Best GeForce4 Card Brand?

TeKiZeRo · Post by **TeKiZeRo** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 12:30 pm

Hi,
I've seen a lot of makers for the GeForce4 card, but I am wondering which brand is the better buy? Any recommendations?

Thanks for your input

.

LT-73 · Post by **LT-73** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 1:27 pm

Gainward
VisionTek
Abit (siluro)
PNY

aagiants · Post by **aagiants** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 1:47 pm

go to http://www.anandtech.com they have a large gf4 roundup

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 2:03 pm

gainward
leadtek
asus
abit

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 2:48 pm

I've loved ASUS for the longest time, have been getting their vid cards since the very first nVidia TNT 1, the v3400. Also love their mobo's.

But reading great stuff on Gainwards, and MSI vid cards too!

Visiontek is folding, or has already. Leadtek has some damn huge heat sinks on it!

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 3:17 pm

hehehehhh
You guys may laugh, but I actually picked mine on appearance.

After talking with "The Video Card Man" (Brent Justice, Super hardware hero and a hella cool good guy) I determined that the big boys are all basically about the same...

Brent could tell you the minute differences though...

Consistency in quality helps, which usually would favor the large companies. You can get a defect or inferior unit from anyone, however the updated technology goes with the companies that can afford it...

I ended up with the Abit Siluro because I liked the look of it!

(Keep in mind that I bought mine a few months ago and not all cards were out at that time...)

Thor Walez · Post by **Thor Walez** » Tue Sep 10, 2002 4:53 pm

I have a noname (because of the 20-30% price-off between the other cards) 128MB ti4200 runns at 250/500 default and very stabile 300/580 and with some artifacts 300/601

-Thor

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Sep 11, 2002 8:20 am

Originally posted by Ken
I determined that the big boys are all basically about the same...

That's pretty true since the GF3's came out. Like most good hardware sites have quoted in doing benchmarks of various brands, "A GeForce is a GeForce is a GeForce is a GeForce"...you'll notice all benchmarks come within a whisker of each other.

Minor differences in heat sinks and cooling will separate some makes by a fraction of a percentage in performance when overclocking...but again, just plain luck of the draw can make a big difference. Benchmark two cards from the same maker, and you'll still find differences just in yield quality differences in the memory and GPU.

Other differences between the cards and the "bundled software package" that comes with them. A big deal for some people who enjoy getting two or three games for free, DVD, etc for nothing to give a rats a$$ about for others like myself who only play a very select few games hard core, and don't stray from that genre.

Brand loyalty also carries across, like I've mentioned above, I've been sticking with Asus for many years now, in mobo's, and even longer in video cards. They historically have made their cards with higher quality and faster memory than most other makes...so overclocking can go a bit higher. Also I've just never had an Asus card act up or go bad on me out of the many that I've had over the years, so I stick with them. Other people I'm sure feel the same about their brands.

But if you're not loyal to a particular brand, then shop about and focus on the bundled goodies such as games, perhaps those funky 3D glasses, etc. Find your value in that area.

Mantle67 · Post by **Mantle67** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:50 pm

gainward or msi

cy · Post by cy » Thu Sep 12, 2002 10:52 pm

Leadtek makes good ones

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 6:04 pm

Based on the 6 magazine subscriptions that I take from my mailbox each month, it seems the highest avg benchmark scores and praise went to the Leadtek's GF4 Ti4600.. But thats just what the magazines say.. I love Asus/Abit also. But from experience I would say I've worked with many, many, many different types of video cards over the years and most often the ones that I've seen go bad are the generic OEM POS's!