Upgrading to G4 4200....Good???

[BobTheWizard]

Hi All....

I'm preparing to upgrade to a G4 4200 from a S3 video card with a VooDoo 2 3D card... I'm running an AMD K6-3 450 with 256 MB of PC133 ram. I'm thinking that this will be a fantastic change for the video in my system. Any comments will be greatly appreciated. I'm looking at an ASUS card... looking at the reports, it seems to be one of the better ones.


Thanks for any comments. I really appreciate any comments.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Hey I had a K6-III 450mhz! Unfortunately for you a Voodoo2 is a very good match for that CPU, you'll gain very little in going to a GF4MX let alone GF4TI. Rad8500LE or Rad9000 would be better bets but will still be wasted on such a slow CPU. Unless of course you are upgrading your mobo and CPU in the near future. Considering the price of Duron and AthlonXP's you could more than double your perf by simply switching to SktA and it could cost under $100! I went from a K6-III 450 to a Duron 700mhz keeping the Voodoo Banshee and RAM the same, the perf was still very noticable but of cvourse I stuck a GF2 in at the earliest opportunity. There are still SktA mobos available which possess both SDR (PC133) and DDR (PC2100 etc) slots which will help to keep the cost down, the perf hit on XP CPUs from SDR is only about 10% anyway. I'd rec you spend your money on a new CPU and mobo first, then see how much you can muster for a gfx card with Rad8500-128MB being a very low cost high perf solution.

 

[Moishe]

A big ditto to what ANDNANDNAND Austin said.
Pricewatch.
AMD XP1600+ $52
Shuttle AK35GT2 $70 (or less)
256mb PC2100 $45

this will give a MUCH larger performance increase, at almost same cost.

Then wait a few months, and pick up the 4200 card (it'll be cheaper!) and you'll be smoking.

 

[BobTheWizard]

Thanks Guys...

Not exactly what I expected to hear, but I appreciate it just the same. I will look at the other upgrades first, and see how that works for the performance change I am looking for.

Specifically, I have been noticing alot of video lag while in online games. I figured that the processor speed and memory that I currently have would have been ok if the video card had enough stand alone memory.... However, I can understand where you are coming from with maiking the other changes first.

I'll look into making the other changes, and get back to you on the results. Thanks again.

Bob's current system