Introduction

GeForce4 Ti 4600 meets NV28

Since its release, the GeForce4 Ti 4200 has been selling really well for NVIDIA, its unique combination of price and performance allowed it to dominate the mainstream segment for most of 2002, making it one of NVIDIA’s most successful products last year. Therefore, it came as no surprise when the first cores based on NVIDIA’s second-generation GeForce4 core (codenamed NV28) were built utilizing the GeForce4 Ti 4200 GPU, now NVIDIA is bringing AGP 8X to the rest of the GeForce4 line.

We already know that the Ti 4200 variant of NV28 is officially known as the GeForce4 with AGP 8X. This board ships with a 128MB memory configuration officially clocked at 500MHz, although if you look a little closer you’ll see that the memory is actually operating at 513MHz on these boards in standard configurations. We’ve seen board manufacturers take cards based on this core to the next level, ASUS for example offers their V9280S. This is essentially an overclocked Ti 4200 (NV28) core built on a Ti 4600 board design and outfitted with high-speed BGA memory. But what about those manufacturers who want to include AGP 8X in their higher-end GeForce4 product mix that don’t wish to resort to overclocking? This is where the Ti 4800 series comes in.

Ti4800? You’re probably wondering where that name came from, and if this is some form of a performance-enhanced GeForce4 card. To answer the latter question, the Ti 4800 is nothing more than a GeForce4 Ti 4600 with AGP 8X support. This means it can take advantage of the 2.1GB/sec of bandwidth the interface provides, although as we’ve found out in the past, you won’t see any performance enhancements with the new interface in any of today’s latest games.

As far as the naming is concerned, things get a bit tricky. In the European and Asian markets, these Ti 4600 NV28 cores will be marketed under the Ti 4800 label, while here in North America they’ll be known as the Ti 4600 with AGP 8X. NVIDIA is also making a Ti 4400 variant of the NV28 core that is known as the Ti 4800-SE overseas, so you’ll have to keep an eye out so you do mistakenly pick up one of these cards if you really want the Ti 4600 board.

If you hit up the NVIDIA website, you see no mention of these cards at all. It’s as if they don’t officially exist. That’s because NVIDIA would rather focus their marketing efforts on GeForce FX, while still fulfilling NV28 shipments to its board partners. As a result, it has essentially become the role of these card manufacturers and the media to inform consumers about these products. You’ll need the latest Detonator 41.09 drivers to run this core, although in a mild bit of irony our MSI G4Ti4600-T2D8X card was detected as a GeForce Ti 4800 -- it looks like someone in NVIDIA’s driver department forgot to read the memo from marketing concerning the products’ official name.