New GCard options, what the hell is the difference?

[DocEvi1]

Hi.
Like most people I hate it when people ask the same question over and over again, but I think I am about to join the club.

At the moment I have an Hercules Prophet 4500 and it is starting to show it's age (already). I am about to start as a student and want to splash out on a decent card before Uni. I have a 1.4Tbird, 512SD Ram, Win98SE. In sysopt format.

I have tried looking on the net trough google, here and more but seem to come up with a never ending list of different versions and companies, and to be honest I have absolutely no idea what is good and what is not.
I have a budget of about £150-£250 at the moment and don't really want to spend any more than that. This I think rules out the GF4 Ti4600 (I'm guessing it is the best at the moment) but brings into play a AsusTek GF4 Ti4400 128DDR. Is this any good? Are there any better cards/chipsets I should be looking for? If I wait a few weeks is anything good coming out?

As I have said I would like this card to last as long as possible, and not show it's age after 8months, presently I can't even play GTA3 at 1024*768 with a decent framerate, not terrible but still you know

Many thanks

Stefan

[BipolarBill]

You cannot get better than the ti4400 in that price range, Doc. Buy it and don't look back. It will run what you're running now with full-screen 4x anti-aliasing. If you switch that one you have to 4x AA, your frame rate will drop to 1/3 of what it is now. That effectively makes the 4400 3x as strong as what you have now.

As far as obsolescence goes, I'm still running my GF2 GTS 32MB SDRAM card and I love it - 2 years running. As a matter of fact, I picked up a GF2 GTS 32DDR yesterday as a "backup" system-tester card for $50. I will soon join you in the Ti4400 camp though. The new 4200 is proving so popular that we can snatch up the 4400 for only about $10 more here.

Although I like the new Matrox Parhelia, it's expensive and it's gaming abilities are yet to be proven. I'll be watching the reviews on that one...

[J.A.D]

The 4400 tis do seem to have come down since the 4200s are finally out. I'll have to keep a look out for the price difference. If its really only $10 more then the choice is clear

[DocEvi1]

cheers, i might just have a look round and see what prices I can get it at then.

btw, dabs.com sell it for £229.

Stefan

[NDD]

Ti4400 should be your choice. I'd just look for other brand, Asus is good but it's also more expensive

[$1500-P4 gamer]

VisionTek is cheap. Great performacne, right on par with other co.'s but less $! Easy to find, Circuit City, some Wall-Marts, Electronics Botique etc. Have had two of their cards, first was a g2mx400 and now a G3 original. No prob.s with either.

[DocEvi1]

cheers again, I'll have a look for them.

Stefan