|
Besting the
Radeon 8500 by over 2000 3DMarks, at 1280X1024, the
VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4400 really shows its muscle.
What is probably more interesting is the fact that the
Ti4400 driven XTasy card is within 4 - 6% of the Ti 4600
reference card with 3DMark 2001 SE. With a
significantly lower price tag, as much as $80 less than a
comparable VisionTek Ti 4600 card, the Ti 4400 product is
showing its place in the market.
|
|
|
3DMark 2001SE Anti-Aliasing Performance |
|
Stress testing
with AA |
|
Let's turn on 4X
FSAA, which is harsh treatment for any graphics card with
this benchmark suite.
Here again we
see the same trend in memory bandwidth and fill rate, with
the Ti 4600 widening it's lead over the Ti4400 based
VisionTek card, to an approximately 10% advantage. The
rest of the numbers speak for themselves.
|
|
|
Overclocking The VisionTek XTasy GeForce4 Ti
4400 |
|
Where you really
get bang for your buck |
|
Well then,
you've seen that we were able to get the core clock on this
Ti 4400 card running stable at 305MHz and the memory stable
at 675MHz. These clock speeds are slightly higher than
stock Ti 4600 levels. Here's what that extra guard
band that VisionTek built into their product, can afford you
in incremental performance.
You've got to
love the fine art of over-clocking. Here we see our
roughly $250 Ti 4400 card actually beat out the roughly $330
Ti 4600 card. Of course, the Ti 4600 could indeed
over-clock as well and leave all cards behind in this
test... but you knew that. Getting more for your
dollar, that's what over-clocking is all about. Again
at these clock speeds, our particular card was stable and
graphically glitch-free. Your personal results could
vary. Keep out of reach of children. In case of
accidental ingestion.... err.. wait a minute. Wrong
warning label there, sorry. ;-)
You'll recall we
were talking about "price points" and other marketing
strategies with respect to this somewhat saturated market
segment, we call PC Graphics. In this regard, the
question we kept asking ourselves was, "does this product
really differentiate itself"? Unfortunately it is hard
to say at this time. Performance was excellent and
within 10 - 15% on average of it's higher end counterpart,
the GeForce4 Ti 4600. In addition, our sample was
capable of over-clocking well into Ti 4600 specifications.
With that in mind, it seems hard to justify the premium you
would have to pay for a Ti 4600 card versus this VisionTek
Ti 4400. Then there is of course perhaps the even more
impressive, from a price/performance ratio standpoint,
GeForce4 Ti 4200. We'll be looking into the details on
that card shortly here at HotHardware as well.
So you see,
things can get pretty complicated when it comes to answering
the question of which graphics card is the right one for
you. In the end, we'll leave it up for you to decide,
based on price and the performance and features of the
product we showcased for you here. The VisionTek
GeForce4 Ti 4400 we feel is worthy of a heat meter rating of
a very solid "9". It fits nicely between the high end
NVIDIA Ti 4600 based offering and the budget Ti 4200.
Come
get some in the HotHardware PC Hardware Forum, now!
| 
