Graphics card upgrade on a budget

[Skii]

Right you lot - opinions please

I have a Creative GF4 Ti4200 64Mb 8X AGP, and I'm thinking about upgrading, however the missus is holding the cash very tightly...(ouch)

Would a 9600 Pro be worth the upgrade considering I can get one of these for a little over £100 ?

[CrapshoT]

personally m8 i would get the 9600 pro and then sell your gf 4 ti
and take your mrs out for a little meal with what you make from it!! you would see a difference not a major one one but you would have a directx9 card then and sort of future proofing yourself as well im sure you will get some good advice on this
wont he Austin m8 lol
by the way love the sig blackie lawless never seen him for years
used to like wasp as well i used to call meself bluey clueless a p take name of his from kerrang mag years ago

[Zak33]

Skii.....a Radeon would be lovely mate. 9600 Pro is the kiddy.....over and above that Ti.....wait until you see the sharpness

YGPM too

[Ravens Nest]

I've got the 9700np and to be honest if i could go back 6 months ago i wouldnt have bought it.

The reason is that a lot of games work pretty well with the ti4200 my brother still has the geforce4, 1 gig of ram and AMD 2000+ CPU and he plays MOHAA, Battlefield 1942, Ravenshield, GTA3 & vice city and they all run very well.

I originally upgraded because Doom3 was supposed to come out by now and still hasnt, and also as HL2 has been delayed.. and i also have the feeling that by the new year you'll be able to get very good videocard deals.

just my opinion

[Mallus]

Would agree with the above. Keep the ti4200 until the next gen of cards come out and the 9700np/pro come down into your price range. You won't really notice that much of a difference (without AA) between the ti4200 and a 9600pro, well at least I didn't.

[Ravens Nest]

As mallus has said there is little speed difference between the ti4200 and a 9600 when you dont have any Antialiasing and anistrophic filtering turned on.

So imagine when you turn all the eye-candy on in the drivers the 9600 will be running slower than your ti4200 does now but granted it will look amazing.

Also games for DX9 are in short supply at the moment and in the new year that will change, then will be the time to upgrade.

[Trickle]

This is my take. I've looked at the market as I was planning to give my GF4Ti2000 away and buy a 9800 non pro (even at £200) for what was due to be the iminent release of HL2.... but,

As far as other games that are currently out, are there any that GF4's struggle with in traditional non AA reses? Aparently Halo runs ok on a GF4. The halo benches I've seen are only geared to 9800 vs the newer Nvidia ones which is annoying.

A 9600 would be better for DX9 games from the benches I've seen... however there arnt any DX9 games yet :/ The upcoming 9600XT looks rather good and possibly radically different from current 9600's. Nvidia has a mid range card also due out before Christmas. 9700's are not overly available and non pro ones arnt worth it. 9800 non pro's are worth it imho, but are still sticking to the £200 price point...

... which is a little too high to spend on something just to play current games with AA.

[Mallus]

I have a ti4200 and 9700pro setups running next to each other. With no AA turned on the difference is not worth the money. As for Halo, well that runs crap on either machine unfortunately. Sloppy port methinks

[Skii]

Thanks for the input peeps

Heres the sitch - LOMAC demo is out and I've notice a fair deal of choppiness which I can only assume is my GFX card running out of steam. Whilst I appreciate the demo is only a beta it does highlight that there is stuff coming out now that is starting to push the hardware.

So I reckon I'd be able to offload my GF4 for about £45 - £50 squid and get a 9600 for about £100 from one of our parts suppliers through work.

Bearing in mind my 3D mark 2001 is around 8300 (2200XP/512 pc2100DDR/GF4 Ti4200) I was under the impression I'd be in for a big jump..

[Zak33]

3d mark 2001 is DX8.1

Ti 4200 should go way higher than that Skii.....gotta ask....when did you last re install XP m8......cos thats not a fast score at all

Maybe its a SYSTEM BOTTLENECK....too much stuff running when you look into it.

I had a 4200 with well over 10,000 marks with similar processor...not overclocked.

Just my second input

[CocoPops]

I'd hold off the new card until you HAVE to.

Save your pennies, and your tackle from Teri

[Stylez]

Originally posted by Skii
Thanks for the input peeps

Heres the sitch - LOMAC demo is out and I've notice a fair deal of choppiness which I can only assume is my GFX card running out of steam. Whilst I appreciate the demo is only a beta it does highlight that there is stuff coming out now that is starting to push the hardware.

So I reckon I'd be able to offload my GF4 for about £45 - £50 squid and get a 9600 for about £100 from one of our parts suppliers through work.

Bearing in mind my 3D mark 2001 is around 8300 (2200XP/512 pc2100DDR/GF4 Ti4200) I was under the impression I'd be in for a big jump..

Mate that is very very low indeed, i get 11,000+ on a stock system.
This is my system..

Athlon XP 2100+
Gigabyte 7VAX
512 DDR PC2700
Albatron GF4 Ti4200p Turbo 128MB

And i hit 11,300 at default settings, clocked over 12,000 odd with everything else still at stock.

[Austin]

As pretty much covered the Rad9600PRO is the best of the current mid-range offerings BUT its pure 3D speed is only on par with a GF4TI4200 although it should pull ahead in the more modern games. When it comes to AA+AF the 4200 is okay if these are on low but perf takes an unusable hit any higher whereas the 9600PRO can handle 4xAA+8xAF with minimal perf hit and 2xAA+4xAF with practically no hit. Obviously when DX9 becomes needed the 9600PRO is clearly superior, but by that time you should find mid-range cards offering 9700-9800 levels of perf are either here or due VERY soon.

The 9600PRO does have a number of other benefits, namely superior '2D' image quality, hw enhanced DVD/MPEG playback and superior TVout but how much diff these make is down to personal perf and perceptions. When it comes to o/c'ing the 9600PRO has acres of headroom and can get close to a 9700nonPRO, even so 4200 tend to o/c well (exceeding 4400/4800SE) so some of that benefit is knocked out of the 9600PRO.

Problem is the 9600PRO along with all current mid-range offerings simply isn't as good as it should be and the mid-range of yesteryear was so good it can still keep pace for far less cash albeit without the DX9 hw or AA+AF abilities. The 9500 & 9700 series are up there with the 9600 & 9800 series and the GF-FX plain suck ... considering 9700 came out over a year ago we should have better offerings than we currently do. If you want to try AA+AF the way it shoudl be, or have DX9 now then the 9600PRO is worth the £50+ it will cost you, but you may feel a little disappointed and may do better to wait it out for the next wave of mid-range DX9 cards, and I'm not talking the mild improvements the 9600XT, 9800XT and nVidia's new poo offer (don't even mention the hideous 9800SE).

With how well the 4200 scales with added CPU power you'd do better spending your cash on a high clocking TbredB (£40+) or Barton (£70+), maybe a mobo to match (£40+). Rem you can sell your 'old' stuff to recoup some of the cost. Time to sell 4200 was when the 9500 series came out.

[Skii]

Thanks peeps - very informative stuff, re-thinking it now.

Hmmm better check my setup as well

[Austin]

XP2200+, 512MB PC2100 & GF4TI4200 is still capable of handling everything well, esp if you o/c the 4200 a little and disable AA+AF in more the more modern stuff. Turning down details and lowering res should keep your kit on top of any current game.

[Trickle]

A year ago I got about 8500 in 3Dmark2001 /w 1.4Ghz Axia athlon on a AMD760 board and my 128megGF4Ti whilst overclocked, running at slower memory speeds than the 64 cards can do.

I'm getting 14000+ /w the same clock speed GF4ti4200 but on a 210fsb NForce2 board, newer drivers and 2.2Ghz AMD.

There may be nothing drastically wrong with your system if the card is at stock speed and you are running old drivers and a pre KT233a eara mobo.