| Product: |
General Comments on Video Cards |
| Date: |
17/10/02 (1745 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: The Ti is Lovely, The Ti is powerful, The Ti is my secret lover
Disadvantages: The Mx is a fraud, The Mx leaves me board, The Mx is made of cord?
With computer technology soaring into a the future, yesterday's PCs are becoming obsolete especially if you want to play the latest games. At the heart of this is the way in which your graphic card has become perhaps the most important component in the average PC. Where once there was a few players on the graphics card market, the stores seemed to be flooded with more cards from more manufacturers than you can shake a stick out. Which makes the question of which graphics card to buy all that more puzzling. Particularly when it comes to the world of the Nvidia Geforce chipset.
The majority of the new breed of graphics cards are powered by the Nvidia Geforce 4 chip. A chip that is claimed will revolutionise game playing with it's plethora of 2D and 3D enhancing features. And there is no doubting that the Geforce 4 chip is all the it claims to be. From Lightspeed Memory Architecture II to heavy duty texture modulation and other fantastically sound features the Geforce 4 is the all singing and dancing box of tricks you've always dreamed of (Well if you have dreams about circuit boards and silicon chips while stomping through a post nuclear wasteland *cough* back to the thread)
The only issue is how much it pulls you PC out from the technology quagmire depends on two factors. Firstly if your PC is so ancient it creaks if you open Internet explorer and outlook at the same time and should really be sent to a retiring home for aging processors then forget it. Buying a Geforce 4 card is a worth while as getting racing suspension on a Reliant Robin.
The second factor is it depends what version of the Geforce card you buy . There is basically two versions the Ti and The Mx. The Mx being the cheap holiday in Bangor compared to the T'?s luxury cruise around the World on the QE2. Not only is the cost difference between the Ti and the Mx on the large size there is a massive performance difference between the two.
Where as Ti
based cards can move about 35 frames per second (fps) at 1600 x1200 on most new 3D games on average. Mx based cards struggle at 18 fps at the same detail level. Half that of its more powerful brethren. The reason for this performance difference is that while Ti cards are based on a complete new build, Mx cards are basically a glorified Geforce 2 Ti where there has had seen an increase in the clock speed of the memory. The Creative Labs MX for example offers 64Mb 550Mhz DDR memory, which is just a doubling of the speed of the same manufacturers Geforce 2 card. Which also makes it slower than the majority of Geforce 3 Ti's on the market.
The only real thing going for the Mx based cards is that they are cheaper to buy than the Ti based cards and prices are falling all the time. Where as the average cost of a Ti card is still in the £250 to £300 area the average cost of a Mx card is around £90. Although Verto has recently released a Ti4200 at a bargain price of £125. The Mx should appeal to the gamer on a budget who wants to upgrade their PC without the hassle of a total overhaul of processor and motherboard. Then again for your money there are cheaper Radeon graphics cards on the market that outshine the Geforce 4 Mxs peformance at a similar cost.
The Mx card is also a wasted investment for those who have decided to go the whole hog and upgrade their system to the latest Pentium 4 2000+ chips. Installing a Mx card would been like buying a Ferrari and replacing it's engine with that of a Ford Ka. It might work but ultimately pointless and fruitless exercise.
The Ti on the other hand will soar like an eagle on a high end system making playing the latest 3D games a stunning hi-res experience rather than the trudge most people suffer with their old P3 800s and Geforce 2 Mxs when playing recent games like Solider Of Fortune II. (Which wasn't helped much when I bought a Geforce 4 Mx for the same system)
My advice then is
to avoid Geforce 4 Mx cards like the plague while embracing the Ti cards
like your long lost twin brother who've you just met for the first time. The Mx is basically a expensive con, which is shaded out by the similar priced Radeons. The Geforce 4 Ti cards however are the nectar for the serious gameplayer. Well until the next generation of hyper duper graphic cards come out and make them look as attractive as an Acorn Electron.
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1maryanne - 15/11/02 Oooooh! They can be so cruel!!
I came to congratulate you on a thorough opinion!
Mary &;-} |
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