wait between upgrades, and how much of a gamer you are. Either a ti4200 or a 9600 pro should suit you well. However, a fx5600 is a bad choice.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Pete
9600 Pro.

 

[TVSET]

Thanks.

 

[techwanabe]

I just picked up a nice Ti4200 128mb at New Egg refurb, should be arriving any day.

Seems to me if there are very few DX9 games out now, it would be wise to wait a while for the higher end cards to come down in price. Me, I probalby get a new vid card about once a year or less. So I'll probably wait until summer 2004 before revisiting the video card issue, and by then some of these faster DX9 cards will be more attractively priced.

 

[Pete]

But the 9600P, like all "next-gen" video cards, is also faster on "older" games as well, particularly with AA+AF.

 

[techwanabe]

My Gainward card arrived today at the office. Tonight I'll try it out.

BTW, guys, anyone have a link to some good driver cleaners to get rid of my ATI Radeon drivers before installing my Ti-4200 today?

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: techwanabe
My Gainward card arrived today at the office. Tonight I'll try it out.

BTW, guys, anyone have a link to some good driver cleaners to get rid of my ATI Radeon drivers before installing my Ti-4200 today?

link

good luck with your new card, hope it works well for you

 

[techwanabe]

Thank you modedepe, thank you very much

 

[DahDee]

Newegg's new batch of refurb cards includes an Albatron 4800SE for $99. Sweet.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: techwanabe
My Gainward card arrived today at the office. Tonight I'll try it out.

BTW, guys, anyone have a link to some good driver cleaners to get rid of my ATI Radeon drivers before installing my Ti-4200 today?

I'm not trying to scare you, but keep an eye on that Gainward 4200. There's been some problems with them. The 2 main crashes are a Pink Screen of Death and a Checkerboard-like pattern. Check this tiny thread on the subject.

I have 2 of these cards myself. One of them since last October. It did not have a single problem for 9 months and just hit me with 3 Checkerboard-like crashes in the last 3 weeks. It's on 24x7 and used heavily with 3d gaming. Performance is great and I'm very happy with it. But I did have to reboot those 3 times. Funny thing is, none of those 3 crashes happened during gaming. All of them with the monitor off in the middle of the night.

Anyway, keep Gainward's contact info handy in case it completely dies and you need to RMA.

deadseasquirrel

 

[AnAndAustin]

The 4800se isn't even as fast as a 4400 as it was intended to be as most manus use clocks around 270/535 as opposed to the 4400's 275/550. The diff isn't huge but it means you're VERY close to a 4200 and the manus which skimp on the clocks often do so to utilise cheaper, board design, cooling and/or RAM which in turn mean you won't o/c any better anyway. 4800se don't cost much more than a 4200 but perf gains are tiny and it makes much more sense to pay that little bit more for a 9600pro.

The FX5600 is SLOW, like the Rad9600 (non PRO) it's slower than a 4200 that's for sure. It is the 5600ultra and 9600PRO which have minor speed gains over a 4200 but of course you still get better AA+AF and DX9 to mention a few things. 4200's are still great at 2xAA and low to medium AF, it's 4xAA and 8xAF+ which kill them, the DX9 cards can easily handle 4xAA+8xAF. 4200 is still very cool, 9600PRO and FX5600ultra are better but not hugely so and I'd saythese are currently the oly cards to shoot for unless you have excessive or miniscule amounts of money.

 

[DahDee]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
The 4800se isn't even as fast as a 4400 as it was intended to be as most manus use clocks around 270/535 as opposed to the 4400's 275/550. The diff isn't huge but it means you're VERY close to a 4200 and the manus which skimp on the clocks often do so to utilise cheaper, board design, cooling and/or RAM which in turn mean you won't o/c any better anyway. 4800se don't cost much more than a 4200 but perf gains are tiny and it makes much more sense to pay that little bit more for a 9600pro.

The Albatron 4800SE is clocked at 275/550 and is apparently a vicious overclocker; see the review linked below where the guys at PCStats had it stable at 346/721. Goodness gracious! I'm thinking for $99 you can't beat that with a stick.

http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rid=54898

 

[DahDee]

Double post, sorry.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yeah just like the Suma Special Edition and Albatron P Turbo which were both GF4TI4200 it's amazing what you can achieve with a GF4TI card using the full length 8 layer design and fast BGA RAM (almost all 4200's used 6 layers and TSOP RAM). Just a shame most manu's seem to use the 4800SE tag as a marketing tool without delivering anything extra. Obviously a 4800SE (or any GF4TI) clocked at 300/650 is all that's needed to achieve GF4TI4600/4800 perf levels so if you can hit around 350/720 you can expect a good 15% boost above a TI4600/4800 ... yummy!

 

[nlh]

Which NVidia drivers do you guys recommend for the Ti4200? I'm using the 44.03 drivers right now, but Im just curious.

 

[techwanabe]

That Gainward GF4-Ti4200 appears to be a dud... installed it this eveing and no picture at all. Tried pulling it out and reseating it... same. Looks like a dud... will have to send it back it looks like. Bummer. First "good" video card I've purchased since my Voodoo 3 3000 several years back.

Popped the old Radeon 32DDR back in... it works like it should. Time to call it a night ...

 

[AnAndAustin]

If it's a dud you should get beeps when you power on, if it you get 1 short beep after a successful POST then you know your speaker is connected to report errors. I would try setting all of your components back to default speeds first (ie no o/c'ing) and maybe even set the AGP mode lower. Other than that be sure you have the latest mobo BIOS and that your PSU is up to the task as GF4TI are much hungrier than your current card. Can you try the card in another PC?

 

[techwanabe]

No other PC's at home ... perhaps I can try one at work. My computer at home - which this card was for, gave the normal beeps at startup that I am used to hearing. It sounded like a normal post and bootup, just no picture - only a black screen. But since time is limited on the return, I'm not going to sit on this long. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[meatbomb]

Hey guys, thanks for the info.

I'm looking at an Asus V8420S on Newegg for $145 with 3.3ns memory and the V9280TD for $149, Gainward's 650-8X XPs (both the non-golden sample and the golden sample, $132 and $148 respectively).

So from what I have read, the AGP 8x is, at this point in time, worthless and not worth the extra money. I don't really plan to overclock and from what I hear, that's what the Golden Sample version of the Gainward's suppose to do. So is it worth the extra $10 for the Golden Sample?

Or is the Asus V8420S a faster card (and better performance deal with $150 to spend) when not OC'ed?

What do you guys think of the V9280TD?

While in the price range, what do you guys think about the Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro ($156)?