Which from these 2 cards?

Which card?

  • Cheapest 4890 with Accelero Twin Turbo

    Votes: 40 70.2%

  • MSI GTX 275 OC Twin Frozr

    Votes: 17 29.8%
  • Total voters
    57
C

Camberwell

Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Messages
961
I need to buy a new card in the next two weeks whilst I have the funds (next month we have some rennovation work on the house and there will be no spare fund for pc components for a long while!!), and it's down to these two options:

Cheapest 4890 paired with Accelero Twin Turbo (using original heatsink from card)

MSI GTX 275 OC Twin Frozr

Both options are the same price here in The Netherlands, and I will be getting a Corsair TX650 to go with the card (and I will hopefully also be getting a Q9550 soon as well).

My specs are in my sig (so 1680x1050). Since my monitor is fairly new I will not be upgrading it any time soon, so the card must last for the next 2 years (which is why I stopped looking at 4870's/GTX 260's). I play games like Dead Space, L4D, Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead, World at War, STALKER, Mass Effect etc.

I am not looking for the coolest running option necessarily, but I do want something that is reasonably quiet (I don't like the reference coolers). I am leaning towards the GTX 275 right now since the idle power consumption is better and the pc idles for more time than I game. PhysX and DirectX 10.1 don't really sway me either way right now either. Let the voting begin!
 
while i own both ati and nvid (see sig), i am partial to the ati refresh more than the nvid. the small difference in idle power draw is definitely not a deal breaker for the 4890. the games that you are playing now (for the most part) are not going to tax either of these cards at 16x10, but possibly games available in the next year or 2 will.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
while i own both ati and nvid (see sig), i am partial to the ati refresh more than the nvid. the small difference in idle power draw is definitely not a deal breaker for the 4890. the games that you are playing now (for the most part) are not going to tax either of these cards at 16x10, but possibly games available in the next year or 2 will.
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Thanks, seems like everyone is steering me towards the 4890 right now, means I don't need to mod my case to get one to fit!!
 
The votes will go to the HD 4890 but I'm pretty sure that more people will post to persuade you to go with nVidia.
 
If price is the same I'd go with whichever has the best warranty or best game bundle... Unless one of those aftermarket heatsinks performs remarkably better than the other. I don't think the GTX275 / 4890 will last you that much longer than a significantly cheaper GTX 260 / 4870 though, 'specially playing at 1680x1050 where the difference between both cards is currently non-existant (even at 1920x1200 it's quite close, usually amounting to a bit more AA with the newer versions of the cards). If money is that tight I'd re-consider those.
 
SirKronan said:
Wow. I never really noticed. On one of those I recommended two 4770's. They are superb value, and this time ATI really got the cooling and overclocking abilities right off the bat.
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I know, it's funny when you see it laid out like that! Unfortunately my mobo does not support SLI or Xf, and over the next 2 years I can see the 4770 not holding up so well as a these two cards...I know the poll is heavily leaning towards the 4890, but annoyingly (especially for me) I still have not heard one overly convincing arguement to make me pick one over the other - looks like I might have to flip a coin!!
 
With the price and performance are almost equal, I think that any of them would be fine but I would choose the HD 4890 because it has more RAM and HD 4890 is AMD's fastest single GPU right now while GTX 275 is a cut down version of nVidia's fastest GPU.
 
alg7_munif said:
With the price and performance are almost equal, I think that any of them would be fine but I would choose the HD 4890 because it has more RAM and HD 4890 is AMD's fastest single GPU right now while GTX 275 is a cut down version of nVidia's fastest GPU.
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The 4890's clock really well, too. You might get one that can pull the 1GHz "magicness."
 
Either one one will probably serve you fine.It's just your perference.Peace
 
DrDoU said:
Either one one will probably serve you fine.It's just your perference.Peace
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Haha, that's the problem, I don't have a preference!! What's the news on PhysX games due out over the next year or so, would that make much of a difference? I know that right now it doesn't, but is there anything game-wise coming up that might start to make more use of it? If not then I think I will go for the 4890, maybe an OC version (it's only 10 bucks more over here for the Sapphire 4890 OC) since it seems they are more likely to get up to the 1GHz mark....

Another question - I have read that the Twin Turbo does not cool the VRM's properly, even using the original heatsink. What would be a good heatsink to use for the VRM's, would the Swiftech MC21 mosfets work?
 
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I won't take PhysX into consideration just like I won't take DX10.1 into consideration. The last two big PhysX games are Mirror's Edge and Cryostasis. Guess what? Even PhysX fanboys stop talking about those games already. The problem with PhysX is, only a very few good games are available.
 
honestly for 1680x1050 and with your cpu I would just get a gtx260. your E4600 is about 25% slower clock for clock than newer core 2 cpus and you certainly wouldnt get all of what the gtx275 has to offer at 1680 anyway.
 
cannondale06 said:
honestly for 1680x1050 and with your cpu I would just get a gtx260. your E4600 is about 25% slower clock for clock than newer core 2 cpus and you certainly wouldnt get all of what the gtx275 has to offer at 1680 anyway.
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I mentioned in my original post that I will be upgrading to a Q9550....I realise that a 4890/GTX275 might be overkill just now, but since I need this card to last at least 2 years, I'd rather be covered for newer games coming out.

By the way, has anyone had any experience with the Scythe Musashi vga cooler? Would that fit on a 4890?
 
Camberwell said:
I mentioned in my original post that I will be upgrading to a Q9550....I realise that a 4890/GTX275 might be overkill just now, but since I need this card to last at least 2 years, I'd rather be covered for newer games coming out.
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sorry I missed that part. normally its silly to try and buy a card to last 2 years since newer faster cards with better tech for the same amount of money will come out in the meantime. if you arent positively upgrading to a 9550 then I would still get gtx260.
 
cannondale06 said:
sorry I missed that part. normally its silly to try and buy a card to last 2 years since newer faster cards with better tech for the same amount of money will come out in the meantime. if you arent positively upgrading to a 9550 then I would still get gtx260.
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Normally I wouldn't buy a card for that long a time, but as I wrote earlier, with a third baby on the way and rennovations on our house, I probably won't have the money for a newer card in the mean time so I kind of have to hedge my bets with one of these 2 cards.....and I should be (if everything goes to plan) getting a Q9550 next month.....
 
Camberwell said:
Normally I wouldn't buy a card for that long a time, but as I wrote earlier, with a third baby on the way and rennovations on our house, I probably won't have the money for a newer card in the mean time so I kind of have to hedge my bets with one of these 2 cards.....and I should be (if everything goes to plan) getting a Q9550 next month.....
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well if money is the true concern then just skip the Q9550 since its not a 100% sure thing anyway and just go with a gtx260. ;)
 
cannondale06 said:
well if money is the true concern then just skip the Q9550 since its not a 100% sure thing anyway and just go with a gtx260. ;)
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It's not that money is a problem now, but it will be by the time the next gen cards come out at the end of the year....even if I can't get a Q9550, I will still be upgrading my cpu to a quad core next month, so I should still be OK in that sense for a 4890/GTX275.
 
SirKronan said:
The 4890's clock really well, too. You might get one that can pull the 1GHz "magicness."
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The 4890 OC's particularly well compared to the 4870 which had little to no headroom, but most of NV's current GT 2xx parts also OC very very well (sure they're not hitting 1GHz GPU clocks but that's irrelevant, just an epeen number). Really, the only reasons to go for one over the other between 4890 and GTX 275 should be warranties (NV does have better resellers, tho XFX is doing ATI cards now), game bundles, and maybe the aftermarket coolers tho I haven't seen anything overly impressive on current cards. Performance and price are just that close imo...

Great time to be buying a card.

Edit: Also, size of the card, if it matters at all to you. ATI's 4xxx cards are smaller which might be relevant if you're working in a particularly small case. I'll reiterate that at 1680x1050 the GTX 260 is easily the best value though, and I really doubt the GTX 275 or 4890 will be able to play any future-gen games much more easily than a GTX 260, they're not that much faster, it's not like we're talking 4850 vs 4870 here. What you save now (a difference of $70-80) will be better spent in the future on another card imo, or elsewhere (processor, new games, whatever). If you were gaming at 1920x1200 I could see the argument for the GTX 275 or 4890 being slightly more future proof, but at 1680x1050 I really doubt it's gonna make a tangible difference even looking towards the future.

I've had ATI and NV cards myself, not biased one way or the other... I think I mentioned it before in the thread, I was actually on the brink of buying a 4870 recently because it fit better on my case but went with the GTX 260 because at the prices it was going for w/rebates and bundled game(s) it was just a better deal. I actually game at 1920x1200 myself.
 
Impulse said:
The 4890 OC's particularly well compared to the 4870 which had little to no headroom, but most of NV's current GT 2xx parts also OC very very well (sure they're not hitting 1GHz GPU clocks but that's irrelevant, just an epeen number). Really, the only reasons to go for one over the other between 4890 and GTX 275 should be warranties (NV does have better resellers, tho XFX is doing ATI cards now), game bundles, and maybe the aftermarket coolers tho I haven't seen anything overly impressive on current cards. Performance and price are just that close imo...

Great time to be buying a card.

Edit: Also, size of the card, if it matters at all to you. ATI's 4xxx cards are smaller which might be relevant if you're working in a particularly small case. I'll reiterate that at 1680x1050 the GTX 260 is easily the best value though, and I really doubt the GTX 275 or 4890 will be able to play any future-gen games much more easily than a GTX 260, they're not that much faster, it's not like we're talking 4850 vs 4870 here. What you save now (a difference of $70-80) will be better spent in the future on another card imo, or elsewhere (processor, new games, whatever). If you were gaming at 1920x1200 I could see the argument for the GTX 275 or 4890 being slightly more future proof, but at 1680x1050 I really doubt it's gonna make a tangible difference even looking towards the future.

I've had ATI and NV cards myself, not biased one way or the other... I think I mentioned it before in the thread, I was actually on the brink of buying a 4870 recently because it fit better on my case but went with the GTX 260 because at the prices it was going for w/rebates and bundled game(s) it was just a better deal. I actually game at 1920x1200 myself.
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Thanks, that's some good info. For me the price difference between the 4870/GTX260 and 4890/GTX275 is closer to under $50 (less than 40 euros), which is making the decision that bit harder. I am seriously considering falling back on my original choice (from before the 4890/GTX275 releases) which was the Sapphire 4870 1Gb Toxic edition, but I'm waiting to see if the imminent release of the 4890 Toxic will affect the prices at all....
 
IMHO you are not going to be able to tell the difference in a blind test so just get whichever one is cheaper / offers best warranty support.

Look for XFX and Visiontek in ATI camp and for BFG, XFX, EVGA in Nvidia camp.
 
I agree with most of the people here and that's why I did not vote in the poll. I think you should go for a 4870/gtx260. It just makes more sense at 1680x1050. I can see the dilemma you are in but not many ppl here would recommend a 4890/gtx275 for your resolution.
 
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