GF4 Ti4200, GF FX 5600, Radeon?

[dougander3]

My son wants a better graphics card...he has GF2 GTS-v-32meg on a K7VZA with 384 MB SDRAM. He plays Max Payne, Deus EX, Half Life, etc. Budget is a big concern. Would is recommended out of these?

GF4 Ti4200 64mb $73
GF4 Ti4200 128mb $92
GF FX 5600 128mb $109
One of the Radeons under $100




Thanks. Doug

[bob05]

Since you don't want a Radeon over $100, I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend the 5600 Ultra. Easily the best card out of those choices (the Ti4200 128meg is up there too, but the 5600 Ultra beats it in most tests I've seen). With better drivers, it is a very good card. Period. :t

[killer_teddy]

dougander3 Is that the 5600 Ultra or just a normal 5600?

[bob05]

Originally posted by killer_teddy
dougander3 Is that the 5600 Ultra or just a normal 5600?

Ahh, didn't catch that. I should still think a 5600 NU is better than a Ti4200, mainly because of DX 9 and OpenGl 1.4 support (like a 9600 NP is better than a Ti4200 :cool: ).

[scoob19]

http://www.komusa.com/giatira9612d2.html

never heard of Gigacube, but its a pretty cheap price.

or this one..$110 shipped

http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_viewitem.asp?idproduct=1404&showit=1

[dougander3]

5600 at $109
5600 ultra at $126

From Pricewatch.com

[Rugor]

Of the cards you listed, the Gf4 Ti4200 128MB is the best value for your son's money unless you get one with slow RAM.

Unless you use AA and AF it's faster in most legacy apps than the FX5600, and the FX5600 is much more a DX8.1 card with DX9 support than a DX9 card. The sub U$100 Radeons aren't really worth it in comparison to the Ti4200.

Also the vast majority of the "Ultra" cards you see at the very low price points are Gainward cards, and their regular model has the word "Ultra" in the name so sometimes pricewatch will point you to something that isn't quite what you're looking for.

[dougander3]

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

Looking at bandwidths...

GF2 MX400 2.7 GB/sec $27
GF FX 5200 6.4 $60
GF4 Ti4200 8.1 $73
GF FX 5600 8.8 $109
GF FX 5600ultra 11.2 $126
GF FX 5900ultra 27.2 $449

Looks like a direct correlation between bw and $, huh! Now is bandwidth the main spec that I ought to compare?

From what I've read today I'm leaning toward 5600 or 5600 ultra...Isn't DX 9.0 capable important to these games?

[Rugor]

Bandwidth is important, but not the main spec, as both core clock and core performance are important.

The main reason why bandwidth correlates to price is because RAM chips are probably the most expensive components on a graphics board. Higher bandwidth requires either faster chips, (more expensive to buy) or a wider bus with more traces (more expensive to implement). So bandwidth does correlate very well to price, even when it's not a direct correlation to performance.

Yes DX9 capability is important, but in most cases the FX5600 series runs a DX8.1 path anyway, because it is very slow in a full DX9 environment. If DX9 performance is important you would be better off with a Radeon 9600 or 9600 Pro. They are priced comparably to the FX5600 series, but have better DX9 performance.

If DX8.1 and current games are important, then the Ti4200 is a better deal. The FX5600 isn't enough faster in DX8.1 games and is too slow when running a full DX9 path. The GfFX line have not been Nvidia's most successful architecture.

[bob05]

Originally posted by Rugor
Bandwidth is important, but not the main spec, as both core clock and core performance are important.

The main reason why bandwidth correlates to price is because RAM chips are probably the most expensive components on a graphics board. Higher bandwidth requires either faster chips, (more expensive to buy) or a wider bus with more traces (more expensive to implement). So bandwidth does correlate very well to price, even when it's not a direct correlation to performance.

Yes DX9 capability is important, but in most cases the FX5600 series runs a DX8.1 path anyway, because it is very slow in a full DX9 environment. If DX9 performance is important you would be better off with a Radeon 9600 or 9600 Pro. They are priced comparably to the FX5600 series, but have better DX9 performance.

If DX8.1 and current games are important, then the Ti4200 is a better deal. The FX5600 isn't enough faster in DX8.1 games and is too slow when running a full DX9 path. The GfFX line have not been Nvidia's most successful architecture.

I (respectfully) agree with you up until the Ti4200 over the 5600 in DX 8 (well, sorta). They probably are equal and the 5600 for sure beats the Ti4200 when AA/AF turned on (heck with AA/AF turned all the way up, the 5200 Ultra beats the Ti4200 :eek: ). (As seen here: http://www20.tomshardware.com/graph...d_guide-13.html ). And I'd (personally) I'd rather have a card that supports Quasi-DX 9 than one that doesn't support it at all. I basically saying I would like to have the extra head room of AA/AF and DX 9 for the future should I ever need it. :t

[Rugor]

I don't know about equal for the 4200 and the 5600, but I will go for equivalent.

From what I've seen the Ti4200 is faster without AA/AF and the FX5600 is faster with AA/AF, so that could be a wash.

However the 4200 is cheaper, and as I've said before, I don't think enough of the FX5600's DX9 capacity to call it a selling point.

[dougander3]

The need for a new graphics card was brought out with the recent purchase of Max Payne 2...it recommends DX9

So, with all the data you've given, I'm leaning towards these from Newegg...


VGA PALIT Geforce FX5600 128MB 8X AGP, DVI, TV-Out Retail $110
Specifications:
Chipset: Nvidia FX5600
Memory: 128MB DDR
AGP: 8X
Resolutions: up to 2048x1536@75Hz
Graphics Core: 256-bit
Core Clock: 325MHz
RAMDAC: Dual 400MHz
Memory Interface: 128MB/128-bit
81 Million Vertices/sec
Fill Rate: 1.3 Billion texel/sec.
Memory Bandwidth: 8.8GB/Sec
Ports: VGA DB-15 port, S-Video, DVI-I


SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV BULK
$113
Specifications:
Chipset:ATI RADEON 9600
Memory:128MB DDR
Bus:8X AGP
New SMARTSHADER 2.1 technology allows users to experience complex, movie-quality effects in next-generation 3D games and applications
Industry's only 4-pipeline graphics solution in its 2nd generation, providing twice the rendering power of any currently competing product.
First to fully support DirectX® 9.0 and the latest OpenGL® functionality
Ports:VGA + DVI + S-Video Out


What's your vote?

And thanks so much for helping, Doug

[PNakatsu]

I dont know tons, but the 5600 FX cards barely support DX9. If your son wants to play Halflife 2 or almost any other DX9 game, the Radeon Card is a far better chioce, in my opinion.

I'd go Radeon over Nvidia any day of the week. Jump on ebay, you might be able to snag a 9600 PRO OEM for the same price. Who knows, you might just get lucky. :D

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Got to agree with the call on the r9600 Pro, its the "ti4200" of the moment

--Jakk:t

[dougander3]

Just looked on ebay...something caught my eye...one fellow is selling his 9600pro because of conflicts with his Via chipset while playing some games....hmmm...my son has a K7VZA with a Via KT133.

How widespread is this conflict?

Thanks, Doug