Budget GeForce4 MXs

[KingJackal]

Well, I've just noticed that Dragon (http://www.dragonpc.co.nz/) down here in ChCh is offering some incredibly low GeForce4 MX prices.

No dual-out, no TV-out, no VIVO, and probably pretty much no overclocking - but they're cheap!

MX420 - $149 INC GST
MX440 - $199 INC GST

If you're on a really tight budget ( sub $200 ), that MX440 may be crap - but it's probably still a better move than the alternatives - which ATM are probably all GeForce2 Ti's.... :eek:

Anyone else reckon those prices may actually make the crap brand and features bearable??

[Geek4Life]

Yeah they are probably worth it for some people, the ones which play the odd game and stuff, but aren't all ways stressing out the GPU.

[Solid Snake]

Well I've e-mail StylesPC about the ChainTech Ti 4600 cards [he sells them for $800 inc GST!!!] but I thought to myself ... wait on, there must be something wrong with the ChainTech cards, cos there must be a reason why they are so much cheaper than the rest. So I did a bit of web browsing, apparantly they don't have all the funky features ... but that didn't bother me. Their benchmark tests seem to be okay compared to other brands. Their fans are quite quiet... but then ... I found it!

Their 2D image quality is crud. Their text is fuzzy, and when it comes down to it, it is SO bad that getting this card outweighs it purpose. I mean it is good for 3D gaming but for stuff like web browsing and anything that needs a reasonably sharp card ... mmm.

So I am opting for the Gainward card which has better 2D image quality.

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by Solid Snake
So I am opting for the Gainward card which has better 2D image quality.

From what I've heard, the Gainwards aren't particularily brilliant either - are you sure they're better?

[Solid Snake]

Apparently better than Chaintech, so says Tom, from Toms Hardware.

[Hans]

Having had both of ChainTech and Gainward, I would say their 2D quality is on par, i.e. not so good.

I say you should go for a Leadtek if u want quality 2D output.

[Hans]

BTW, my old Gainward GF2 MX GS sux for 2D. The text started to blur after 1024*768 @ 75 Hz.

[Solid Snake]

Mmm, I see. Suppose the numbers on Toms Hardware is very fine... and only a trained eye like KingJackal can tell the difference.

[Wibber]

toms a tard

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

From what I've heard so far, Leadtek are certainly the way to go.

[Viper_NZ]

Originally posted by Wibber
toms a tard

Well said... Tomshardware sucks.......

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by Solid Snake
... and only a trained eye like KingJackal can tell the difference.

hahahaha - I don't think that came out right, I sound all ub3r-1337 and stuf, hahahahah-.... oh :rolleyes:
( d@rn - those approve, disapprove, embarrased and clown smilies were kinda handy... )

Yeah - like Hans said, if you want 2D output clarity, Leadtek = teh R0><0r.

My old GeForce2 MX was a Leadtek, and I never understood what the whole nVIDIA card 2D output fuss was about - mine was just as clear as an ATi card! :confused: And then I tried a Chaintech :eek: ....and realised that I'd just been spoilt all along.

Unfortunately, there is good reason to spend the extra $$s on a Leadtek card when it comes to those of us running 19"+ monitors. :(

[Humantuckshop]

Originally posted by Wibber
toms a tard


You got that right, hold on I believe I have a graphic for this:

* Spends 10 seconds in MS Paint*

[Wibber]

*looks at blank space where BMP is supposed to be*
huh?.
you get what you pay for...and $150 for a GF4mx kicks ass, I prolly gonna buy one for I friend, I wonder what spec the ram is... not much of a price jump rom a GF2mx and is DDR

damn they had me good :)

oh well still hell cheap

[Humantuckshop]

BMP? It's a Gif image.

[Wibber]

huh?
*runs off to ie*

mozilla :P no like southpark

[mird-OC]

aww come on! toms not such a bad guy....

[Geek4Life]

Originally posted by mird-OC
aww come on! toms not such a bad guy....
Nice :D. He sure is paid for most of his reviews.

[dustyslapper]

In one of Tom's [T]ardware reviews he smeared AS3 on top of the thermal conductive pads on heatsinks - no doubt to make them work twice as good.

[Stove]

Pulling back to the original thread. . . . that stuff about graphics cards. Has anyone heard a due date for the Leadtek version of the GeForce 4 Ti4200? The 4400/4600 flavours are out, but I'd imagine the 4200 flavour would be almost affordable for the likes of me, and a damn fine card :D
Gainwards 4200 is out, but i want Leadtek

[Geek4Life]

Originally posted by Stove
Pulling back to the original thread. . . . that stuff about graphics cards. Has anyone heard a due date for the Leadtek version of the GeForce 4 Ti4200? The 4400/4600 flavours are out, but I'd imagine the 4200 flavour would be almost affordable for the likes of me, and a damn fine card :D
Gainwards 4200 is out, but i want Leadtek
Tastech (http://www.tastech.co.nz/) has got them.;)

[Humantuckshop]

Originally posted by dustyslapper
In one of Tom's [T]ardware reviews he smeared AS3 on top of the thermal conductive pads on heatsinks - no doubt to make them work twice as good.


Smeared AS3 on top of the pad? You mean he actually left the pad on the heatsink?
I think that would be twice as bad because you've now got the conductive pad (which completely sucks) and a layer of AS3 aswell - IMHO that is not good. You only need a very small amount of AS3 to fill any gaps. ie: the imprinted words on the die and any imperfections on the base of the HSF.

Tom needs help.

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by Humantuckshop
Smeared AS3 on top of the pad? You mean he actually left the pad on the heatsink?
I think that would be twice as bad because you've now got the conductive pad (which completely sucks) and a layer of AS3 aswell - IMHO that is not good. You only need a very small amount of AS3 to fill any gaps. ie: the imprinted words on the die and any imperfections on the base of the HSF.

SOMEBODY missed the hidden <SARCASM> tags... :rolleyes: :p

Heh, those Leadtek cards look OK, but it's a shame about the RAM. Still, Leadtek have a habit of bringing out newer versions of their cards with better RAM in the future.... ;)

[Humantuckshop]

Hehe - yeah I couldn't actually tell if Dusty was being sarcastic or not - as there were no tags - they are there to be used ffs. *cough*

[dustyslapper]

;)

[Agent 86]

I agree with all the Toms a tard comments but suprised to hear what you say about the chaintech cause I thought all GF4 Ti 4600s use the same chipset and support the same features and use the same spec 2.8ns ram and same default 300 MHz Core / 650 MHz Memory. The difference being the pcb, how the card is assembled, type of fan/heatsink combo, packaging, warrantee and stuff like crt, dvi and tv out. I'm wondering what chaintech has done differently to screw up 2D image quality.

[KingJackal]

Simple. Filters.

And as for RAM, aye? nVIDIA cards have NEVER had a set RAM speed - only a reccomended one. ( Strongly reccomended, but reccomended only nonetheless ) ;)

[mird-OC]

the filters on nearly all nvidia cards have been crap since day one. in most cases (if you're handy with a soldering iron) you can actually effectively remove the filters and the quality improves quite noticeably... which is pretty dumb, really.

it's never really been dealt to properly because to the vid card manufactuerers it's not really seen as a problem, as most of their users either don't run at a res where it's noticeably or they're just not as picky as the rest of us :)

i really would've thought it would've been sorted out with the GF4 Ti cards tho, given their capabilities.

[Solid Snake]

If the population don't care I guess they won't feel the need to change. They might also feel that 3D is their fortae ... and the GF4 at least fills the role of being a powerful 3D accelerator.

[farns]

Well I have a $275 GF4 mx440 :(

I thought it looked an ok deal, benches only a tad slower than gf3 ti200,costs less, doesnt have DX8.1 stuff like pixel and vertex shading but I rightly or wrongly didnt think realistic water effect or whatever it does was worth paying extra for.
A lot of near future games arent even gonna incorporate these things anyway so i heard. Id like to see the dif in screenies...

O well its faster than any Gf2 anyway for bout the same price, hmm that gf4 ti4200 sure looks good but $550 for 128mb is still an awful lot....

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by farns
O well its faster than any Gf2 anyway for bout the same price, hmm that gf4 ti4200 sure looks good but $550 for 128mb is still an awful lot....

That's the thing. It's not an 0wning card, but then - no sub $300 card is an 0wning card. And the price jump to get to one is just far too much for many ( myself included ATM ).

Bro, if you want to see an MX440 smash any GeForce2 card into itty bitty pieces, benchoff/compare/try/whatever them using Quincunx FSAA.

You'll note that the GeForce2 ( and GeForce3's ) will suffer blurry textures using Quincunx, which the GeForce4's won't. Oh yeah - and the framerate on the MX440 might be just a tad higher... :D

Lol, when I had an MX440 ( borrowed, unfortunately ) I never took it off Quincunx - everything was so smooth and looked so good with it on anyways...
*shrugs*
:)

[Viper_NZ]

WTF?? GF2's don't do Quincunx.... :P