There’s really no other upgrade for the PC like a new video card. New video cards are like computer turbo chargers, they make the most noticeable impact in that most precious of commodities, the almighty frame rate. That’s why when I received X-Micro's Impact T4200 in the mail, I proceeded to drool over the box like a giddy 5-year-old. I’m a veteran of computer hardware, but I always find my self gazing longingly at each new generation of video cards, with their colorful PCBs, increasingly aggressive cooling systems, and uber-powerful hardware. X-Micro may not be a name you are familiar with if you are an American or European reader, but they are actually one of the leading graphics card suppliers in Asia, South America, and Australia. If the quality of this card represents their products as a whole though, more established US and European brands in these sectors had better watch out when X-Micro tackles these markets! Established in 1999, X-Micro have been around since the times of the riva TNT and have won multiple awards for each and every generation of their graphics chipsets - a testament to their quality.
My current Hercules Prophet II Ultra has served me well over the two years, but it’s starting to show its age with the new DirectX 8 titles and I am sure that it will be no match for the upcoming graphical giants like Doom III and Unreal Tournament 2003. “So why a Ti4200?” you may be asking yourself. “Why not a 44 or 4600 card?” Well two reasons, really. 1. There is already a plentiful amount of reviews of those cards, while the number of 4200 reviews is much less. 2. I wanted to see what the “value oriented” 4200 is capable of for myself. I think a lot of people may dismiss the 4200 for its “lowly” 250mhz core, and 4ns 444mhz TSOP memory clock (for the 128mb version). The 64mb version of the 4200 has slightly quicker 3.5ns ram running at a default clock of 500mhz. They all run off the same base NV25 architecture, they all have Lightspeed Memory II, they all have nView Multi-Monitor, and they all have nVidia vertex and pixel shader support - something nVidia's GeForce4 MX cards don't include. The only difference between the Ti4200 and the Ti4400/Ti4600 is clock speeds, on both the GPU and memory side of things. The Ti4400 runs at 275 MHz GPU / 550 MHz Memory, while the Ti4600 runs at a whopping 300 MHz GPU / 650 MHz. Essentially, what you're paying extra cash for the assurance that the higher rated card you get, the higher rated your GPU and memory will be cleared for.
If you are an Aussie reader, then you can pick up the X-Micro Impact Ti-4200 for as little as $385.00AUD from our good chums over at Sephiroth Computers, who will also pricematch with anyone if you find it cheaper elsewhere - check them out!
