which Geforce 4 ti4600 128mb card to buy?

[cookie3]

looking for stable performance and reasonable price.

 

[Sub51]

Why do you want a Geforce 4 Ti 4600? For example, the Geforce 4 Ti 4400 is only a tiny, unnoticeable amount slower.

 

[cookie3]

Okay, I didn't realize there was such little difference. So which ti4400 should I buy then? also how does the ti4200 stack up? I looked at newEgg and people are saying good things abput the ALBATRON GeForce 4 TI4200P TURBO. I don't know if I want to over clock though. I'm building a new system and have A lot of things on my plate right now.

thanks...

 

[AnAndAustin]

4200 are about 15% slower than 4400 which are about 10% slower than 4600. 4200 can come in enhanced form using fast BGA RAM and the longer design of the 4400/4600 cards this means they are effectively as good as any 4400 and tend to o/c as well as 4600 cards (eg Albatron P Turbo and Suma Special Edition). 4200 can also be found in 4200-8X (AGP8x) form which even on AGP4x will get you within 10% of a 4400 and again you should expect to o/c as well as most 4400 with one of those. Don't overlook the potential of the STANDARD 4200 though, they are very cost effective and get the most out of even the top CPUs, expect at least 4400 perf with a little simple o/c'ing. Here's a few reviews:

TomsHW GF4-8X cards

Enhanced 4200 - Albatron P Turbo

Enhanced 4200 - Suma Special Edition

Enhanced 4200 - Asus Deluxe (pretty weak, better off with a std 4200 or a 4400)

Tech-Report 4200 roundup

AnAndTech 4200 roundup

Review of all Visiontek GF4 cards

So if you go 4400 or 4600 don't bother worrying about manu, get the best price, outputs or bundle you can. For standard 4200 cards avoid EVGA, AOpen and the standard Gainward versions as these are known to use cheap crappy RAM, other than that the same applies as 4400 and 4600.

 

[ViperZ2000]

Any word yet on the NV30 GPU?

Thanks!

 

[Sub51]

The NV30 will be show-cased in mid November. However, don't expect to see any in stores until the end of December. Many market experts now say that it could take until January or even Feburary before we'll be able to get our greedy hands on them. The info is sketchy at best.

 

[ViperZ2000]

Thanks for the update!

 

[phintze]

AnAndAustin:
You said to avoid the Gainward std versions; are the golden sample cards more reliable?

 

[AnAndAustin]

NV30 will be very lucky to have any kind of availability by the end of Dec with solid info mid-Nov (as Sub51 said), and I'd expect prices to be very high too. If you have a decent gfx card like a Rad8500, GF3 or GF4TI then there's little point upgrading until we see how NV30 fairs and prices compare, obviously it will also be interesting to see Rad9700PRO-DDRII and Trident XP4.

The 'Golden Samples' are better as they use the same RAM that all the other basic 4200 cards do, so they really don't deserve their GS tag unlike back in the GF3 days. Gainward are a very well respected co with good products and from what I hear good cust support, but making their std 4200 with crappy RAM to make the GS look golden is a bit below par. On a brighter note with Gainward you are assured good build quality and image quality (although IMHO this is now a non-issue for GF4TI cards) plus their 4200 cards do tend to get among the best core o/c going (by like 20mhz LOL!). If you go Gainward go GS but do consider the other brands too.

 

[BFG10K]

I've had nothing but good experiences with Gainward and Leadtek branded cards.

 

[chizow]

I have the Albatron 4200 Turbo waiting back at my place waiting for me. Got it based on the links posted by Austin and super-positive user feedback. I'll post my results after this weekend in that ti4200 thread.

I had an itch to upgrade so I pulled the trigger now. If I you can wait a bit though, I'd wait and see how that 9700 performs with final drivers and final silicon. IIRC it handed it nicely to the ti4600 despite the incomplete silicon and driver status, so it could be the best bang for the buck card when its released. Its pricepoint will certainly fall around/between a ti4600 and the 9700pro instead of the $299 msrp (the 9700pro is around $320 currently from a $399 msrp). This'll certainly drop once nv30 is closer to reality as well.

Chiz

 

[fluxquantum]

just read a review about the Albatron 4200 Turbo. that's one sweet video card. Albatron GeForce4 Ti 4200 Turbo