![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, May 15, 2002
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Sean Quinn
- Google +1
ABIT Ti4400 & VisionTek Ti4400 Showdown
Hey! We gotta do something to make these GF4 reviews interesting! Oh yeah, we OC the hell out of them and live to tell about it.
Introduction
Not everybody can afford the top of the line, fastest graphics card out on the market. Video card manufacturers know this, which is why they often have a line of products aimed at different market segments. You'll find their fastest, most feature rich, and usually most expensive graphics card targeted at the enthusiast/performance user. For the more mainstream market, we see a well performing video card priced for the more casual computer user or the guy without the trust fund. The mainstream gamer market, with its focus on cost and performance, receives a graphics card limited in features and performance, but at a substantially lower price. In recent times, however, not all of this has held true, as some of today's video cards are offering top of the line performance at mainstream prices. One example of this recent phenomenon is ATI's Radeon 8500. This beast can be had for under $200 and delivers some impressive performance in today's games.
Although NVIDIA has been hot on the trail to capture the mainstream market with GF4 MX series, they may have just wound up capturing the enthusiast mainstream market as well. Their top of the line chip is the GeForce4 Ti 4600, an impressive GPU that currently holds the performance crown with an amazing array of features and capabilities. Check out our GeForce 4 technology article for the goods on that particular chip. What I will be showing you today is NVIDIA's solution for the people that cannot afford the most expensive card out there, but still want top of the line performance (or at least the capability to achieve that, as we will discuss later). The GeForce4 Ti 4400 is the GPU we'll be looking at today, with two brand new cards sporting this model of the GeForce4 GPU. The GeForce4 Ti 4400 is the SAME NV25 GPU that the GeForce4 Ti 4600 utilizes; the only difference between the two is a scaled back core and memory speed on the Ti 4400. Yes, this means the GeForce4 Ti 4400 has the exact same features and capabilities as the GeForce4 Ti 4600. The core/memory clock on the Ti 4400 is 275MHz/550MHz with 128MB DDR versus 300MHz/650MHz on the Ti4600. Let's take a look at how our ABIT and VisionTek Ti 4400 cards compare to the others out there.
The Cards:
Enter in our two contestants, the ABIT Siluro GeForce4 Ti 4400 and the VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4400. ABIT is a long time honored and well-known name in the business for having extremely enthusiast-friendly hardware. From motherboards to video cards, hardcore computer users know what ABIT stands for. With over 15 years of experience in the field, ABIT knows what the user wants and how to give it to them. This has been shown time and time again with the overclockability of their motherboards. ABIT also produces top-of-the-line video cards. Going all the way back to the original GeForce 256, ABIT has made their name known with NVIDIA GPUs although many times they are hard to find for sale here in the States.
You may not have heard too much of VisionTek in the retail market until just a year ago, as they entered the retail market a year ago this month. VisionTek has mainly sold their cards to OEMs in the past, which require solid hardware, so don't let the newness of VisionTek's name scare you. They came into the retail market with a vengeance, quickly earning them a spot as the leading manufacturer of retail video cards in the US!
ABIT Siluro GeForce4 Ti 4400
The front of the Siluro's box is decorated with a colorful wall painting of some sort. On the front is a brief listing of the highlights of this card: Ti 4400 GPU, 128MB DDR, TV-out, DVI, AGP 4X/2X, nFiniteFX II Engine, nView, and Accuview. On to the top of the box is a table highlighting the more technical features of this video card: 275MHz GPU Core, 550MHz 128MB DDR, 8.8GB/sec of memory bandwidth, and 1.12 Trillion Operations Per Second. The back of the box goes into a little bit more detail of each feature as well as provides a diagram of the kinds of connections that will work with this card. The video card itself is comprised of a glossy black PCB with dark brown traces.
ABIT has included a "titanium looking" HSF (Heat Sink and Fan) and RAM sinks. The main HSF is not NVIDIA's reference design for the GeForce4. ABIT has decided to go with their own cooler. You can see the sloped fins of ABIT's HSF. The RAM sinks on the back are low profile, so they don't obstruct any of the parts on your motherboard. The RAM sinks are put on with some kind of "very sticky glue type stuff" (That is our technical definition anyway!). It's not really a TIM or an epoxy, and I don't know the thermal capabilities of it. The RAM underneath is 3.6ns rated Samsung BGA RAM.
Included with this card are Mini-DIN to S-Video, S-Video extended, and Composite (RCA) cables along with an RCA adapter. There is also an included DVI to VGA connector for dual VGA monitor goodness. Software includes a driver CD with driver version 27.50 as well as ABIT's Siluro DVD player software.
VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4400
I'm not sure how to make out the graphic on the front of the Xtasy's box. It represents at least two human faces and one other kind of lifeform pushing out of what seems to be some kind of rip in reality. The box advertises a 275MHz GPU, VGA/TV-out/DVI, 256-bit Graphics Accelerator capable of 1.12 trillion operations/sec, and our favorite one, a lifetime warranty. The back of the box gives a good rundown into the features of this card: nFiniteFX II Engine, LMA II, Accuview, and Vertex Shaders. The sides of the box have a rundown of the specs as well as a list of what's in the box. The PCB on the VisionTek is the standard green we're used to seeing with pretty much every GeForce4 reference design.
The HSF is the reference NVIDIA design with the addition of VisionTek's logo and coloring. The air enters through the top of the fan and exits through the sides of the heatsink, thereby blowing it over the RAM. You'll find the standard VGA port and DVI port along with a S-Video TV-out port. The card uses 3.6ns Samsung BGA RAM with no RAM sinks. The card includes a quick installation guide which helps you get the card installed in a snap. Also included is PowerDVD XP, a driver CD containing driver versions 27.42 and 27.51, a WDM video capture driver (v1.08), and an MPEG installation movie. You'll be glad to know that the GeForce4 Ti demos are also included on the CD, so you can see what this card can do right off the bat. What is lacking, however, is an S-Video extension cable, a DVI to VGA connector, and a full blown manual for this video card. The inclusion of those items would make the whole package much more complete.