Video cards roundup: MSI versus Triplex (GeForce4 Ti4200-8x & Ti4800SE) Review
Overclocking
First thing first, let's see how the tested video cards rank at overclocking. All the video cards were tested in a computer with the case cover removed to prevent from the temperature effect from other heating elements (HDD, processor, memory). No additional cooling was fitted on the video cards. The overclocking results have been summed up into this table:
| Overclocking results for the tested video cards |
| Video card: |
Triplex Ti4200-8x |
Triplex Ti4800SE |
MSI Ti4800SE |
| Core |
Memory |
Core |
Memory |
Core |
Memory |
| Rated values, MHz |
250 |
513 |
275 |
550 |
275 |
550 |
| Maximum stable values, MHz |
305 |
585 |
305 |
710 |
300 |
675 |
| Frequency boost, % |
22 |
14 |
22 |
29 |
9 |
22 |
As was expected, Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE was the leader at overclocking. The memory on that video card was able running at 710 MHz, i.e. at the rated value it is designed. Surprisingly, the core on all the video cards was hardly able overclocking to frequencies higher than 300 MHz. The thing is that 305 MHz is the factual limit for the GeForce4 Titanium core. Even Ti4600-based video cards whose nominal frequency is 300/650 MHz in most cases are unable increasing the core speed by more than 5 MHz. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are rare.
Benchmarking
The main goal of our benchmarking session was to compare the speeds of the video cards in question in the rated and overclocked modes. But before moving on to the speeds, let's talk about the 2D quality. As is known, soaped fonts in 2D can spoil the good impression of the video card however fast it runs.
Both the Triplex video cards pleased us with the high image quality. There was no "soap" at higher resolutions, and the video cards appeared to offer as high a quality as declared by Triplex. But what about the MSI's video card? Things at that are going much worse. The 2D quality of this video card is simply ugly. I haven't come across that poor quality for quite a long while. Already at 1024x768 with the refresh rate 100 Hz the screen fonts look heavily blurred and you feel like switching to a lower refresh rate. In view of the luxurious package bundle of this video card and the smart way the cooling system is implemented, it seems rather strange that MSI decided to cut down on quality L-C filters.
Well, let's move on to the benchmarking. All the tests were done with the drivers set to "default", at 32-bit color depth and at 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 resolutions.
Unreal Tournament 2003
The first of the benchmarks used is Unreal Tournament 2003. This gaming benchmark is the most impartial tool for assessing the video performance in modern 3D FPS games. Unreal Tournament 2003 runs through Direct3D APIs using DirectX 7 instructions. For tests, we used the built-in Fly-by Antalus benchmark. In the game, all the graphics settings were set to "maximum".
As you can see, at the rated mode the MSI Ti4800SE is faster than Triplex Ti4800SE. When overclocked, the Triplex Ti4800SE wins quite a little but anyway takes the leadership. This is rather strange - the Triplex's Ti4800SE card was able to overclock better both at the core speed and at the video speed.
Codecreatures
This is one of the most demanding and resource-hungry benchmarks for video cards. At that, the most part is played by the core speed and memory speed of the video card. Let's see how the results of tested cards are distributed.
Again we see that at the nominal frequencies the MSI Ti4800SE takes the crown. In the overclocked mode at 1024x768, the Triplex Ti4800SE takes the first place. In general, CodeCreatures is a real torture both for the CPU and GPU. So the performance difference between the two video cards is relatively small.
AquaMark v 2.0
The AquaMark 2.0 benchmark vividly demonstrates the gaming performance in Aquanox. Soon the third version of this benchmark is coming with support for pixel shaders, and to date the AquaMark 2.0 still makes use of DirectX 7 instructions. The capacity of textures used was set to 24 MB. In this benchmark, the core speed of the video card plays a more important part than the video memory speed.
 Again, we see that without overclocking but still at the nominal frequencies the leadership is taken by MSI Ti4800SE. When overclocked, MSI lost some score points to the contender starting from the 1280x1024 resolution. In the overclocked mode, Triplex Ti4200-8x lags well behind the boards based on Ti4800SE, since in this benchmark it is the GPU speed that plays the major part. The difference in frequencies between the 710 MHz (in Triplex Ti4800SE) and 585 MHz (in Triplex Ti4200-8x) is as high as 125 MHz, with the difference in speed at Aquanox being no more than 3 fps. So, for AquaNox it's not a big deal of a difference between Ti4200-8x and Ti4800SE.
3DMark03
Despite the rows going on around 3DMark03, this benchmark is quite suitable for testing modern video cards. The first benchmark - Game 1 Wings of Fury - demonstrates the behavior of the tested video cards in a simple game scene powered by DirectX 7.
This is a pretty easy test. It is easy for both the video card and the processor, so we can see that as the frequencies of video memory and video chip the speeds go up essentially. In the rated mode as usual MSI Ti4800SE performs faster, but the Triplex Ti4800SE when overclocked nevertheless takes a lead albeit the speed difference is quite negligible.
These benchmarks - Game 2 and Game 3 - are aimed at video chips more powerful than GeForce4 Titanium, so all the tested video cards perform pretty low here. So low that it is not quite correct to compare them with one another.
Conclusions
We tested the video cards on a powerful and fast enough PC with the Athlon XP 2600+ processor and 512 MB DDR333 memory. Even on that pretty modern system I can't see any essential difference between video cards based on the GeForce4 Ti4200-8x and GeForce4 Ti4800SE chips. How comes the difference may be seen if the rated frequencies of the graphic chips on these video cards differ by merely 25 MHz and the memory frequencies by 19(38DDR) MHz.
| Average prices in Moscow in March 2002 |
| Video card: |
Triplex Ti4200-8x |
Triplex Ti4800SE |
MSI Ti4800SE |
| Average retail price, $ |
$190 |
$235 |
$220 |
The price difference between the Ti4200-8x and Ti4800SE is considerable and unfortunately as substantial as in speeds between these video cards. Therefore, as for the comparison of video cards based on Ti4200-8x and Ti4800SE, then basing on the benchmarking results there is a one-one conclusion - the Triplex GeForce4 Ti4200-8x is a better buy than Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE and MSI Ti4800SE.
Ignoring the mercantile aspect and looking at the video cards regardless of their prices, there is much to think about. In fact, the Triplex Ti4200-8x stands out with merely the silvery coating on the PCB. The video card features regular TSOP memory, so it's unlikely to show extraordinary overclocking results. The package bundle is standard although it doesn't play the leading part.
The impression of the MSI Ti4800SE card is not that straightforward. On the one hand, this board is very fast which at rated speeds runs even faster than Triplex Ti4800SE. Probably, its because of revision A2 of the graphics chip, or maybe the way the memory timings are configured. Because of the cheap memory installed, the video card doesn't overclock much but nevertheless runs fast. The package bundle is abundant with CDs and cables ... But all the good impression of the vide card is blurred by the ugly 2D quality, so I wouldn't recommend to buy MSI Ti4800SE.
Triplex Ti4800SE runs slower than MSI Ti4800SE. Triplex decided not to cut down on fast memory to make the video card more overclocker-friendly. However, as the benchmarks show, the overclocking boost as compared to MSI Ti4800SE is not that great. On the other hand, Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE does not have problems with 2D quality, and the aluminum case in which the card is packed is simply fantastic. I would recommend to buy the Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE card to those looking for a board based just on the Ti4800SE or those wishing to make a nice gift to the beloved person, or to the computer enthusiast.
We are highly appreciated to "Inline" company for the courtesy of providing us with the Triplex GeForce4 Ti4200-8x and Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE video cards and MSI company for the provided MSI GeForce4 Ti4800SE video card.
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