GF4 Ti vs. FX5200

[Amiman]

What would be the better buy for a gaming enthusiast
who can't afford a really good card - a GeForce4
Ti4200/64MB 8x or an FX5200/128MB (plain or
ultra) at approximately the same price ?

Would the difference be quite noticeable in actual
usage ? In what way would the non-DirectX 9
compliance of the GF4 Ti be evident to the end-user ?

 

[kony]

What would be the better buy for a gaming enthusiast
who can't afford a really good card - a GeForce4
Ti4200/64MB 8x or an FX5200/128MB (plain or
ultra) at approximately the same price ?

Geforce Ti4200

Would the difference be quite noticeable in actual
usage ?
yes

In what way would the non-DirectX 9
compliance of the GF4 Ti be evident to the end-user ?

It won't.
FX5200 is too slow to actually run DX9 mode. You'd need to
turn off all eyecandy to get acceptible framerates, and by
doing THAT you'd see higher framerates from the TI4200.
Plus, some TI4200 overclock fairly well.

On the other hand, if you want decent DX9 look at higher
priced cards. If the low cost cards did the job well there
wouldn't be so many more expensive cards?

 

[Mac Cool]

Amiman:

What would be the better buy for a gaming enthusiast
who can't afford a really good card - a GeForce4
Ti4200/64MB 8x or an FX5200/128MB (plain or
ultra) at approximately the same price ?

Would the difference be quite noticeable in actual
usage ? In what way would the non-DirectX 9
compliance of the GF4 Ti be evident to the end-user ?

The 5200 is roughly 1/4-1/3 the speed of a 4200, depending on the game.

The Radeon 9600 Pro will give you the performance of a Ti4200
and DX9 for $94.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320808

 

[Amiman]

Amiman:


The 5200 is roughly 1/4-1/3 the speed of a 4200, depending on the game.

The Radeon 9600 Pro will give you the performance of a Ti4200
and DX9 for $94.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320808

Thanks, kony and Mac. I believed the Ti4200 is better, but
wanted to have confirmation from the experts. Where I live,
a Radeon 9600 Pro is available for about $160, an FX5200
for $70 and there's a special offer of the Ti4200 for $60.

 

[kony]

Thanks, kony and Mac. I believed the Ti4200 is better, but
wanted to have confirmation from the experts. Where I live,
a Radeon 9600 Pro is available for about $160, an FX5200
for $70 and there's a special offer of the Ti4200 for $60.

That's a pretty good price for a new TI4200, they're getting
scarce below the $80 range. I almost suggested the 9600 Pro
too, it is significantly better at DX9.

 

[Amiman]

That's a pretty good price for a new TI4200, they're getting
scarce below the $80 range. I almost suggested the 9600 Pro
too, it is significantly better at DX9.

The Ti4200 at $60 is a one-off offer at an online auction site
in India. It was a 'Quick Buy' item, XFX brand and declared
as new. I've bought it, though it may take upto 2 weeks to
arrive. I've often bought from this site and haven't got burnt
so far (fingers crossed).

The 9600 Pro is out of my price range for this purpose (kids'
computer). There was a Ti4600 for $90 some time ago but
I missed it.

A couple of further questions please. Will the 64MB RAM
size significantly reduce performance compared to 128MB ?

Also, how does the 9600 Pro compare to an FX5700 U ?

 

[kony]

The Ti4200 at $60 is a one-off offer at an online auction site
in India. It was a 'Quick Buy' item, XFX brand and declared
as new. I've bought it, though it may take upto 2 weeks to
arrive. I've often bought from this site and haven't got burnt
so far (fingers crossed).

Yes, auctions can be a gamble.

The 9600 Pro is out of my price range for this purpose (kids'
computer). There was a Ti4600 for $90 some time ago but
I missed it.

IMO, $90 for a TI4600 isn't worthwhile. It too is slow at
DX9, and the giant size of the card is excessive relative to
it's performance. I'd sooner get a 9600 Pro.

A couple of further questions please. Will the 64MB RAM
size significantly reduce performance compared to 128MB ?

Yes, IF the game needs more memory. Many games allow
adjusting the eye-candy such that you may be able to
accomodate for the lesser memory. For example, Doom3 ran
faster on a Ti4200 128MB at stock speed than an overclocked
Ti4200 w/64MB, but the settings and config file adjustments
can cancel the difference, but of course at lower image
quality.

It is worth noting that the last TI4200 128MB i had (a
Chaintech) overclocked poorly. It only allowed about 8%
over stock speed. Contrast that to a Gainward Ti4200 64MB
that o'c a little beyond TI4600 speed. Even so, today I'd
choose a card with 128MB, except for playing older games.
TI4(n)00 series simply isn't optimal for new games.

Also, how does the 9600 Pro compare to an FX5700 U ?

9600 Pro is better. I'm not 100% certain but believe the
FX5700 U isn't much if any faster than a TI4200. They are
in the same ballpark, IIRC. For the most modern DX9 games,
nVidia FX5(n)00 cards aren't so good as ATI's at similar
price-points until the nFOrce Geforce 6(n)00 series. For
DX8 games they're fine, but so is the TI4200.

 

[kony]

9600 Pro is better. I'm not 100% certain but believe the
FX5700 U isn't much if any faster than a TI4200. They are
in the same ballpark, IIRC. For the most modern DX9 games,
nVidia FX5(n)00 cards aren't so good as ATI's at similar
price-points until the nFOrce Geforce 6(n)00 series. For
DX8 games they're fine, but so is the TI4200.

I may be mistaken about the FX5700 U, seems I overlooked the
"U" part. It should be faster than a TI4n00, often faster
than a Radeon 9600 Pro but the two are similar. I belive
the 9600 Pro is usually lower priced so it seems the better
of the two. I haven't had a FX5700 Ultra so I can't compare
how it'd do with the same sort of tweaks used to improve
performance of the older cards like TI4n00 series.

 

[phil]

I recently changed from a 128mb Ti 4800 to a 256mb FX 5700LE & to be honest
i can hardly tell a difference. I am running a P4 3.2Ghz HT processor with
the 800Mhz FSB & 1.5gig of DDR400 Ram

 

[Mac Cool]

Amiman:

A couple of further questions please. Will the 64MB RAM
size significantly reduce performance compared to 128MB ?

Depends on the game, like Kony said, Doom3 will gobble the RAM. Other
games will run fine on 64MB.

Also, how does the 9600 Pro compare to an FX5700 U ?

It really depends on the game. The 9600Pro will dominate in games like Far
Cry, Unreal Tournament 200x and Half Life2. The 5700U will be dominate in
Halo, Quake3, probably Doom3. There are a few cases where the Ti4200 ties
the 9600 and 5700U, but usually the 4200 runs anywhere from 50-100% the
speed of the other two cards.

 

[Mac Cool]

kony:

I may be mistaken about the FX5700 U, seems I overlooked the
"U" part. It should be faster than a TI4n00, often faster
than a Radeon 9600 Pro but the two are similar. I belive
the 9600 Pro is usually lower priced so it seems the better

Yep. The 5700U performs closer to the 9600XT depending on the game. The
5700 and 4200 are very similiar in performance. The 9600Pro and 4200 vary
wildly depending on the game.

The big difference is that 5700/5700U are stupidly overpriced IMO. The
9600Pro is a real bargain gamer's card right now.

What I don't know is what is the difference between the various
incarnations of the Radeon 9600Pro? I see a Sapphire Atlantis, Power Color
and ATI with sometimes big price differences between them.

 

[Mac Cool]

phil:

I recently changed from a 128mb Ti 4800 to a 256mb FX 5700LE & to be
honest i can hardly tell a difference. I am running a P4 3.2Ghz HT
processor with the 800Mhz FSB & 1.5gig of DDR400 Ram

You might not tell a difference but you severly downgraded. I don't have
any hard numbers on those two cards but I suspect that the 5700Le is about
1/3 - 1/2 the speed of a 4800, maybe less.

A Ti4200 is very similiar in performance to a 5700.
A Ti4800 is probably very similiar to a 5700U.

 

[Amiman]

Thanks for all the replies. They were informative and have
convinced me that I've made a good purchase. The non-DX9
limitation is something I'm willing to accept at that price.

I've bought the Ti4200 for less than half the price of a
plain-jane FX5700, and little more than one-third that
of a 9600 Pro. The seller has received some good
feedbacks and I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Mac Cool]

Amiman:

I've bought the Ti4200 for less than half the price of a
plain-jane FX5700, and little more than one-third that
of a 9600 Pro. The seller has received some good
feedbacks and I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

Where do you live?

 

[Amiman]

Amiman:


Where do you live?
--

India. And a remote corner of the country at that.
We have little in common with the rest of the country -
our language, culture, religion (100% Christian),
physical appearance are all completely different from
those of mainstream India.

Here the amount of choices and information we have
is severely limited. As I said in my first post, I bought
the card from an online auction site as a 'Quick Buy'
item. A good bargain like this is quite rare.

 

[Mr Digital]

I still have the 4800 so i am now tempted to refit it if the other is not as
good.

 

[Mac Cool]

Mr Digital:

I still have the 4800 so i am now tempted to refit it if the other is
not as good.

Sell 'em both and get a 9600XT, you'll get the speed and DX9.