Video cards roundup: MSI versus Triplex (GeForce4 Ti4200-8x & Ti4800SE) Review
By: Mikhail Degtyarev
Introduction
A little time has passed since nVidia announced its graphics chips on the base of the GeForce4 Titanium core with support for AGP8x. Video cards manufacturers got an excellent opportunity to renew their product lines, and the end users have grown more hesitant at choosing the right video card. Mind you, it's not easy to tell Ti4200, Ti4200-8x, Ti4600, Ti4800SE and Ti4800 apart. All these are different graphics chipsets and video cards with different frequencies and speed performance. Unfortunately, manufacturers are constrained to cut down on production costs and make their cards more attractive to sell to appeal to the buyers' tastes. Some save practically on every PCB and design element, some resort to their well-known name, others to advertising campaigns. Somehow or other, when the user selects one of ten video cards in a shop it's sometimes emotions play more important part in choice rather than the information on the manufacturers, or even the price if it doesn't differ much. But when it comes to the exterior, the cooler is the best companion, however strange that may sound. A video card with a large cooler packed in a nice-looking box with the same price always has advantages over competitors' products.
In this review, we'll be comparing three video cards based on the GeForce4 Ti4200-8x and GeForce4 Ti4800SE chips made by Triplex and MSI. But before getting round to the description, let's draw up a table of GeForce4 Titanium graphics chips.
| Comparative characteristics of GeForce4 Titanium |
| Video Chip |
GeForce4 Ti4200 |
GeForce4 Ti4200-8x |
GeForce4 Ti4800SE |
| Core speed, MHz |
250 |
250 |
275 |
| Memory speed, MHz |
444 |
513 |
550 |
| Memory bus, bit |
128 |
128 |
128 |
| Q-ty of pipelines |
4 |
4 |
4 |
| Texture modules |
8 |
8 |
8 |
| Memory Bandwidth, GB/s |
7.1 |
8.2 |
8.8 |
| Fillrate |
1000 Mpixels/sec
2000 Mtexels/sec |
1000 Mpixels/sec
2000 Mtexels/sec |
1100 Mpixels/sec
2200 Mtexels/sec |
| API |
DirectX 8.1 |
DirectX 8.1 |
DirectX 8.1 |
| RAMDAC |
Two, 350 MHz each |
Two, 350 MHz each |
Two, 350 MHz each |
| Max. memory capacity, MB |
128 |
128 |
128 |
So, what do the new video chips look like? Many of us remember how nVidia loudly announced the GeForce4 MX440-8x chip with support for AGP8x, after that the company a bit quieter announced the GeForce4 Ti4200-8x, and no sooner had video cards built on the GeForce4 Ti4800SE started hitting the retail, of which no word was mentioned on the website, a lot of hype went up. In fact, all proved to be pretty simple: GeForce4 Ti4800SE is in fact the same GeForce4 Ti4400, but with support for AGP 8x. Along with that video chip, nVidia is producing the GeForce4 Ti4800 (without the 'SE' abbreviation), that is an AGP8x-version of the famous GeForce4 Ti4600. Therefore, it turns out that nVidia revived the GeForce4 Ti4400 chip formerly laid off since it hindered sales of the GeForce4 Ti4200 and GeForce4 Ti4600. It is naive to assume that Ti4800SE having high numbers its name will run much faster than GeForce4 Ti4400 or even GeForce4 Ti4600. Another 'pifall' in here is that the 'SE' version of Ti4800 features lower frequencies and thus will run slower than Ti4800 without the 'SE'.
Triplex
Triplex company is relatively a novice of the market of computer components. It became widely known for its smart silver-plated PCBs. As Triplex engineers say, the silver plating of the PCB favor to a better heat sink off the memory chips and GPU as well as better protection against induction currents generated by numerous fields inside the computer. As a result, as the manufacturer claims, their video cards are distinguished for more stable operation and better overclocking. Let us verify this claim in our review.
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