Nvidia ATI Recommendation

[JLC]

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 23:55:16 GMT, "Sam Higgins"

I have a chart for you to help explain the model numbers of current
Nvidia chips... I'm sure it will remove any confusion! (tehe)

___List sniped__

PS: InnoVision is the ONLY company making a PCI version of the fx5600.
(I didn't count PCI version of non GF5/FX series of cards - these
cards are still easy to find and sold in major locatons: CompUSA/Wal
Mart / Best Buy - While TI4x00 cards are gone. Nvidia is keeping hold
of the $30~50 market.

NOTE: 7 versions of the 5200, 4 of them them with the same name "5200"
which you may NOT know which you are getting.

NOTE: All 256mb versions of (besides 5900) are not ULTRAs. Many of
these 256 vesions cost more than the Ultras. A 5200-256mb can cost
more than a 5600 (128bit)

MX NOTE: unknown chip , recently appeared - XFX / MSI / Gainward /
Chaintech / eVGA / Gigabyte / Jaton / ASUS sell this for $50~75. IT
doesn't. MSI put it below the MX440. It does NOT appear to exisit on
Nvidia's website. My guess, its a cheaper version of the mx420?
It's an NV18 core / 64bit / single video output / 275mhz core/ 183mhz
clk (364Mhz DDR) So it seems they the 440mx/5200-64bit were not
slowe and cheap enough... its a 64bit 440mx (which is what a 420 is).


NOTE: Consider this, of the FX AGP line, Nvidia has 10 cards that are
SLOWER than a $75 Ti4200. These range in a price of $50~190!!

Nvidia has 10 cards that sell within a range of $140! That's $14
difference per card (Kinda).

Man I never added up all this models! I knew that Nvidia had gone wild with
there model numbers but I had no idea there were so many! If you think about
that only a very small part of the gaming community reads NG's or even mags,
there are a whole lot of people getting reamed because they have no clue
what they're buying. What a rip. JLC

 

[JLC]

He could turn right around and sell his 4200 for 100 bucks and then
overclock the 4800. That's what I did. I just jumped from a 4200 to a 4800
and it made a big difference in games. Maybe I'm just picky.

But how long ago was that? Now the prices of the high end cards are
dropping. It doesn't make any since at all to go from a 4200 to a 4600 card.
The DX9 cards can do so much more now, plus the fact that once you see your
games with 4x AA and 4x Aniso turned on, you'll never want to go back to
Jaggy Land.
For me it was such a trip to run one of the cool ATI demos and for the first
time have something on my PC that looked like a CGI movie. My eyes are
sensitive to jaggies and having them around every 3D object really ruins the
immersion of a game for me. To actually be about to run a game and have
totally smooth edges really increases the depth of perception in the 3D
environment. Think how smooth CGI movies are, haven't you ever wised your
games could look that smooth? Well with my 9800Pro I have that,plus my FPS
are still screaming! Speed is great, but the real test is how a card handles
AA and Aniso. Oh and let's not forget how much better my 2D looks. I
believed what I was told by the Nvidia camp that my GeForce cards had just
as good a display as the ATI cards. Let me tell you that I noticed the
improvement the sec. Windows loaded. My text was crisper and everything
looks brighter. My whites are now white and my grays are gray. I always had
a blue tint to everything that no matter how much I messed with my monitor I
couldn't fix.
And to think I paid $275 for my GeForce 256 four years ago! It's amazing
that $215 will get you a card that does so much more. JLC

 

[Pluvious]

||
||

I've been enjoying your posts about your new card JLC, since I
experienced the same reaction when I switched from Nvidia like you.. I
was amazed at how much better ATI was over Nvidia, really felt like I
had my head in the sand thinking that Nvidia was all that. (back in
the TI4400 days..before FX) I picked up a 9700 PRO about a year ago
and can finally use FSAA and ANIO on all my games without having to
worry about ANY loss of framerate. Of course, I'm now noticing that
the newer games are having "issues" with FSAA.. (DE:Invisable War,
FarCry..etc)

Anyway.. I wanted to make sure you knew about the Omega drivers. I've
been VERY pleased with his tweaks to the ATI drivers to increase image
quality beyond the stock drivers. Make sure you check out his latest
update to the 4.10's. www.omegacorner.com . Use the left bars to
navagate to ATI / WinXP or whatever os you're using. I think you'll
be VERY impressed. I won't use anything BUT Omegas now.

Read the readme for sure but to sum it up; all you have to do is goto
Add/Remove and remove the ATI control panel, (only!..not the drivers
old drivers themselves) then double click his .exe file. You'll get
two warnings that they are not certified but continue anyway. I
suggest you also install his other programs that come along with his
set. One being a easy way to o/c your card.


Pluvious

 

[Pluvious]

||
||||
||||
|| Make sure you check out his latest
||update to the 4.10's. www.omegacorner.com .
||
||
||Pluvious
||

Correction .. 4.2's

 

[Sam Higgins]

x-no-archive: yes

How long did it take you to put all that together!? Anyways, good point.
This is what's been frustrating me with them. If you don't have your nose in
this stuff 24 hours a day, nothing wrong with that, you can get lost. I
don't know if you read my original post but, for the prior generations
bottom of the barrel GPU to outperform a next generation is weak to put it
bluntly but it was all in how things were labeled maybe on the new card.
Heaven forbid if I had enable FSAA. Probably wouldn't have been able to get
out of the game for about an hour due to slow response!

 

[Sam Higgins]

x-no-archive: yes

has

Stupid of Nvidia... yes?

I was confused by both companies, but now I've sorted out the cobwebs
because of everyone's help. At least ATI's numbers when going higher still
mean a better product. That was at least consistent.

Geforce

LOL.... When a regular 5600 is slower than the Ti4200... the 64bit
5600xt is half as fast.

WT^$*&!! 64 BIT!!! Your pulling my leg??

PS: I still have my Ti4200... very good card.

I have just recently found that out! I think I will keep mine as a spare for
awhile when I get the replacement.

Thanks for all the thoughts from your other posts.

 

[Mike P]

"...I was confused by both companies, but now I've sorted out the cobwebs
because of everyone's help. At least ATI's numbers when going higher still
mean a better product. That was at least consistent...."

Not really, the 8500 is about the same as the 9100 which is faster than the
9200. And the SE models are closer to the next lower line, ex 9800se is
comparable to the 9600pro, much slower than the 9800 non-pro even.

Mike

 

[Darthy]

He could turn right around and sell his 4200 for 100 bucks and then
overclock the 4800. That's what I did. I just jumped from a 4200 to a 4800
and it made a big difference in games. Maybe I'm just picky.

4800? Folks tend to use the real NAME of the GF4 Ti series... 4200 /
4400 & 4600.

4800what? SE? Thats a 4400? A Ti4200 can reach that easy. The 4600
is a different matter... and remember, a 4600 can be overclocked a bit
too.

 

[Darthy]

And to think I paid $275 for my GeForce 256 four years ago! It's amazing
that $215 will get you a card that does so much more. JLC

And just think... the $400 GF2Ultra was smoked by the $175
GF3-Ti200...

Or the Ti4200 ar under $200 was murdering the $400 GF4-Ti500.

With the GF5 series, Nvidia went backwards....