Advice on GEForce 4 video card

[vat_man]

We've got some money coming to us that can be spent income-tax free on computer equipment. I've already got 512meg more memory pencilled in, but the budget means I can stretch to a GEForce 4 128mb video card to replace the ol' GEForce 2 in there at the moment.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice as to what might the better cards to be looking out for in this area, and what recommendations they might have, and what sort of frame rates I might expect.

Thanks guys.

 

[Concept]

Well, my friend has a GEForce4 Ti4600 which is the best you can get in terms of GEForce 4's. It said he could expect 125fps in most games. In all games hes played though, he's gotten no more than 85.

I don't know much about this subject but I heard good reviews about the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. You can read a little about it here. Sorry I wasn't a bigger help vat_man.

 

[Solid Fro]

I would recommend a GeForce 4 Ti4600 or 4800. Both cards come with AGP 8X, if you ever need the extra bandwidth. These are extremely fast cards and will run just about any game throw at it with fast frame rates. Gainward, Leadtek, MSI, VisionTek, and PNY all make fast 4600 and 4800 cards.

If you want the absolute speed champion, check out ATi's 9700 and 9800 pro. While it may be the king, it is extremely expensive, $399 USD. Also, ATi's driver quality is no where near nVidia's.

I don't recommend any GeForce FX cards. They too, are expensive, but not as fast at ATi's best cards.

Check out these sites for card reviews:

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/index.html
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/videocards/index.php

 

[vat_man]

I don't think I can stretch to a 4600 - maybe a 4400, definitely a 4200. I was thinking about Gainward, but they're pretty rare over here. Thanks for the other brands - that is handy. I've had good experience with other Leadtek gear.

 

[Tom M]

Don't get a GF4 MX card, it lacks several key features that are present in many of todays games (Pixel shaders which appear in water effects mostly.) (The Ti cards are good though)
I would also wait a teeny bit to get a card that has full DirectX9 hardware support (No Geforce card out does as of yet to my knowledge.) Early next year (starting with Doom3) several big games will hit the market, and you don't have a DX9 card, you'll miss out on some great effects.

 

[Solid Fro]

The GeForce FX 5600 and 5800 have DX9 support.

 

[Matrixhasu77]

I have a 8x AGP Ti4200. It gives me really solid framerates.. usually 60 fps or higher. It is the lowest of the Ti series though. Still, for under 200 its a decent card.

 

[Shannon]

I have a GeForce 4 Ti4200. I forget what AGP it is.

 

[zeno]

Dang, all these terms and I have no clue what they mean...

 

[Shannon]

Originally posted by zeno
Dang, all these terms and I have no clue what they mean...

AGP - Advanced Graphics Port
Most modern day video cards require an AGP port. There are different AGP rates - 2x, 4x and 8x. 8x is the best and gives the best results when playing 3D games. While 8x may be the best, not all motherboards and video cards support AGP 8x.

fps - Frames Per Second
This how fast the game runs. A fast fps results in nice smooth character animation, while a low fps results in slow gameplay, rough character animation and sometimes even the game crashing.

GeForce
One of the most popular video cards around, made by video card giant nVidia. I have a GeForce 4 Ti4200 128mb DDR card. There are 2 types of GeForce 4's - GeForce MX's and GeForce Ti's - Ti's being the better. 4200 is simply the name of card. In the GeForce 4 Ti range, there are 4200, 4400, 4600 and 4800 cards. 128mb DDR refers to how much video memory the card has - I'm to educated about this department so you might want to ask more "computer-minded" members, such as Viper Zero.

ATi
Another video card giant. ATi make the Radeon video cards, which are fastly become very popular. The ATi Radeon 9800 Pro is their best card.

 

[ALPHA]

Ahahah I have a Geforce 2 GTS Pro AGP 4x running at 2x cause my mobo sucks - 2x AGP is terrible - you can't get more than 40fps in CS because of the bandwidth limitations.

Damn I want a cheap AGP4x Mobo with USB 2x and support for 2.5ghz at least.

 

[Tom M]

Originally posted by Viper Zero
The GeForce FX 5600 and 5800 have DX9 support.

Are they out yet (and in Australia because that is where vat_man is) I think the 5800 is out, but the other 2 I havent seen around as of yet. (supposedly in April sometime)

 

[zeno]

Originally posted by Eddy
AGP - Advanced Graphics Port
Most modern day video cards require an AGP port. There are different AGP rates - 2x, 4x and 8x. 8x is the best and gives the best results when playing 3D games. While 8x may be the best, not all motherboards and video cards support AGP 8x.

fps - Frames Per Second
This how fast the game runs. A fast fps results in nice smooth character animation, while a low fps results in slow gameplay, rough character animation and sometimes even the game crashing.

GeForce
One of the most popular video cards around, made by video card giant nVidia. I have a GeForce 4 Ti4200 128mb DDR card. There are 2 types of GeForce 4's - GeForce MX's and GeForce Ti's - Ti's being the better. 4200 is simply the name of card. In the GeForce 4 Ti range, there are 4200, 4400, 4600 and 4800 cards. 128mb DDR refers to how much video memory the card has - I'm to educated about this department so you might want to ask more "computer-minded" members, such as Viper Zero.

ATi
Another video card giant. ATi make the Radeon video cards, which are fastly become very popular. The ATi Radeon 9800 Pro is their best card.

Eddy, again, makes my life more clear. Thanks.

 

[bondy_1625]

ive got a geforce 4 mx420 is that n e good?

 

[Tom M]

Originally posted by bondy_1625
ive got a geforce 4 mx420 is that n e good?

It's a good consumer card, but the MX series of the GF4 are actually closer to the GF2 series in terms of power. It lacks several features (pixel shaders being the big one) that the GF3 line introduced.
If it can run the games you want to play, then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[ALPHA]

A Geforce 2 GTS Pro how ever can smoke a Geforce 4 MX but cannot outperform any of the Ti series. However since the cards are old they lack some of the features mentioned.

 

[Shannon]

Originally posted by zeno
Eddy, again, makes my life more clear. Thanks.

No probs.

 

[Race Idiot]

How much do you think a decent ti4200 should go for?

Because i'm probably going to get one some time this week. Also are there any major differences in performance depending on the manufacturer?