On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 01:32:38 GMT, "Falcon1209"
wrote:

Hi

I recently bought a new Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 because my GeForce 4 Ti
4200's fan was going out. I was looking on the Nvidia website and realized
that the GeForce 4 TI 4200 is statistically better than the FX 5200 by a
longshot. Is this a misinterpretation by my part because I assumed that the
newer FX's would make all TI's obsolete. I also assumed the FX was better
because the price on a TI 4200 right now is signifigantly cheaper.

If anyone knows which card is better than the other, please reply. Id love
to hear what you have to say.
And if anyone knows a way to install a RELIABLE heat sink on my Ti 4200 that
would be appreciated. (Perhaps how to install a heatsink on the GPU? It
doesnt sound like this card can take much more of a faulty fan right now...)

I sure hope i didnt spend $80 on a signifigantly slower card...

Thanks in advance...


yes an FX5200 is slower. It's DX9 but it's slow enough that
this doesn't matter. Add to that the fact that many TI4200
cards o'c pretty well and it takes a fairly expensive video
card to outperform one (relatively speaking of course, you'd
have to spend about $120 to get higher raw performance
ignoring FSAA & DX9).

You can install a heatsink using epoxy, like Arctic Alumina
Epoxy,
http://www.svcompucycle.com/araltherad.html
The heatsink can be just about anything when using epoxy,
providing it's not too heavy and doesn't block too many PCI
slots. A Pentium 1 heatsink might be ideal if you have one
with a low-enough RPM (quiet) fan, or there are 3rd party
heatsinks that'll fit a TI4200 but offhand I dont' know
what/where to find the best or cheapest ones.

If the replacement fan is small and thin like the original
you might find it quieter and longer lasting by lubing it
with very heavy oil... not just after it makes a lot of
noise and is failing but BEFORE then. You might even be
able to lube your present failing fan with very very heavy
oil, bordering on light grease, and have it work fine again
for a long time.