[\dev\goat]

I have just gotten a geforce4 mx440 64mb 360/413 in the past couple months. i posted a few questions about it and it was running good and everything...then i noticed that in everquest, 4yr old game, spell effects slow down the game horribly at 1152x864....urban terror is no different for example smoke grenades at 800x600...most stuff runs nearly 100fps until effects like that get on the screen...would this be fixed when i upgrade my processor to >1.5ghz [still at 866mhz btw lol]? or is the the card itself?

another question, if you guys say its the card then i have seen SO many 9500np --> 9700np mod posts.. if i get a $130 9500np and mod it to 9700 then overclock it is that a good solution? if not what other card would suffice? thats about how much i want to spend..
[ati noob]
also what are the advantages of the mod like what does it do besides change the name of the card
[/ati noob]

thx in advance

i dont think i'll post system specs cause a bunch of it got fried and im deciding on mobo, which will pretty much decide how the rest of the pc will be built

[edit]
lol i just read my post and i drone on and on a lot...srry bout that
[/edit]

[Supertrucker]

i would upgrade the proc first, and the memory if you use sdram, you should get ddr. a 9500 or higher probably would do you little or no good versus that card with a slower proc. as for what card to buy, i would get the 9700np right now, it can be had for around 200$ and you dont have to pray for the mod to work as you already have what the mod would have given you.

[Damian]

9500np->9700np mods are actually very rare; they usually result in extremely heavy artifacting and thus uselessness. Besides, you'd need a special 9500np PCB (the red one with L-shaped RAM, not the new one with the RAM in a straight line) and not many retailers guarantee the L-shaped one; and if they do, the card is usually more expensive, about $150.

Basically, don't get a 9500np for hope of modding it. If you can't mod it (and the odds are overwhelmingly against it), you're stuck with a pretty slow card, even slower than a ti4200.

[Z_oc]

Hi,

As Supertrucker pointed out, maybe it would be better if you souped up u'r system first.

Sell u'r old stuff at Ebay and get a newer platform. It'll boost overall performance. And it'll be more ready to utilise the might and magic of newer video cards if you don't like u't MX440.

[\dev\goat]

alright thanks everyone i conviently fried a few things so i plan on building a completely new system with an amd athlon 2500+ barton and an agp 8x ti4200 with 512mb 333mhz ddr...

[Captain Hilts]

If you can still find a 9500 Pro I'd go for that over a 4200 for sure. Otherwise I'd get a 9600 Pro for cards in that price range.

[james.miller]

i agree. ti4200 are budget cards with budget (FSAA) performance. a 9500pro should be a good 35-40% with Full Screen Anti Aliasing on.

[pip]

Originally posted by Damian
9500np->9700np mods are actually very rare; they usually result in extremely heavy artifacting and thus uselessness. Besides, you'd need a special 9500np PCB (the red one with L-shaped RAM, not the new one with the RAM in a straight line) and not many retailers guarantee the L-shaped one; and if they do, the card is usually more expensive, about $150.

Basically, don't get a 9500np for hope of modding it. If you can't mod it (and the odds are overwhelmingly against it), you're stuck with a pretty slow card, even slower than a ti4200.

no not really, a while ago there was a poll on here that asked about softmods for 9500 nps and over 50% of people who tried had completely succesful softmods, abot 20% more had artifacts that they could live with and the rest failed

[Z_oc]

Check this out for a Ti4200 vs 9600 vs 9500 shootout:

http://www.techseekers.net/modules.p...wcontent&id=62

[DrSpanky]

if you put a small fan on your gf4 mx 440 you can get your core alot higher ive got mine to 375 that will get u some more performance in games till u upgrade