FS2k2 Performance Video card review completed...

[Guest PaulL01]

This is a GF3TI vs GF4TI review based on Fs2k2 and how different settings effect its performance (there are some real neat bench marks):http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/revie...%20vs%20GF4.htmSorry about the broken link in my other post. I also just didn't have time to add the display setting images, but I will get to that when I can. :)I hope this helps some of you who are wondering just what kind of performance can be expected with either of these cards on a decent machine.Ok, I'm going for beer now!!!

[Guest JonP01]

I only commented in a technical forum today that Nvidia love to press home the notion that every single new Geforce chip is revolutionary. Every new Geforce is THE piece of hardware that will revolutionise the way we see 3D graphics. But the way I see it (and I feel your results concur), apart from the very early days of 3D graphics, all the new products have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I don't see either the Geforce 4 or it's NV30 replacement changing this trend, because the returns of increasing hardware speed are now ever diminishing. I think your tests only go to prove this point. For example, the faster card in your comparision has close to double the fill rate of the slower card and substantially more bandwidth, and yet the performance improvement is measured at maybe 10 - 20 percent. You could probably try a card with five times the fill rate and bandwidth of a Geforce 4 and still only get another 10% again.In any case, thanks very much for the tests. You've made it clear to me that I am waisting my money on a Geforce 4. Sounds like the best bet is as the other poster said - just buy a card every other generation.

[Naji 5]

Paul, fantastic report! Thank you very much for your effort. Looking forward to your guide on image quality :-beerchug

[Guest gasebah]

Hi Naji,while the increase in frame rate is not exactly huge, let me tell you that an upgrade frm GF3 to GF4Ti4600 is absolutely worthwhile in my opinion. Because what you do not see in these benchmarks is the difference in texture updating and overall picture quality. I upgraded frm a GF3 to a GF4Ti4600 a few weeks ago and I did not regret it.Besides, two or three frames in a busy airport can be all the diference bewteen fun and frustration.Cheers,ALex

[Guest PaulL01]

>I only commented in a technical forum today that Nvidia love >to press home the notion that every single new Geforce chip >is revolutionary. Yeah there is a lot of hype out there but when you consider that they have been doubling the amount of transistors in each GPU every six months for the past few cards....Every new Geforce is THE piece of hardware >that will revolutionise the way we see 3D graphics. But the >way I see it (and I feel your results concur), apart from >the very early days of 3D graphics, all the new products >have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I don't >see either the Geforce 4 or it's NV30 replacement changing >this trend, because the returns of increasing hardware speed >are now ever diminishing. I think your tests only go to >prove this point. For example, the faster card in your >comparision has close to double the fill rate of the slower >card and substantially more bandwidth, and yet the >performance improvement is measured at maybe 10 - 20 >percent. You could probably try a card with five times the >fill rate and bandwidth of a Geforce 4 and still only get >another 10% again. True, but going in with the eyes wide open to the fact that FS2k2 is very CPU bound then your expectations will be more closer to reality.most other games are less dependant on the CPU than FS2k2 and enjoy a huge boost in performance with the GF4TI and really considering that you can pickup a GF4TI4200-64mb for less than $150 or the 128mb version for $179 at BestBuy thats not too bad a price to pay for all the features plus the 10-20% perforamnce gain in FS. :)Take care,

[Guest PaulL01]

Hi Alex,>while the increase in frame rate is not exactly huge, let me >tell you that an upgrade frm GF3 to GF4Ti4600 is absolutely >worthwhile in my opinion. Because what you do not see in >these benchmarks is the difference in texture updating and >overall picture quality.My whole problem with the GF4TI does not lie with the card itself but with the drivers as the best D3D display settings do not allow for anything sharper than what a GF2 provides as far as LOD and AF! Thanks to Alex Unwinder for his great RivaTuner! Realy, If I had paid full price for the GFTI and didn't know a thing or two about how to tweak the settings I would be pretty PO'd!I upgraded frm a GF3 to a GF4Ti4600 >a few weeks ago and I did not regret it. >Besides, two or three frames in a busy airport can be all >the diference bewteen fun and frustration. Very true Alex, it all starts to add up! :)Later,

[Guest gasebah]

Hi Paul,>Realy, If I had paid full price for the GFTI and didn't know a thing >or two about how to tweak the settings I would be pretty PO'd!I agree with you in principle, but then again who buys a 500 bucks card and does not know these tools or madonion?I guess Nvidia is not adding these tweaking features in their driver control panel because you can seriously mess up your system with them (as you know very well, helping all the amateurs like myself :-)).Alex

[Guest]

Great job Paul! Keep up the good work. As of today, however, the ATI Radeon 9700 is the king of video cards, beating the Nvidia GF4600 by a significant margin. If you have not already, check out www.tomshardware.com and/or Anandtech.com.

[Guest gasebah]

Very cheap used GF4Ti4600 anyone :-)?Alex

[Guest PaulL01]

>Great job Paul! Keep up the good work. As of today, >however, the ATI Radeon 9700 is the king of video cards, >beating the Nvidia GF4600 by a significant margin. If you >have not already, check out www.tomshardware.com and/or >Anandtech.com. Thanks,Yeah great stuff, but still a direct quote from the same review: "CPU-limited games are of course running just as fast on either of the two cards".And then: "It is not yet clear if the omission of a second texture unit per pixel rendering pipeline was indeed a smart choice. Under multi texturing conditions, GeForce4 Ti4600 is theoretically able to supply just the same amount of pixels per clock as Radeon 9700."But the AA benefits of this card could prove to be awesome, time will tell and time (a few months) will come for the NV30 to leap-frog ATI's card, but then again "time" will tell. :)To >really< benefit from any of these great new cards you might want have to have a new motherboard that supports the doubled bandwidth created by the 8x AGP port.Yes, any of you ATI engineers out there might want to send me a card for testing purposes, I promise to hype your card as much.... Oh, never mind. :-roll

[Guest PaulL01]

>Paul, fantastic report! Thank you very much for your effort. >Looking forward to your guide on image quality :-beerchug Thanks a lot for the positive comments Naji, much appreciated. :-beerchug