Simviation Forum - Graphics Card?

Mar 9^th, 2003 at 9:36am

Project_Gmax Offline
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His Infernal Majesty

Posts: 8

Hi
After 3 years and a few problems ( Windows ME Angry

) i have decided that its time to change graphics card. I have a Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 and even though it is a few years old i have to say its still gives good frames. I have all the sliders at max and play at 1152x864 and i get around 9FPS up to 30++.I have been researching and found some good cards but i would like to have some feed back from anyone who has the following cards, or knows of them...

Asus V8170DDR/SE/T/P/128M GeFORCE4 MX440SE 128MB AGP TV-OUT

Sapphire Ati RADEON 9100 128MB DDR TV-OUT+DVI RETAIL

I have chosen these two becasue they both seem good competitors and seem to have good system specs. The added fact that they both have 128MB ram is good (ATi has DDR). Another factor for choosing these two is the price which is just above 100Euros Wink

Feedback or any comments would be really helpful Cheesy

PG

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Reply #1 - Mar 9^th, 2003 at 12:43pm

congo Offline
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Check out this excellent benchmark comparison.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/vgacharts-02.html

For my money, the Gf4 TI4200 64mb cards are worth looking at. As seen in the benchmarks, the 64mb cards are sometimes faster than their 128mb sisters.

This is because they use faster RAMDAC memory chips.
When buying a video card, the graphics processor engine and the speed of the ramdacs on those cards are more important to me than the manufacturer.

I don't see the radeon 9100 in the list, but the difference between the 9000 and the 9000 pro is staggering, so get the right card if you go Radeon.

If you can find a GF4 MX460 or a GF4 TI4200, it will be an improvement over the MX440.

Look around carefully, there is always a cheap 64mb TI4200 lurking somewhere, and don't worry about it not being 128mb, you won't even notice the difference, in fact, it could be faster, try to locate a cheap "special edition" or "overclockers" GF4 TI4200 64mb card with fast RAMDACS.

Good Luck

Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD

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Reply #2 - Mar 9^th, 2003 at 1:48pm

Project_Gmax Offline
Lieutenant Colonel
His Infernal Majesty

Posts: 8

Well after a bit more of research and help from the website supplied above i was able to find a graphics card i thnk is perfect Cheesy

.....but....the problem is now, that i have to convince my dad to buy it Sad

and i have to upgrade from my 230W power supply to a 300W? i have got a AMD Athlon 1000MHz. I also decided to upgrade my RAM from 384 to 512MB. What else do u reccomend? have i missed any crucial things out?
Below is the specs of the graphics card

Vidio Card SPARKLE GEFORCE4 TI4200

Price: € 200,26

Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200-8X
Clock: 250 MHz
Tipo Memoria: 128 MB DDR
Clock Memoria: 512 MHz DDR
Interfaccia Memoria: 128 bit
RAMDAC: 350 MHz
Bus Type: AGP 8X / 4X / 2X
Supporto Driver: Windowsxp, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows 98
DVI
VIVO

Main Cahracteristics

nfiniteFX II Engine for full programmability
Accuview -high-resolution antialiasing
nView display technology
Motore Lightspeed Memory Architecture II
Shadow Buffers
hardware lighting
texture compressor DirectX ed S3TC
Hardware accelerated real-time shadows

True, reflective bump mapping
Z-correct bump mapping
Phong-style lighting effects on bump maps with reflections

Rendering engine 2D High-performance
Optimized for 32-, 24-, 16-, 15- ed 8bpp
Multi-buffering (double,triple o quadruple) for fluid motion
Riproduction HDTV/DVD High-quality

video re-prducer High-definition (HDVP) for reproduction of full-screen and full-frame di video HDTV e DVD

Operating system
UDA (NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture)
OpenGL 1.3 e previous versions
DirectX 8.1 e previous versions

OTher
Out Connectors: a D-SUB 15 pin, a Mini din 9 pin for the VIVO function and a DVI (fino a SXGA)
A signal cable for the VIVO function

PG

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Reply #3 - Mar 10^th, 2003 at 3:25pm

congo Offline
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Make BIOS your Friend
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You are on the right track getting a new power supply.

Your RAM upgrade is a good idea but get the video card first. Your system is becoming slightly dated and I wouldn't spend any more money on it. The new video card is going to go into your next computer!

The Sparkle is undoubtably a good graphics card, but that price tag is frightening. Seems like U.K. prices are inflated when it comes to graphics cards.

I tried to be subtle, but now I'll be blunt. The 128mb GF4 TI4200's are slower than the 64mb versions and cost more. So, they are a bad choice for the budget conscious gamer. They are better for non gaming applications.

Also, 8X AGP is a waste of time in the GF4 chipset because it's not supported properly and your motherboard doesn't have 8X AGP anyway.
You also pay for the privilage of having 8X AGP that doesn't work.

Look for "old stock", a 64mb, 4X AGP model, it will perform better and you might get one at a much reduced price.

Big online stores are the go. They discount the products which are no longer trendy, and this is exactly what you want.

Here are a couple cards to look for........

http://www.gamingillustrated.com/xfx4200.php

http://www.explosivelabs.com/reviews/gainward_ti4200-64mb&128mb/

These are very interesting albeit old, links. There is much to learn there. Note the benchmarks carefully for comparisons and you'll see what I'm on about. (you'll see the "next page" links at the bottom of each page)

Happy Shopping

Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD

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Reply #4 - Mar 11^th, 2003 at 6:08am

Project_Gmax Offline
Lieutenant Colonel
His Infernal Majesty

Posts: 8

Man u know a lot of stuff, thanks for the help and now i agree im gonna go for a :
CREATIVE LABS
3D Blaster 4 TI4200 64MB DDR AGP TV DVI
Scheda Video con chip GeForce4 TI4200 AGP 2X 4X NVIDIA;mem. 64Mb DDR a 500Mhz;T&L;uscita TV-VGA-DVI;processore grafico a 256-bit
at 182 Euros

thats the best offer i was able to find so far...

but i guess thats good Wink

thanks again

PG

http://www.heartagram.com

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Reply #5 - Mar 11^th, 2003 at 12:14pm

congo Offline
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Make BIOS your Friend
Australia

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Posts: 3663

Ouch! That's US$200! In the US, the TI4200's are US$115. That's 104 euros!

It's the same deal here in Australia, We have to pay AU$275 or US$170. Someone is having a go at us!

I'm a little better off at 153 euros here.

Now be nice to DAD and tell him I said Hi and how important this is to your future as a pilot!

Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD

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