BACK WHEN THE GeForce4 was first announced, we nicked NVIDIA pretty hard for introducing the GeForce4 MX 460 aimed at a price range between $149 and $199. The GF4 MX is just a pumped-up GeForce2, and it simply doesn't belong in the same price range as GeForce3 and Radeon 8500 cards. Our previous favorite card, the GeForce3 Ti 200, was apparently being replaced by inferior technology.

ATI saw the GF4 MX 460 coming and took the opportunity introduce the Radeon 8500LE 128MB in the same price range. With real pixel and vertex shaders, the Radeon 8500LE is a steal. Third-party card makers have introduced cards, like Hercules' 8500LE, that sell for as little as 140 bucks online. For that price, we have been inclined to recommend the 8500LE as the best graphics value for the money.

Thank goodness for competition, because now NVIDIA appears to be changing course. The GeForce4 MX 460 is AWOL, and the GeForce4 Ti 4200 is stepping in to take its place. The GeForce4 Ti 4200 is, as the name suggests, a GeForce4 Titanium card with lower clock speeds for the GPU and memory. For those not inclined to drop over 300 bucks on a video card, the Ti 4200 may be just the ticket.

We've got the 64MB variety of the Ti 4200 here in Damage Labs, and we've run a full set of benchmarks to compare it against nine of its closest competitors, including ATI's Radeon 8500LE. Read on to see how it matches up against the competition.