Intuos3 vs. Intuos4

[Perihelion]

I'm planning on buying an Intuos when I get my loan money, and I'm wondering if the Intuos4 is worth the extra few hundred bucks. My biggest problem with my Graphire is the lack of control. I have much better line control when I draw on paper, and when I draw with my Graphire, my lines tend to go everywhere unless I ground my hand, so I can't draw particularly loosely. One of the biggest draws about the Intuos4 for me is that it apparently feels like drawing on paper, so I wonder if this will solve my problem. But I hear that the surface gets smooth after a while anyway, so I'm wondering if I should even bother. But the aspect ratio is closer to what my monitor is, so I wonder if that will also help since I tend to set the tablet drawing area to my monitor.

Has anyone used both? What's your opinion?

 

[coyotecraft]

I have a Bamboo tablet that had a textured surface. But it wore smooth after a couple months. It sounded more like drawing with a marker instead of a pencil.
I think it's weird that they give you replacement pen tips; expecting them to break. What are the tips made of? Across two tablets I've never had a pen tip break on me. Mine are hard plastic, the only way its going to break is if I drag it across concrete and grind it to dust. The only explanation I can think of is that other pens must have a softer tip made of rubber foam or something. Or the tips are longer then mine and can snap if pressured the wrong way.

 

[Perihelion]

Apparently the nibs on the Intuos4 rub down really fast, but it comes with tons of replacement ones, and the surface of the tablet is too smooth to matter after a while.