Geforce 4 Ti-4200

[jarrett]

Hi,

So yesterday I removed my X1950 card from my computer, and inserted a Geforce 4 card instead. Glxgears was doing ~1100 fps with x1950 and now it's up to 3600-3700 with the gf4! WTF? Are ati's drivers this bad or have I done something wrong when I installed the drivers?

Anyway, I was thinking about buying a MSI 6200X 256mb card, and I want to know if it's worth it? Would it show much better results in video playback, game playing etc..?

[stevea]

glxgears is not really a good benchmark at all; I wouldn't weight performance on this one test. Run glxgears sometime and re-size the window or cover that glxgears window with another and the numbers wobble all over the place. Maybe someone can mention a video test for Linux, but the magazines seem to use frames per second on various games as a test.

Having said that - yes ATI is lagging behind in supporting Linux. *MAYBE* someone here can tell youthe magical "option" parameter for your /etc/X11/xorg.conf the radically improves performance; but out of the box the ATI drivers need work.

The 6200 looks like a nice ~$50 card, but I have no experience with it.
\

[stevea]

http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2302&p=1

2 yo story - hasn't changed much.

[jarrett]

Yes I know that glxgears is not a good benchmark utility.. But the gf4 is faster at everything, running beryl now works without the lag it had with the x1950, and when opengl is used for video playback in vlc it also runs smoothly now..

[leigh123@linux]

Yes I know that glxgears is not a good benchmark utility.. But the gf4 is faster at everything, running beryl now works without the lag it had with the x1950, and when opengl is used for video playback in vlc it also runs smoothly now..


Do you expect a ATI card to run XGL and Beryl at no cost ? ( you drop nearly 50% when using XGL ).
Nvidia doesn't need XGL so will run quicker.

P.S I would rather have a Geforce 4 Ti-4200 than a 6200 ( you wont notice much if any performance increase)

If you are going for a new card try 7600 and up

[jarrett]

Well, glxgears had 1100fps when I was not running beryl and xgl. When logged in with Beryl & XGL enabled it was down half of that.
I don't expect ATI cards to run beryl and xgl without any performance decrease, and I don't think I ever said that I expect them to.

[leigh123@linux]

Well, glxgears had 1100fps when I was not running beryl and xgl. When logged in with Beryl & XGL enabled it was down half of that.
I don't expect ATI cards to run beryl and xgl without any performance decrease, and I don't think I ever said that I expect them to.


The point I was trying to make was the ATI has to use XGL + beryl so the Nvidia has the advantage as it only uses beryl .

Have you tried using beryl to benchmark ? ( beryl-settings / extras then enable benchmark & to run it "super + F12" )

[jarrett]

The point I was trying to make was the ATI has to use XGL + beryl so the Nvidia has the advantage as it only uses beryl .

Have you tried using beryl to benchmark ? ( beryl-settings / extras then enable benchmark & to run it "super + F12" )


well no I haven't... but anyways too late now to test it with the x1950 as I am somewhat happy with how my gf4 is performing... I'm gonna go with your advice though, and look into buying a 7600..
What about the 7600GS 512mb? Could that be a card worth buying?

[leigh123@linux]

well no I haven't... but anyways too late now to test it with the x1950 as I am somewhat happy with how my gf4 is performing... I'm gonna go with your advice though, and look into buying a 7600..
What about the 7600GS 512mb? Could that be a card worth buying?


The 7600 is a good card but there are many variations in GPU and MEM speeds so check the specs first.

my 7600 GT runs at GPU 575mhz & MEM 750mhz


P.S I used to have a leadfast Geforce 4 Ti-4200 and it was a very quick card in its day and easily beat my ATI X1600 on performance ( and noise :( )

[jarrett]

leigh123, I ended up upgrading my whole system ;)

Core2quad with 2 gigs of ram, 10k raptor disk and a 8600 gt card.
Seems to work VERY good, now I'm a happy camper... of course now I'm broke :(

[leigh123@linux]

leigh123, I ended up upgrading my whole system ;)

Core2quad with 2 gigs of ram, 10k raptor disk and a 8600 gt card.
Seems to work VERY good, now I'm a happy camper... of course now I'm broke :(

Cool :cool: it sounds like you have a great system now .