VGA LEADTEK GF4 4200 vs. Chaintech GF4 4200 "GT21" Special Edition: whos the better man here?

[MatthewF01]

OK, so I was surfing newegg.com, checking out video cards. I am right on the brink of my upgrade from Geforce 2 MX which has come a long way! Both of the following cards have 128MB of memory, and both have the VIVO feature, which I think might be worth having...

Overclockability is an important thing. Which card will I be able to push more out of, and to about how high?


So my question is, which card should I buy? Hehe ill go retail so I can get some games


----$180---------------
Chaintech Geforce4 4200 "GT21" Special Edition VIVO
Specifications:
Chipset - NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
Memory -128MB DDR
128-bit Memory interface
256-bit Graphics Architecture
250 MHz Core Clock
444 MHz Memory Clock
350MHz internal RAMDAC
VIVO Connector,VIVO Cable
With Games/Software bundle:WinDVD, 3Deep MDK2



----$193-------
VGA LEADTEK Geforce4 TI4200 128M / VIVO (video in / video out) AGP Video Card Retail Box Specifications:
Same features as standard 4200, with Video in/out
Chipset: Nvidia 4th-generation 256-bit GeForce4 Ti 4200 GPU InfiniteFX II Engine
RAM:128MB fast DDR Memory
8 GB/sec Memory Bandwidth
4 Billion AA samples per second fill rate
Integrated 350MHz RAMDAC, resolution up to 2048x1536, True Color @ 60Hz
Comprehensive AGP 4X support Retail (Full Box with games and software) Winfast


Thanks for any help!
---------------

 

[MatthewF01]

bump...


1 or 2? thats all...

 

[ViRGE]

Anand said it best when "Our best recommendation would be to find the card that's the cheapest". Get the Chaintech, I'm sure you'll be happy.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Anand said it best when "Our best recommendation would be to find the card that's the cheapest". Get the Chaintech, I'm sure you'll be happy.

Yeah I have to agree - it's basically a crap shoot in what kind of memory you get anyways (4.0 ns, 3.6 ns, etc)

 

[Yoyoson]

So here I am.. opening up my case and fiddling with the AGP slot locking mechanism on the motherboard, for about 10 minutes.

Finally, I remove my Chaintech GT21 from the mobo.. only to realize that the memory is covered by ramsinks, and that I WON'T be able to tell what kind of Ram it is, or to even report this information back to the happy readers at anandtech.

<sigh>

So, these two bits of info might help your decision:
1. The Chaintech card has Ramsinks. This is supposedly great for overclocking, since the RAM appears to be the big bottleneck in OCing this card. I dont know if the Leadtek card has ramsinks or not.

2. I couldnt get the OCing program (TurboGFX) that comes with the GT21 to run on my machine - still dont know why. I have yet to try alternative methods of OCing my card. But it seems that I am the only person with this problem.

 

[Sunner]

I've never quite understood the point of RAMsinks, I've never had the memory on any of the video cards I've owned get hot, at worst somewhat warmer than the ambient temp.

On my current card I can't measure this since LeadTek were kind enough to put a bigass heatsink that covers the GPU and RAM chips in one big piece.

 

[Mavrick007]

Originally posted by: Yoyoson
So here I am.. opening up my case and fiddling with the AGP slot locking mechanism on the motherboard, for about 10 minutes.

Finally, I remove my Chaintech GT21 from the mobo.. only to realize that the memory is covered by ramsinks, and that I WON'T be able to tell what kind of Ram it is, or to even report this information back to the happy readers at anandtech.

Hey, you might have the ramsinks fall off and then you would be able to tell what kind of ram is on the card. That's what I've heard from some other people with the Chaintech.

The Leadtek looks like a more solid card and it's a better name no matter what you get for software or what not. Hey, isn't MDK2 like at least 2-3yrs old or more? No wonder Chaintech is giving it away, you can find it for like under $10.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: Sunner
I've never quite understood the point of RAMsinks, I've never had the memory on any of the video cards I've owned get hot, at worst somewhat warmer than the ambient temp.

On my current card I can't measure this since LeadTek were kind enough to put a bigass heatsink that covers the GPU and RAM chips in one big piece.

I believe in their GF4 shootout, Tomshardware determined that RAMsinks have no effect on overclockability.

That being said, I own a LeadTek GF3 Ti200 and I love it. Currently, it's running @ 240/540.

 

[ViRGE]

Yoyoson, my Leadtek Ti4200 just came in, and it too has RAMsinks, which seem to be screwed on in some places, and not just glued. See for yourself at Newegg.

 

[MatthewF01]

Heheh sorry but the Leaktek even LOOKS cooler.... hehehe..

and yes, both cards DO have ramsinks... And the Leaktek DOES look a little more solid. And does anyone else think that the Chaintech HSF and ramsinks look a little...choking? They dont look like they would conduct heat well, with that thick gold enamel on it, or so it appears...


And what is a good way to overclock? On my GF2 MX I just used the CoolBits registry edit, but are some of those software programs better? Can someone make a reccommendation.


Thanks again!

 

[Freejack2]

I have a Chaintech on the way myself. Looks to be a great overclocker from what this review said.
I currently have a Leadtek GF3 TI200. It's not bad and it has onboard temperature monitoring.
However in addition to the price, the Chaintech has a 2 year warranty compared to Leadtek's 1 year.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: MatthewF01
Heheh sorry but the Leaktek even LOOKS cooler.... hehehe..and yes, both cards DO have ramsinks... And the Leaktek DOES look a little more solid. And does anyone else think that the Chaintech HSF and ramsinks look a little...choking? They dont look like they would conduct heat well, with that thick gold enamel on it, or so it appears...And what is a good way to overclock? On my GF2 MX I just used the CoolBits registry edit, but are some of those software programs better? Can someone make a reccommendation.Thanks again!

RivaTuner, the best program out there for nVidia tweaking IMO.