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BFG GTX260 MaxCORE v Radeon HD4870
- Thread starter [TW]Fox
- Start date
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
On the BFG 260-216:
I tried both a 4870 and the BFG 260-216 MAXCORE OC as stated above and from my experience...
The 4870 is undoubtedly the faster card overall.
The 260 had much better minimum framerates in many games and overall had much more stable framerates.
I've had absolutely NO issues with the nVidia drivers and the 260 infact I've been suprised just how flawless my experience in this area was.
The ATI drivers gave me quite a few issues and several times stopped responding.
The 4870 was noisey and ran a lot warmer than the 260 (tho its only average heat wise compared to recent GPUs) obviously this will depend on what cooler is on the card.
260 Steps down nicely in idle mode using a lot less power consequently running cooler and quieter.
One of the issues for me tho - I play at 4x FSAA and don't feel I need any more - but I'm quite picky about my FSAA - with the ATI at 4x I'd notice a lot of edges that looked like they only had 2x applied. While a slightly different issue transparent surfaces also had some issues with aliasing on the ATI card and I wouldn't be suprised if quite a bit of the performance gain over the nVidia is due to lower filtering quality in some areas (selective opptomisation?).
From benchmarking my card and comparing to peoples results as posted online with the older 260-192 tho not very scientific showed that the 260-216 isn't really that much faster than the old card - in many cases only 0.5-1fps overall.
What really decides if the 260-216 is worth it imo is how well an individual card overclocks - a good overclocking card can regain the performance crown.
I tried both a 4870 and the BFG 260-216 MAXCORE OC as stated above and from my experience...
The 4870 is undoubtedly the faster card overall.
The 260 had much better minimum framerates in many games and overall had much more stable framerates.
I've had absolutely NO issues with the nVidia drivers and the 260 infact I've been suprised just how flawless my experience in this area was.
The ATI drivers gave me quite a few issues and several times stopped responding.
The 4870 was noisey and ran a lot warmer than the 260 (tho its only average heat wise compared to recent GPUs) obviously this will depend on what cooler is on the card.
260 Steps down nicely in idle mode using a lot less power consequently running cooler and quieter.
One of the issues for me tho - I play at 4x FSAA and don't feel I need any more - but I'm quite picky about my FSAA - with the ATI at 4x I'd notice a lot of edges that looked like they only had 2x applied. While a slightly different issue transparent surfaces also had some issues with aliasing on the ATI card and I wouldn't be suprised if quite a bit of the performance gain over the nVidia is due to lower filtering quality in some areas (selective opptomisation?).
From benchmarking my card and comparing to peoples results as posted online with the older 260-192 tho not very scientific showed that the 260-216 isn't really that much faster than the old card - in many cases only 0.5-1fps overall.
What really decides if the 260-216 is worth it imo is how well an individual card overclocks - a good overclocking card can regain the performance crown.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 May 2006
- Posts
- 5,786
Taking price out of the arguement I think either card is a great choice and really depends on what games you are playing (e.g. Crysis likes nvidia, GRID/COD4 like ATi), what sort of quality settings (ATi is better at AA now), the size of your case (nVidia has a longer card), your case cooling (I think the ATi cards run hotter, not sure), etc.
Also, from benchmarks and user reviews, I get the impression that nVidia cards have more consistent performance where as ATi performance can fluctuate; some games have very impressive performance, where as others (especially the more obscure titles) can be awful at times, requiring driver fixes.
The fan speed management on the ATi cards are also pretty poor, but personally I don't think it's a major problem because the cards are probably just designed to run hot. As far as I know, nvidia are better in this area.
Drivers are a mixed bag, opinions vary greatly here. Generally I think most people would say that nvidia drivers are better designed, but ATi release drivers more often and consistently.
Plus theres other stuff like nvidia having hardware physx acceleration and ATi having onboard HDMI audio.
So it depends on what you need really, but either way, you'll get a brilliant card.
Also, from benchmarks and user reviews, I get the impression that nVidia cards have more consistent performance where as ATi performance can fluctuate; some games have very impressive performance, where as others (especially the more obscure titles) can be awful at times, requiring driver fixes.
The fan speed management on the ATi cards are also pretty poor, but personally I don't think it's a major problem because the cards are probably just designed to run hot. As far as I know, nvidia are better in this area.
Drivers are a mixed bag, opinions vary greatly here. Generally I think most people would say that nvidia drivers are better designed, but ATi release drivers more often and consistently.
Plus theres other stuff like nvidia having hardware physx acceleration and ATi having onboard HDMI audio.
So it depends on what you need really, but either way, you'll get a brilliant card.
Excellent - hugely useful, just what I was after.
You didnt say which card would be your choice - which one do you run in your main machine or would you?
tbh its not an easy decision - I stuck with the 260 as it gave me absolutely no problems - but theres no denying the 4870 is faster.
One thing I didn't mention - the reason I was even looking for another card (as I already have an 8800GT SLI setup) was I wanted more VRAM and the cheapest 260-192 is quite a bit cheaper than the cheapest 1gig 4870.
One thing I didn't mention - the reason I was even looking for another card (as I already have an 8800GT SLI setup) was I wanted more VRAM and the cheapest 260-192 is quite a bit cheaper than the cheapest 1gig 4870.
[TW]Fox;12656216 said:They are down as low as $269.99 in the States - hopefully UK retailers will be able to follow suit in the future
After rebate for the OC version I'm guessing. Remember that after rebate prices never seem to get translated onto the UK market. The MSRP for the maxcore version is $329 while for the hd 4870 this is $299. Add VAT onto that difference and I would expect the difference to always be in the region of £20-30.
HAVING a schedule is the real joke, leads to fixes being released for no reason and also before they are ready.
If you say so.
If the drivers are released on the dot at a certain time each month then they have to release what they've got surely.
Who said that? Sometimes catalyst updates have minor bug fixes. Who said they all must be performance improving drivers.
maybe thats the problem...
You know they have a 28-31 day window to release it right?
It's not the same day every month.