Conclusions
Performance conclusion
There's only one word that truly represents the Creative Geforce4 Ti 4600's performance, that word is impressive. It dominates our previous champion, the Leadtek Geforce3 Ti 500, in every benchmark. The domination is even more profound when we turn on full screen anti-aliasing. We even come to the conclusion that our test bench, comprising of a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 Northwood and Abit I850 TH7II-RAID motherboard, becomes somewhat of a bottleneck at 1024x768x32, such is the performance prowess of the Ti 4600.
The Creative Geforce4 Ti 4600 takes performance on to a new level. For those with large monitors, you simply don't have to worry about the resolution, just switch over to 1600x1200x32, turn all the details to maximum, and enjoy the games as they were meant to be seen and played. For those with smaller monitors, simply turn on anti-aliasing and banish the jagged-edges at lower resolutions. The Ti 4600 is not incrementally better than the Geforce3 Ti 500, it's substantially better. The 128MB of on-board memory is no marketing gimmick. It truly pays dividends when larger textures are used. As games become more and more advanced, we expect to see the 128MB of on-board memory becoming the standard.
Overall conclusion
The Creative Geforce4 Ti 4600 is largely based on the nVidia reference Ti 4600. As the old adage goes 'If it aint broke, don't fix it'. The card is extremely well built (incidentally, MSI manufacture Creative's cards) and has performance that is slightly better than a standard Ti 4600, due in most part to the slightly faster memory clock (660MHz vs. specified 650MHz). The fan on the GPU does cause us some concern, though. It's appreciably louder than the MSI Ti 4400's fan, strange as both are manufactured by the same company. Noise is very much a subjective issue, but we feel that ours is not an isolated case. Maybe Creative and MSI need to rethink the GPU cooling issue ?.
Performance from our sample card was exemplary. We were able to overclock to 320 MHz core and 740MHz memory with excellent stability. The gains from the overclock only saw fruition at higher resolutions when the card became the bottleneck, or when anti-aliasing was required. Make no mistake about it, the Creative Geforce4 Ti 4600 is supremely quick at default speeds. Naturally, our card is a sample of just one, your overclocking mileage may vary considerably.
The overall bundle was relatively weak when compared with other manufacturers' offerings. We received a few demos and a couple of games. We'd have hoped for a little more in the way of included extras as this is Creative's flagship video card. The omission of a DVI-to-VGA connector really is something that Creative should not have overlooked. You shouldn't have to buy an additional connector when purchasing an expensive video card.
The Creative 3D Blaster Geforce4 Ti 4600 is a relatively feature-less card, there is no VIVO function, athough TV-out does exist. We can understand the omission on the grounds that Creative wish to produce an affordable Ti 4600, it's simply directed at those who want to play games with the fastest video card in town.
The price of the Creative card is extremely competitive. We've researched the online retailers and have found it in stock at a number of vendors for £300 or so. Now £300 isn't cheap, but when you consider that the majority of online vendors are selling other manufacturers' Ti 4600 cards for £350, and their Ti 4400 cards for £250+, it's somewhat of a bargain.
The Creative card is also in stock right now at a number of vendors, something that can't be said for the majority of the competition. We feel that it's fairly safe to say that if you're looking for a high-performance video card right now, and have £300 burning a hole in your wallet, the Creative Geforce4 Ti 4600 may just be the right card for you. Now, how do I quieten that fan ?
Highs
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The fastest video card currently available.
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Availability: Right now at a number of online retailers.
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Price: £300, one of the cheapest, branded Ti 4600s available.
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2 year warranty: anything over the statutory 1 year warranty is a definite plus in our eyes
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Overclockability: Although only a sample of one, 320MHz core and 740MHz memory with rock-solid stability is impressive considering the absence of external cooling.
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Build quality: Impressive to say the least.
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2D quality: Truly excellent at all resolutions.
Lows
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The noise emitted by the GPU fan was disconcerting to say the least.
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Relatively weak software bundle when compared to some.
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No additional hardware extras such as VIVO.
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Positioning: Creative's own Ti 4400 offers almost as much performance but costs around £70 less.
Overall rating - 8½ / 10.
