Should I bother upgrading?

[KingsFan707]

I've had my GeForce4 ti4200 for about a year now and it's done everything I've wanted and more. However, I'm looking to upgrade soon with HL2 and Doom coming soon. My question is would it be worth buying say.. a 9600 pro or would I be better off saving for a 9700pro. I want a card that's a decent jump from my 4200 but I'm not sure a 9600 would be a big leap. A 9700pro on the other hand probably would but they are still pretty expensive. Any suggestions on what I should do>? Thanks

 

[Parhelia]

the ti 4200 will be playable with HL2 but with directx 8.0, so directx 8.0 will play faster this game but with less graphics quality. if u want an ati, so ur going to the directx9, so ull have better quality, and the radeons are verry fast with HL2, so a radeon 9600pro is faster than a FX5900 ultra in this game, and the 9800pro are too expensive, and the difference between 9700pro and the 9800pro are small in performance, so i suggest if u want DIRECTX 9 so go for a 9600pro, its cheap, fast, and verry well compatible with DIRECTX9 games.

 

[cleeve]

Get a 9700 NON-pro or a 9800 NON-pro.

Both are much better than a 9600 PRO, but are very reasonably priced (around $200)

You'll see a huge difference, especially with AA enabled.

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Radeon 9500 (modded to PRO w/8 pixel pipelines)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3529

 

[RCPilot]

Your card is fine. Buy a new card after, & only after the new games come out. I'm not convinced that any of the the current cards are going to be the best ones for HL2 & Doom 3.

Once they're out, then look at the current crop of cards that are sold at that time. You'll be further ahead IMO.

That's my take on things as they are now.

Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!

 

[ufo_warviper]

Visually, there would be a leap between a Ti4200 and a 9600 Pro. Performance-wise they are very similar. I think upgrading from a Ti4200 to a 9600 Pro would be a poor decision. IF you had a GeForce2 (or most other Graphics Cards) I would absolutely reccomend upgrading to a 9600 Pro. In fact, the Ti4200 is often suggested as an "alternative" to the 9600 Pro if you can't afford the $$$ for the visually superior card. Its also visually superior because it tolerate Ansiotropic Filtering & FSAA much better than the Ti4200 which would be much slower when these settings are enabled. If you are dead-bent on upgrading now, then go for at least a 9700 Pro. Otherwise, I think its a idea to hold out and see if the HL2 & DOOM }|{ meet your performance & visual expectations. I'm personally going to be playing obth of these games on a Ti4200, and visually I'm pretty sure they'll look pretty darn good on your Ti4200 card, just not as superior as the 9600 Pro.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!