Nvidia guy wanting to go Ati

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overclockers

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Im typically a nvidia guy but with all the trouble ive had recently I think i want to try out Amd/Ati.

I love Amd cpu's so maybe this could be a good thing for me.

Right now im running a 9800gx2 and want to know what that would be equivalent to on Ati's side. And maybe the next step ujp.

No need to switch unless I upgrade also right :)
signature_gtx285.jpg
 
Two HD4890's in crossfire would give a GTX295 a serious run for its money, but in terms of the single package theres only the HD4870 X2, and its probably slower by an edge.

But in all seriousness brand loyalty only serves as a detriment to its host. Bloomfield (Ci7) is superior to Deneb (PII), and the GT200 (GTX 200) is, by a substantially smaller margin then I'd first imagined, superior to the RV770 (HD4.8k)... well at least in sheer performance, the GT200 might be faster but it scores a 1/10 on the efficiency scale... and I actually kinda like that.

The Nvidia board partners are vastly superior to the majority of ATI ones. I've had several sour experiances with Sapphire and HIS, but not a single one with BFG or EVGA (and not a single experiance with XFX who swings for both teams and who I hear has excellent, and international, support).

What's soured you about Nvidia?
 
Being an nvidia fanboy personally I'd find that hard too. :D

Seriously though, the 4890 is insanely cheap for the performance, if you want ati it's almost a no brainer.
 
afik the 4870 x2 is somewhere between a 260 and a 280, like a 275 or something, also i think that the 4870 1gb is just barely faster then a 260 but the 512mb one is just barely slower. Sorry if i'm wrong on anything, i'm an nvidia fanboy :S
 
lilfiend said:
afik the 4870 x2 is somewhere between a 260 and a 280, like a 275 or something, also i think that the 4870 1gb is just barely faster then a 260 but the 512mb one is just barely slower. Sorry if i'm wrong on anything, i'm an nvidia fanboy :S
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Stop going to Tom's Hardware.
(in all fairness its pretty hard to find a green slant on Tom's these days. It used to be practically owned by NV. They claimed for the longest time that the 7800GT was 1.7X faster than the X1800XT).

No, the HD4870 X2 is two RV770's at full speed on a single PCB and using something more then just multiplexing over PCI-E to communicate. The result is a package thats substantially more efficient then the GTX 295, but because each core is less powerful they end up nearly on par with each other, remembering that the GTX 295 uses twice the silicon space (almost 1 billion more transistors).
 
From what Ive read when I considered going ATI the 4870 1GB is a good match for a 9800x2. You can get one for about 120$ right now after MIR. Theres some things about the way ATI handles rendering that I don't like personally. From what Ive seen on a lot of kyles review the gist is "ATI is faster but your shadows will randomly look like Phallus"
 
HD 4870x2 for p35/p45 single PCIE 2.0 x16 or CF HD 4890s if you have an i7 / x58 set up.

Also HD 4890x2 might be a possible candidate pretty soon....I hope.
 
DeadSkull said:
HD 4870x2 for p35/p45 single PCIE 2.0 x16 or CF HD 4890s if you have an i7 / x58 set up.

Also HD 4890x2 might be a possible candidate pretty soon....I hope.
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P35/P45 most of them have CF support with 16/16
 
Best bang for buck is the 4850X2 2gb. Just slighlty under the 4870X2, and better then the GTX-280, for a crap load less money.
 
overclockers said:
I
No need to switch unless I upgrade also right :)
signature_gtx285.jpg
Click to expand...

No need to switch unless you have a CPU and monitor that would make it worthwhile. No one ever asks and knowing what you have backing up a GPU is half the battle in making an intelligent recommendation.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
No, the HD4870 X2 is two RV770's at full speed on a single PCB and using something more then just multiplexing over PCI-E to communicate. The result is a package thats substantially more efficient then the GTX 295, but because each core is less powerful they end up nearly on par with each other, remembering that the GTX 295 uses twice the silicon space (almost 1 billion more transistors).
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If by "on par" you mean the GTX 295 is on average ~15% faster, nevermind it's substantial overclocking headroom when compared to the 4870X2, then sure.

To answer your question OP, try one 4890 and see how you like it. If you want more, grab another :D. Here's a good deal on one now: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=1402561 ; the double life-time warranty really helps with resale.
 
It depends on the game, the res, and the AA. At 2560x1600 the 4870X2 beats the 295 most the time, especailly with AA.

And as I said before, he should get a 4850X2 if he can. Its price/performance is outstanding.
 
DeadSkull said:
Huh? Its x48 which has full 16/16 CF support, P45 is limited to 8 / 8.
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my bad, I thought most of them soppurt up to 16/16...

anyway, it doesn't really matter, I have done it on 8/8 and 16/16..

no performance differences from my testing...
 
shansoft said:
my bad, I thought most of them soppurt up to 16/16...

anyway, it doesn't really matter, I have done it on 8/8 and 16/16..

no performance differences from my testing...
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Ouch, I should've asked you earlier when I owned a great HD 4890. Traded it for a hd 4870x2 b/c I thought I would lose a lot of performance due to 8/8 CF on EP45-UD3P.
 
I went from a evga 9800gx2 to a 4870 1 gig from xfx and I truly see no real life differance between the two.
 
Cecil said:
Best bang for buck is the 4850X2 2gb. Just slighlty under the 4870X2, and better then the GTX-280, for a crap load less money.
Click to expand...

I agree. With current pricing at around $225 new/ $180 used (I think I saw one for sale on this forum) this is currently the best bang for the buck I can think of. With a little more money to spend look into a 4870x2 or 2x 4890s.
 
I love my dual 4870s 1GB cards, I can't imagine how awesome to highly OCd 4890's would be.
 
Performance wise here is how it goes
9800gtx+/gts 250 512 imb is about the same as 4850 512 mb
gtx 260 core 196, 896 mb is about the same as 4870 512 mb
gtx 260 core 216, 896 mb is about the same as 4870 1gb
gtx 275 896 mb and gtx 280 1024 mb is about the same as the 4890 1gb.
9800 gx2 is about the same as the 4890 1gb.

The 295 is two, gtx 275 slap together on the same board. Thus it is a little bit faster than a 4870x2 (remember 1 4890 is about the same speed as the 275).

Remember the 9800gx2 is the same core architecture as the 8800gts 512 and the 9800gtx+. Only difference is
9800gx2 is at 600 core, 1500 shaders, 2000 memory
8800gts 512 is at 650 core, 1625 shaders, 1940 memory
9800gtx+ is at 738 core, 1836 shaders, 2400 memory.

because of this two 9800gtx+ in sli can be up to 20% faster than the 9800gx2.

Ignore the 4850x2 card. It isn't a bad card, slightly faster than a 4890, but its price/performance is out of wack with the recent 4870/4890 card price drops. When you can find a 4870 1gb for 130, or a 4890 1gb for 175 shipped it is hard to rationalize getting the 4850x2 2gb for 225 to 250.

For only 10-30 dollars more you can get two 4870 1gbs (effectively giving you a 4870x2). If you can't afford two 4870 1gbs well then you shouldn't upgrade for a 9800gx2 will see a marginal increase going to a 4850x2 2gb. We are talking at most 20% frame increase.
 
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Roland00 said:
Ignore the 4850x2 card. It isn't a bad card, slightly faster than a 4890, but its price/performance is out of wack with the recent 4870/4890 card price drops. When you can find a 4870 1gb for 130, or a 4890 1gb for 175 shipped it is hard to rationalize getting the 4850x2 2gb for 225 to 250.

For only 10-30 dollars more you can get two 4870 1gbs (effectively giving you a 4870x2). If you can't afford two 4870 1gbs well then you shouldn't upgrade for a 9800gx2 will see a marginal increase going to a 4850x2 2gb. We are talking at most 20% frame increase.
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Excellent advice. I just noticed how cheap the 4870 1GB were getting. Cross firing two for under $150 is definitely a viable alternative. I'd still recommend the single 4890: if you can get a single card to do what you want instead of a dual card set-up, definitely go the single card route.
 
lilfiend said:
afik the 4870 x2 is somewhere between a 260 and a 280, like a 275 or something, also i think that the 4870 1gb is just barely faster then a 260 but the 512mb one is just barely slower. Sorry if i'm wrong on anything, i'm an nvidia fanboy :S
Click to expand...

4870X2 is actually faster than a GTX280 in almost all instances (besides the obvious physx games)
 
I'd like to do the same as OP. Is it still a hassle to switch from NVIDIA to ATI driver wise? Would really love to avoid a reformat for a video card. Thanks
 
jschen said:
I'd like to do the same as OP. Is it still a hassle to switch from NVIDIA to ATI driver wise? Would really love to avoid a reformat for a video card. Thanks
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Just uninstall the NVIDIA drivers, reboot into safe mode and use a program like Driver Sweeper just in case, shut down and install the ATI card and then install the ATI drivers.
 
I personally would stay away from any of the cards taht have built in crossfire or sli and stick with a single chip card. They are going to be most stable.
 
cooter said:
I personally would stay away from any of the cards taht have built in crossfire or sli and stick with a single chip card. They are going to be most stable.
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X2 series have been out for quite awhile now, they are pretty stable....
 
RADEoN said:
4870X2 is actually faster than a GTX280 in almost all instances (besides the obvious physx games)
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This is true if you are running a game that supports crossfire. Otherwise you will only be using 1 4870 Core.

I had a GTX280 (still have it in another system) an I went to 4870x2.

Sorry to tell you that I was disappointed mostly due to the drivers. And they never turned the highly touted side port that was supposed to allow the gpus to talk to each other faster.
 
Dual said:
This is true if you are running a game that supports crossfire. Otherwise you will only be using 1 4870 Core.

I had a GTX280 (still have it in another system) an I went to 4870x2.

Sorry to tell you that I was disappointed mostly due to the drivers. And they never turned the highly touted side port that was supposed to allow the gpus to talk to each other faster.
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really? really? REALLY?

in what game that does not support crossfire? what driver problems?

and how does side port going to help in anyway?

:p
 
Yes really really REALLY

WOW does not support crossfire. I play WOW on a 30" monitor. So DON"T tell me WOW doesn't need 2 gpus.

Any new game usually doesn't get crossfire all that soon.

Obviously (now) side port doesn't do anything. But ATi tried to make it a huge selling point when the 4870x2s came out. Thus the disappointment. If sideport was used the 4870x2 could have been faster. Perhaps as fast as a gtx295.

What driver problems? Are you kidding me? Just read the posts here at hardocp. If that's not enough read the posts on the ATi forums.
 
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Dual said:
Yes really really REALLY

WOW does not support crossfire. I play WOW on a 30" monitor. So DON"T tell me WOW doesn't need 2 gpus.

Any new game usually doesn't get crossfire all that soon.

Obviously (now) side port doesn't do anything. But ATi tried to make it a huge selling point when the 4870x2s came out. Thus the disappointment. If sideport was used the 4870x2 could have been faster. Perhaps as fast as a gtx295.

What driver problems? Are you kidding me? Just read the posts here at hardocp. If that's not enough read the posts on the ATi forums.
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so 1 shitty game does not support crossfire means all other games will be the same way..
huh... your logic does not make any sense..

also, side port is the selling point? how come when I got mine and never heard about it until like 2 month after :p

and driver problems? I am reading it right now, don't see any but personal problem really.. :D
 
The 4870X2 whipes the floor clean with the 280 at high res and AA. You claim you have a 30in monitor, which if you do, you would have seen massive gains in switching to the 4870X2. Unless there was a user error, or you have a CPU that cant keep up.

The only games that dont support xfire are old, and would run fine on a single 4870. 99% of newer games come with xfire support, or get it with ATI's monthly updates.
 
OK so the OP asks a question about going from an nvidia card to a 4870x2.

I point out that IF (may want to look that word up in the dictionary) you run games
that don't use both gpu's then you will get just 1 4870. Really just trynig to talk about
my experience since I have actually done this.

Here are the comments I get in return.

1. !t is hinted that I'm lying about having a 30" monitor.
2. I don't know how to set up a system in order to get reasonable performance from
my hardware.
3. I play shitty games (WOW has 11 million accounts and is in the top 10 seller list almost every month.
4. I have personal problems???

I guess I shourt be grateful that the fanboi word wasn't brought out.
 
With the HD4890 selling for less than $200, I reccomend that. If one HD4890 is not fast enough you can always add a second one in Crossfire. Plus, they overclock well on average.

One HD4890 is a little faster than the 9800gx2 and doesn't have to worry about the games supporting multiple GPUs, thus more games just run better.
 
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