A4L
@co.th | ATI HD 4870 vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
So which one is better? I want to go with the NVIDIA one since its drivers rarely have problems, but I've also heard the ATI one is good value for money. I want good performance in games for at least 2 years. |
|
m8trix
join:2003-12-24
Phoenix, AZ | if its the core 216 version i thinks its a toss up |
|
A4L
@co.th | reply to A4L
What is the difference between the core 216 and the non-core 216 one? |
|
Somnambul33t
L33t.
Premium
join:2002-12-05
Mullica Hill, NJ
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| reply to A4L
192 vs 216 cores. there have been hardly any games that show a performance difference between the older 192 and newer 216 core GTX260s. buy the older 192 for $50-60 cheaper if you can still find 'em.
it's a toss-up between the HD4870 512MB. the AMD probably has a slight advantage but is usually more expensive than the GTX260 192. |
|
A4L
@co.th | reply to A4L
And that's because it supports DX10.1 or because it's faster? As for the 216 cores, is it significantly better than the 192 cores? |
|
tempus45
join:2006-07-08
USA | reply to A4L
here is good a review
»techreport.com/articles.x/15651 |
|
Mchart
Super Joe
join:2004-01-21
Gurnee, IL | reply to A4L
»www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis |
|
GeekGirl1
The Medium IS the Message
Premium
join:2007-01-28
Morrisville, PA
1 edit | I just upgraded to the GTX 280. Although the benchmarks are fairly close between ATI and NVidia, take a hard look between the lines at power consumption and temperature. The ATI cards are worse than NVidia - higher power, run hotter. That made the difference.
Also, for gamers, the NVidia cards include the PhysX processing as part of the video drivers. I upgraded from a GeForce 7900 GTX to the GTX 280 (also new mobo and CPU). Did absolutely nothing and it worked from the start. The desktop didn't change one pixel.
I would have gone with the GTX 260, but I could afford to spend a bit more and just flat out wanted the GTX 280. I figured this new architecture should hold for about 2 years - the 9xxx and 8xxx cards are done. |
|
Somnambul33t
L33t.
Premium
join:2002-12-05
Mullica Hill, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to A4L
i always heard about power consumption, but honestly who cares? as long as your PSU is juicy enough ($60 antec earthwatts can run a full system plus either of these cards) i dont see why more power is bad. sure it uses more killawatts, but how much? maybe $2/year. MAYBE.for those who turn their PCs off at night it's even less.
i like ATI cards more mainly because of ATI Tray tools. i like it much more than RivaTuner. i bought the original 260 cause it was a an evga step-up, and it was retail $50 cheaper than the 4870. i'd go with the HD4870 assuming you find it for close to the GTX260 192's price. for the price of the 216 GTX i'd go with 4870 hands down.
only a few games support DX10.1 so it's not a deal maker. 10.1 does run signaficantly faster than 10.0, though, and ATI cards showed a huge FPS increase in Assassin's Creed when a patch made it 10.1. however, AC was aleady being maxed out with the 9800-series of cards so it didnt really matter.
--
Somnambulator - t3h 5133pw41k3r
The Stolen Eye TF2 Server
~Choosy moms choose Jif~ |
|
The Flash
You don't win friends with salad
Premium
join:2002-10-17
Toronto, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Execulink
1 edit | If people did not care about power consumption, there would not be a demand for "green" harddrives. People like a low power consumption HTPC for example, it's not just the cost of electricity but the whole idea of going green. Benchmarkers don't just benchmark power consumption for fun. Things that use less power are always welcome.
A LAN cafe for example would probably run many stations at once, each watt counts towards their electricity bill. Maybe if you look at it from a multi-computer perspective, it'll make more sense. |
|
Somnambul33t
L33t.
Premium
join:2002-12-05
Mullica Hill, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to A4L
going green is the biggest marketing and political scam in the history of the U.S.
besides that, im all for saving money, however, the scenerio here isnt an HTPC, nor is it a LAN center. in this case getting a card that uses 15-20 less watts for 1-4 hours per day means absolutely nothing and shouldnt be taken into consideration by sane individuals looking for the best GFX card for them.
bottom line is both the GTX260 and HD4870 are absolutely fantastic cards. i'd go with the GTX260-192 or HD4870 at $200-215 and avoid the new 260-216 as long as it's more than $30 over a standard 260-192.
--
Somnambulator - t3h 5133pw41k3r
The Stolen Eye TF2 Server
~Choosy moms choose Jif~ |
|
IamGimli
join:2004-02-28
Canada
 ·Primus Talkbroadband
·B2B2C High-Speed I..
| reply to A4L
Personally, since they both have similar performance, I would go with the GTX 260 because of the already mentioned lower power consumption (and therefore heat dissipation requirements) and the extra 384MB of memory. It will be able to deal with high resolutions much better than the 4870 because of it. |
|
GunnarDanne
join:2002-12-02
Crown City, OH
| reply to Somnambul33t
said by Somnambul33t  :going green is the biggest marketing and political scam in the history of the U.S. Yes |
|
DKS
Damn Kidney Stones
Premium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON
clubs:
·Bell Sympatico
| said by GunnarDanne :said by Somnambul33t :going green is the biggest marketing and political scam in the history of the U.S. Yes In time you will be proved wrong. Consuming less of everything will be essential. TINSTAAFL.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care. |
|
Octavean
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY
| reply to A4L
Well the HD 4870 512MB cards have started to dip as low as ~$160 with coupon code and A/R so I would consider that a really good deal. I bought my GTX260 Core-192 for $185 shipped. All and all I think if I were to go with the HD 4870 that it would have to be a 1GB card. That will set you back a bit more. |
|
Mchart
Super Joe
join:2004-01-21
Gurnee, IL
·AT&T Yahoo
·RoadRunner Cable
| The 4870 is only worth it if you get the 1GB version. All of that power means nothing if you only have 512MB of VRAM to work with.
I also got my GTX260 for only $180. The 4870 1GB is $240 still - So I can't say the 4870 1GB is the better choice ATM. |
|
A4L
@co.th | reply to A4L
Yeah, I got the 1 GB one as well and so far it's performing really well in games. I'm happy with it as most people recommended me to go for that instead of the GTX260. Good choice. |
|
Octavean
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY
| reply to Mchart
When I bought my GTX260 it was a spur of the moment impulse buy. My old eVGA 8800GTS 320MB card died in a still useful but aging Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe system. So I swapped out an XFX 8800GTS 640MB that I was using as an off the shelf cheap solution for my new Core i7 920 / ASUS P6T Deluxe build and bought an MSI GTX260 for $185 shipped. My upper limit was ~$200 and no more.
As I said before, I see the 4870 512MB as a good deal at about ~$160 but would basically only go for the 1GB version. Since the 1GB HD 4870 went well above what I was willing to spend I went with the GTX260 which is plenty fast and almost has ~1GB of RAM.
Still since so many new PC games have restrictions that I am unwilling to deal with on my new expensive hardware I might have been better off buying a PS3 to go with my Xbox 360 and Wii. Well, that and a cheaper video card. |
|
A4L
@co.th
| reply to A4L
Well, I don't know much about console gaming since I find it kind of lame. No offense, but I think you made the right decision by not getting a weak console and by getting a powerful PC instead.
I've always been a PC gamer since the days of HL1, CS, UT, etc. Then I stopped gaming for 3 years and now I finally plan to be back for good. So far I've completed 2 games on my new PC which are COD4 and COD: WaW. Both were really good games and really similar as well. I only completed the single-player part, have yet to play the online but looking forward to it since I heard it's as good as CS.
The next games I plan to play are BiA: Hell's Highway, PoP, Crysis and FC2, any other games you guys would recommend me to play before them? How's Fallout 3? I heard it's awesome but I'm a bit reluctant to try it since I'm more of a shooter. I don't like heavy RPG games, but I'm fine with RPGs like Bioshock. Also any games you guys would recommend which is more like a run-and-gun type? Kind of like Serious Sam or CoD games. Now I know CoD games are not entirely run-and-gun but still, there's plenty of shooting so I find it fun. |
|
Somnambul33t
L33t.
Premium
join:2002-12-05
Mullica Hill, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to Octavean
said by Octavean :When I bought my GTX260 it was a spur of the moment impulse buy. My old eVGA 8800GTS 320MB card died in a still useful but aging Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe system. So I swapped out an XFX 8800GTS 640MB that I was using as an off the shelf cheap solution for my new Core i7 920 / ASUS P6T Deluxe build and bought an MSI GTX260 for $185 shipped. My upper limit was ~$200 and no more. As I said before, I see the 4870 512MB as a good deal at about ~$160 but would basically only go for the 1GB version. Since the 1GB HD 4870 went well above what I was willing to spend I went with the GTX260 which is plenty fast and almost has ~1GB of RAM. Still since so many new PC games have restrictions that I am unwilling to deal with on my new expensive hardware I might have been better off buying a PS3 to go with my Xbox 360 and Wii. Well, that and a cheaper video card. »store.steampowered.com/ |
|
