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General discussion

GeForce4 Ti or Radeon9600?

Aug 3, 2004 11:38PM PDT

Ok, I posted a few days ago about a Radeon 9550XT, since I cannot find sufficient information I have chosen to not buy that card. The Radeon 9600XT seems like a good buy for my price range, I am wondering would a GeForce Ti 4800 SE for slightly less than the cost of the Radeon 9600XT, it is around $4 cheaper. Would the GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE perform better for Halo, UT2K4, Warcraft 3, and so on...THG's VGA Charts 3 list a Ti 4600, which seemed to perform well, so I thought the model up being the Ti 4800 SE would give me some performance, since the article about the release of the GF FX 5800 Ultra (you cannot buy the 5800U or 5900U but you can still buy the Ti cards, how odd) showed the 4800 SE running about 60% of the 5800U, which wouldn't be bad framerates. The article is, unfourtunatly, quite old (I think it's from around Feb. '03 or Nov. '02) so the programs they could benchmark with just weren't up to the same level of programs that we see today. So what do you say the GeForce4 Ti-4800SE? I found it here:
http://www.accupc.com/itemDetail.jsp?pid=vav9480tvd&refer=PriceGrabber
I have also never bought from accupc, are they decent for service? (the R9600XT is on Newegg, so I am ok with buying from them, even though I have never bought anything I hear lots of good things about Newgg)
Well just wondering, I don't see why the old top dog couldn't last me until my next comp (like 14+ months, it probly won't be built until 2005 or 2006, that seems like it's so far away, but I got a 3 year old P4 to last me until last december so I guess 2 years is nothing for a computer...unless a huge jump to 64-bit happens in the next 4-8 months)
Well like I said above, just asking

Discussion is locked

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I wouldn't.
Aug 4, 2004 12:33AM PDT

With DOOM3 just around the corner, the video card market will take some interesting turns. Let me share my opinion from years of video card upgrades (from pre-Windows 3 days).

Don't bother with over year old cards unless you can get an exchange policy if it doesn't perform. It's just not worth it.

Look at other etailers like compgeeks.com and see if they offer you a nice 5700 or such that you can get the numbers on. I have in the house a fx5500/256M, fx5600/128M and in my machine the fx5700le/128M. Doom 3 is on preorder and will arrive soon. It should be interesting to see if this under 90 buck card will be OK.

Bob

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Re: I wouldn't.
Aug 4, 2004 1:13AM PDT

i didn't know u played computer games...
anyways I just figured since it runs about in line with a 9700Pro/5800U it would be a good deal for only $134.
On THG it was keeping up with most tests, and didn't appear to fall behind. I know that it is very old, since it's not one but two family series behind (It is GeForce 4 and current nVidia is GeForce 6) I don't really want to play Doom 3, since it's a horror game, and none of the other super high-res games (FarCry, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, X2?) the most demanding thing I play is Halo, I thought since my GeForce FX 5200 can play that w/o Dynamic Shawdows or Specular, this card which is a large performance leap would play with Specualar and/or Dynamic Shadows. I know that for the other games I play it should be fine (UT2K4 and Warcraft 3 are the other graphics intensive ones, Empire Earth and The Sims just don't push the graphics very hard, which is good for me because I don't like updating hardware all the time)
So I guess the GeForce4 Ti-4800SE is going to stay in the past, and the Radeon 9600XT is what I should order (I was going to order it anyways, I just saw the Ti-4800 and figured it might be worth a shot, and to see what others had to say about this card)
I keep reading of people who use a Ti-4600 with no problem, would this outperform the Ti-4600? I don't know if the SE is a value tagging or a good tagging (The reason I this is because for nVidia XT = value card verson, for ATi XT = Top of the line)
Well, I just thought since so many people have good luck with an older Ti-4200 or Ti-4600 (they bought these cards awhile ago) and they say the cards work fine for most games, I thought the top dog the GF4 Ti's would be a good buy.
Guess not...oh well
But one question that is something that the GF4 Ti brought up...I would prefer to stay with nVidia since their nView software isn't a bad addition, the card is just sorta slow.
The GF4 would carry that over, does ATi have something like nView w/o all the GREEN (Yeah, green is not my favorite color, and nVidia is ALL GREEN!) so any ideas if ATi's Catalyst Drivers have something like nView (not the multi-display part, the screen adjustment/window adjustment part, I know Catalyst has Hydra-Vision or whatever it's called for Multi-display)
Thanks

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Prices.
Aug 4, 2004 1:19AM PDT

Are volatile. All the models I mentioned were 84 bucks or less and handily outperform a fx5200.

As to a green tint, that was what was in my wallet and not on the screen. Maybe a color or contrast setting in the CRT/LCD is off?

Bob

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Re: Prices.
Aug 4, 2004 2:47AM PDT

no its the nVidia logos, the screen is fine its just all their menus are in GREEN and their symbols are GREEN since their company color is GREEN. lol

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Re: I wouldn't.
Aug 4, 2004 1:09PM PDT

Who told you that Geforce4 runs about even with the 9700 or 5800?! That's crap.

You want a powerful card at a decent price, look at newegg for the 5900XT, which can be had for about $175.

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Even though I'm NVidia biased...
Aug 4, 2004 12:49PM PDT

The techs at the computer store where I buy most of my pc parts recommended the Radeon 9600 when I was shopping for a vid card upgrade to keep up with GTA3. I have a ti4200 that can play most games- DX 1 & 2, Hitman 2 & 3, Max Payne 1 & 2, Call of Duty. It can't keep up with Far Cry either (good thing I only played the demo from MaxPC). I didn't go with the Radeon cuz I know so many people with driver problems. I'm waiting for the Ultra series cards to come down, then upgrade. No way am I gonna pay ~$300 for a vid card! I didn't even know there was a ti*4800* until I read your post. I wonder if NVidia is playing some kinda shell game with their naming convention- remember when they had the mmx cards, and were calling them G4s? I think one of the main things to consider (so I'm told) are the engine/memory clock-speeds of the card. I think my ti4200 is 550 Mhz; mebbe that's why it can play most games very well. I just looked at the specs of the card you linked, and it looks very much as mine, 'cept my card isn't AGP 8X! Hmmm....Well, newegg is a pretty good place to look at user reviews. I was looking at some cards at Circuit City, and the guy recomended I try some XFX card, and if I didn't like it, simply return it. They didn't have too many NVidia based cards, but they had the Radeon 9600 (which was highly recommended by the CC salesman to cure my frame-rate prob w/GTA3.) Personally, I'll stick w/NVidia, after I figure out what the heck all these new card names REALLY mean Good luck. Would be interested in your choice and how well it works. I think http://www.tomshardware.com has a good guide for vid cards; last I looked, there was a chart, with benchmarks and everything. Oh, another reason I wont go ATI, is I've seen some games that specifically say it won't play on ATI based cards- like Silent Hill (crappy game.)Happy shopping.

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Re: Even though I'm NVidia biased...
Aug 5, 2004 3:55AM PDT

I think the Ti-4800SE is the same thing as the GeForce 4 Ti-4600-8X (I think they rebranded it as 4800 just to diferentiate from the 4600 w/4X and the 4600 w/8X)
And to reply to the guy above you, the GeForce4 Ti-4800SE will run on the heels (and in one test faster) than the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra (this was in January 2003) and was pre-Forceware 5x.xx it was on Forceware 47.xx or 43.xx I think, but I know it wasn't 53.06 and couldn't have been on 56.72, no way in hell it was 60.00/61.xx
So I think when using the drivers made for the GeForce4 Ti on a GeForce FX card, it would let the GF4 run with the more optimized drivers, I know that the GF4 would run better than my FX 5200 (the GF4 MX440 card can beat the GF FX 5200 in some situations, and don't question me on it since I have seen THG's benches, and I OWN BOTH CARDS IN QUESTION and have tried them out, the GF4 MX can own the 5200 in Halo, IDK how or why it just can)
But anyways, the GF4 Ti would be what I would buy if I needed a decent performing $130 VIVO card that wouldn't be in a computer that would ever touch 3D graphics, and knowing that the GF4 would run my VIVO needs (the next best nVidia VIVO card is a $200 5900XT, or from ATI, a $150 Radeon 9600 AIW)
So I guess the 9600XT or the Radeon 9800 which I am looking to order if I can find one from a decent e-tailer w/o paying 2x what it's worth, is what I am going to get.
But thanks for posting opinon about the GF4 Ti card, I would buy one if I needed non-3D apps and VIVO support,using the 4800 would be good for basic VIVO needs right?
Thanks in advance

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Re: Even though I'm NVidia biased...
Aug 5, 2004 11:10AM PDT

Good luck on your choice. I like newegg for user reviews, but I recently discovered tigerdirect sometimes have specials that beat newegg's prices. And thanks for educating me on the ti4800 thing.

As to the vivo thing: my ti4200, made by leadtek, has it, and I had zero problems in PVR recording, or recording from another source like a vcr. The only hassle I had was having to run the cabling from cable box to vid card, so I bought a dedicated tv capture card, split the coax cable to my cable modem, and I can record all non premium channels (need the cable box to decode the preium signal). Waay cool to surf the net while watching tv. And it captures in many different formats. The tv capture card is also made by Leadtek and can be found on newegg for around $45. So if you buy both the Radeon and Leadtek card from newegg, you may get a break on shipping. Oh, the card has an output also, but I never use that, but nice option. If you have probs with the ati drivers, you heard it here! Wink Good luck on your card choice.

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There's nothing like research...
Aug 5, 2004 3:10PM PDT

.
In the September 2004 (which is out now, at least here in NYC) issue of a magazine called "Computer Shopper" (don't know if you can find it online, but if not, it is well worth buying it!) at pp. 117, there is a pretty good article presicely about Graphic card. I think it costs like $5 and it's worth it to get a cheap advice!
.

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Re: There's nothing like research...
Aug 5, 2004 10:39PM PDT

Thanks for the advice on the maazine, I probly cannot buy it for another week or two, since I live in the middle of the United States.
I have the ATI add-in TV Capture card, so if I get the Radeon (right now its a 92% chance) I could run the ATI capture card right along with my ATI graphics card, I think I would have less driver conflict too since the ATI capture card I have (TV Wonder VE) uses the Catalyst drivers so it would work better with the Catalyst for the Radeon, over the Forceware FX (Is it Forceware FX or Detonator FX?) for my GeForce FX card.
Well thanks for the advice, I don't think the Ti-4800 is worth my money, since I play 3-D games more than I use VIVO, but Asus makes almost all the Radeon 9xxx cards with VIVO, except the one I want, if anyone knows of the ASUS Radeon 9600Pro or 9600XT w/VIVO please tell me, it would be a very nice thing and it's cheaper than the AIW Radeon 9600XT ($180 on Newegg, if I am gonna pay that I would get the Radeon 9700 AIW for $199, since I cannot afford either, however, I would just like a VIVO 9600XT or 9600Pro)
Well thanks again