Next Card???

jason93

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
133
I have a BFG 8800gts OC2 640mb 580/850mhz. I run it with an Intel core 2 E6850 @3ghz with 4gig of memory. My power supply is a corsair 550watt with 41amp 12volt rail. The two cards that I'm looking at are the Nvidia GTX 260 and ATI 4870. From what I see they are very close in performance and price. Would these cards be worth the upgrade? Which one would you purchase? Most of my games are first person shooters.

Thanks for your help!!
 
well the ATI HD4870 is a very nice card, but it gets quite hot, so u might want to buy an aftermarket cooling solution for that thing
 
I was in the same situation. I went with the GTX260.

+1 for the GTX 260. You can get this steal of a deal right now on newegg(I just did)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130370

Enter this code for $20 off
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Also use live search for 3% cash back

There is $40 instant rebate and $40 mail in rebate. EVGA even includes Crysis and a lifetime warranty. I sold the copy of crysis since I already had one for $20. If you check out the GTX 260 review, the FTW edition speeds compete and sometimes beat the GTX280. You should be able to obtain or even surpass the FTW edition speeds with the vanilla card.

The GTX260 has the same performance at FTW edition speeds as a gtx 280! You also get physx and cuda with nvidia, less heat, and some games are optimized for nvidia.
 
If you are an nvidia guy, and used to the drivers and control panel, at the current equal prices, I'd say just stay with nvidia.

I switched to ATI when the 4870s were way cheaper than the 260/280s.
I jumped from 8800 GTX three-way SLI to now, two 4870 X2s.

Anyway, I really liked the 4870s I had in CrossfireX.(liked 'em so much I upgraded to two X2s). My only compliant about ATI is their control panel takes some getting used to, and they (ATI) tend to only release drivers once a month, whether there is a known problem or not.

The one advantage ATI had right now is mad AA levels for very little performance hits. I also like the in-game colors in ATI cards. They seem a bit more vivid. Frames per second performance seems about the same, give or take. Exception = Crysis. A definated advantage to nvidia cards there.
 
If you have a Nvidia motherboard then stay with them. Kind of a toss up between the GTX260 and the 4870. If you like a lot of AA then the 4870 will beat the GTX260 pretty good. If your not a heavy AA user then its kind of a tossup. The GTX280 is not a bad card ether if you get a good deal on it. I would still lean toward the 4870 myself though I just bought a GTX280.
 
The 260 is usually cheaper, which puts it ahead. However, performance between the cards is pretty much on the same level, so it just comes down to preference.
 
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