Need opinion on Aopen & Chaintech video cards...

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 10:54 am

Anyone got an opinion on Chaintech video cards?

Might treat myself to a Geforce4 4200 128Mb (must have TV out). Newegg has the Chaintech GT20 128Mb for $150.

They also have the Aopen Ti4200 128Mb for the same price.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 11:47 am

I think all the reviews I have read on chaintech are good, but didn't the just go bankrupt? might be a problem if you get a bad card

Post by **sbp** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 12:27 pm

From what I've heard from owners and reviews, Aopen and Chaintech videocards are just fine.

wvjohn: Visiontek is the company in trouble

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 3:43 pm

you're absolutely right !

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 4:56 pm

Hmmm... now I'm looking at the Abit Siluro GF4 4200 128Mb. It's clocked at 275/550. (compared to 250/500 for a standard one). Wow!!

Neat article on Firing Squad about it's innovative heat-pipe cooling system:
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ ... efault.asp

Post by **sbp** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 5:29 pm

/smiles at the Abit GF4 Ti4600 I got for $180 shipped.

Lmandrake · Post by **Lmandrake** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 5:46 pm

I got the Chaintech Ti4200 from NewEgg for my kid. Very nice card, however it has never been OC'ed so I cant tell you about that. Chaintech is good quality. My son's card has a nice heatsink that is not glued on and was properly gooped with thermal compound.

My personal GF4 is a visiontek. Visiontek is the company going/gone out of business. My card had a not as nice heatsink glued on.

Now I am just going to have to sneak across the border some night and relieve sbp of that 4600.

sbp - Where did you get such a deal?

BTW - I dunno if it makes a difference, but the GF4 cards with AGP 8x support are just about to be released. If you care about that, you may want to wait. If you don't care, you still may want to wait as the price of the non 8x cards may go down.

Post by **sbp** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 6:18 pm

Got it from a gentlemen on GotApex forums who just bought a Radeon 9700 and wanted to sell the GF4 quick. One of the few sales that ever took place on that forum.

One of the few bright spot in Nvidia's mediocre NV18/NV28 release yesterday is the 128MB AGP8X GF4 Ti4200's are coming clocked at 500MHz for the memory {up from 444MHz}.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 6:57 pm

I'm really tempted to get the Siluro. It's overclocked right out of the box.

matt719 · Post by **matt719** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 8:46 pm

I wouldn't buy a Ti4200. It's old technology, same gpu from the GF2. If your not looking to get a 4400+ or a 4600+ just get a GF3 Ti500. It costs about $100 and I get about 5fps less than the GF$ TI 4200.

Post by **sbp** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 3:45 am

No, the GeForce 4 Ti4200's are the lowest speeds of the GF4 Ti line. The GeForce 4 MX line are the pumped up GeForce 2's.

The GeForce 4 Ti4200 is a great bang for the buck and better to get than the GF3 Ti500. Although its not worth upgrading to if a person already has a GF3 Ti500.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 6:53 am

Matt, you're thinking of the Geforce4 MX which is nothing but a GF2 slightly overclocked with a 2nd processor (what most in the industry like to call a GF2 1/2).

The 4200, 4400 and 4600 are all identical except for the speed of the ram and - consequently - the clock speed they use.

Anyway this would just be a frill. I have a GF3 Ti200 and I'm more than happy with it, but I have a bit of extra cash and want to treat myself. Just toying around with it.

What I probably should do is hoard some more money away for a 2nd hand lappy to replace my old one.