So the GTX260 is better than the 4870 now?

zod96 said:
After reading some reviews on the GTX260 216 core with the 180 series drivers it looks like its a better buy than the 4870 now. Its cheaper and faster. I hope Ati can counter with something....
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Drivers seems to be more optimized for some games. The "big bang" drivers gave a heap of problems for some as well. I'm a bit curious what they changed in their drivers in order to get the extra performance. :) Some games, like Fallout 3 didn't gain anything, while Obliian lost performance. Seems like its more increase in DX10 then DX9. Perhaps they are using some DX10.1 functionality in the new drivers? There are more optimizations then just better AA (indexable multiple cube map rendering per pass, instead of single as in DX10). That could explain something, because otherwise the older drivers just sucked bigtime and most of the games reviewed are TWIMTBP titles. Something must have been added for some games. Its good that it did, but if its DX10.1 functions, people have right to be pissed.

Catalyst 8.12 is also going to bring optimizations to games according to many beta testers leaking. Left 4 dead is one that they've spoken spesific about.

What is best of those cards, depends on what you are looking for. Performance wise, I would say that the GTX260 216 version gives most for the buck at the moment. What comes 10th of December with the new 8.12 drivers we don't know yet for sure(some we know, like ATI stream and free GPGPU video encoding program).

Personally, I've gone back and forth considering my next upgrade the last days. I've had both Nvidia and ATI cards in the past, and favors no company really. All of them just want to earn money and care less about consumers besides PR and $$$. They are in it for the money, not charity.

I'm running an LCD, which means I have 60fps as maximum. Resolution is 1920x1200 and I like eyecandy more then FPS. My two final choices were:
Gainward Rampage700 2048MB Golden Sample (4870X2)
and
EVGA GeForce GTX 280 1GB SSC
They were both within the budget I was willing to spend on a GFX this turn (I really didn't have a budget, but whatever gave me what I wanted).

I landed on the 4870X2 and ordered it yesterday.

Gainwards mothercompany is Palit and its said that the card I ordered is the same or comparable to this:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-revolution-700-deluxe-4870-x2-review/1

Why I went with this card?

Because "bang for the buck" doesn't mean the same to me as others. I'm no FPS junkie and doesn't need "highest FPS for lowest price".

The 4870X2 performs well in games which has a profile in the drivers. This means I have to wait for newer drivers before getting maximum FPS out of my card for many newer games (but not all). While waiting, the card performs like a 4870 1GB, which is sufficiant while waiting (4870x2 is actually overkill in most cases on my resolution).

For video, I favor ATI's solutions. I was suprised over the image quality difference in video of a 8600GT (which was advertised for video) and a 3870X2. Didn't expect such large difference really. I watch movies on my screen, so this matters. ATI Stream will make this even larger, especially after I buy a blueray player for my machine. I am disappointed of Nvidia's cards in this respect. ATI's free vs. Nvidia's paid video encoding doesn't make it look better for Nvidia.

The non-reference cooling on the card made things easier and can make things more quiet in 2d.

DX10.1, build in crossfire, ATI Stream, possibility of future Havok GPU support, possibility of enabling ATI Sideport etc. makes the ATI card interesting for someone like me who likes new tech. I also like that I can uninstall CCC and use ATT instead if I want.

CUDA and PhysX makes the Nvidia card interesting.

Both cards would give me the FPS and eyecandy for the games I play (including the 4870 in single GPU mode).

Drivers will be up and down on both ATI and Nvidia. The "big bang" driver problems doesnt worry me much if I were to choose Nvidia.

If I were to choose between 4870 and the GTX260 216, I would still choose ATI based upon the above. At least on todays offering.

So, in my opinion based upon the above and my own recent choice to prove the sincerity about it, the 4870 is still better then the GTX260 provided that you are not looking at FPS alone. :)
 
With overclocking factored in, the GTX260 Always killed the 4870. The 4870 has very little OC room, and the GTX260 overclocks like a monster.
 
BM00 said:
I'm not the only person who thinks ATi image quality is better, far from it. Most people in fact give the nod to IQ always being as good _or_ better than Nvidia. The colors and textures/text are much more brilliant and crisp, it's very apparent to me. No amount of digital vibrance setting / tweaks, etc in the nv control panel could bridge the gap. I guess I'm just a little more sensitive to image quality.

BOTH cards (4870 / gtx260) are great cards and one could never go wrong if the choice is simply between them.
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100% right. Most only go by reading some REVIEW and though it gives us an IDEA of what we might expect its not going to be that way on YOUR computer. Everyones computer is different. The 4870 1g does WAY better with AA than Nvidia 280. And you CAN tell the difference in image quality. ATI just does it better. I have both 48701g and gtx280. FPS sure 280 but image goes to ATI. And with a really good PC (me haha) I am hard pressed to tell whats fastest. So unless you have both sorry you really dont know..
 
Agreed...I kinda noticed as well when I paired up my 3850 AGP along with my 9600GSO. Although the 9600GSO killed it in games as FPS. But the 3850 even though its agp..flew past the scenery in my games with good image quality. But really what I have learnt is that....its not about which brand and company to favour...its about which graphics or cpu solution delievering the best performance...the saying "best bang for your buck". Its worth a thought.
 
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