biggest bang for buck

[eng]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

which upgrade will give me higher framerates and higher resolutions, a
processor or video card upgrade (not both! due to bugetary constraints)?

appreciate your feedback

 

[matthew utt]

go with a 9800 pro or a 9600 pro

i have the 9600 non pro and a athlon 2700+xp with 1280 meg ddr 2700 and i
get around 500 raw fps at 1280x1024 with all settings for card as high as
they will go in ut2k3

dont be fooled by all the marketing ploys. the radeon series will pound out
the fps at a reasonable price

 

[tom]

the ti4200 is still a great card!!!
go for a faster CPU that not only render frames !!!

i have a p4 2.4b @ 2.8ghz 1gb ram with ti4200 and it works great.

specialy ut2003 is very cpu hungry!!!

have fun
tom

 

[jeffc]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

which upgrade will give me higher framerates and higher resolutions, a
processor or video card upgrade (not both! due to bugetary constraints)?

appreciate your feedback

The problem is, you've already got a very good bang-for-buck system. The
problem with good value systems is that they're difficult to get significant
improvements without paying a lot (that's why you bought it in the first
place, right?) But if it were me, the obvious answer would be a new video
card. Of course, that will set you back about $300+.

 

[Sept1967]

A 9600 Pro is slloooowwer then a GF4 4200. You would have to go 9500Pro or
better.

I have a 4200 still, and it is STILL the best bang for the buck. It even
runs faster, with a faster CPU. Upgrade that first.

 

[Sept1967]

What is your CPU?

You can keep your 4200, and gain over a 25% video increase from going to an
Athlon 1GHz CPU to a XP2700+.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/vgacharts-04.html

 

[jeffc]

What is your CPU?

You can keep your 4200, and gain over a 25% video increase from going to an
Athlon 1GHz CPU to a XP2700+.

He already said: P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133

 

[chris]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

which upgrade will give me higher framerates and higher resolutions, a
processor or video card upgrade (not both! due to bugetary constraints)?

appreciate your feedback

I would say get a gigabyte 9600pro for a budget system, esp seeng as its
performance in dx9 games is superior to many other 'budget' cards. No need
not to futureproof even a budget system. The reason I say a gigabyte radeon
9600pro is that they have put the full 8 rendering pipelines (most only have
4 - this is what holds it back compared to 9500). Stick your card on ebay
and get some cashback too.

in the uk they are available from

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=16930&cat=378&page=1

If I were building a new budget system I'd have one of these

chris

 

[Simon Law]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

which upgrade will give me higher framerates and higher resolutions, a
processor or video card upgrade (not both! due to bugetary constraints)?

appreciate your feedback

Ti4200 still play DirectX 8 games very well. If you would want to play
DirectX 9 games, you gotta upgrade your graphics card, it is a must.

If you intend to play DirectX 8 games, but want faster fps, then
better off upgrade to P4C or P4EE - (Pee4Extreme Expensive - if you
have the money)

 

[Simon Law]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 17:54:58 +0000 (UTC), "chris"

Avoid 9600/9600 Pro. These cards have been crippled with narrow memory
bandwidth, your GPU starved with little data to process, like driving
a ferrari car with clutch slam half way down.

You are better off buying non pro 9700 or 9800 by paying extra bit of
$$$ and overclock close to the performance of Pro version. 9500 Pro is
a good card, with a few modification you can turn it into a 9700 Pro
(risk voiding your warranty, but who cares) - hard to find anywhere
nowadays.

 

[jeffc]

Ti4200 still play DirectX 8 games very well. If you would want to play
DirectX 9 games, you gotta upgrade your graphics card, it is a must.

That's not true. You can play DirectX 9 games as long as you have DirectX 9
installed. The only thing you'll miss is that set of special features that
only a fully compatible DirectX 9 card can implement. But I'm sure it will
still look great.

 

[neopolaris]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

which upgrade will give me higher framerates and higher resolutions, a
processor or video card upgrade (not both! due to bugetary
constraints)?

appreciate your feedback

The card you already own is the best bang for the buck.

 

[Ancra]

A 9600 Pro is slloooowwer then a GF4 4200. You would have to go 9500Pro or
better.

Nah. The entire 9600 family is good value. If it actually is slower
than Ti4200 or 9500 then it depends on what it shows and image
quality... bla bla...

I have a 4200 still, and it is STILL the best bang for the buck. It even
runs faster, with a faster CPU. Upgrade that first.

I agree. I have a couple GF4 Ti and they're great. It's the cpu and
ram that's the problem (if there is a problem). I can well imagine
that 1.6A. I have a 1.5GHz P4 and it's a dog too.


ancra

 

[stacey]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

No one has asked the most important question, what kind of ram is that board
using? If you have one of those PC133 Ram boards (or other low bandwidth
ram types) you need to toss the whole board/chip/ram combo. The ti4200 is a
good board for the money.

 

[John Lewis]

my current system:

P4 1.6A o/c to 2.133, 512mb ram, GF4 Ti4200 128mb video card

which upgrade will give me higher framerates and higher resolutions, a
processor or video card upgrade (not both! due to bugetary constraints)?

appreciate your feedback

Your did not name your present motherboard. What is the highest
clock-speed processor that it will support ?

What is your total budget and CURRENT local cost-matrix for P4 CPUs
and video-cards ? P4 CPU prices have fallen radically during the past
2 months.

John Lewis

 

[J.Clarke]

I would say get a gigabyte 9600pro for a budget system, esp seeng as
its performance in dx9 games is superior to many other 'budget' cards.

A 9600 is not going to be a major improvement over a Ti4200. I'm an ATI
bigot from way back but truth is truth--the Geforce 4 was a very, very
good design and ATI's midrange, if it beats it at all, does it by only a
slight margin.

No need
not to futureproof even a budget system.

Why "future proof" now? He's got an adequate board at the moment--when
the future comes then future proof--it will be a lot cheaper then.

The reason I say a gigabyte
radeon 9600pro is that they have put the full 8 rendering pipelines
(most only have 4 - this is what holds it back compared to 9500).

That's quite a trick since the RV350 chip only has the silicon for four
pipelines.

 

[eng]

current motherboard is Asus P4S533, highest clock speed processor is P4 2.8
FSB533 if I'm not mistaken. This board supports FSB664 (166). I wonder how
much further I can o/c my current P4 1.6A. DDR333 RAM is cheap, P4 2.8 ain't
cheap.

I agree my current GF4 Ti4200 is a great card but the mirrors don't reflect
in max payne2! I posted this earlier & someone said something about this
card not supporting pixel shader 1.4

i want my FPShooter games to look & run good at 1280x1024

 

[Ian Carmichael]

go with a 9800 pro or a 9600 pro

i have the 9600 non pro and a athlon 2700+xp with 1280 meg ddr 2700 and i
get around 500 raw fps at 1280x1024 with all settings for card as high as
they will go in ut2k3

dont be fooled by all the marketing ploys. the radeon series will pound out
the fps at a reasonable price

What the FFFFF'in hell you doing on a nVidia newsgroup when you don't
use a nVidia graphics card. You work for ATI's advertising dept. or
sumfing.

 

[Ian Carmichael]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 17:54:58 +0000 (UTC), "chris"

Avoid 9600/9600 Pro. These cards have been crippled with narrow memory
bandwidth, your GPU starved with little data to process, like driving
a ferrari car with clutch slam half way down.

You are better off buying non pro 9700 or 9800 by paying extra bit of
$$$ and overclock close to the performance of Pro version. 9500 Pro is
a good card, with a few modification you can turn it into a 9700 Pro
(risk voiding your warranty, but who cares) - hard to find anywhere
nowadays.

Another FFFFin ATI employee. Whats the matter guys nothin on the ATI
newgroup of interest.

 

[stacey]

current motherboard is Asus P4S533, highest clock speed processor is P4
2.8 FSB533 if I'm not mistaken. This board supports FSB664 (166). I wonder
how much further I can o/c my current P4 1.6A. DDR333 RAM is cheap, P4 2.8
ain't cheap.

What ram are you using? DDR333 I hope!