which card: ti4200 or 128bit R9550?

[stranger]

Hi,
Does anyone know which card is a better preformer?
a 64mb ti4200 or a 128mb 128-bit Radeon 9550.
thanks for the help.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

What games? What resolutions? And in what Rig?


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[stranger]

Well, my pc is kinda old, I am hoping to build a new one in the near future. I just want a cheap card to replace my geforce2 mx400 which finally died. Right now I have a P4 1.8ghz and 512MB (PC2100) of RAM. My mobo has AGP 4x I think.
As for games, I play mostly Battlefield 1942 but I wouldn't mind trying some of the newer ones that I could not play with my gf2 (like HL2 or Battlefield 2 when it comes out). For resolution, i can live with 800x600 and high-med details.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well in your case probably either would be OK.

The question will be price and availability near you.

Pauldh posted a <A HREF="http://www.z-buy.com/product.asp?item=VG-M8894070" target="_new">link to a pretty cheap G4ti</A>, and that would be hard to beat at that price!

The R9550 would offer slightly more features in games, especially HL2, but by the same token the GF4ti might get better raw framerates whith noAA/AF.

Here's a good list that has pretty much every combination of cards out there;

<A HREF="http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/over2k4/index.html" target="_new">http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/over2k4/index.html</A>

Unfortunately the testing was done before HL2 and doesn't have Battlefield in it. As you can see some new games Like FartCry will stress out these cards even at 800x600. Notice in that example that the R9550 is in the PS2.0 group with all the shiny features, and the GF4ti is in the 1.1 group. The G4ti gets slightly better framerates though.

Really it's a tough choice. The R9550 will give you some nice new visuals, but for the price listed earlier the GF4ti is a good bargain.


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[stranger]

I would get that 38$ ti4200, but i can't buy online, and the shop i am getting the card from has both cards at almost the same price, so price isnt a deciding factor. Right now, i am leaning more towards the 9550, mainly for the extra eye-candy and i also heard its an excellent overclocker.
Anyways, thanks a lot for the help!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yep the R9550 has some great OC'ing potential those cores are very cool/efficient, my R9600P goes to 535 (from 400) without a problem. Don't expect the same results, but still expect a nice little benifit with the right cooling.


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[cleeve]

The Ti4200 is a much better performer stock, I'd recommend it over a 9550 128-bit anyday... but believe it or not, in this case Cleevey actually has to mention the AMOUNT OF RAM!

64 megs won't cut it in alot of today's games. If you plan to play Doom3, Half Life 2, Battle for Middle Earth... it's going to make a noticable difference in texture quality.

Still, if you don't plan to overclock, get the Ti4200. If you do, the 9550 is the better bet.



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<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[pauldh]

I think priced the same, I'd go with the 9550 as long as it's a 128-bit one. I'd definately consider OC'in it though.



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[HardWareBoss]

My TI4200 plays Far Cry at 1024x768 Plus has 1.3 not 1.1. The only games I can't play are the new Ruby demos.

 

[pauldh]

I don't think anyone is knocking the Ti4200 as a ledgendary card that can still play todays games well. But you are missing alot of visuals compared to say a 9600 pro. But it's still a pretty decent 1024x768 med or med/low detail card in every game I have tried. MOHPA probably chugs the most from what I have seen.



Have you seen <A HREF="http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/half_life_2_optimization/" target="_new">Firingsquads new HL2 optimization guide</A>? It is an interesting read and could help many people in tweaking their settings, yet fails to mention that the reason why the Ti4200 doesn't suffer a performance hit in water reflections is because DX9 is used so it can't reflect them. They touch on this in general, but the water reflection chart should have had an * by it with an explanation. It's shy of being thorough anyway and unless the reader already understands the differences like in Anand's visual quality DX7/DX8/DX9 comparison, they could be a little misinformed by just reading the charts.


Looking at the water reflections alone on my ti4200 compared to the 9800 pro, and the visual bliss of the game suffers greatly in DX8. Don't get me wrong, it does well in HL2, just once you play on your BFG 6800GT, you will be amazed how much better HL2 can really look, even without AA enabled.




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[cleeve]

I'm not saying it won't play it, hardwareboss; it'll play every game out there.

What I'm saying is, the 64-meg texture sets it will use are pretty blurry compared to their 128-meg counterparts in new games.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[GAME]

well considering you cant order online (which you might as well cut your own throat if you cant do that thesedays)...

then get the 128mb card.

the radeon 9xxx series performs virtually the same in DX8 and in 9.
but i wouldnt believe the hype on the visual quality. its better, but not that much.

the big jump was from dx7 to 8, not 8 to 9. more like a skip rather than a bunny hop.

but still, i'd rather have DX9 support and 128mb of memory.

if you were choosing between that 9550 w/128mb and a 4200 w/128mb, i'd say 4200.



its a damn shame you cant get online (you are, arent you? ) and get yourself a cheaper, better 9600 pro/xt or 128mb 4200.

just to give you a clue on what you are missing, you can get the 9600XT for $80 online.
far superior to your choices.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I would get Ti4200, if prices are equal.

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[HardWareBoss]

I know I'm missing a lot. But it has served me well. Plus only 64 not 128. To bad the Far Cry demo was not out when I had that 9800XT I played with.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Is there specifically a 1.3 path in FartCry?

The differences between 1.3 and 1.1 are minor, 1.4 is a little better but still kinda minor (gives you shinier water/rain). For the tests it was likely set to the level at which they could test the most cards [no shaders/PS1.1/PS2.0].

I think they are kick ass cards, and there isn't a game out there they can't play (unlike the MXs and earlier Radeons). The GF4ti will likely take someone all the way to UE3.0 based games if they just want playable frames. And while the R9000/9100/9200 series may be more 'technologically advanced' with PS1.4 support, the GF4ti will blow them away almost every time and is a better choice for gaming.

For that generation it's the easy top choice, and it's still strong enough for anything. BTW, how's it doing with the Dawn/Dusk and Nalu demos? Also I doubt Rthdribl would work, but that's not relevant to the generation or it's differences.

Even against the R9550 it's a worthy competitor and then it really involves more a preference of what you will be doing with the cards. The GF4ti though will sill more often than not have the brute force advanatage in most games, AA/AF though also add a little change into the mix though.


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