Upgrade from GeForce 4 4600 TI to ?

[Splock]

Hi all,

This is my first post here so bare with me

I am looking at upgrading from my current no name GeForce 4 4600 TI 128MB to something better but at or under the $200 range. I found an Asus GeForce 5700FX 256MB for $175. I also found an MSI GeForce 5900FX 128MB for $200. Are either of these a good upgrade over the 4600 TI or does anyone know what would be better for the price? I am looking at staying with Nvidia but if anyone knows of an ATI product that is better I will consider it.

Also, I am running this in a Pentium 4 2.26 (overlocked to 2.7) with 1 gig of ram.

Thanks!

 

[Slacker]

I had a ti4600 that died and pny sent me a 5900 in place of it, with the 4600 I got around 1,800 in 3dmark03 with the 5900 I got 6,500 in 3dmark03, I now have a 6800 that gets over 12,000 in 3dmark03.

Do you need to upgrade right now? if you saved a bit more and can wait for the 6800gt price to drop to the $300 range (maybe even less) I think a 6800gt will last you quite a bit longer than a 5900fx and would end up saving you money in the long run.

 

[PowderBB3D]

I totally agree with Slacker. The performance jump between a 5900 and a 6800gt is huge. Unless you ABSOLUTELY NEED a video card now I'd wait until the x800gt comes out; this will drive down the 6800gt prices most likely and you should be able to get them for $300 (or less with potential MIR and coupons and sales).

 

[SickBeast]

A Radeon 9800PRO is by far the best choice at $200 IMO; in fact you can get one for $180 or so AFAIK.

The 9800PRO will perform on par with a 5900U in Doom3 and will most definately beat it soundly in HL2. It decimates it in Far Cry as well. In most other games the 9800PRO will have the edge as well.

I'm not trying to start a flame war; I'm just stating what in my opinion are the facts. I have no vested interest in what the OP does with his/her money. Reccomending an NV30-gen card over an R300-gen one is ridiculous IMO, unless the buyer is looking to do professional OpenGL work. OpenGL is the *only* area where the 5900 cards will have any advantage over the 9800 cards, and even in Doom3 the 9800 is able to keep up. All other OpenGL games are old, mostly based on the Quake3 engine. The 9800 will run those games like they're some kind of joke, so even if it's a few frames slower than the 5900 it's irrelevant.

 

[Schadenfreudex]

If you are buying a card right now, the best for under 200 is a 128 megabyte Radeon 9800 PRO.

 

[Slacker]

I have absolutely ZERO experience with ATI cards so I can not speak on that subject, I suppose I could have mentioned this in my previous post

 

[Splock]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I don't need a new video card right this minute, but it seems to be falling behind the games now so I was just looking into it. I can wait and save up for a 6800 GT for $300 since it sounds like it will last a lot longer.

 

[PowderBB3D]

Originally posted by: Schadenfreude
If you are buying a card right now, the best for under 200 is a 128 megabyte Radeon 9800 PRO.

Yes. The 9800p and xt are both excellent cards - probably your best bet from that generation should you choose to go that route. The nVidia chips around that time (5xxx) are all pretty crappy except the 5950u.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3628345

 

[Slacker]

You may find someone selling their 9800pro or 5900fx for a really good price so they can step up to an x800 or 6800, thats what I did, I sold two 5900fx's for $100.00 each to co-workers last week so I could use that to offset the cost of the 6800gt, check the for sale/trade board.

If you could find one of those cards for less than you were planning to spend on a new in box card then you can put away the left over $$ and save it towards the next purchase, I wouldnt buy a last gen vid card new at this point, I guess that is what I was trying to get at earlier.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Schadenfreude
If you are buying a card right now, the best for under 200 is a 128 megabyte Radeon 9800 PRO.

nice name

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: Schadenfreude
If you are buying a card right now, the best for under 200 is a 128 megabyte Radeon 9800 PRO.

nice name

I thought he was your brother or something.

 

[Splock]

Originally posted by: Slacker
You may find someone selling their 9800pro or 5900fx for a really good price so they can step up to an x800 or 6800, thats what I did, I sold two 5900fx's for $100.00 each to co-workers last week so I could use that to offset the cost of the 6800gt, check the for sale/trade board.

If you could find one of those cards for less than you were planning to spend on a new in box card then you can put away the left over $$ and save it towards the next purchase, I wouldnt buy a last gen vid card new at this point, I guess that is what I was trying to get at earlier.

That's a good idea too, that would give me something for now without breaking the bank. I'll look into the 9800 Pro and 5900FX and see what's out there :thumbsup:

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: Schadenfreude
If you are buying a card right now, the best for under 200 is a 128 megabyte Radeon 9800 PRO.

nice name

I thought he was your brother or something.

no man, i want dissect greys for a living when i get out of college, no way i would ever have any of them in my family

 

[Woohah]

I would check out the ATI 9800 Pro-- I just got an MSI RX9800 Pro 128 which is actually more of a 9800 XT "lite" (XT Core underclocked) and it runs quite well. I upgraded from a G3 Ti200 with a P4 2.8, so similar situation. I got the card for 199.75 or something lame like that ($200).

Aquamark 3
Before: 10,243 (8,670 CPU)
After: 42,140

So obviously it will be a big upgrade. I've been trying out various games, Farcry, Halo, NFSU. All run pretty well, Farcry is still under 30fps with EVERYTHING on highest settings (AA/AF on), but it looks amazing. I mean I always read that it was great, but its something you need to experience. Halo is maxxed and NFSU looks good too.

I specifically got the MSI card here which includes a large bundle if you're interested in those kinds of things:

MSI RX9800 TD-128 Retail

One note is that one some systems Farcry will have strange artifacting (See my thread in this video forum), specifically with Catalyst 4.7 drivers. Using 4.8 beta drivers corrects the issue. Otherwise the card has run quite well and others claim it is easily overclocked to behave like a 9800 xt for $100+ less.

--woohah

 

[TonyPTX]

OK.....now it's a AGP 4x to AGP 8x question...

I'm in the same boat as Splock...

I'm running a P4 2.5GHz w/1GB RDRAM setup and also have a GeForce4 4600 Ti card. Given that my system is limited to AGP 4x (Gigabyte GA-8IHXP Mobo), will I really notice that much of a difference if I go with a GeForce 6800 GT from say BFG? Yeah I know it won't be optimal (8x vs. 4x AGP) but reading this post makes me think that there should be a significant change (Or is it that everyone in this post had a AGP 8x Mobo and just upgraded their cards from a 4x to a 8x?). Maybe just the GPU's ability to process the data faster? Money is no problem (of course i'm not gonna drop $500 for a Ultra card).

Thanks,

Tony