GF4Ti/R9700Pro upgrade worth it?

[Mr_Bond]

I'm looking to upgrade my videocard in the near future but I'm just wondering whether it would be worth it.

Currently, my system specs are AthlonXP 1700+, 256DDR, GF2 Ti, EP-8KHA+ (EPoX).

However, I'm wondering will buying a new Radeon 9700Pro or GF4Ti 4600 be worth the money or will it be bottlenecked by some other part of my system? I know my mobo can only handle AGP 4x but is my CPU too slow or something as well? I'd rather get a Radeon than a GF4 (speed, DX9 etc) but would it really run any faster on my system (or will it run at the same speed because of CPU or something)? Should I just wait till next year and upgrade the whole system?

 

[johnoh]

Your system is bottlenecked by your graphics card right now, if you into graphics intensive gaming. There is never a perfect match though.

You can do a search and compare at 3dmark.com to give yourself a feel for the effect of the different cards. I just did it and got

amd 1.45ghz, radeon 9700 ~~ 10500
amd 1.45ghz, gf4 Ti4600 ~~ 9500
amd 1.45ghz, gf4 ti4200 ~~ 9000
amd 1.45ghz, gf2 ti ~~ 4500

I only looked through the first page of the results and took an average. There are so many Ti4200 users that its first page surely has the best overclocked cards, which is why the nums are so close to the ti4600. By the way, the Ti4200 is such a good overclocker at stock cooling that I don't know why you would buy a Ti4600. The 9700 widens its gap from its competition a lot once you're running a cpu 50% faster than yours. Also, note that very few people buy a 9700 to go with an athlon 1700. While its fair to say your cpu will be the weak link with a 9700, if you upgrade the cpu in 6-12 months you'll be able to keep using your 9700.

Don't sweat only being able to handle 4x.

Waiting always saves you money, but then your fun is limited in the meantime.

You've got to ask yourself how dissatisfied am I with my current system. All high end gtraphics cards are overkill if you are not stressing them with intense games. I am biased toward the Ti4200 because of the low price and ease of overclockability.

John A

 

[AMD_Man]

3Dmarks tell only half the story with no AA or Aniso. With both on, on the R9700Pro, you'll see almost no drop in performance (due to the CPU being the bottleneck), while the Ti4200 will go down to 1/3 or 1/4 of the performance. Really, the R9700Pro will be on average 3X faster than the Ti4200 and 2X faster than the Ti4600 with all the "eye candy" on. If you want to see today's games in the best quality settings, an R9700Pro is the only way to go (until nVidia releases the NV30).

Intelligence is not merely the wealth of knowledge but the sum of perception, wisdom, and knowledge.

 

[Mr_Bond]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. Another thing to consider...

I have a 19" monitor so ideally I want to be running games at 1600x1200 with all visuals set to highest. (I play a lot of new games). UT2003 can only be run stably at about 800x600 at the moment...

I'm in Australia so the prices I'd be paying are roughly...
GeForce4 TI4200 SE SUMA 128meg 3.3ns DDR Ram $400
GeForce4 TI4600 LEADTEK 128meg DDR $550
ATI RADEON 9700Pro CREATIVE RX9700 Pro $775

How would a GF4Ti4200 fair against a R9700 on my machine say at 1600x1200 with FSAA and all "eye candy" on in UT2003 (or whatever)?

I realise that the CPU will be bottlenecking it a bit but does the video card handle the higher resolution/FSAA independantly of the CPU speed?

On a side note, can my mobo handle the new athlons (Thouroughbred Bs etc)?

 

[johnoh]

I would rule out the Ti4600. Given your requirements the 9700 is not overpriced, its just a question of how much performance do you want. There is no doubt that you will see a big difference between the 9700 and an overclocked Ti4200 so its not that the 9700 horsepower is going to waste. Along with the performance difference is the price difference.

Don't know about the mobo question.

John A

 

[Mr_Bond]

I've decided that I'm going to buy a R9700 at christmas when they are hopefully a bit cheaper. In the coming months I'll upgrade the CPU to a 2400+ or something...I've been told Thoroughbred B's should work on my mobo. That should get rid of the main 2 bottlenecks and I can play games at full detail again!

 

[AndrewT]

9700PRO = good choice, running UT2003 at max goodies settings at 1024x768 and not a hickup (didn't try higher but even at this I'm way over than what I was used to with old card ).

3DMark2001 Original
ASUS GeForce 2 GTS Deluxe (AMD XP1.4)= 2931

3DMark2001SE
ATI 9700PRO (P4 2.4)= 13846

Safe to say that I'm happy with the upgrade, it was about time anyway.

Sys:
Nikao Noblesse, 2x120mm, 2x80mm case fans (all off, no need for them to run)
Enermax 550W Power Supply
ABIT TH7-II mobo
P4A NW 2GHz@2.4GHz, original fan/hsink (might go higher, but not stable over 2.46 with 1.66V)
512Mb Samsung PC800 RIMM, 2x256 no ECC
ATI 9700PRO Retail, @ 345/330 (not a big o/c guy so no clue if it goes higher or not)
30Gig Maxtor 7200 ATA100, partition: 10G OS+ - 20G stuff
40Gig Seagate 5300 ATA100, storage (52-5300, who knows, it's the slower model)
HP 12X CDRW
D-Link DE-528 PCI Ethernet
SB PCI128 sound (it runs fine with everything since I got it years ago)
98SE 4.10.2222 A (yeah 98se, not changing OS till I'm forced to, why bother when you have no problems?!)

Replacing CDRW with a 48x liteon (soon), another 60Gig drive (debating on it), waiting for APC BP500UC order to arrive.

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red>

 

[starwrs3]

if you can wait a little while you might want to take a look at the radeon 9500 pro it will save you a little money and it will be a better match to your processor

 

[Rubberbband]

with your current setup get a Ti 4200 and when it's time to upgrade trade everything.

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<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=327" target="_new"><b>MY SYSTEM</b></A>

 

[Ghostdog]

No offense rubberband, but that wasn´t a very smart comment. He said he´ll get a 2400+ or close in some time, then why should he limit himself to a Ti4200??

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>