Which one should I get? ATI AIW Radeon 128mb or Geforce 4 Ti4600?

[slicksilver]

I"m not sure about this but all I want is the best perfomance/features/price ratio with my system. Here's my system config:

Amd Athlon 1.4 Ghz T-bird
ECS K7S5A with LAN motherboard (Revision 2 and running the April 29, 2002 bios)
256 MB PC133 SDRAM
IBM 75GXP 45GB Deskstar 7200 rpm HDD
Asus V6600 Geforce 256 32MB SDR card
LG 52X CDROM Drive (8522B)
Iomega 8x4x32 CDRW drive
Philips Acoustic Edge
Cambridge Soundworks DTT2200 (5.1)
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB
Surface 1030 mouse pad
Aopen QF45A housing with ATX-300GT (PF) (300W)
TVS Gold 104 keyboard
HP Deskjet 640C Printer

Thing is that I think that for my processor the Radeon is best. The Ti4600 for its best performance needs a much faster processor I guess. For me the most important thing is stability. Framerates do matter but most people say that you cant notice the difference in frame rates after 60 fps or so which both the above cards are capable of. Another thing is that I can do lots of video editing .....the included TV Tuner will be a huge plus to say the least. Another question I have is should I wait for the R300? If I do wait for that will my processor not be a bottleneck?...The max resolution I play games at is 1024 * 748.

Thanks and Looking forward to your replies

Raj

 

[bunnyfubbles]

We're talking just over $150-160 for a retail Radeon 8500 128MB unless you want the AIW version which will double the price. $300+ for a GF4 Ti 4600, that's quite a leap in price over the 8500 and it doesn't offer 2x the performance. I'd reccommend you go for a Ti 4200, the 64MB versions are cheaper but still faster than the 128MB Radeon, while the 128MB GF4 Ti 4200s will cost maybe $10 more than the 128MB Radeon 8500, but will also out muscle the 8500.

I don't see how hard of a choice it is here. The 4600 does offer killer performance, but for a hefty price. ATI has done a hell of a job with their 8500, its a great chip and it is very solid, very fast, I like mine. But it just can't hold its own against the GeForce 4 Ti line like it could with the GeForce 3s.

Simply put, get a GF4 4200, they'll range in price from $140 to $220 or so.