Geforce 4 ti4200 or FX ??

[VFR_Steve]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-10-03 AT 06:43PM (EDT)[/font][p]Hi everyone,

I am thinking about upgrading my video card ready for FS2004. I'm not looking to spend stupid money but kind of a tradeoff between acceptable performance and value.

My question is should I get the Geforce ti4200 or wait untill the FX cards are available in a few weeks. I would probably get the mid range FX card.

Any advice would be gratfully appreciated, my poor old (overclocked) GF4 MX420 is about ready to explode!!

Regards,
Steve

[tjkotula]

Could you please supply us with the rest of your system specs? It will help us determine whether or not you should upgrade your video card or get a new processor/motherboard/RAM combo.

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Tim Kotula
KDTW/KPTK/KPLN

XP 1800+ o/ced to XP2200+ @ 1.8 Ghz
MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard
512 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
OC Systems Enhanced GeForce 4 Ti4200 64 MB DDR o/ced to 350/700 Mhz.
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
11217 3D Marks

Pentium 4 - n. A fast, but often overpriced central processing unit capable of emptying the wallets of the common people and causing much financial woe. ;-) :-lol

[unkoman]

If you are going for the mid- ranged geforce fx, I recommend going for the radeon 9500 series or the 9600 series. They are priced at around $150-200 and it perfromes a little better than the geforce cards.

[fingers2005]

As of now, ATI's cards are the much better value than nVidia. nVidia's "best" graphics card (FX 5900) is $500, which only slightly outperforms ATI's Radeon 9800. I think that, for what you will be doing, look at Radeon 9500, 9600, or possibly the old 9700.

Best of Luck!

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[VFR_Steve]

Many thanks for your advice,

my system spec is:

AMD Athlon 1.2,
384 RAM,
GF4 MX420 (soon to be changed)
60 gig HDD,
17" Monitor etc...

At the moment I get a steady (locked) 20 fps with FS2002 + all my addons.. but FS2004 is just round the corner!

I have never tried a Radeon card before mainly due to all the complaints that I have seen on forums. You really think these will be better than the mid ranged FX cards?

Regards,
Steve

[shwncplnd]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-12-03 AT 06:03PM (EDT)[/font][p]Either way you go you'll probably be ready for ACOF. You might want to see about getting some more RAM though.

Shawn

[rstansbury]

I used to be a Nvidia fan, would never consider putting an ATI card in my machine. Well that's all changed, my ATI 9800 is great, the drivers are stable and I can now crankup the quality with very little performance decrease! the 9800 replaced my Geforce 4 4600, which was not a bad card at all. The prblem with the 4600 was when I cranked up the quality, performance took a hit big time. Anyway do not rule out an ATI 9600 card (in your price range from what you stated).

Rob Stansbury
3.06 p4
ATI 9800
1g Memory
Audigy Sound
845pe chipset

[GeForceFreek]

well the 5900 is certainly not $500, well it might be, but at komplett.co.uk I have seen an Asus one for £350, and the 9800 Pro there was much dearer

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[VFR_Steve]

Many thanks for all your help and views,
I think my system should run FS2004 fairly well, especially when I get my new vid card.

Regards,
Steve

[ilove2ski42]

I personally don't think so. You have an Athlon 1.2 ghz, which is slow by today's standards. That processor slows down your system a lot more than your graphics card does. FS is primarily CPU dependant, not graphics card, so you'd notice almost no performance gain with a better graphics card. Shell out some money for a new motherboard/CPU combo (my personal advice would be an Asus A7N8X motherboard and an Athlon 2600+, get that combo for around 200-230 on www.newegg.com). You'll also want some more RAM, preferablly synced with the FSB. I'd get some PC2700 DDR RAM (DDR333), at least 512 mb of it.

If you really want a new graphics card, go for the Ati Radeon, in the 9500-9800 range (the pro versions are better, but more expensive).



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