De mannen van FiringSquad hebben een uitgebreide preview in elkaar geknutseld over de nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 videokaarten. Zoals bekend komen er twee varianten van deze kaart op de markt; één variant krijgt 64MB geheugen op 500MHz en de ander krijgt 128MB geheugen op 444MHz. Bij beide kaarten komt de frequentie van de core op 250MHz te liggen. Het blijkt dat de 64MB GeForce4 Ti 4200 in bijna alle benchmarks de beste resultaten neerzet. Zolang er geen gebruik wordt gemaakt van anti-aliasing wint de 64MB GeForce4 Ti 4200 overtuigend van de 128MB variant. Aangezien de 64MB variant met een prijskaartje van 179 dollar ook nog eens 20 dollar goedkoper is dan het 128MB exemplaar is de conclusie duidelijk:
Would you have been willing to pay, say, $249 for the original 128MB GeForce4 Ti 4200 NVIDIA had originally promised, or would you get the $179 64MB GeForce4? It depends on just how much you enjoy AA (and having a few extra dollars in your pocket) but we have a feeling most of you would answer in favor of the cheaper board. The added memory available on the 444MHz Ti 4200 is nice for OEMs who want to offer 128MB GeForce4-based systems at an inexpensive price point, but those of you who have examined this article now know that not only is the 64MB board the better bargain, it’s also the better performer.
If you know this, retail card manufacturers do too, therefore we’re assuming the 128MB Ti 4200 will find a place in the OEM market, much like the GeForce4 MX 420 and MX 460 appear to be doing. After all, in the OEM world, performance often takes a back seat to having the right mix of features at a given price point. This is an area where NVIDIA is excelling: look at all the combinations of GeForce4s they’ve released so far this year. There’s literally a new product for every price point!