digitalwanderer

I gave in to temptation last night and tried to buy a GF4 ti4200 for $90us shipped off of [H] forums, but it might not be happening. The guy had two to sell and only wanted to get rid of one and already did, he's currently "thinking about it". (Which I can understand and respect, but I ain't gotta like it. )

So I figure I'd shop the market a bit and see what the what is. I'm basically interested in anything that's around $100 that will be better than my current vanilla GF3 (240/530), 'specially with AA/AF. (*8500, 9100, 9200 recomendations appreciated but will be fully ignored...I have an 8500.)

I can't afford a 9500 Pro yet and don't look like I'll be able to for a while...and besides me birthday is next Sunday and I've decided that I've been a good boy this year and deserve to give meself a treat. (My BD tends to get forgotten around here, so I've decided to remember it meself at least and celebrate a little. )

Any recomendations are welcome up until I either hear back from this guy or find another deal. I'm in full upgrade-jonesing mode and it is TIME! I know the GF4 ain't really what I was hoping for, but after playing with one I at least know it's a definate step-up in cards for me.

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WTF is up with the sigs?

generalstupid

i recommend a Radeon 8500, 9100, or 9200

digitalwanderer

And on the strength of the General of the Army of Stupid's recomendation, I've decided to go with the VisionTek GF4 ti4200 for $90us shipped.

I'm done and better now, no more upgrading for another couple of months.

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WTF is up with the sigs?

digitalwanderer

I take that back, boy did I have a brainfart!

Did you ever make an offer to buy a card, but found a better card, but then the original guy comes back and is happy your buying the first one you saw? It was one of them deals.

But...

...but then I noticed as I was getting ready to paypal the guy that his e-mail wasn't right, it didn't match his post at ALL! Being paranoid, I checked a bit...

I'm an idiot, pure and simple. An idiot with the attention span of an over-ripe grapefruit.

The guy I thought was the first guy was the second, so I quickly posted to the original guy that I was no longer interested in it (hey, I gave him 12 hours!) and bought the one I found in this thread at futuremark.

I'm getting meself a Gainward GF4 ti4200 Golden Sample for $108.05 shipped and I'm a happier camper for it.

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WTF is up with the sigs?

shuki

if anyone else is looking, I've got a gainward GF4 ti4200 64mb here.... $100 shipped worldwide. Only to DH members of course

BWX

All those links point to 4400's not 4200's-= right? Or am I missing something?
I am RMA'ing my XFXti420064mb to NewEgg, and since it is over 8 months old, he said he couldn't do a cross-ship.

But since I didn't have a replacement card and I wouldn't be able to use my computer, the guy said he would let me buy a card and have it shipped out overnight air and give me a full refund of that card after my other card gets RMA'd.

Hoping that he would just let me keep the card I buy, and refund my money for the XFX, I temporarily bought one that was very close to the original price of the XFX. I got a GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4, 8X AGP. Ti 4200, 3.6ns, 128MB DDR. ---GF4PUltra\650-8X TV \ DVI--(long arss name)

Looks like this- and has ram sinks, 128mb o f3.6ns ram instead of my XFX's 64mb of 4ns ram.-



If this Gainward card OC's better than my XFX did, I am hoping after I send my old one in, I can call Newegg back and tell them I would rather just keep the new one and have the refund my money on the old one instead of sending me an XFX and making me return the Ginward for a full refund. There is only a three dollar difference, that I would pay for, so I don't see the big deal. But the guy said he couldn't give me a trefund on the XFX, oly a replacement.

Then I read the RMA notice and see this:

Please note, if your RMA is for a Replacement or Repair and the item(s) is not in-stock when receiving and processing your RMA, the item(s) not in-stock will be refunded back the original purchase price. We cannot control the availability of all our items we sell and projected ETA times. We will make the credit back to keep our customers from waiting lengthy periods of time for the replacements. We cannot offer an exchange for the items instead of the credit. The credit will be issued back to the original source of payment. We do this to enable our customers to order a simular product of their choice and get it quicker.

Thank you,

NewEgg.com customer care.

So doesn't it seem like it would be real easy to bend the rules and just let me keep the Gainwward and have them refund the money for the old XFX?? Has anyone reading this had any experience w/ NewEgg? Hopefully they won't have an XFX just like mine- I know they don't have one for sale on their website, but I told this to the guy and he said they will be able to get one....

Oh and Digital., if you get a 4400 golden sample for 100 bucks, used or not, that's a great deal I would say. Even a 4200 is a alright deal, but it looks like you got a 4400 to me.

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BWX

Just an update to my last post about Gainward cards- I would never ever in a mollion years buy a gainward- This card that I got as a loaner is a nice looking card, but it's performance sux arse bad-- It is supposed to have 3.6ns ram? Bah- if it is 3.6 ns it is the crappiest ram they could find- this thing won't even go anywhere near 600mhz memory. I figured I would maybe try to convince Newegg to let me keep it, but no way- I have to back it down to 270 mem before the artifacts go away- that is only 20mhz overclock!!! the core isn't much better, it is an NV28 core, I thought it would at least go to 300mhz- NOT even close- I have to turn it down to 280 before it even gets through 3dmark 1 time. My old XFX that I am RMA'ing because I knocked a little transistor off it, has 4ns ram and easily runs at 594mhz memory all day long, it also has no ram sinks on it. The core goes to 320 before it starts getting unstable, and I have been running it at 310-315 for almost a year now. I hope I get another good XFX back-

I don't know Digi., If you are getting a Gainward with BGA ram go for it, if not, run away and don't look back. I know some do better than others in the same brand, but this thing is a pig, I can't imagine any in this model line doing much better.

EDIT- correction, I can't get the memory up to even 270mhz without anamolies all over the place- I am running it at 265mhz to see how that goes- 3.6ns memory-- yeah right, if it really is 3.6ns memory, it is defective.

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BWX

Sorry about my last post bashing Gainwards, I didn't even see your post until after I wrote that- Anyway, maybe you can change my mind. How does your card perform? How high does the memory run, what about the core? Hopfully I just got a lemon- I always hear good things about Gainward- All the revies are usually good too- Maybe you had better luck w/ yours?

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shuki

heh no sweat BWX. I hadn't even noticed

And believe it or not, I never once OCed the card!! I had it in me old a7v-133 with pc133 memory running stock card speeds. Though I was running an xp1700 a at 195fsb with it for about 2 weeks.... Rest of the time (2 months or so) it was just there at stock 133 as I turned that rig over to my wife who could really not care less whats under the hood.

I bought this r9700 for me and put the r8500 in hers. Ever since the GF4 has been in the box in the closet

BWX

Yeah, I guess if you don't plan to OC the thing they are great- It looks real high quality and would last forever I am sure- I just though it would OC better- in all the reviews they go way higher-- Oh well.

It is a shame to have a nice card like that in a closet though! I mean I don't feel bad about the Vanta 16mb in there, but a ti4200? that is a sin!

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shuki

: just prefer me r8500 over it.... and it is plain wrong thats why I've decided to sell it Did pull hsf off though when I fisrt got it and clean goop off and used some as3 on it Oh well, if it don't sell it'll just contiue to collect dust heh.

BWX

Well last night I was playing a few games and saw glitches at 260 core on the Gainward so I knew something was wrong- I took the heatsink off and there was the problem- white goop only on the outer edges of the gpu- a big hole right on top ofit with NO GOOP at all. Even though it is a loaner card, I put some as3 on it to see if it makes a difference- Now I can run through games and benches at 280mhz core, 580mhz mem, but after a while I start seeing memory glitches, so I have to turn the mem down to the next place it defaults to which is 567mhz. I can check this through 3dmark 03- the mem either goes to 567 or 280.3- nowhere in between. So the final max stable oc on this 128mb ti4200 8x agp is 280core 567mem. Not great, but not too horrible I guess. Default is 250/513. By the way, the core is an 4200 8xagp A2! My old XFX is an A3, that would explain alot on the core speed. There is no excuse for the memory. As it is the next higher speed rating but 30 mhz slower. The mem is only rated for 555mhz, but it seems like it would oc better than 567- Oh well.

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shuki

what ns is that mem B?

BWX

On newegg it is listed as 3.6ns ram on the gainward- which is great for a 4200 w/ 128 mb of ram. My old 64mb XFX had 4ns that would run at 594 all day everyday- Weird huh? The gaiward has sinks on the mem which work because they get extremely hot even at default speeds- Hotter than the actual memory on the XFX at 594mhz - I guess that hynix ram they used on the XFX was some damn good memory, I am not sure what brand in on the gainward, I'm not going to pry off the sinks to find out, I have to send it back when my other one gets RMA'd. I like 128mb of ram though- eveb though it isn't as fast, most games seem to like it better when you start adding AA and AF in heavt doses.

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BWX

After a few days with the card, even after the AS3 treatment- I have noticed through playing actual games that the highest I can go w/ this card is 266core and 553mem. Pretty lame if you ask me- Even at this speed I see some graphical anomollies once in a while, I think it is from the core. I would guess that even at stock speeds I would see them after hours of gaming. I tend to think the card is bad- the core should oc higher than 15mhz (my old nvidia vanta oc'd 3 times that amount) and the ram is 3.6ns- it should go to at least 600. If I bought this card I would RMA it but it is a loaner so who cares. I think it has a bad core and the memory is really weak. It runs very very hot even at stock speeds.

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digitalwanderer

I'm just putzing along with me GF4 at 280/580 right now...but it seems to like it just fine.

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WTF is up with the sigs?

BWX

The one you got from the guy you were talking about at the start of this thread? The gainward?

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digitalwanderer

Yup, I got it this afternoon.

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WTF is up with the sigs?

BWX

Just wondering, does it have heatsinks? and is it a 4200? 64mb or 128mb? I just want to know because I might be in a position to keep this one (after I rma it) or buy another one for a similar price- 280/580 isn't too bad. But 266/553 max is pretty bad.

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digitalwanderer

It's a Gainsward 128MB GF4 ti4400 golden sample. I've found it's comfy at 286/594 so I'm just keeping it there 'til I get a chance to pull the GPU & clean & re-paste it. It's not the one in the picture above, but it's similar with it's heatsinks & ramsinks. Me likey-likes VERY much, I'm mucking about with AA & AF right now.

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WTF is up with the sigs?

BWX

Oh yeah, that is a nice fast card-
It has the bga ram and low flat ramsinks- It definately has an A3 core and I bet that will OC to 320 or more core and 620 or way higher on the mem- Nice card- let me know how fast it goes. You got a good deal on that one.

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