ti4200; 64mb or 128mb?!

[Cydewayz]

Sometime next week I plan on buying a new Graphics card. The only problem is which one? Basically I want a card with the best cost/performance value, and ONE THAT WILL RUN NEXT GENERATION GAMES! I'm most inclined to buy a ti4200 at the moment, as it looks the most promising, but i dont know whetherto get the 64mb version or the 128mb version.


I know that in many benchmarking tests (3dmark 2001, and games that run well off high memory bandwith--quake III, the 64MB variants of the GeForce4 Ti4200 family actually score better becuase of a higher 500 MHz DDR SDRAM clock, while the 128MB variants run with 444 MHz, supposedly to save on cost. This drop in clock speed actually leads the 64MB variant to perform faster compared to the 128MB card.

However it is also said that the 64mb version will have a lot of trouble running next gen games (http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=gainward4200&page=9) becuase of the reduced amount of memory. And, becuase the 128mb version can overclock so well (becuase of the low memory clock) i'm really not sure which one to buy. Remember money is an issue--I dont want to spend all my green. Any suggestions?

-AMD XP1700, 256mb DDR
-and old f***ing geforce 256

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Cydewayz on 06/23/02 05:13 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[juin]

With time 128 mb version will be faster but Geforce dont seen to go faster with more memory.ATI 128 mb go faster in any benchmark except Quake wich is really old.

In any case Geforce 4200 are not faster that 8500 after overcloking

cheap, cheap. Think cheap, and you'll always be cheap.AMD version of semi conducteur industrie

 

[starvinmarvin]

I have a new Gainward (Ultra 650/XP 128MB Golden Sample) GF4 Ti4200. The main benefit of 128mb version seems to be a small performance edge in a very few recent games where the extra 64mb of memory pays off, a gain of 3 to 5 per cent - no big deal ! If price is important then go for the 64mb version and save yourself $40 or $50. And, hey, who says you can't overclock the 64mb card, too ? Both versions are in reality way better than needed for 95% of all currently available games, so they should both handle your gaming very well indeed. I'm running a 1.6GHz Dell with regular SDRAM and yet I can run most games easily at 1024x768 with 4X or 4XS Anti-Aliasing set to ON. If I ever get a really fast computer with good ventilation maybe I'll over-clock the card and see what it can REALLY DO !!

 

[chuck232]

Well future games and AA/aniso uses the extra RAM quite well. So overclocking will bring the RAM speed up while the extra 64MB of RAM will help also. With a 64MB card, you can only overclock so far. Is it ok for you to spend $200 for a video card? You really won't see much difference between it and the 128MB card anyways and you'll probably save $30.

As a side offer, you could look at the 128MB versions of the R8500/LE. They give almost the same performance as the Ti4200 128MBs except they are about $50 cheaper. Especially with the new driver updates, ATi cards look to have potential. Also wait a bit until R8800 comes out then the R8500/LE cards will come down in price cause the R8800 is supposed to replace the R8500 series. Also the R8500s offer very good aniso compared to the GF4 cards.

What's the deal with lampshades, I mean it's a lamp, why would you want a shade?

 

[nexus_alpha]

Juin you are going to get yourself in trouble with this post. Though I half agree with you in FSAA ti 4200 owns the benchmarks however if you plan to play alot of 3d shooters anisotropic filtering is the way go and ATI's solution is fantastic. ATI's cards also are quite cheap.

oncering the 64 mb versus 128 mb debate the 64 will run future games but by the end of 2003 early 2004 games needing 128 mb will be around (though very few in number). THe 64 mb cards could then quite potentially be slower than the 128 mb versions, notice I say potentially. However the difference is probably will not be large.

 

[Cydewayz]

the ti4200(64mb) and the R8500LE(128mb)are about the same price $140-$150 as far as i can tell. arn't they nearly equal in Performance?

 

[chuck232]

The GF4 Ti takes the lead usually by a bit, although the performance is very close. the 128MB Radeons have either 3.6ns or 3.3ns BGA RAM which tend to give very nice overclocks. I have a Radeon 8500LE 128MB retail (made by ATi) and got the 3.6ns RAM with it.

The lowest priced GF4 Ti I've seen is the Gainward which doesn't have TV-OUT or DVI. The R8500LE just doesn't have the DVI. The Gainward is $154 and I've seen the retail R8500LE 128MB for ~$140 and it should drop further in a bit cause R8800 is coming out.

What's the deal with lampshades, I mean it's a lamp, why would you want a shade?

 

[Cruiser]

I´d get a 128MB version!!! It´ll perform better with the upcomming games, and at higher resolutions. It will also perform better with large scale detail (like on flight simulators and such).

 

[oymd]

check out Anandtech's latest article....it will give u some good insight...

http://www.anandtech.com/index.html