Which is better? Radeon DDR or MX4-440?

[bluemax]

I have the choice of a trade.... I currently have a Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO card but someone is offering a straight trade for an MX4-440 card....

Which would you guys go/stick with?
I don't really use the VIVO, though it did come in handy..... Once. Twice if you include the VCR I didn't keep.
Image quality, speed, 2D desktop, trouble-free running and AntiAliasing are all features important to me.

 

[Chadder007]

Id probably switch over to the MX4.....its probably just a tad faster in 3d games.....but if you want 2d quality I would stick with your Radeon.

 

[CrazySaint]

According to Anand's review of the Radeon 9000, the The 7500 beates the MX440 (and even the 460) in most games, and usually by a good margin. The one exception would be Q3-based games, where even the 440 beats the 7500 by a good margin, especially at 1280x1024 or lower. So if you primarily play Q3, JKII and RtCW, then make the trade, otherwise, keep the card.

 

[Goi]

Unless you have use for the VIVO functionalities of the Radeon, the MX440 should be a better card. I'm not sure of the overclockability of the Radeon, but the MX440 is pretty overclockable, as much as 20-30% more speed can be gained by overclocking if you're so inclined.

CrazySaint, the Radeon 7500 isn't the Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO, AFAIK they're completely different, using GPUs of different generations. The Radeon he has is the original Radeon256 chipset.

 

[Athlon4all]

The MX440 will definately top the original Radeon DDR, and will give the R7500 a good fight too, so I wouldn't hesitate to go for it as long as you don't need top notch 2D IQ at resolutions above 1024x768, but I do have to agree with the others that I would take a R7500 over a MX440 for a Radeon DDR will be a great deal

 

[buleyb]

Does it seem worth it for the not to huge added improvement to gaming? I guess it depends on what you use it for the most, but save the cash and hold out longer. The MX440 isn't gaining you any DirectX version improvements, so you should save for a GeForce4 Ti 4200 card or wait for new products/pricing. Then you'll at least have made a decent leap forward.

 

[Goi]

Well that's all fine and dandy, except he said that he could trade his Radeon for the MX440 at no extra cost...straight trade...so I think its quite a no-brainer given the fact that he doesn't use his VIVO features.

 

[bluemax]

According to the Radeon9000 review, it doesn't perform much different... I'm not seeing a whole lot of reason to switch over. I hear stories of bad 2D, bad DVD playback and pretty low performance. I'd be better off selling this 7200DDR VIVO and going to a Radeon 8500LE.

 

[Tanked]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Radeon 7500 uses the same core as the original Radeon, just at higher clock speeds. The MX440 would beat out a regular Radeon by a good margin, but the 2D quality will be worse, and you'll lose your VIVO.

I'd stick with the Radeon.

 

[John]

R7500 is DX 8.1 compliant, the MX440 is not.

 

[Goi]

bluemax, in the Radeon 9000 review, the other card tested was the Radeon 7500, which is quite different from your Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO. The Radeon 7500 is at least 1 generation newer than your Radeon, which is based on the very first iteration of the original Radeon AFAIK. So, you should gain a healthy speed increase going from your existing Radeon to an MX440. If you don't have to pay for it, why not just try it out to see? You might save some money.

Personally, I have an MX440 on an XP1800+ and a Radeon VE(aka Radeon 7000) on a Tbird 1.4GHz and there's quite a large performance delta between them when playing games like Q3A and RtCW.

 

[Tanked]

Quote
R7500 is DX 8.1 compliant, the MX440 is not.

Both are DX 7 chips. Neither provide DX 8.1 functions in hardware.

Quote
bluemax, in the Radeon 9000 review, the other card tested was the Radeon 7500, which is quite different from your Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO. The Radeon 7500 is at least 1 generation newer than your Radeon, which is based on the very first iteration of the original Radeon AFAIK. So, you should gain a healthy speed increase going from your existing Radeon to an MX440. If you don't have to pay for it, why not just try it out to see? You might save some money.

Personally, I have an MX440 on an XP1800+ and a Radeon VE(aka Radeon 7000) on a Tbird 1.4GHz and there's quite a large performance delta between them when playing games like Q3A and RtCW.

Couple things:

The Radeon 7500 and the first Radeon are identical and features and performance, except that the Radeon 7500 has a higher clock.

You compared a MX440 to a Radeon VE, which is a completely unfair and irrelevant comparison, and for this reason: The Radeon VE is a crippled Radeon. It has no T&L engine and a single pixel pipeline. The Original Radeon would blow the VE out of the water.

 

[goog40]

From Anand's preview of the 7500

The Radeon 7500's feature set is identical to that of the original Radeon.

AFAIK the only difference is they used a better process in making the GPUs which allowed them to bump up the clock speeds.

 

[bluemax]

Thanks, Tanked, you replied to both messages before I could (stupid lagging ADSL...) :| But you answered exactly the way I would have.

The 7200DDR or even SDR would handily spank the 7000(VE).

There were enough benchmarks of the 7500 running much faster than the MX4-440 for me to think twice before jumping on the bandwagon.
Especially since I should be able to sell this Radeon VIVO for at LEAST $100 Canadian, incurring much of the $135+tax+shipping for a Radeon 8500LE if I wanted.
But I don't want to spend ANYTHING if I don't have to.... the trade would be local and he's very willing to do it. Methinks he doesn't like the TV quality of his card. He's had ATI before which is why he wants to go back....
I don't have a TV or VCR so the VIVO function is mostly unused... it was used once with a friend's video camera. The darn thing wouldn't record MPEG2 so I had to go down to MPEG1.

That has me thinking.... since the recording didn't work so well, its use is practically nil. I might as well scrap VIVO and just go for something else.
It's either sell the VIVO and put in ~$20 to get the 8500LE or trade straight across for a 440MX.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Tanked
Quote
R7500 is DX 8.1 compliant, the MX440 is not.

Both are DX 7 chips. Neither provide DX 8.1 functions in hardware.

You're right. I had the 8500 in my thought process at the time I posted. In regards to the original question, I would take a MX440 over the original radeon 64MB.

 

[CrazySaint]

The 440MX is SLOWER than a Radeon 64MB DDR/Radeon 7500 (except in Q3-based games), and it has lower 2D quality. Either keep your card and save for a REAL gF4, or spend $35 to trade up to an 8500LE. Or, at the very least, if you DO trade, do it with the option to trade back if you aren't happy with the 440MX. Btw, what's the clockspeed on the 7500? I thought it had the same clockspeed as the original Radeon DDR.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
Btw, what's the clockspeed on the 7500? I thought it had the same clockspeed as the original Radeon DDR.

Nope. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1544

 

[CrazySaint]

Wow, I didn't realize the 7500 had such a higher clockspeed than the original Radeon DDR (290/230 vs. 183/183). The 440MX my, in fact, be a bit faster than the original Radeon DDR, then. I'd still recommend you only make the trade if you have the option to trade back, if you don't like the 440MX.

 

[Rand]

The Radeon 7500 and the first Radeon are identical and features and performance, except that the Radeon 7500 has a higher clock.

FWIW, the moemory controller has also been slightly modified to increase data fetch sizes, to improve memory granularity.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
Wow, I didn't realize the 7500 had such a higher clockspeed than the original Radeon DDR (290/230 vs. 183/183). The 440MX my, in fact, be a bit faster than the original Radeon DDR, then. I'd still recommend you only make the trade if you have the option to trade back, if you don't like the 440MX.

Wow! From 183/183 and my card may only be 166/166 (I have reason to belive it may be an engineering sample...) to 290/230!!
That's a HUGE jump.... The 440MX is starting to look a bit better .... although the 8500LE would still be preferred.

 

[mrzed]

If you are thinking of upgrading soon anyhow, you will be better off trading for the 440. When it comes time to sell, you willl be getting rid of a much newer card (a geforce "4" no less) and will likely get more for it. In the meantime you will have a somewhat faster card.

The retail prices right now are about the same for an 8500le/64 and a MX440. Seems like a good idea to me.

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: bluemax

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
Wow, I didn't realize the 7500 had such a higher clockspeed than the original Radeon DDR (290/230 vs. 183/183). The 440MX my, in fact, be a bit faster than the original Radeon DDR, then. I'd still recommend you only make the trade if you have the option to trade back, if you don't like the 440MX.

Wow! From 183/183 and my card may only be 166/166 (I have reason to belive it may be an engineering sample...) to 290/230!!
That's a HUGE jump.... The 440MX is starting to look a bit better .... although the 8500LE would still be preferred.

I believe the OEM cards were clocked at 166/166.

 

[HalfCrazy]

I'm running a MX440 video-card right now. Since my old GF-256 DDR went bad for some reason and I needed a card. Did not had alot of money at that time due to bills. Seen that card laying there so I bought it. I like the card.