Not everyone can dig as deep as a purchase of the Ti4600 model would require you to, Visiontek knew this back in the office prior to release and thus decided to release the Ti4400 model too. Designed to fit in with the demanding but not so rich users it's engineered to form a blend of both performance and value albeit with more emphasis on speed than any MX model cares to throw at it. The technique is simple, take a Ti4600 and remove some speed then badge it under a new name. It makes sense for any manufacturer to follow this trend, after all the higher the price the less samples you are bound to sell which in business terms translates into a smaller chance of profit making. But the Ti4400 after all is only one step down from the Ti4600 and offers serious performance, the 275MHz core speed and 550MHz effective memory speed are there to prove it. Add to this the chance of overclocking and it seems like a winner. Because of the lower 550MHz memory speed (650MHz for the Ti4600 as a reminder) the RAM found present on the Ti4400 is rated at 3.6ns instead of 2.86ns as its bigger brother. The sample we received used the same Nvidia fan we also got on our Ti4600 model.

From a distance it's very easy to fall victim to a simple task of telling apart a Ti4600 from a Ti4400. As with most things in life (if we try) a simple reason hides beneath. The cards are almost exact replicas of each other including a near identical layout, the same PCB length and color. The only real element missing on the Ti4400 is the Philips SAA7108 chip which handles VIVO features found on the stronger model, the Ti4600. Due to the length being still longer than most cards (up to the Geforce4 era) it would still spell good thoughts to check if your motherboard can take it while at the same time avoid problems with its DIMM slots. The bracket is home to both a HD-15 and DVI connectors not to forget SVHS OUT should you want to make good use of that brand new TV in the living room.

As with its bigger brother there is at the moment no real threat to the Ti4400, the ATI Radeon would need a new revision to battle away successfully over current Geforce4 Ti's (4200, 4400, 4600). Considering you stand a good chance of overclocking this card to Ti4600 levels the distance between the competition grows either wider. Ultimately the Ti4400 will not be as fast as a Ti4600, the faster RAM on the Ti4600 will still overclock somewhat more thus offering better performance, especially at high resolutions. In the end all boils down to the money side of things, here is where the conclusion rests on your shoulders. Our benchmarks will paint a picture of how much slower the Ti4400 is than the Ti4600, you on the other hand have to decide if the extra speed is worth the $100 more asking price. It's worth bringing to attention that this card is still aimed at the hardcore gamer, and can do much more than any Geforce4 MX offering can or will. Your heart should only be set on this card should you not want to play more than you work, in computer games that is.

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