• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

GTX260 216, GTX280, GTX285, or 4890? gtx275?????

snowdog

snowdog

snowdog

Soldato
Joined
27 Oct 2005
Posts
13,815
Location
Netherlands
Need a new gpu, undecided how much to spend, I don't want to pay too much, but my upper budget is 300-350€. But I seriously doubt if it's worth it to spend that much and leaning towards getting a GTX260 216sp for €150 ish instead. Besides, I regret buying my card for 340 at release, it was worth half that just 6 months later :(, don't want to lose as much again.

I'm biased to Nvidia due to far preferring the nvidia CP to ati CCC and I like having hardware physx support on the gtx cards...


I game at 1920x1080, and I love AA, and in a few rare occasions where games support 2 screens like supcom, 3200x1080 ( or x1024, not sure how it works).

These games I want to run better:

GTA IV ( at 1280 res it ran great but when I got a 1920 mon my fps simply died, I mean it's smooth as in I can play with 25+ fps ( bout 35 avg) at all times, but sliders had to be turned down a lot and I was getting 40+ at all times before)
Crysis ( speaks for itself really)
Fallout 3 ( at 1280x720 atm the game runs superb with transparency AA enabled, but on 1920x1080 video ram shortage kicks in and I can't play that nicely with transparency AA any more :()
Empire total war: while it's an rts and 25+ is fine really, it's still not running that great.
Bioshock: Since upgrade to 1920 res, 8x CSAA really slows the game down in places :(.


My main issue was vram shortage since I got a 24''-er, but the card is also starting to lack in regular horsepower to run games at high... Is the 8xxmb in the gtx260 enough? Is this the best bang for buck nvidia card? How does the HD4890 compare ? What is this gtx 275, I haven't read or know much about that card ?


So ocuk, what do you recommend? GTX260 216sp ( just do it ?), used gtx280, gtx275? HD4890 ( not even considering 4870 because it's barely any better in gta iv than an 8800GT).
 
The 4890 is going to be the best value for money option, not to mention it has a full 1GB of VRAM which should compliment your higher resolution. Its pretty much on par with the GTX 275 and will overclock pretty well too.

If you can pick up a cheap second hand 280/285, they will be the best performers, but obviously aren't as good value new.
 
Last edited:
snowdog said:
What about say an eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC Edition ?
Click to expand...

The performance difference between the 260/275/280/285 is pretty minimal, especially when you add overlclocking into the mixer. The 280/285 have the upper hand on memory bandwidth due to their 512bit mem interface vs 448bit on the others which may be a factor to take note as resolution was one of your concerns.

I think if you are going nVidia, either grab a bargain GTX 260 or go full out on a 285. The 275 is just...there, for no real reason other than due to ATI's 4890 but then were under cut drastically on price.
 
or an EVGA GeForce GTX 275 896MB "SSC" ?


This card any good ?


EDIT meh nvm I'll grab the GTX260 and if needed I can always use EVGA step up within 3 months :D.
Understood, so you're saying a gtx275 is not worth the premium atm ?
 
elpedro said:
If you can't afford or refuse to pay the price for the 285, go for the 260. The extra cash for the 275 doesn't justify a few extra FPS.
Click to expand...

Cool, placing order in 10 minutes, eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC Edition.

I hope their step up program isn't an *** to use. Looks like a cracking card though, very high clocks.
 
snowdog said:
Cool, placing order in 10 minutes, eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC Edition.

I hope their step up program isn't an *** to use. Looks like a cracking card though, very high clocks.
Click to expand...

Yeh, the SSC chips are binned, so expect it to overclock further
 
elpedro said:
If your bork your card overclocking, providing you have registered the card with them, they will still cover you aslong as you have haven't physically altered the card.
Click to expand...

With EVGA? COOL :D!


They really are a good brand :).

Can't wait for friday.
 
I ran 1920x1200 resolution ( i think, it might have been 1920x1080) on a 192sp 260 and it ran every game i played maxed out. So you should be happy!
 
I got my card :D:D.

Got far cry 2 with it bundled, and for registering my card on evga, I got a free cryostasis key and 3dmark vantage key :D. Step up program looks very easy to use too and rma too. Really an improvement from grabbing the cheapest brand of the card.

gpu.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom