best brand for 4400???...not gonna oc

[tyshy]

im not plannin on ocin so im sure it doesn't make a huge difference but im lookin to get a 4400 and im wonderin if gainward is as good as the others just because it seems to be the cheapest brand on pricewatch...or do they not have many other brands left?

[BigJk-47]

Gainward is one of the best brands and if your not gonna oc PNY isnt to bad either.

[Codeman05]

I have a Gainward GF4 4400 Ultra 700 and I love it. Of all the cards I've owned, the Gainwards generally ran the best and overclocked the best. I'd say go for Gainward. PNY and MSI are also two other brands that I've liked.

[tyshy]

will this benfit me if im spendin that money?....my mobo only supports 4x so whats the best card out there for around 175-200?

[Codeman05]

I got my Gainward for about $180 shipped. It also comes with software that will allow you run the card at higher settings without you actually overclocking it personally...basically it sets the default core / mem higher. Overclocking it so you wont have to mess with it in your situation.
Either way, all the cards are fairly similar if ur not going to do any Overclocking

[Lancelot]

You say you don't want to OC, but you can almost guaranteed OC any Ti4200 card to Ti4400 speeds without any effort and save some money!

[tyshy]

but in the future i could always oc the 4400 and get more than the 4200 oc'd

[Codeman05]

right, my 4200 would max at about 325core 600mem with ram sinks and a cool jag on the core.
My 4400 churns 315core and 680mem stock...granted your results will vary but I'm pretty impressed. About to put a cooljag and ram sinks on this card, should hit fairly close to 330x700.
And stock TI4200's run 250core & 500mem

BTW. the default settings on that gainward 4400 are 275core and 550mem (stock 4400 speeds). If you put it in enhanced mode (what I was talking about earlier), it goes up to 280x580
And thats without you having to manually OC the card

Also, Last time I checked, a gainward 4200 was about $168, but there are some cheaper brands. The gainward 4400 I bought was $190 after tax & shipping, and I think it was worth the extra cash.

Either way you go though, the 4200 or 4400 are both good bang for the buck

Just my 2cents, I don't mean it to look like I'm really plugging for gainward, but that was the card you mentioned originally. There are some other good brands out there, but I think you'll be alittle more happy with a gainward

[kent_b29]

I would take a look at msi. I have a friend who likes their stuff alot and I tend to agree. Check them out. They give you alot of nice games too(morrowind, rouge spear, other games)

Kent

[tyshy]

yea are there any ati cards that would be better than a 4400 for the same price?...that don't have 8x cuz i won't use it
edit: and i prolly won't need 8x if i can play hitman 2 on my mx400 at 1024x768 at medium-high settings and it runs fine

[Awakened2002]

I would stay away from PNY. I have heard of many people having problems with em and know a few people who have had to return theirs... Bad memory on the cards i believe...

[toxicrain]

My gainward GF4 Ti4600 was DOA :(

[Banshee164]

You could get a 9500pro for around $175. It's a littlt slower than the 4600 in normal mode but blows the GF4s away if you enable AA or AS

[Trap]

Asus

[Evnas]

Originally posted by dragon orb 3
will this benfit me if im spendin that money?....my mobo only supports 4x so whats the best card out there for around 175-200?

For that price, the absolute best video card is the Radeon 9500 Pro, hands down. With more features, better image quality, faster performance then any GF4 card, its definatly they way to go IMO,

[tyshy]

thanks...i still might go with it...but again...i don't need the 8x so im not gonna pay extra for it...is there a card that is cheaper....like a 4x version of the 9500 pro?

[Trap]

I don't want to start the flame war, but u will be lucky if you find the right drivers for Ati and won't have any compatibility issues..

[Evnas]

Originally posted by dragon orb 3
thanks...i still might go with it...but again...i don't need the 8x so im not gonna pay extra for it...is there a card that is cheaper....like a 4x version of the 9500 pro?

The 9500 Pro offers MUCH more then just 8x AGP. It offers many more features and will last u a lot longer then any of nVidia's currently available cards

Originally posted by Trap
I don't want to start the flame war, but u will be lucky if you find the right drivers for Ati and won't have any compatibility issues..

Thats an uneducated comment right there. A vast majority of the products work 100% flawlessly. My 9500 Pro works just fine...it is without a doubt the best video card purchase ive ever made. Most of the ppl on these boards even have no problems with their ATi cards. Head over to Rage3D, less than 1% of their nearly 29,000 members have problems with their cards.

[David]

The choice I would say lies between a 4400 and a 9500[pro].

If in doubt, go by price. Either card will give you good image quality, and will play almost all modern games (as well as a lot of those out soon) satisfactory at highish settings.

If you arent going to OC, go for the cheapest. Any Radeon 9500/9700 or GeF 4200/4400/4600 will give you good performance.

Although I have heard that 'built by Ati' Radeon 9500/9700 cards are generally better than third party ones.

Driver support may be an issue, I would try looking around the V&SC forum here and seeing how frequent driver problems seem to be. Generally drivers will improve over time, so if the only bugs are minor ones, it may be worthwhile putting up with them, waiting for newer drivers if the card has features you desperately want.

The chipset used shouldnt be the only consideration. Look also for things like TV-Out and DVI connections, if you plan to connect TVs or LCD/TFT monitors to your computer.

Either way, either brand will be better than your current card, and in demanding games such ast UT2k3 and others, you will notice a difference both in performance and quality.

Read the reviews, do some homework. Compare features and price.

David

[tyshy]

ive done a lot of research too....i was just wonderin what brands for either card were best...and if there was a huge difference...newegg does a good job spelling out what a card has anyway....so i at least kno what i am gettin....im still tryin to justify spendin 150-200 on a card