What is the modern equivalent of the GeForce 4600

[tonyanon]

The cooling fan on my son's GeForce 4600 has probably failed (part of the plastic on it is black from heat!)

I am having trouble finding a replacement fan. I wonder if it would be better to simply replace the card. He plays a fair number of games so I need a card that is no less powerful.

What is a reasonable modern replacement? It's an AGP mobo running at 1.4GHz.

 

[aka1nas]

I'd say get him a 6600GT and call it a day. Keep in mind that whatever you get now, will almost definately be the last video card upgrade you will be able to get for that board as AGP is being phased out.

 

[allies]

Price? 6600GT possibly...

 

[otispunkmeyer]

plenty of used choices


6600gt is probably the best bang for the buck.

but theres also Ati Radeon 9800's, 9700's and 9500pros to be had for very cheap and all of them can best the 4600.

but if you wanna stick with nvidia....please ignore all of the FX range, 6600GT is probably your best choice.

 

[Crescent13]

depends on your budget. let us know so we can find the best bang for the buck for you. I loved my 6600GT back in the day (before i got my 7800GT).

 

[tonyanon]

I'd prefer to stick with nvidia since it is what I am familiar with.

The issue I have with buying the 6600GT (I have the PCIE version in my machine) is that his next computer will likely have a PCIE slot, not an AGP slot. So the video card would be useless when he upgrades. Further, I suspect the 1.4GHz CPU can't fully utilize the 6600GT anyway so it might not be faster than a lesser card. Of course, I don't want to spend any more than necessary.

Perhaps acquiring a new fan would be the best option. Can this be done? I have looked locally to no avail.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: tonyanon
I'd prefer to stick with nvidia since it is what I am familiar with.

The issue I have with buying the 6600GT (I have the PCIE version in my machine) is that his next computer will likely have a PCIE slot, not an AGP slot. So the video card would be useless when he upgrades. Further, I suspect the 1.4GHz CPU can't fully utilize the 6600GT anyway so it might not be faster than a lesser card. Of course, I don't want to spend any more than necessary.

Perhaps acquiring a new fan would be the best option. Can this be done? I have looked locally to no avail.

I agree with you completely. 6600GT is fairly expensive and XP1600+ is not the perfect match for it. If 1.4ghz is a P4 willamette, it's even worse.

ARCTIC COOLING NV SILENCER 1 VGA - compatibility Ti4x
$10

you can always get something like ZALMAN VF700-CU - $29 and can later reuse it with a new graphics card. The ALCU version is even cheaper.

Otherwise I'd look at 9700/9700Pro/9800np/9800Pro on Ebay for $50-70.

OR something like Radeon 9550 $41 is close enough in performance. Or slightly faster RADEON 9600 - $43

 

[tonyanon]

We ended up with a Radeon 9600XT that a friend had spare. Thanks for the advice!

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: tonyanon
We ended up with a Radeon 9600XT that a friend had spare. Thanks for the advice!

Not the fastest card, but not a bad card by any measure. 9600XT would be a bit faster than a Ti4600 in general, but if you enable AA/AF, the 9600 will pull ahead greatly. Add to that, the fact that you now have full directx9 compliance and you have yourself a nice video card.


FYI; Geforce 6600GT is around 2.5 to 3x faster than a Geforce 4 Ti4600.