4870 vs 260 maxcore

elpedro · 6 Nov 2008 at 17:41

Tute said:
Well given the initial uptake of the 4870, it's hardly surprising there are going to be problems. Also I think a lot of people (no names) bought the 4870 but haven't set it up properly, then as soon as problems start they put up a thread bashing the card without trying to solve the issues.

Explain to me why I should spend near £200 on some hardware that has issues, requires me to locate and research the problem and look for a possible solution?

If I invest that amount of money into something I damn well expect it to work. I tried for a week with the 4870, including a fresh install of Vista. Anyway, I'm by no means the only person to send their 4870 back and go with NV.

Sorry what? Haven't set it up properly? Wait, I removed my ATI drivers, removed the 4870, placed the GTX 260 in, installed latest drivers and away I went. Should I have done something more when I had the 4870, some sort of graphic card MOT?

Rroff · 6 Nov 2008 at 17:44

Everyones hardware setups differs and its impossible to write drivers that cater precisely for the diverse range of hardware configurations out there - nVidia or ATI your going to have problems at some point... but I firmly believe that the potential for an issue to exist is significantly higher with ATI than nVidia at the current time with the 4000 and 200 series cards.

Tute · 6 Nov 2008 at 17:48

elpedro said:
Explain to me why I should spend near £200 on some hardware that has issues, requires me to locate and research the problem and look for a possible solution?

If I invest that amount of money into something I damn well expect it to work. I tried for a week with the 4870, including a fresh install of Vista. Anyway, I'm by no means the only person to send their 4870 back and go with NV.

Sorry what? Haven't set it up properly? Wait, I removed my ATI drivers, removed the 4870, placed the GTX 260 in, installed latest drivers and away I went. Should I have done something more when I had the 4870, some sort of graphic card MOT?

I wasn't actually referring to you.

elpedro · 6 Nov 2008 at 17:53

Tute said:
I wasn't actually referring to you.

Good - however this was the reply I got from many 4870 owners who could not say anything negative about their card, therefore would say stuff about me.

F4LL3N W4RR10R · 6 Nov 2008 at 18:24

The XFX Black Edition GTX260 seems to be very good. Can only find one website selling it though.

The reviews ive read have been very good though.

Alpherah · 6 Nov 2008 at 19:56

neither me or my friend managed to get his 260 to work properly on his x38 board, tried for 2 weeks .. sent it back, got 2 4850's and installed first time, no problems.

I would say theres -equal- ammount of problems for both manufacturers ... just buy whatever is the best / best value to performance ratio .. the chances of getting a problem card is there no matter who you go with.

TheMagic1an · 6 Nov 2008 at 20:16

Alpherah said:
neither me or my friend managed to get his 260 to work properly on his x38 board, tried for 2 weeks .. sent it back, got 2 4850's and installed first time, no problems.

What x38 board was it?...I got my EVGA GTX 260 216 today and it's been working fine on my Asus maximus formula.

twitch · 6 Nov 2008 at 20:29

Well...

I have the 4870... but want to try the 260..

It's not that I am unhappy with it...
My first ATI card and ..

Just ....

Well you know... lol
Just don't know if it will work with me Shuttle (version 1)

Anyone want me 4870 only like a few months old..

£120 and it yours (if I can get the 260 to fit)

MR.B · 6 Nov 2008 at 20:48

I've owned both, and made a thread on here before about the cards. Basically the 260 (192) overlocked to 720MHz core and performed generally better than a OC'ed 512MB 4870 (820MHz core) in game benchmarks i ran (highest stable OC's i could get from both).

All the ATI fanboy kiddies flamed me, but it is faster if you OC it. And they do generally OC very well. Also i agree with others, NV drivers are just better and performance is more consistent.

Also with the 180.43 drivers performance has gone up in everything on my 280. I'd expect the same with 260.

MR.B · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:00

Tute said:
Does the driver release schedule not bother you at all? The fact that you can go for months without an official update?

I've found NV BETA drivers to often be as good as ATI final drivers, and with each ATI release they often break as much as they fix... i dont think releasing drivers each month is a good thing either, it's obviously not enough time to get them polished enough.

The method that AMD uses to maintain and test their drivers necessitates eliminating some games from testing for extended periods of time. This can sometimes result in games that used to work well with AMD hardware or scale well with CrossFire to stop performing up to par or to stop scaling as well as they should.

so the fact NV dont release WHQL drivers as often does not bother me. I'm always downloading BETA's and not had any trouble. The latest 183.43 BETA's are great, improvements all round.

Tute · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:11

If the Betas are so great, how come so few make it to official?

Final8y · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:12

MR.B said:
I've found NV BETA drivers to often be as good as ATI final drivers, and with each ATI release they often break as much as they fix... i dont think releasing drivers each month is a good thing either, it's obviously not enough time to get them polished enough.

The method that AMD uses to maintain and test their drivers necessitates eliminating some games from testing for extended periods of time. This can sometimes result in games that used to work well with AMD hardware or scale well with CrossFire to stop performing up to par or to stop scaling as well as they should.

so the fact NV dont release WHQL drivers as often does not bother me. I'm always downloading BETA's and not had any trouble. The latest 183.43 BETA's are great, improvements all round.

Seeing as i have been using ATI crossfire allot longer & more than you i would say your claims about ATI are wrong.

gt_junkie · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:21

I said it once so i might as well quote it again!

gt_junkie said:
As you can predict you're probably gonna open up a can of worms

gt

Rroff · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:25

Tute said:
If the Betas are so great, how come so few make it to official?

I think you answered your own question

Tute · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:29

Rroff said:
I think you answered your own question

Well not really.

The cynical half of me could claim that nVidia prefer to just do beta driver after beta driver so that if there are problems, they can simply claim that you're using an "unfinished" product, and avoid criticism that way.

But i'm sure that's not the case.

TNA · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:39

I have had the 4870 512mb since it come out and 1gb for about 3-4 weeks and not had any problems. Only problem I have had seem to be on all cards from what I can see. Fallout 3 does a slight stutter now and then when walking outside, but noting that ruins the gameplay. Not ATI only problem and apparently oblivion had the same problem (fallout 3 runs on oblivion engine) so I cant complain.

I was just about to say go for 4870, as it has best price for performance, but after seeing this offer for the maxcore, I can honestly say it maybe worth going for maxcore.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Up to you really, either card is good and will make you happy. Just don't believe that crap about ATI having crap drivers, untrue. I have not had any problems what so ever. I set my fan to 33% and idle between 37-43c. Right now my room is quite hot so its at 43C, now that its winter usually its under 40C

elpedro · 6 Nov 2008 at 21:55

MR.B said:
I've owned both, and made a thread on here before about the cards. Basically the 260 (192) overlocked to 720MHz core and performed generally better than a OC'ed 512MB 4870 (820MHz core) in game benchmarks i ran (highest stable OC's i could get from both).

All the ATI fanboy kiddies flamed me, but it is faster if you OC it. And they do generally OC very well. Also i agree with others, NV drivers are just better and performance is more consistent.

Also with the 180.43 drivers performance has gone up in everything on my 280. I'd expect the same with 260.

Totally agree with you there, not to mention the memory OCs nicely to 1250+

Here's my 24/7 clock settings. Check out the bandwidth

Troop · 6 Nov 2008 at 22:13

Just go with what you fancy, their both stonking cards, I've used ATI and Nvidia, only
problem I've ever had was with the CCC control panel, just use something else.

19k with the 260 in 3dmark06 on a core2 is blindingly fast though , and thats with old drivers Not the 180's

Buy either and just be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

willhub · 6 Nov 2008 at 22:14

Rroff said:
There was a run of 200 series cards that had poorly fitted cooing - but that should be flushed from the supply by now.

Other than that I'd say the 260GTX is probably the best card to come out of nVidia (it would be the 280GTX but they are far to expensive for what they are). Minimal issues, 2x6 pin power so you don't need to mess around with 8 pin adapters, very cool, quiet and stable running and solid performance.

The 4870 if probably the better bang for your bucks tho the gap price wise is closing - however you have a considerably higher chance of running into issues with the 4870 and while it puts up some very impressive benchmark figures - its not as smooth and consistant overall performance wise for gaming as the 260/280.

Also once you take overclocking into account the performance difference between the cards probably changes quite a bit as from what I see the average overclocking potential on stock air cooling for the 4870 is around 10-12% compared to a good 25% for the 260GTX maxcore.

Cant really say that 2x6pin connectors is an advantage over the 4870 tbh.

Rroff · 6 Nov 2008 at 22:16

I was thinking more in comparison to the 280GTX in that regard.