MSI Geforce 4 Ti 4800

[Jeordiewhite]

My geforce 4 ti 4600 seems to be pretty good that I got back
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/d...Ti4600-VT2D8X#
However one thing that has been worrying me is that it will start to freeze up in games like farcry, and ut2004, only where scenes where it has to load a lot of scenery which it just stops on for a few seconds, I have uninstalled my previous ati drivers, then cleaned them out with a utility, then reinstalled. Then I tried disabling the agp 8x, and the fast writes too. I had tried MSI's latest driver set and Nvidia's as well. Neither have worked successfully.
The strange thing is before my old geforce 4 ti 4600 died, it never had a problem running on the highest settings in ut2004 and a high resolution.
I wonder if it's my video card that could be deffective or the agp 8x slot or the drivers?
I am still using the latest nforce drivers and the latest audigy drivers, still no luck with it.
It seems to be really heavy games, which are direct x 9 games too, I am pretty mad about this since they are awesome games that i cannot play the rest work just fine.
I will try my other computer/games and make sure that the agp slot isn't the problem tommorow.
Any ideas or similar experiences?

[radio1_mike]

Originally posted by Jeordiewhite
My geforce 4 ti 4600 seems to be pretty good that I got back
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/d...Ti4600-VT2D8X#
However one thing that has been worrying me is that it will start to freeze up in games like farcry, and ut2004, only where scenes where it has to load a lot of scenery which it just stops on for a few seconds, I have uninstalled my previous ati drivers, then cleaned them out with a utility, then reinstalled. Then I tried disabling the agp 8x, and the fast writes too. I had tried MSI's latest driver set and Nvidia's as well. Neither have worked successfully.
The strange thing is before my old geforce 4 ti 4600 died, it never had a problem running on the highest settings in ut2004 and a high resolution.
I wonder if it's my video card that could be deffective or the agp 8x slot or the drivers?
I am still using the latest nforce drivers and the latest audigy drivers, still no luck with it.
It seems to be really heavy games, which are direct x 9 games too, I am pretty mad about this since they are awesome games that i cannot play the rest work just fine.
I will try my other computer/games and make sure that the agp slot isn't the problem tommorow.
Any ideas or similar experiences?

Hi Jeordie,

I had a similar experience last spring with my PNY GF 4 Ti4600. It would start to stutter on games and there was a lot of artifacting in games. I called up PNY and RMA'd it. They sent me a new card.

There could be a few other reasons for the problems: maybe a power supply going bad or even AGP port problem.

A good friend of mine still has a Ti4600 and plays UT2k4 with some stuttering at 1024x768. But remember that the GeForce4 is a DirectX 8 card.

If your computer (AGP port, power supply, etc...) check out ok and, you don't want to buy a new video card I would contact MSI USA and RMA it. MSI is a good company, I am sure they have at least a 3yr or lifetime replacement option for it.

Otherwise, with all the new cards coming out, you might want to get one of the new ones or even the next best cards (ATI 9800, GF FX 5900) at a discount.

Good luck.

ps. It also could be heat, so you might want throw in an extra fan to blow on the card istelf. Also, get some canned air, remove the card and clean it and reseat firmly. And maybe even queue down some of the PCI cards you may have next to the video card for extra air flow.

[Jeordiewhite]

Well I understand how msi is on their warrantys and I am still under it, 2 year parts and labor, 3 years on parts.
I have RMA'ed a previous geforce 4 Ti 4600, it was the first model and it did not suffer from such problems. It ran smoothly and over clocked nicely. It had died and I am not sure whether it had been ESD'ed or if it had of been fan issues I had when I put on a GIANT II(worst investment I could have made) It over heated and I got lots of video artifacting, I finally returned it tho and went back to the older fan that cooled just fine. However it was awhile that my video card still ran very well till it had started giving me errors when booting up, anything in text displayed ok, anything with any sort of graphical movement or higher res would completely distort from it giving out. It eventually booted into windows with out much hassle, went solid for a week playing games etc, then next reboot that was it for the card.
I installed my radeon 9000 pro, rma'ed the geforce 4, then got it back from msi a little over a week ago.
I had found that it was giving me errors in these games I tried to play as it just freezes for seconds at a time, the rest of the time it works just fine.

As for my fan setup in my computer
http://www.ttgiusa.com/body/sf-201all.htm
http://test.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/cnps3100P.htm
That should give you an idea of how I have it, 6 case fans total, plus a 92MM fan on the zalman heat sink that still helps cool just about anything around it such as a ram and video card. Plus the side fan gives plenty of air to the video card.
Right now my computer is running at 37C for the CPU and 35C for the motherboards temp.
I dont suspect heat to be an issue here, even the top of the video card has a plate on the memory to help cool it and the HSF on the video card seems to be staying fairly cool.

So it could either be the card is deffective, or AGP port, but come to think of it, it could be as well that I might be low on power possibly. I have a 420w PSU.
However the radeon 9000 pro didn't have any problem, it ran ok and even in those two games, except it didn't run the games well because it wasn't fast enough.
So that leads me to believe the agp port might not be the problem here.

My system:
Athlon XP 2700+ non barton
2x512MB kingston hyperX pc3200 memory
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0
MSI Geforce 4 Ti 4800, (it reports as the 4800, but MSI's link calls it a 4600-8x)
Creative Audigy Platinum
Zalman CNPS3100-Plus(Heat sink fan)
Floppy Drive
Plextor 708a DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW
Plextor 40x12x40a CD-R/RW
2xIBM 120GB drives
2x160GB Serial ATA drives in raid
TTGI 420W PSU

I know I need a new PSU, however I was going to upgrade it about the same time I get a new video card which will be soon, however I was going to wait till the NV40 line came out when I purchase one as I will be using too much power, but I could just be already.
I think I might go purchase a new PSU tommorow tho and check it out if it tests out ok in the other machine, I haven't had time to do that, but I will either tonight or tommorow.
I am wavering on the possibility that it is the power being an issue here as it is running on edge and plus this TTGI PSU might just not be putting out as much as it should since not all cheaper ones like this one do actually put out the max watts as it is specified to.

[radio1_mike]

You got a lot of stuff going on with your computer:

4 hard drives, 2 burners, 6 case fans, 2700+, Zalman cooler, etc...

I'd suggest buying a new power supply, but first I'd disconnect all unnecessary drives and all the case fans. Then run some games and see if the card still craps out.

1) If it does, and we know that the Radeon 9000 is fine on your AGP port either: a) the card is bad or b) the card is incompatible with your AGP port. It is pretty clear some type of upgrades (mobo or vid card) would be needed.

2) If it does not, we know it is a power issue and a new higher-rated power supply should do the trick.


I do not know how the quality of TTGI power supplies are, but 420 seems low for your system. I'd buy an Antec 500W or above. They cost more, but they are worth it. Buying a better PS will future proof you when decide to upgrade past the GF4.


Good luck!

[Jeordiewhite]

Hmm, I think I figured this one out, my video card just wasn't up to par, the game runs great on lower settings just fine. I think it must have been the video card unable to keep up, and why it kept up in previous games was due to the previous card being massivly overclocked, it was up to 325Mhz core and 730Mhz, right now I haven't bothered with it. It's running at 297Mhz/648Mhz. Which is slightly lower than the stock settings.
So that could have been as well what was wrong as it played smoothly in UT2004, however it's only when i am outside and it loads up a lot of textures in the distance that I notice the problem getting out of hand when the settings are set to high with a high resolution.
However what had me stumped is why it ran fairly well then would just stall and not give me any errors or crash. I upgraded my power supply tho so I am ready for a new video card as I have realised when looking into a new video card. So far I am going to likely go with the next generation of nvidia's video cards, they are what I am looking for.
However farcry was very awesome so far, tho not very graphically as intense as i would have liked playing it on such a low res

[radio1_mike]

Good.

Yeah, you should have mentioned if you oc'd or not. Some cards don't take to kindly to overclocking, especially if you are doing it w/stock cooling on the card and over by-- 30MHz per clock.

And those panoramic views in UT2k4 are a killer if you have anything less than a 9700 Pro. I know my card chugs it especially when I play Battlefield Vietnam and hit some open terrain.

I myself am just waiting to see what ATI's offering is. It's be nice if the R420 does include PS3.0... We shall see.

But the GeForce 6800 does look tempting with it's perfomance and PS 3.0.