New video card advise please!

[Ronn_Bman]

I bought a new computer 4 months ago(primarily for gaming) and have been very please with it, except for the video card.

Not knowing much, I didn't choose to upgrade the card and got the GeForce 2 MX model. Now with Neverwinter Nights in 1024X768 the video and audio jerk every 10-15 seconds. Not terribly bad, but not what I expected from my new "rig" either.

My machine is a Dell Dimension 8200 running XP with a 2 GIG processor and 256 RD Ram. I bought what I thought was a nice machine so it would last awhile, but here I am considering upgrading the video card to something more online with the rest of the machine. What do you think?

Upgrading won't be a total loss because I plan to use my old card to replace the onboard card in my son's HP, which should help his machine quite a bit by freeing up the processor and having a better card to boot, but I don't want to over do it.

Here's what I think I want.

VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB DDR Memory Graphics Card

Technical data

Video RAM: 128 MB DDR
3-D acceleration: Yes
2-D acceleration: Yes
DVD decoding: Yes
TV-out: Yes
Software: Installation CD, Adobe Acrobate Reader, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Cyberlink PowerDirector
Graphics controller: nVidia GeForce 4 Ti 4600
RAMDAC: 300 MHz
Triangles per second: 136 million
Maximum resolution: 2046 x 1526 at 60 MHz
Refresh rate: 60 to 240 Hz
Maximum color depth at 1,280 x 1,024: 32 bit (16.7 million colors)
Supported APIs: DirectX, OpenGL ICD
Interface: AGP
Compatibility: PC
PC system requirements: 266 MHz or higher CPU; AGP 2.0 compliant socket; CD-ROM drive; Windows 95 OSR2, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP; 64 MB of RAM
Warranty, labor: Lifetime
Warranty, parts: Lifetime

It's a bit more than $250, is it worth it? Will I really tell the difference enough to justify it?

[Blade]

Well if you aren't scared to buy online you can probably pick it up for around $200 at pricewatch or somewhere. As for the card only one other card on the market is in the same area especially with your processer and that is the latest radion card (don't know which one though). I would go for the GForce if you have the money because they are great and have tons of features and power. Also if your computer still runs a little slow after the video card try increasing the ram, many games optimize at 128 megs and windows will run on 128 megs as well if you have that much leaving nothing left for backround programs like a mesenger or virous scan.

lol "but I don't want to over do it." ...in that case forget the 4600 and go for a 4200 much better value [img]smile.gif[/img] ...unless you can get a cracking deal on a 4600 of course. Incidently the Radeon card the compares to the 4600 is the 9700 ..which I would highly recomend also.

[Thoran]

You can't go wrong with that setup... the GF4 is a nice card.

HOWEVER... typically, periodic jerking is caused by HDD access, not the graphics card. Since you have less than 512meg in your box you might want to think about a memory upgrade too, minimize swap file access [img]smile.gif[/img] .

[ 09-18-2002, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

[Sir Krustin]

Originally posted by Ronn_Bman: I bought a new computer 4 months ago(primarily for gaming) and have been very please with it, except for the video card. Not knowing much, I didn't choose to upgrade the card and got the GeForce 2 MX model. Now with Neverwinter Nights in 1024X768 the video and audio jerk every 10-15 seconds. Not terribly bad, but not what I expected from my new "rig" either. Here's what I think I want. VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB DDR Memory Graphics Card It's a bit more than $250, is it worth it? Will I really tell the difference enough to justify it?

Like the other guy mentioned, you might find it for less than that if you shop around but us$250 isn't really too bad a price for a SOTA video card.

Bear in mind, the problems you're seeing may not be video related. If you have a lot of background processes running, such as a virus scanner, a firewall, ICQ, and so on, you're main system bus might be choking on too much bandwidth for the video to keep up.

I have a GeForce2 MX400 64MB (DDR), and I'm quite happy with it on my 1.2Ghz Athlon T-Bird system (256mb DDR). I finished NWN without the video problems you describe (unless it's immediately after alt-TABbing to and from the desktop).

The key to running many modern games smoothly is to close all processes running in the system tray (right bottom of your screen, in the toolbar) by right-clicking and selecting "close" or "exit". Some icons may not give you the (such as Adaptec DirectCD) these can be closed using CTRL-ALT-DEL, selecting the process to be killed, and clicking "end task".

Some people recommend closing every process except "explorer", I think it would be prudent to at least leave the virus scanner running, and if you have an "always on" internet connection such as DSL or cable (like I do) you should leave your firewall up. Try these things before you condemn your video card.

Good choice on the card, btw, the GeForce4 cards (except for the Ti series) are pretty much a step back from the GeForce3, no better than a GeForce2 feature-wise.

[Ronn_Bman]

Thanks for all the advise guys!

Can someone explain the difference between the 4200, 4440, and 4600 versions of the GeForce 4ti card?

I know the price difference is drastic! The 4200 is about half the price of the 4600.

I basically play D&D style games and first person shooters, so someone please talk me out of spending this money..lol.

PS. I think my first step will be another 256mg of pc800 Rdram. I can pick it up for $80 according to pricewatch.com

[Sir Krustin]

Originally posted by Ronn_Bman: Thanks for all the advise guys! Can someone explain the difference between the 4200, 4440, and 4600 versions of the GeForce 4ti card? I know the price difference is drastic! The 4200 is about half the price of the 4600. I basically play D&D style games and first person shooters, so someone please talk me out of spending this money..lol. PS. I think my first step will be another 256mg of pc800 Rdram. I can pick it up for $80 according to pricewatch.com

When you come right down to it, the biggest difference between the three models is speed, speed, speed. How much are you willing to pay? My opinion is the 4200 is perfectly adequate and offers the best bang for the buck of *ANY* video card available *today*. You don't really need the better performance of the other cards, but if you have the money to spend - hey, why not?

As a side note, depending on the manufacturer of the specific board you plan on buying, the higher end models might have additional features such as additional hardware to interface to your TV set or non-standard monitors. Unless you have a need for such options, the 4200 is probably what you want.

The speed differences between the 42, 44 and 4600 are only measured in 10's of frames per second, from slowest to fastest the 4200 on my system has not been stressed out yet [img]smile.gif[/img] . More main memory will help with the HDD herky jerky thing, but you might also want to change your virtual memory setting to one constant size. Basicly a good rule is to take what ever your RAM amount is and double or triple it and set that as the minimum and maximum swap file size, instead of letting windows always have to change the size on the fly. This will work if you are not hurting for disk space.

[The Hunter of Jahanna]

Any of the GeForce4 TI cards will be great. I have a PNY GeForce4Ti4400 and all is well. The reason you might be having problems with your MX card is because MX cards suck!! All a GeForce MX card is, is an OLD GeForce 2 card with a new proccessor in it. Kind of like slapping a 1.5gig pent 4 into an old comodore 64 computer.

[Elif Godson]

Thank's y'all I was having a dilema on what type of card to buy also and this has helped clear the air a bit for me as well