GF 4Ti vs GF FX

[Pro]v[etheus]

Hi guys, i currently have a Geforce4 Ti4600 128Mb graphics card but looking to upgrade sometime in the near future. My question is, which of the Geforce FX range of cards is the next step up ? I have looked on the web on several occassions to look for comparison charts but to no avail.

Regards
Pro]v[

 

[Jonty]

Hi Pro]v[etheus

The GeForce 4600 was, in its day, the high-end card of nVidia's graphics range. Today this spot is occupied by the GeForceFX 5950 Ultra and 5900 Ultra, both of which offer amazing performance but come with an equally hefty price tag.

More wallet-friendly offerings are now presented in the form of the GeForce FX 5900 (non-Ultra), 5900 XT (sometimes branded SE) and 5700 Ultra. These are all high-end/mainstream to mainstream cards and still manage to provide excellent performance for the money.

Some older models may be cheaper - the GeForce FX 5800 (non-Ultra), 5600 Ultra etc. - but these have now been superceded by the aforementioned models which probably represent the better buy in terms of performance and longevity.

Alternatively, you can wait a few months until the NV40 comes out, which represents nVidia's next generation graphics card. Prices will naturally be high, but the NV40 looks set to impress, and will inevitably lead to the lowering of today's prices.

Finally, you may wish to consider ATI who have come on leaps and bounds since the days of the nVidia's 4x00 line of cards. The Radeon 9800 XT and 9800 Pro are ATI's current high-end cards; with the 9800 (non-Pro), 9600 XT and 9600 Pro all forming ATI high-end/mainstream to mainstream range. As with nVidia, ATI also have their next generation card waiting in the rings, which is codenamed the R420.

Kind Regards

 

[old.user4556]

Here's a comparison chart of performance, courtesy of Tom's Hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-13.html#unreal_tournament_2003

The performance will vary slightly, depending on the game.

Synthetic-ish DirectX 9-ish here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-12.html

There is also a "frames per price" chart here:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-16.html

Hope this is of some use to you when you make your decision.

G

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

Hi Jonty, thank you for your reply.

I am aware of the high end Nvidia/Ati cards but didn't really want to stretch to that kind of budget, as im a poorly paid Civil Servant

Ideally what i was looking for was a 'next step up card', nothing too expensive, ideally around the £150 mark tops. Microdirect are currently selling a Pixelview Geforce FX5900 128Mb card for around £135 which fits nicely into my budget but how much better will it perform than my current card ?

What i don't want to do is buy a new card only to find that it performs no better than the one i have.

Regards
Pro]v[

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

Big G, you're a star, that's exactly the comparison chart that i was after, thankyou


EDIT: I see that the FX5800U has a slight performance gain over the standard FX5900, does the FX5800 still suffer from the jet engine sound levels ?

Regards
Pro]v[

 

[Jonty]

If the Pixelview card is a genuine 5900 non-Ultra then that's a fantastic price. In terms of performance, I would imagine a 5900 would outperform a 4600 by some way, but since 4x00 cards stopped being compared to nVidia's latest offerings a while back, it's hard to tell. However, one thing I can assure you is that in today's latest games, and future games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 (if that's your cup of tea?) then the 5900 would undoubtedly outperform the 4600. Remember the 4600 doesn't support DirectX9 features like pixel and vertex shaders, nor new features like CineFX or UltraShadow, which forthcoming games will make heavy use of.

I'll do a little digging about that PixelView card, but thus far it looks like a great buy.

Kind Regards

Edit ~ The 5800Ultra is no longer available to purchase, and the 5800 non-Ultra I'd leave alone, since it lacks some of nVidia's newer features

 

[fatbusinessman]

Prom,

I think you'll find that the main advances in the new generation of 3D cards aren't so much in terms of raw polygon-pushing (although that will, of course, be improved) but in terms of more advanced features such as DirectX 9 shaders, which are only used in new games like Max Payne 2 and Half-Life 2. This means that you're unlikely to see significant improvement in older games, but you should get significantly improved graphical quality in newer games (Example).

Regarding choice of card, I would suggest going for a 9600XT card (example) or an FX5900XT card (slightly worse example). Both retail in the £120-150 range. Or, as has been said, you could wait until a game comes out that really makes full use of the new effects (HL2 being the best example I can think of at the moment).

 

[Jonty]

Hi Pro]v[etheus

From what I can tell, that's a 'genuine' 5900 non-Ultra card. Keeping in mind other manufacturers retail those products at anywhere from £160-£200+, that is an amazing price. PixelView produce cards based on the nVidia's reference design, which are always a solid bet for no-frills graphical power.

If you choose not to go with that offer, then I back what fatbusinessman has said, even though the 5900 XT is seemingly hard to get hold of at the moment. Keep in mind, however, that the 5900 non-Ultra will outperform pretty much all other mainstream offerings.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. MicroDirect sadly charge £8 for delivery, so that should be factored into your decision.

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

Hi FBM, the FX5900XT looks reasonabley priced but tbh if Jonty's digging shows the Pixelview FX5900 to be genuine then i'll probabley plug for that as it's slightly cheaper and also has a slight performance gain over the XT model.

As for games, i play TFC, Battlefield1942/DesertCombat and have a copy of HL2 on order, so the newer games will certainly benefit.

EDIT: Thanks for checking on that Jonty, i just took a peek on Microdirect and the price is actually £125.73, so with P&P it will work out a tad under the £135 bracket that i originally said

Regards
Pro]v[

 

[old.user4556]

What's the rest of your spec like Prom?

<tangent> anyone remember voodoo2 sli? now that was a graphics setup </tantgent>

G

 

[Jonty]

No problem Pro]v[etheus One thing I forgot to mention, the 9600 XT retail comes with a voucher for Half-Life 2, so you could potentially cancel your pre-order and save ~£24.99. Personally, I'd probably still go with nVidia's offerings just because of the performance, but the 9600XT is still a great card.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. Yes Big G, I remember the Voodoo2 SLI setup! hehe

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

What's the rest of your spec like Prom?

<tangent> anyone remember voodoo2 sli? now that was a graphics setup </tantgent>

G

Hi Big G, my PC spec is as follows:

Gigabyte 8SQ800
Onboard 5.1 sound
P4 2.4Ghz Rev. B
Corsair TwinX DDR400 512Mb (256Mb x 2) running in dual channel mode
GF4 Ti4600 128Mb
Maxtor 40Gb 7200rpm
Win2K Pro

Not top spec but it serves it's purpose.

Regards
Pro]v[

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

Edit ~ The 5800Ultra is no longer available to purchase, and the 5800 non-Ultra I'd leave alone, since it lacks some of nVidia's newer features

Just seen this on Microdirect:

Gainward GF FX5800 PP Ultra/800Plus Golden Sample 8X AGP [FX5800 128MB 2.0ns DDR2 DVI Video out] £251.45

A bit pricey but still available.

Regards
Pro]v[

 

[old.user4556]

Just seen this on Microdirect:

Gainward GF FX5800 PP Ultra/800Plus Golden Sample 8X AGP [FX5800 128MB 2.0ns DDR2 DVI Video out] £251.45

A bit pricey but still available.

Regards
Pro]v[

I'm more inclined to say at this point, 9800 Pro for £225 which'll overclock fairly well to 9800 XT speeds. That's my personal choice. There is also the HL2 performance issue, but that is another can of worms

G

 

[Jonty]

Hi Pro]v[etheus

That's the non-Ultra version you've spotted. The price I can only put down to Gainward, who usually 'go to town' with their products, to say the least But I agree with Big G, if you're considering spending that much, then the 9800 Pro or 5900 Ultra may be a better buy.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. I notice the 5900 non-Ultra is out of stock That said, I beleieve MicroDirect should still honour the reduced price if you decide to purchase it.

 

[-=[U.D]=- Raverbaby]

I'm more inclined to say at this point, 9800 Pro for £225 which'll overclock fairly well to 9800 XT speeds. That's my personal choice. There is also the HL2 performance issue, but that is another can of worms

G

I know a lot of you guys arent big fans of ebay but check out some of the stuff on there, its not bad for the price,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2776814159&category=27387

£185 for the ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb

 

[old.user4556]

I know a lot of you guys arent big fans of ebay but check out some of the stuff on there, its not bad for the price,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2776814159&category=27387

£185 for the ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb

After postage, packing and insurance it comes in at £208 give or take. I dunno, with ebay you pay your money and take your chances. I'd prefer the £225 price and have some solid returns policy.

G

 

[-=[U.D]=- Raverbaby]

True but its still nearly 20 quid cheaper and you get a 3 year warranty with it anyways, every little helps!