Conclusion
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Firstly, I have to comment on just how important the CPU is to the Geforce4 Ti series of video cards. The benchmarks on the previous pages have shown that if you play most of your games at lower resolutions (1024x768x32), any Geforce4 Ti card will benefit hugely from a fast host processor / memory subsystem. Secondly, I believe that overclocking a Ti card is down to luck as much as anything else. I could ask a manufacturer to send me 10 supposedly identical cards and I would expect to get a considerable variance in the overclocking results. Although I only managed to overclock this ABIT Ti 4200 sample to 285MHz core and 590MHz memory, the overclock is still an impressive one when viewed in percentage terms. The RAM overclock was pleasing considering it's only rated for operation at 500MHz. The ABIT card itself is well-made, looks the part and performs just how I would expect a Ti 4200 to do so. In a week of testing, I came across no stability issues at all. One positive aspect, for me at least, is the quietness of the cooler. I've reviewed a number of Ti 4600 cards and a Ti 4200 in recent weeks and have been dismayed at the loudness of the cooler. The ABIT's cooler looks much like their Geforce3 coolers of days past. It's quiet and reasonably effective. Although this is a minor detail, the inclusion of a DVI-to-VGA adapter is commendable considering that a number of Ti 4600s ship without them. Just looking at the price of this card at on-line retailers tells us that its primary selling strategy is one of cost, or lack of. I've seen this card as low as £130 at a few retailers. Considering that this is a retail card, with VIVO functionality, albeit with a lack of bundled software, the price is impressive. Considering that it's from a respected manufacturer, it's also widely available, too. The Geforce4 Ti 4200 is my favourite all-round video card at the moment, based off on the trade-off between price and performance. If you're looking for a branded Ti 4200, from a respected manufacturer, at a very good price, you cannot afford to ignore the ABIT Siluro Ti 4200. The lack of bundled software and average overclocking, albeit from a sample of one, preclude it from being recommended without reservation. On a side note, if you're upgrading from say a 1GHz machine with a reasonable video card, my recommended upgrade would not be a Ti 4400 / 4600, but rather a faster processor and a Ti 4200. They just love being fed by raw speed. I'll also be looking at a Ti 4200 with 128MB of on-board RAM, to see whether it brings about a noticeable improvement in performance at higher resolutions Highs
Lows
Overall rating, 8/10 |
