Creative 3D Blaster GF4Ti4200 Review (6)
TimB 4 Dec 2002

Conclusion

Overall the card has performed very well, it is clear that in places a better CPU is required to maximise its capabilities, however I was impressed by its performance. It has plenty of headroom for increasing the core/memory clock speeds and may be able to reach the performance levels of the GF4 Ti4400 and above. The memory was 3.6ns and capable of speeds up to 278(DDR555) but we managed to push it to 310(DDR620). As a 'cut' down version of the higher GeForce 4 models it did well and will cope with most recent games at 1024x768 admirably.

The onboard heatsink and fan worked well with core speeds up to 340mhz - a 36% increase! and was indeed quiet - I could not hear it above the 80mm case fans. Something which is very often appreciated. The orientation of the heatsink fins also mean that there is constant airflow over the memory chips and aids cooling. During testing we encountered no stability problems; with artefacts only appearing after the increasing the memory and core speeds too high. On a side note the card is more power hungry than my existing GF3Ti200 which was to be expected, noting a slight 1% sag in the 3.3v motherboard rail when in identical conditions.

Installation was easy and problem free, and snaps into the AGP slot quite firmly. Upon boot up, it was immediately recognised using the existing NVidia 40.41 detonators. The Quick Start guide was all that came in the way of a manual and gives a step by step guide to the installation. The two extra games supplied were also a bonus although not used for testing.

Price:  £120GBP = $188USD*

As an overall package it comes feature packed, with the TV Out and DVD capabilities. Whilst this isn't the fastest card on the planet it performed very well and will appeal to those not wishing to splash out on the top of the range cards - or those looking at building good gaming systems on a budget.

*= Price differs from country to country.

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.

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