I can run 3Dmark03 just in time for 2004
Written: Jan 04 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Dual head, video in
Cons: I think it gets a lot hotter than my GeForce3
The Bottom Line: If you get the opportunity to buy this card cheap, it's a very nice introduction to the GeForce4 family.
|
|
|
| krisjohn's Full Review: Pine Technology XFX GeForce4 Ti 4600, (128 MB) AGP... |
The 11th of December gave me an ideal opportunity to upgrade my video card, in the form of a significant stock clearance from a local computer company. I think I got the card for about half the current RRP, about two thirds of the price Epinions currently lists as the best they've found. So, out went my old Sparkle GeForce3 Ti 200 128MB and in went my new Pine GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB.
Installation was about as easy as it gets. The bundled drivers are just Nvidia's generic Detonator drivers, so no worries about using the latest ones from Nvidia instead. I think I was up and running about 10 minutes after I opened the PC.
The card is dual-head. Once I'd worked out that the S-Video output and input were mis-labeled in the manual, I was able to have a separate desktop on my TV and my monitor (still the big Sony I reviewed a couple of years back). It's great fun to be able to work while playing a movie or TV episode on the Philips 68cm Matchline. I'd be concerned that S-Video doesn't like going higher than 800x600 if it wasn't such a damn fine picture. It will also output to a digital monitor with DVI.
Performance is vastly superior to my 3 Ti 200. Whereas 3Dmark03 was a complete joke, demo mode now runs nice and smooth, though the benchmarking indicates that this isn't going to break any records. My PC is getting quite warm these days, though it's hard to tell if it's the video card, the weather or the distributed computer project that's running the CPU at 100%. The card is definitely no noisier than my old GeForce3.
I am yet to take advantage of the video input facility, or the bundled video editing apps because I don't have a suitable source with S-Video Out. Actually, I can't see myself using the video capture much at all, given how digital video cameras and Firewire have taken over, but it's still a nice option. Perhaps I can hookup an old video game console.
This is a solid card I got at a bargain price. Your mileage may vary.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
krisjohn
|
|
Member: Chris Johnson
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 9 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.