Is this Worth it for the money??

Rob423

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Is it actually worth buying the GeForce 4 ti4600 over the Geforce 3 ti500....for the money? for the extra 100$ or so is there really that much difference..I think im better off waiting for the GeForce 5 when that comes out.. Probly won't have to wait to long for that, another few months hopefully by Xmas Time!

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pr497

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i dont think its worth buying the ti4600 over the ti500...i think it makes more sense to buy the gf4 ti4200 right now...
now...about the gf5...if you want a good video card now...get the ti4200 or R8500...if you wait for the gf5....you're going to be playing that waiting game until your system is too old to use a good video card...
in other words...by the time the gf5 comes out...you'll be like, "what about the gf6? should i wait for that?" and so on so you'll never really get a card.
my advice...if you want a new video card and the new product wont be out within the next month or so...then just get any one of the cards that are selling now...

<b><font color=red>ATI</font color=red>'s drivers are like a broken faucet, they both keep on leaking...</b> :cool:
 

williamc

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Simple solution, do what i do. Buy it at compusa and pay the full retail price. Buy their 20 dollar 2 year instant replacement warranty. When the GF5 comes out, use the warranty to upgrade and buy a new 20 dollar warranty, your only down 20 bucks for the upgrade. When the GF6 comes out do it again. Again with the 7 and the 8 and the 9 and the 10 etc... get the idea? I been doing it since the GF2 Ultra. Went to GF and now TI 4600 and all i ever have to pay to upgrade is the 20 dollars for a new isntant replacement warranty. And its no cheating either, they advertise it as something you can use to upgrade. When you fill out the return form circle upgrading and they'll mark the product used and resell it as is or auction it on their auction site.

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII
 

bdaley

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It amazes me that they'd do that. For $20 they'll give you an upgrade to a card that might cost $400 or more retail? Seems like they'd lose money on the deal.

Man, if we had CompUSA around here I'd do it.

"There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks."
 

Harisahmed

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Can this be used for everything purchased at compusa? For example, could I get a laptop or PDA and then replace it a year later for $20?
 

Oni

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I think im better off waiting for the GeForce 5
You'll be waiting forever then, there will not be a Geforce 5 :smile:
The next video card from nvidia will not be called Geforce. Right now no one knows what NV30 will be called, there are rumors it'll have 8 rendering pipelines. Before people were saying 6 but nvidia said that they are done in doubles (IE 2 then 4, then 8, etc.) I say go with a Ti4400 and overclock it to 300 GPU 650 MEM, do a little research, the right Ti4400 will clock that high with no problems. Current Ti4600's can't overclock very high unless you mod them. Maybe 315 GPU (roughly 8% overclock) and 715 MEM (10% OC)
So overclocking a Ti4400 is much better 300 from 275 (almost 10% OC) and 650 from 550 (almost 19% OC) so you can see you get more for your money with Ti4400.

If my response is brief and vague its because the info you provided is too!
 

williamc

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They sell 1 or 2 year instant replacement warranties on pretty much all hardware they have in the store. Yeup. Go down to the local CompUSA and ask them about it.

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII
 

williamc

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The Stock TI 4600 is GPU 300 and RAM 650. I run my Visiontek just fine at 325/700 and it runs at room temp w/ good case cooling. I havn't even tried going beyond that yet but seeing as how i've got zero problems where i'm at when its running Dungeon Siege for 12 Hours straight...well, i do believe it could go even higher.

Edit: Its not doubles till they go from 4 to 8, right now its also just increasing by two's:)) hehe

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by williamc on 04/10/02 04:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

phsstpok

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I heard those rumors about no Geforce5. I also seem to recall the new lines will include technology obtained from the 3DFX assets.

Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read this.

Do you have any rumor links, Oni?

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Oni

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hardocp for the most part, maybe I saw something on the anandtech forums. BTW the hard forums are pretty gay for blocking the word "tomshardware" I wonder what their beef is.

If my response is brief and vague its because the info you provided is too!
 

Rob423

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screw them, that site blows.....the only cool thing i seen on that site was when they OC' the XBOX and added a Water Cooling system on it.... but big deal, anybody could do it...

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Harisahmed

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Thanks for the tip about compusa. Their instant replacement warranties are $20 for graphics and sound cards, but the price increases for other hardware. Now, I'm thinking about just getting a barebones system and getting upgradeable parts from compusa.
 

williamc

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Some items are cheaper too, most of their warranties are 1 year on smaller items. Bigger items tend to be 2 years. I forget which sound cards are. I've always had 2 years on my graphics cards and hard drives. 1 year on my $50 dollar mouse and joystick was 5 dollars each. Most of em end up paying off-) I had a Maxtor 60Gig HD burn out in 6 months. Instant replacement cost me nothing even with the new warranty cause the price had come down, so i got a WD 100Gig same speed with new warranty for nothing... Joystick malfunctioned after about 9 months, got it replaced for the price of a new 5 dollar warranty. Monitors and Printers are the only that's really expensive for the warranty, they're 70 bucks apiece for a 2 year warranty but thats cause they dont scale it, its the same price for a 150 dollar monitor as for a 1500 dollar monitor...

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII
 

bdaley

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Like I said before, damn I wish there was a CompUSA around here!

"There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks."
 

Harisahmed

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Their warranty covers laptop screens, but the rate was like $350 for 2 years. I didn't really grill the sales guy, so I'm not sure if they replace the whole laptop or just the screen. If you don't mind S&H and you can find a middle man, you could still get stuff from compusa. Don't know if it would be worth it with the S&H costs included, but it is nice to be able to easily upgrade graphics cards, sound cards, and HDs.
 

williamc

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more than likely thats an instant replacement warranty on the whole laptop. I didnt know they did it for laptops and PC's... The idea here is to use their parts warranties to build a machine yourself and keep upgrading it almost for free.... CompUSA sells jillions of these warranties, there's only a few comparatively who use them frequently for upgrades so it doesnt even dent their profits, heh-) BTW, if you buy one, remember, the Reciept IS YOUR WARRANTY! The reciept will show the item purchased and the warranty purchase for it. When you use the warranty, they give you a credit basically thats equal to what you paid for the origional item + tax but you dont recover the warranty cost of course...and you have to buy a new warranty on the new item. Unfortunately, you can see how handling this would be kind of impossible without any compusa's around.

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII
 

Harisahmed

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I need a good laptop that I can use for my new business and $350 is not too bad for replacing an entire laptop after 2 years. Thanks again for the tip.
 

Rob423

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Wait can you explain this CompUsa thing alittle more..... your saying i can go to CompUSA, buy a Geforce 4 ti4600 for say 410$ + 20$ for the Warrenty.... then when the Geforce5 comes out, or whatever...i can just Upgrade that card for just another 20$...
But i would have to give back the GeForce 4...when i receive the GeForce 5

This Community is like a Second Family!!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rob423 on 04/11/02 11:22 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

williamc

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Yes, exactly, Rob.
I started out with a Geforce 2 Ultra, went to a Geforce 3, now i'm on a GeForce 4 TI 4600. For only the price of a 20 dollar warranty with each upgrade after the GF2 Ultra.

edit: assuming the geforce 5 or whatever comes out in the 2 years before the warranty expires, which of course it will.

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by williamc on 04/12/02 11:09 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

bdaley

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That's unbelieveable! Maybe CompUSA will open a store around here soon. Aren't they located mainly west of the Mississippi? I'm on the east coast.

"There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks."
 

joikd

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william, does the item under warranty have to be defective to turn it in?

do you just simply tell them that you want to upgrade?

basically, i guess what i'm asking is if there is any, uh, shall i say, deception that needs to go on on my part?

i just want to have my plan prepared ahead of time.

thanks, man. if this all works out, this will be the best bit of info. that i've ever received.