Why would ANYONE get a 260/280 over 4750/80/4780x2's?

Because I played AoC and could utilize BFG's trade-up program. Why the stupid question?
 
For me I had a step up oppertunity with my older evga 8800gts 512. I only wish I could of gotten the new lower price point.
 
Because you own an SLI board
Because you like NV AIB's better
Because you like the games NV's cards do better in
Because you want to avoid a dual GPU setup program.
Because they're cheaper (right now, the price war has begun :) )
Because you want the extra texture horsepower.
Because you want immediate CUDA (PhysX) support.
 
Two I think compelling reasons and none of them having anything to do with being a fanboy!:p

1) You have an SLI motherboard and want multiple GPU's. My particular model happen to cost $440 back in April and is still is close to that price. This is a remarkable MB in my opinion. I wasn't going to chuck guts this good to save a few bucks.

2) You want the best possible performance across the board possible in all games and you're not concerned too much about price. No single card can do it from AMD or nVidia. So you're looking at CrossFire or SLI. They are both decent solutions for the most part. I have found 3x SLI to crush all games. even Crysis very high @ 4xAA. It's pretty much silky smooth.

It's possible that 4870x2 CF at $1000 the will become the fastest PC gaming solution at less cost than 3x SLI GTX 280 next month. We shall see.
 
heatlesssun said:
Two I think compelling reasons and none of them having anything to do with being a fanboy!:p

1) You have an SLI motherboard and want multiple GPU's. My particular model happen to cost $440 back in April and is still is close to that price. This is a remarkable MB in my opinion. I wasn't going to chuck guts this good to save a few bucks.

2) You want the best possible performance across the board possible in all games and you're not concerned too much about price. No single card can do it from AMD or nVidia. So you're looking at CrossFire or SLI. They are both decent solutions for the most part. I have found 3x SLI to crush all games. even Crysis very high @ 4xAA. It's pretty much silky smooth.

It's possible that 4870x2 CF at $1000 the will become the fastest PC gaming solution at less cost than 3x SLI GTX 280 next month. We shall see.
Click to expand...

Remarkable motherboard? Idk http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...tedRating=1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False
 
Not a flame thread.

I guess if people must have a dual-card setup, and they're on a chipset that only allows SLI, the 260/280 would be the way to go. Haven't thought of it that way.
 
myndcrime said:
Remarkable motherboard? Idk http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...tedRating=1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False
Click to expand...

And you don't think i saw these type of comments BEFORE I bought the motherboard?:confused:

Here's what the professional reviews said:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_strikerii_extreme/
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3283

I've had the S2E since mid April. Do you think I'd put $1500 worth of GPU's in it unless the thing was a rock, at least for me?:confused:
 
$271 vs $319 (MSI GTX260 vs Visiontek 4870).
Runs cooler, uses less power.

I had the Visiontek in stock and in my cart at Newegg when I saw the MSI GTX260 on sale.

Doesn't matter to me, I never keep my rigs more than 6 months.
 
MassiveOverkill said:
$271 vs $319 (MSI GTX260 vs Visiontek 4870).
Runs cooler, uses less power.

I had the Visiontek in stock and in my cart at Newegg when I saw the MSI GTX260 on sale.

Doesn't matter to me, I never keep my rigs more than 6 months.
Click to expand...

QFT. That's the name of the game. This is computer technology. Here today worthless tomorrow. If you don't accept that then you'll always be agonizing over this crap. Make a budget and by what you can afford. That's the only way to have fun with this stuff!:D
 
MrWizard6600 said:
Because you own an SLI board
Because you like the games NV's cards do better in
Because they're cheaper (right now, the price war has begun :) )
Because you want the extra texture horsepower.
Because you want immediate CUDA (PhysX) support.
Click to expand...

Werd
 
Because the 260 does better then the 4870 in some games. Also because right now it is priced less the then 4870.
 
cybereality said:
Because Its The Way its Meant To Be Played!
Click to expand...

yes.

I have purchased two cards in my life time, the 6800GT, which I bought because my friends told me nvidia was better, and an x1950pro, because at the time it was better than its competition, and it had more features (the reason people give when they tell you to buy a 4850 or 70). My 6800GT never gave me a single problem, not one, and I overclocked it, I volt modded it, I did some crazy stupid shit like set the bare pcb onto a rug, ESD directly on top of the GPU, and rip it out of the pciE socket 4 times while it was running (forgot the pci screw) and it never gave me a problem. My x1950pro was nothing but problems, and to top that off, sapphire support forums left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I don't care that NV doesn't have a unified driver, I don't care that NV doesn't do DX10.1 if only one game that I will never play supports it, I don't care that I need an NV board to do SLi (because I have an NV board, but more importantly, cant afford two cards), and I don't care if its only 3-5% slower on average, nvidia has demonstrated to me that it is willing to sell me a quality video card, at the right price, and through their AIBs are willing to back the quality of the cards, usually for life. ATi seems to be a little more hit and miss on the quality department, although it has gotten better.

Simply put, I have more faith in nvidia to sell me a quality video card that will work when I plug it in, and when it doesn't, I will be able to get it rectified, I don't have the same level of confidence in ATi and its AIBS to do the same.

I also like the fact that Nvidia in recent years has done more to expand gaming development, and the field of GPUs in general than ATi, but I guess that comes with success and money that a 65% marketshare commands, I like the fact that they continue to take risks and push the limits of technology, ATi can't take those kinds of risks because of what they mite do to their bottom line if they don't pan out.

Its not just about who produces the fastest card to me.
 
4750 and 4780 eh? Did ATi come out with some low-end cards I'm not aware of? :p

Simpson5774 said:
I did some crazy stupid shit like set the bare pcb onto a rug, ESD directly on top of the GPU, and rip it out of the pciE socket 4 times while it was running (forgot the pci screw) and it never gave me a problem.
Click to expand...

Good lord, what did that video card ever do to you? :eek:

Simpson5774 said:
I also like the fact that Nvidia in recent years has done more to expand gaming development, and the field of GPUs in general than ATi, but I guess that comes with success and money that a 65% marketshare commands, I like the fact that they continue to take risks and push the limits of technology, ATi can't take those kinds of risks because of what they mite do to their bottom line if they don't pan out.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you've been reading Nvidia's PR a bit too much ;) I don't think either company is more innovative than the other. They both have a varied record of pushing new technology, and at other times almost refusing new tech.

ATi had Truform, first DX9 card, first 256-bit memory bus, first card made at 55nm, they are the first to use GDDR5 now, first to support DX10.1...just to name a few. On the other hand they didn't support SM3.0 in their x800/x850 line (Nvidia's cards did), which really killed the longevity of those cards
 
MassiveOverkill said:
$271 vs $319 (MSI GTX260 vs Visiontek 4870).
Click to expand...
$319 for the Visiontek 4870???????
It's been selling for $309 on the release day!
Today it goes for $299 shipped with no rebates, unlike the MSI GTX260. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance
BTW I will be really surprised if ATI doesn't try to undercut Nvidia again in the coming week.

If you wanna argue prices at least try to get your numbers straight, fanboy...
 
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What is so extraordinarily interesting about these types of threads is that AMD/ATI folks toss aside nVidia's consistency over the years. I'm not trying to be a fanboy but a little realistic. This is AMD/ATI best release since the 9700. I bought a 9800XT in 2003. Great card at the time. And they are selling very cheap. Why? Because they are not consistent. They need market share.

Now nVidia has suffered pretty serious set backs this week and we saw the result on the stock price. They HAD to cut prices on the GTX 260/280, they didn't have a choice. They got fat and lazy.

And after all of that nVidia and AMD are right now at almost complete parity. Yeah, someone's got this link and someone's got that link but if you get past the week that AMD was totally dominant in performance vs. price, we are at near state of near equilibrium.

The remainder of this year is going to be fascinating to say the least. We all know about the 4870x2 and the rumored price of $500. So does nVidia. If the performance of the 4870x2 is 80% higher than the 4870, nVidia will be forced to cut prices again. What's after that is pretty much a mystery.
 
Simpson5774 said:
I also like the fact that Nvidia in recent years has done more to expand gaming development, and the field of GPUs in general than ATi, but I guess that comes with success and money that a 65% marketshare commands, I like the fact that they continue to take risks and push the limits of technology, ATi can't take those kinds of risks because of what they mite do to their bottom line if they don't pan out.
Click to expand...
It's quite the opposite.
Nvidia was the one milking its designs for years in absence of competition from restructuring ATI.
And now that ATI is finally back, we start seeing some real advancement in the GPU technology in the form of the 55 nm process, GDDR5, multi-GPU architecture.

ativsnvidia.jpg
 
yes, I personally go with nvidia over ATI. I think nvidia usually has better gaming support. Also, I like nVidia driver over ATI. I hate ATI use .net framework to run the Catalyst control center. I hate those M$ only product.
 
Simpson5774 said:
yes.

I have purchased two cards in my life time, the 6800GT, which I bought because my friends told me nvidia was better, and an x1950pro, because at the time it was better than its competition, and it had more features (the reason people give when they tell you to buy a 4850 or 70). My 6800GT never gave me a single problem, not one, and I overclocked it, I volt modded it, I did some crazy stupid shit like set the bare pcb onto a rug, ESD directly on top of the GPU, and rip it out of the pciE socket 4 times while it was running (forgot the pci screw) and it never gave me a problem. My x1950pro was nothing but problems, and to top that off, sapphire support forums left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I don't care that NV doesn't have a unified driver, I don't care that NV doesn't do DX10.1 if only one game that I will never play supports it, I don't care that I need an NV board to do SLi (because I have an NV board, but more importantly, cant afford two cards), and I don't care if its only 3-5% slower on average, nvidia has demonstrated to me that it is willing to sell me a quality video card, at the right price, and through their AIBs are willing to back the quality of the cards, usually for life. ATi seems to be a little more hit and miss on the quality department, although it has gotten better.

Simply put, I have more faith in nvidia to sell me a quality video card that will work when I plug it in, and when it doesn't, I will be able to get it rectified, I don't have the same level of confidence in ATi and its AIBS to do the same.

I also like the fact that Nvidia in recent years has done more to expand gaming development, and the field of GPUs in general than ATi, but I guess that comes with success and money that a 65% marketshare commands, I like the fact that they continue to take risks and push the limits of technology, ATi can't take those kinds of risks because of what they mite do to their bottom line if they don't pan out.

Its not just about who produces the fastest card to me.
Click to expand...

umm.... okay then
 
i think the main reason anyone would get a 260/280 right now is brand favoritism or simply being misinformed. i see a lot of people comparing the gtx 260 ($222) with the 4870 ($300) but the fact is the 4850 ($150) competes with the gtx 260 while the 4870 competes with the gtx280 ($392) and as you can see not only is the price different staggering but the technology is as well

i do think OP seemed like a flamebait post and ive mostly been with nvidia but i cant deny what a good job ati is doing right now. advancements and innovations are above all else in my book.

edit: and who knows maybe im missing something or there are some other niche reasons for getting them like below but this is the way i see it right now.
 
I got the 280 because I wanted 1 gig of vram to crank texture resolutions at 1900 x 1200 with as much AA and AF that I can have. No matter how fast the 4850 and 4870 are the 512 of vram will be a limit.

Now the 4870x2 might fix that, but then you have to deal with a dual gpu solution and the 3 times I have tried it (8800 gtx SLI , 1900 series crossfire, and the 9800x2) gave me nothing but grief and compatability issues. I want the fastest SINGLE GPU out.
 
unleashed said:
It's quite the opposite.
Nvidia was the one milking its designs for years in absence of competition from restructuring ATI.
And now that ATI is finally back, we start seeing some real advancement in the GPU technology in the form of the 55 nm process, GDDR5, multi-GPU architecture.

ativsnvidia.jpg
Click to expand...
Well Im sick of the ATI bs saying the 4800 series dont suck down power because they do. The 4870 and GTX 260 are neck and neck and most reviews have the 4870 using about the same or MORE power so lets call that debunked please. Also the the jacked fan profiles have the cards running too hot IMO. Now with the price drops that slide is baseless.
 
The only reason I wanted mine was due to the massive encoding, transcoding, and decoding that the HD4000 series is capable of. NVIDIA's cards just don't have that capability yet, even with the GTX200 series. This is for video editing/playback though. In terms of gaming, they only lose to the GTX 200's, but their price is very good for what they are capable of.

Oh, and folding is done very nicely on them. Much faster than any x86/x64 CPU (obviously). ;)

EDIT: As cannondale06 said, they do run too hot while idle. It's not too bad while gaming, but for idle temps, 180 F is waaaay too hot.
 
Simpson5774 said:
yes.

I have purchased two cards in my life time, the 6800GT, which I bought because my friends told me nvidia was better, and an x1950pro, because at the time it was better than its competition, and it had more features (the reason people give when they tell you to buy a 4850 or 70). My 6800GT never gave me a single problem, not one, and I overclocked it, I volt modded it, I did some crazy stupid shit like set the bare pcb onto a rug, ESD directly on top of the GPU, and rip it out of the pciE socket 4 times while it was running (forgot the pci screw) and it never gave me a problem. My x1950pro was nothing but problems, and to top that off, sapphire support forums left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I don't care that NV doesn't have a unified driver, I don't care that NV doesn't do DX10.1 if only one game that I will never play supports it, I don't care that I need an NV board to do SLi (because I have an NV board, but more importantly, cant afford two cards), and I don't care if its only 3-5% slower on average, nvidia has demonstrated to me that it is willing to sell me a quality video card, at the right price, and through their AIBs are willing to back the quality of the cards, usually for life. ATi seems to be a little more hit and miss on the quality department, although it has gotten better.

Simply put, I have more faith in nvidia to sell me a quality video card that will work when I plug it in, and when it doesn't, I will be able to get it rectified, I don't have the same level of confidence in ATi and its AIBS to do the same.

I also like the fact that Nvidia in recent years has done more to expand gaming development, and the field of GPUs in general than ATi, but I guess that comes with success and money that a 65% marketshare commands, I like the fact that they continue to take risks and push the limits of technology, ATi can't take those kinds of risks because of what they mite do to their bottom line if they don't pan out.

Its not just about who produces the fastest card to me.
Click to expand...



nvidia has unified driver isn't it?
 
travbrad said:
On the other hand they didn't support SM3.0 in their x800/x850 line (Nvidia's cards did), which really killed the longevity of those cards
Click to expand...
I still have a bad taste in my mouth over this one. Had to replace a perfectly good x800xt due to some newer games that required SM3.0 in my brothers computer (although EA games gets 1/2 the blame for not supporting SM2.0!!)

As much as I try to be an ATI/AMD fanboi, I am not a fan of Catalyst Control Center, but price/performance still wins for me. I'm very happy with my 9800gtx that I just picked up for $160, but that's all thanks to the HD4850 pricing. Of course, when all games require DX10.1, I'll be upgrading again. ;)

I also preferred the dual slot cooler and the CUDA support on the nVidia card.
 
Ulrick28 said:
I got the 280 because I wanted 1 gig of vram to crank texture resolutions at 1900 x 1200 with as much AA and AF that I can have. No matter how fast the 4850 and 4870 are the 512 of vram will be a limit.

Now the 4870x2 might fix that, but then you have to deal with a dual gpu solution and the 3 times I have tried it (8800 gtx SLI , 1900 series crossfire, and the 9800x2) gave me nothing but grief and compatability issues. I want the fastest SINGLE GPU out.
Click to expand...

There will be a 1gb version of 4870 with higher clocks out in a few weeks.
 
ati is like the mac, pretty,
and nvidia is like... the pc.
imo

if the x2 is, faster than the 280 then maybe i get the ati card.
 
Many of us have SLI boards. ATI sucked balls for about two years before so many of us went with nVidia.

Now good for them ATI has the upper hand at the moment, but they're paying the price in sales for sucking so long and losing so many customers. Am I gonna throw away a rock stable 790i with WC blocks just to get a 4870?

No, I'll wait until the 260 or 280 lowers in price, get a pair of em'. Next time I change mobo and CPU I'll see if AMD is still in the game and consider switching.

AMD's fault for losing me as a customer. Should have been on top of their game before. If I had an Intel board I'd buy the 4870.

Edit: Btw I know you're gonna tell me Intel boards are also very stable, but I've hard as many horror stories about the Commander or Striker series. Plus most enthusiasts went SLI with the 8800GTX.
 
Boy there is a lot of hate going on here...

I have owned nVidia cards ever since I started building my own computers. I have yet to have issues with them. But this time around I decided to go with ATi. The 4870 intrigued me for some reason. While I may have to mess with some settings/files to adjust the fan speed, I am not too worried because I know that when the new catalyst drivers are released the problem will be taken care of. I think if I had held out a few days the decision would have been a bit tougher between the 260 and the 4870. I am not too worried, anything beats the 6600 GT that I am running on my current rig ;)
 
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