Gonna Buy one VERY SOON, Help me on my choice : Video Card

[rizge]

Hi
I have to choose between
powercolor evil master II (Radeon 8500) 650 LE
and
MSI Geforce 4 ti 4200 800 LE
I myself lean towards the radeon because of its price (150LE Diff.)
I am planning to have it for at least 2-3 years and am going to oc to the limit of the standard cooling - won't add any fans/heatsinks
I play games like Soldier of Fortune II and Unreal Tournament 2003 and these intensive games
don't need resolutions above 1024 (most 800*600)
and want one with good FSAA
I have heard that 8500 with new drivers are better than most 4200 and i've also heard that the 4200 can oc well often to 4400 Speeds
Please help me with my decision
PS:
btw
UT 2003 DEMO is working great with my crappy GF2 MX (35+FPS)
but i just want something better for newer games and i am on budget

[BabyEater]

If you want it it to last for a few years i would wait a few weeks for the 9500 i think it is supposed to be $220 for the pro version

[Yakbak]

Out of the 2, I'd get the MSI Ti4200.

[rizge]

-BabyEater(cool Name :cool: )
U don't get me
I am only gonna buy one of those two
and not online (ie. no newegg or googlegear)
Just tell me which one to get with a brief explaining
Thx in advance

[Jules]

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1647&p=8

hmmm, ti 4200 is 20 FPS faster than the 8500. Its the best bang for the buck right now. I just bought one last week. No complaints. Only thing is, MSI adds the settings on the display menu of windows XP where you can overclock and change the 3d options, but I get an error whenever I try to click on the tabs, so I'm using coolbits to configure everything and that seems to be working fine. Comes with 3 free games too and a liveupdate program that tells you when a new driver comes out and makes it pretty simple to download it.

EDIT, if you can, get the 128mb version. Its not supposed to be slower because MSI uses the same speed memory as the 68mb version. That should last you longer with any newer games that might require more mem.


Originally posted by rizge
Hi
I have to choose between
powercolor evil master II (Radeon 8500) 650 LE
and
MSI Geforce 4 ti 4200 800 LE
I myself lean towards the radeon because of its price (150LE Diff.)
I am planning to have it for at least 2-3 years and am going to oc to the limit of the standard cooling - won't add any fans/heatsinks
I play games like Soldier of Fortune II and Unreal Tournament 2003 and these intensive games
don't need resolutions above 1024 (most 800*600)
and want one with good FSAA
I have heard that 8500 with new drivers are better than most 4200 and i've also heard that the 4200 can oc well often to 4400 Speeds
Please help me with my decision
PS:
btw
UT 2003 DEMO is working great with my crappy GF2 MX (35+FPS)
but i just want something better for newer games and i am on budget

[---X---]

An overclocked Ti4200, which if you're lucky can hit 4600 speeds, will be faster than even an overclocked 8500. Aside from the obvious performance increase, this gives the card greater longevity, meaning that it will be able to play the newest games of the future better than the 8500, so that you don't have to upgrade as soon. It's worth the extra money.

[funnyperson1]

while normally i would say the extra dough isnt worth it then since you want to keep it for 3 years a 4200 would be good.....and may be worth the extra cash...maybe.....i would suggest gettting the 8500 now and using that extra 150$ to get yourself a better card 1-2 years down the road that way you wont start to have a LOW end card after 1.5 years....

[cursor]

I own an ATI Radeon 8500 Retail and absolutely HATE it. The new drivers are faster, but they have incompatibility problems. I even bought a game (Icewind Dale II) that flat out locks up every 10 mins with the new drivers. ATI drivers also have little artifacts on the screen in many games. Take it from an ATI owner, the GF4 4200 is a better card.

OH and Compgeeks has a 4600 for $199! That's maybe worth thinking about... Visiontek.

hmmm. Just checked compgeeks and it looks like they're out of stock. (http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=TI4600-V&sourceid=00384521976045070171) :(

Maybe they'll have some more come in? You might email them or put one on backorder.

[rizge]

Thx people for your reply
i do have one question thou
why in the link Jules attached does the 4200 with 64 mem beat the 4200 with 128 mem with 5 FPS (75 to 70)
and please don't give me links and so on because i mentioned before that i can't buy online or even get something other than those two - at least better
Thx anyway in advance

[Shade00]

Many of the 64mb versions of the Ti4200 use RAM that is clocked faster that the 128mb version's. My PNY Ti4200 has faster RAM, but I wish it had the extra RAM for more textures. *Shrug*

So that's probably why the 64mb version is faster. However, OC the 128mb card, and you have a better card with more longevity -the 128mb will really help in games like UT2k3 with LOTS of textures.

I love my Ti4200. I'm not a big overclocker, but I've got it pushed up to 270/550. I'd imagine if I pulled the sinks and fan off and put some AS3 on them I could push it further with the stock cooling.

In my experience, like others have posted, nvidia's drivers are solid as a rock, while ATI's are quite spotty. I had a Radeon 7500 briefly and I could not get the thing to work for more than 5 minutes in any game. Crappy drivers.

Personally, I'd say spring for the 4200. You're looking at a card that runs great stock and will last you for a while. But that's just my opinion.

[Violator]

I notice no-one's added that since he's playing games @800x600, his CPU will be more important to game speed than the GFX card. And 2-3 years is a long time to hold onto a card these days......

[rizge]

@violator
sure you are right
but my nice 1.1 celeron tualtan clocked @1.47 @133 FSB does the job nicely
I am not a fan of Pentium 4 and i don't care if i get 250FPS or even '750'
i just care that my games run nice and smooth with all the settings up
PS:
This tualtan celeron has the best money/performance ratio i've ever seen
get yourself a 1.1A and oc the FSB 100 ---> 133
and here ya go:
A nice pIII @1.47 with 256 Cache and only for ~53$ compared to
211$ for the pIII 1.4

[rizge]

Now the problem gets even more complicated
i just returned from the CompuMall with new prices :
MSI Geforce 4 ti 4200 64 mem 770LE (167$)
Hercules 8500 LE 128 mem 650LE (141$)
Powercolor 8500 64 mem 650LE (141$)

So...
I beg you guys to give advice about that :confused:
1)4200 or 8500?
we just ended the issue about it for the 4200 BUT with the new prices i mean the 8500 Seems better
2)
Here we have a more famous Company (hercules) with its 8500LE at the same price as the less famous (Powercolor)'s 8500
and 8500LE has 64 more memory

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME WHICH ONE IS BETTER AND WHY IN YOUR OPPINION

[funnyperson1]

i think the 4200 is worth the extra 16$ i had thought you said that the 4200 was 150$ more expensive.....so yes...definately get the 4200....

[rizge]

26$:)
not 16$
still at your oppinion?

[Shade00]

IMHO the 4200 is the better card. If you can spend the extra money, go for it.

The 8500 is a good card, but not AS good as the 4200. You'll get more out of the 4200 as far as overclocking (if you plan on doing it) and it's a better card stock. And on top of that you have nVidia's drivers, which are ten times better than anything ATI has.

Once again, the decision is yours.

[Johnny Knoxville]

but the 8500 LE is 128MB, so it will be a lot better for the newer games.

[kent_b29]

I would go for the 4200 as well. those MSI's are supposed overclock quite well. You say they don't have a 128mb version wherever your looking at? If they do, I would go for it especially if your going to keep it for 2-3 years. Otherwise I would still stick with the 64 mb 4200.

hope this helps,
Kent

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by rizge
26$:)
not 16$
still at your oppinion?

yes....if you want to keep the card for 2-3 years without upgrading then dont skimp...4200 is still the way to go unless the money you save would be enough to use it for an upgrade in the future....which 26$ isnt...you can barely get a TNT2 for that price lol

[---X---]

Originally posted by Johnny Knoxville
but the 8500 LE is 128MB, so it will be a lot better for the newer games.

If you only play at 800*600, then the extra memory doesn't really help, because the lower amount of pixels means that the size of the textures will be lower, therefore taking up less memory.

[baqai]

i have a ti4200 128 Aopne (i was hoping for MSI but ended up getting a Aopen oh well) and i love it :) i havent tried out the 8500 so frankly speaking i rather not say anything about that, but my experience with ti4200 is awesome :) plus the one i have is with video in and video out

my 3d mark score is 8203 which is i think so fine keeping my system specs in mind .. i would suggest you go for a ti4200

[rizge]

1)so u guys are sure that i am ain't gonna be regreting not buying Hercules 8500le 128 megs and going for the MSI Geforce 4 ti 4200 64??
2)What ns does msi use for their 4200 64megs?

[Cisco Kid]

personally I would get the card with 128 megs ddr either the 4200 in that form or the 8500

I say buy the cheaper card cause you know you will be upgrading in the next year even though you think you will not

cisco kid

8500 will more than run your games smooth

[OC Noob]

I'd get the 4200 because if you get a nice O/C out of it it will last you longer then the 8500, but what ever you do DON'T get the 64 mb version of the 8500 the 128 mb is much better for the same price.

Both the 8500 128 mb and the 4200 64 mb are great cards, I just think the 4200 will last a bit longer. Although, the 8500 with its AF might look nicer.

[rizge]

bump

[JoshuaB]

Cisco Kid,

Good 3dMark score -- what's your FSB at on your XP 1600+?

[Cisco Kid]

that 3D Mar2K1SE score was at default fsb of 133 with my 1800.

I now have a 1600XP and I can run it at 166 fsb for 1.744 but I can not complete 3D Mark, yet I can game Unreal 2003 for 30 minutes or more no probs with the vid card at 275/275 or 300/300.


There is something I need to figure out cause once I can get that I will easily shoot to 10,500 I think with the extra 200mhz over my 1800 plus a much faster fsb

cisco kid

[Deadphishy]

well i have a radeon 9000 pro and i realy love it. bu the only reason i got it was i plan to upgraded about a year down the road. for you i would get Ti4200 it is a nice card, but 3 years down the road your looken at new tech that would make that thing look slower then a Tnt2.

[Jules]

Originally posted by rizge
1)so u guys are sure that i am ain't gonna be regreting not buying Hercules 8500le 128 megs and going for the MSI Geforce 4 ti 4200 64??
2)What ns does msi use for their 4200 64megs?

3.6 ns DDR Hynix RAM

[baqai]

if you go for MSI 128MB card it uses the same memory as the 64mb (3.3 or 3.6 ns i guess as Jules say it is 3.6) plus it is VIVO so you have added feature of video in

[rizge]

but the problem is i don't want vivo or any extra features
i just want a graphic card for games like max payne ut 2003 and so omn
and i don't give a heck about doom3
just a nice graphic card for playing games
but wait a minute
now i am wondering if i will regret not taking the 128 megs Hercules 8500LE and going with the msi 4200(64)
has anyone had the same options and what did he take?

[Samoyed]

For Allah's sake. Buy the damn 4200...any version. It is more compatible.

[rizge]

ok
going for the 4200
anyone has anything against it
for example any bad experience, anything i should avoid or care about...

[Samoyed]

No. No one has had any bad experiences with the 4200. Buy and be at peace and stop asking the same questions over and over!!! lol Oy