8500 vs GeForce TI 4200

[BigCat]

I am shopping for a 128MB DDR video board for my bro (heavy gamer), no more than $150

I kind of ran into the ATI Radeon 8500 LE and the GeForce4 TI 4200. Would you recommend something else? Do these 2 look about the same to you?

Also, looking for that GeForce in newegg, I found a handful of brands (Aopen, etc. etc.), are these all the same? In other words, do we just care about the chipset or is there a list of recommender brands as well that I need to look for?

Thanks a lot

[9600baud]

Ill never support ATI, NVidia's waaay more stable and have much higher FPS values. Even the 9700 is very buggy... stick with Nvidia.

[whr2206]

The 8500, isnt a bad card at all. Yeah, the nvida cards have higher FPS values, but the picture quality with the ATI it better. For sheer fps and speed, yeah go with nvida. But ATI is a very nice alternative.....More stable? My 7500 has hardly ever given me a problem...... Both are good cards, just saying, ATI isn't a bad choice either.

[catch23]

My 3 Radeons have never stoppe giving me problems....has my GF3 Ti 200 ever given me one? no...

The Ti 4200 outperforms the Radeon 8500 in nearly everything that isn't optimzed for Radeons...

[Hosie]

In the past every vid card i owned was an ATI. starting with a little 8mb to most recently a 64 mb radeon 7200. Now i am running the nvidia ti 4200, (by eVGA) and all i can say is wow! No longer do i have to download a special ATI patch to get my games to function correctly.... can use the latest drivers without fear of my games not approving (ATI catalyst drivers and Neverwinter Nights were not a match made in heaven) I must admit, i believe the ATI had a sharper all around look, but in games the nvidia rocks! I dont have an 8500 to compare to the ti 4200 directly, but i am impressed with the ti 4200. I believe the ATI is a better choice for some one who is an occasional gamer, but for any hardcore gamer IMHO nvidia is the way to go.

[Reedimus]

I'd recommend the hercules version of the regular 128mb 8500. I got mine for $130 on newegg and it rules. personally, I don't like nvidia very much, and I don't think they can compete in that price range. I like to play games and this card works great.

[BigCat]

ok thanks folks. So I heard eVGA.., any other recommended brands out there...I think I heard Gainward somewhere else?

[RenegadeKing]

Gainward, Visiontek, and PNY would be the top on my list, but they pretty much all work fine.

[catch23]

Asus, Visiontek, and MSI are top on my list...

[Furius92]

Visiontek went under. While they did make high quality cards, if you were ever to have a problem with the card, forget about any type of Warranty from them. Any Visiontek cards out there are "while supplies last" so they won't be out there anymore. I'd say stick with Asus, Gainward, MSI and Leadtek.