Ati 4870 X2 or Nvidia GTX 295. Can't make up my mind...

R

rph

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Mar 20, 2007
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Hello

I'm confused and don't know what to buy.

These are the specs of the pc that this card will be bought for...

P6T6 WS REVOLUTION
CORE i7 965 EE
6 x 2GB Ocz Flex Ex
Dell 30" 3007 Wfp LCD (2560 x 1600) resolution
Kandalf LCS Case (liquid Cooled).
1500Watts PSU Thermaltake Toughpower (220v)

Now for the VGA i just couldn't decide because of the following:

ATI 4870X2 has Dx 10.1 support and 2GB of memory
GTX295 has DX10 support only 1.8Gb but has the CUDA that can be useful while encoding videos now that "Nero" will be launching a new version which will support this feature among other applications that will be coming as well....

Also i'm intending on buying 2 x VGA so that means 4 GPUs

And the ATI has a price advantage over the Nvidia, although not by much...

Regards,

Rony
 
If you are deciding between the fact that the GTX 295 "only" has 1.8gigs of vRAM, I can assure you that won't miss that 200 mb.
 
I can't go for 3 way SLI bcz of 2 main things:

1- Things will get really tight in there and i don't know if i can even fir a 3 VGA in my Kandalf.
2- I have 4 x SAS hard disks installed and already have an Adaptec SAS pcie SAS controller, so i wont be able to use it with 3 way sli since it wont fit anywhere.

so it's either 2 x GTX295 or 2 x 4870 X2.

Benchmarks are confusing as well since i've seen several benchmarks from different websites and there's no clear "Winner" between these 2 cards...
 
rph said:
I can't go for 3 way SLI bcz of 2 main things:

1- Things will get really tight in there and i don't know if i can even fir a 3 VGA in my Kandalf.
2- I have 4 x SAS hard disks installed and already have an Adaptec SAS pcie SAS controller, so i wont be able to use it with 3 way sli since it wont fit anywhere.

so it's either 2 x GTX295 or 2 x 4870 X2.

Benchmarks are confusing as well since i've seen several benchmarks from different websites and there's no clear "Winner" between these 2 cards...
Click to expand...

Quad GPU performance is almost identical with both cards, I would go with the one with more RAM.
 
nissanztt90 said:
If your going to be using CUDA, than the choice should be pretty clear...although, the 4870x2 will perform a bit better at 2560x1600, and according to Kyle, quad-SLI falls flat on its face. One card should be sufficient though, even at your res.

I might even consider 2 GTX285's in SLI if you want better gaming performance than the 4870x2, and want to be able to use CUDA. If CUDA isnt that important to you, a 4870x2 is the better option.

Be wary of alg7_munif, he is heavily biased towards ATI.
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this, two GTX285 is the next practical (somewhat) step up from the 4870X2 but at a step price for a small performance gain. but really do you need cuda for something? most everything commercial I have seen, including the video encoding, has been less then appealing. I like my GTX280 but the reality is this, Phsyx and cuda have been about as useful as DX10.1, maybe even less. the one game that I would have like to have used Physx for (cell factor) doesn't work with it. In short Nvidia marketing fluff.

and as for being biased myself, well Nvidia is trying hard to make me an AMD fanboi. Both of my last two cards have been green but between re branding, near illegal marketing rules, and otherwise making an ass out of themselves as of late, if the R790 is as good as its suppose to be I will be jumping ship.

sorry about the rant.
 
had a 4870x2 and hated it.. Id go with regular sli gtx285 and a i7920.. Using cuda to do your encoding seems like a great way to go ..
 
I'm heavily biased towards ATi myself, but if he's going to constantly be using CUDA, then you gotta go with the pair of 285's or 295's.
 
You could save some money with HD 4870 X2 + HD 4870 1GB. Going from 1 GPU to 2 GPU would give you a nice performance boost, going from 2 to 3 GPU is still OK but from 3 to 4 GPU would just probably be a waste of money.
 
Well this assumes you can find the 295s

Buy nVidia GTX285s, then sell those and buy the 4870X2 when the price drops with the 4890 and 4890X2. You can probably make $100 while always having something to use.
 
UtopiA said:
Is there any information about the future existance of this card, or is it purely wishful thinking at this point?
Click to expand...

If HD 4890 OC lives up to the hype and matches GTX 285 peformance what do you think will happen?


To OP:

Since from the looks of it money is not a problem just get two heavily factory overclocked GTX 285s and call it a day. Since CrossFireX or Quad Sli are pretty much broken ultra clocked gtx 285s should match those configurations no problem.
 
Ya and April 6th is the new release for gfx card, i suggest you wait for that and see what comes out.
and if nothing, I recommend GTX 295 even though I like ATI more, because it's just faster.
 
i love my 4870x2 :). at these prices though you can't go wrong with either one really :)
 
crazian said:
Ya and April 6th is the new release for gfx card, i suggest you wait for that and see what comes out.
and if nothing, I recommend GTX 295 even though I like ATI more, because it's just faster.
Click to expand...


lol you obviously didnt read the gtx 295 review did you? add up the numbers.. 2 gtx 285's in SLI will completely school a single and probably double gtx 295 due to the excessively limiting memory... the gtx 295 sould of been called the gtx 265.. its a pathetic dual gpu gtx 260 hybrid.. biggest flop in my opinion.. the only thing the card is good for is folding@home..

btw using cuda to encode movies is horrible.. unless you like doing one click encoding and dont care about quality..

even though it sound like im bashing nvidia.. im a realist.. i go where the performance is..
 
rph said:
I can't go for 3 way SLI bcz of 2 main things:

1- Things will get really tight in there and i don't know if i can even fir a 3 VGA in my Kandalf.
2- I have 4 x SAS hard disks installed and already have an Adaptec SAS pcie SAS controller, so i wont be able to use it with 3 way sli since it wont fit anywhere.

so it's either 2 x GTX295 or 2 x 4870 X2.

Benchmarks are confusing as well since i've seen several benchmarks from different websites and there's no clear "Winner" between these 2 cards...
Click to expand...

Well all that really means is you won't be losing either way. CUDA and PhysX turned the tide toward nVidia myself.
 
Unless you are really planning to use Cuda or have any PhysX game to play, they are still just some marketing gimmicks, just like DirectX 10.1 right now. For encoding, you would be better off with a fast CPU since it will be supported by a lot of software.
 
camp newegg's open box section and grab whichever, a 4870x2 or 295 that pops up for $350.

that is how I got my 4870x2's
 
Wait for the 4890 1gb, get two of those in Crossfire, and it will be faster than a single 4870x2, and blow away a single GTX-295.

I expect a Crossfire 4890 setup to be at least 20-30% faster than a 4870x2, and even higher compared to SLI GTX-295, from the early buzz I am reading.
 
well the i guess the it's better to wait for the 4890 or maybe 4890 x2 and buy the latest there is and from what i read it should be about 20 to 30 % performance gains... it's been a while i'm waiting to build this rig, waiting a couple of more weeks isn't such a bad idea. :)
 
Yes I say wait...everyone says don't play the waiting game you wait forever, but it depends. Like right now there is a refresh due from ATI beginning of April, thats only less than a month away, so yes is smart to wait.
 
mrmylanman said:
Well all that really means is you won't be losing either way. CUDA and PhysX turned the tide toward nVidia myself.
Click to expand...
Yeah ATI really dropped the ball on that one.

GTX295 is the fastest video card on the market so it's not a tough choice really.
 
PRIME1 said:
Yeah ATI really dropped the ball on that one.

GTX295 is the fastest video card on the market so it's not a tough choice really.
Click to expand...

why? I have been waiting to take advantage of my GTX280 as of yet neither physx or cuda has done anything worthwhile. the one game that physx would have nice in will still not run without the damn card. and badabboom is more like baddaflop, it might be faster but its most certainly not better, and I am not willing to trade quality with speed. did I mention that the better encoder was free?

sorry but as a GTX280 owner and user of 4800 series cards as well I can say this

Physx + CUDA + DX10.1 = worthless marketing hype.
 
Valset said:
why? I have been waiting to take advantage of my GTX280 as of yet neither physx or cuda has done anything worthwhile.
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Well I enjoyed the free Physx game Warmonger + the free UT3 levels. I have not played Mirror's Edge yet but it looks cool.

My Folding@home numbers have been nothing short of spectacular.

Nero's encoder also is going to support CUDA if you don't want to use Badaboom.

Photoshop also supports CUDA

Just because you can't use it plenty of others can.
 
PRIME1 said:
Well I enjoyed the free Physx game Warmonger + the free UT3 levels. I have not played Mirror's Edge yet but it looks cool.

My Folding@home numbers have been nothing short of spectacular.

Nero's encoder also is going to support CUDA if you don't want to use Badaboom.

Photoshop also supports CUDA

Just because you can't use it plenty of others can.
Click to expand...

my point was that it doesn't do it well yet. and not overly impressed with nero. warmonger is not bad but really nothing better, mirror edge had a lot of curtains added. it really did add much of anything you could not have done traditionally. and doesn't photo shop also support other video cards?

the folding@home is awesome, have to agree.
 
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