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NVIDIA GTX 280 or ATI 4870 X2 for me?

Xanas

Xanas

Xanas

Associate
Joined
26 Nov 2007
Posts
7
After reading reviews all over the web and on this forum, I cant make up my mind which card is right for me, due to either favouritism, personal technical issues or just petty arguing of 'this cards better because I have one!' Its a real ball-ache being on the internet some times... anyway

Why am I wanting to upgrade?
Well, while playing Crysis Warhead I noticed artifacts apearing during gameplay, quickly followed by a computer lockup. I thought maybe I was pushing my 8800GT a little too hard so I put it down to my hardware not being good enough dispite with my settings making the game smooth and playable.
But when It happened on photoshop the next day, well I believe this baby is on its way out.

Now due to many people saying that when making a graphics card choice, its down to personal choice. I will give you some info to help me out here.

Money isnt a problem. So remove that from the equasion.
As I said I am currently running an BFG 8800GT OC2 512MB
I am using an Asus P5N32-E SLI motherboard (680i chipset)
with the help of an Intel Q6600, 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Memory all powered by a 700W PSU (SLI Ready)

What am I wanting from the card?
I am running at 1920x1200 as I have a 24" screen and I dont want to run at any lower resolution unless I feel like going old skool and the game doesnt support it.
I like playing Crysis, CoD4, UT3 and plan on playing Farcry 2 when its out.

So, I hope I have all my baces covered so could someone please help me with this
btw im not planning on going nuts on either 280 SLI or X2 Crossfired. I know I said at the begining money isnt an issue but I'm not stupid. I'm a fan of sunlight and pubs as well as computer games :)
 
Xanas said:
Why am I wanting to upgrade?
Well, while playing Crysis Warhead I noticed artifacts apearing during gameplay, quickly followed by a computer lockup.
Click to expand...

That sounds a lot like your 8800GT is just overheating, due to the strain a game such as Crysis puts the card under and the **** reference cooler, have you checked the cooler fins for heavy dust deposits? Out of the upgrade options you state, well I’d pick the GTX280, as I’m not a fan of SLi or Crossfire solutions.

If i was in the market myself, i'd pick the standard 4870.
 
Xanas said:
I know I said at the begining money isnt an issue but I'm not stupid. I'm a fan of sunlight and pubs as well as computer games :)
Click to expand...

If you don't mind stability issues and possible problems with games, then grab the fastest/most powerful card there is, The X2.
SIDE NOTE: Just check this forum for ATI problems and make your own conclusion.

Otherwise GTX280 would be the wisest choice. (IMO)
 
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The 280 is the only card that will play every game with ease. I just finished playing Crysis Warhead with everything on enthusiast apart from post processing and shadows on gamer at 1920x1200. Fluid experience with no pauses or slow downs. Thats on a bog standard GTX 280 OC.

The only issue is overheating with some cards
 
mysticsniper said:
With all the issues I have had lately with Ati and the 4870. I would go for the 280, its a safer bet and can play any game with no probs. :)
Click to expand...

Agree with that. Nothing but trouble with my 4870 and X2...
Got a 280 and had no trouble since. It also runs Crysis Warhead better and it's performance has increased quite a bit since release with newer drivers.

I've been playing Warhead at the exact same settings as Asgard, the game runs great. I've got the other games you list and i play them at 2560x1600 with AA + AF on the highest settings - COD4 and UT3 both run at that res with 4xAA 16xAF, and there is not a single part in those games that will not run completely smooth at them settings.

Dont wast money on a OC version though, chances are a standard clocked 280 will OC higher than these pre-overclocked ones. I've got one to 690MHz core, and another to 730MHz core, 2.6GHz memory.
 
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MR.B said:
snip...chances are a standard clocked 280 will OC higher than these pre-overclocked ones. I've got one to 690MHz core, and another to 730MHz core, 2.6GHz memory.
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Pre-overclocked cards clock higher since they are cards specially picked aside / tested that WILL overclock. Check out the gtx 280 thrashing video by trubritar on youtube and you will see what happens if you try and push the stock 280 too far :p

btw i agree that there is no real point going for overclocked cards, or even overclocking your gpu manually as the performance increase is hardly worth the risk of your card.
 
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I wanted the fastest card on the market, so I bought a x2. Been problem free for me. Then again I have over 20 years experience with PC's.. The choice is up to you of course. Do you want the single fastest card available today? Or is second best good enough for you?

Remember this, only the tiny minority of people with problems will be the ones jumping up and down shouting about it. How interesting would a thread be where nothing but 'works fine for me' was posted page after page?
 
layte said:
I wanted the fastest card on the market, so I bought a x2. Been problem free for me. Then again I have over 20 years experience with PC's.. The choice is up to you of course. Do you want the single fastest card available today? Or is second best good enough for you?

Remember this, only the tiny minority of people with problems will be the ones jumping up and down shouting about it. How interesting would a thread be where nothing but 'works fine for me' was posted page after page?
Click to expand...

I've had no major issues in like 3 years touch wood :)
 
jonnylaris said:
Pre-overclocked cards clock higher since they are cards specially picked aside / tested that WILL overclock. Check out the gtx 280 thrashing video by trubritar on youtube and you will see what happens if you try and push the stock 280 too far :p
Click to expand...

That can happen with literally any card you OC though. I've never had a card that will not OC to atleast around the highest pre-overclocked air cooled versions, and i've had every single high end NV card since the 4xxx series, and lately also ATI 4870 and X2. All you need is some good case cooling and you can save a lot of money.
 
I game at the same res as you with the same size monitor and play the same games as you. I bought the GTX280 because I am most unlikely to get a larger monitor and I'm constantly reading on here about peoples problems with 4870x2 cards.
Certainly there are problems with some GTX280's. My first one was RMA'd because of overheating. Its replacement is running as sweet as a nut.
 
layte said:
I wanted the fastest card on the market, so I bought a x2. Been problem free for me. Then again I have over 20 years experience with PC's.. The choice is up to you of course. Do you want the single fastest card available today? Or is second best good enough for you?

Remember this, only the tiny minority of people with problems will be the ones jumping up and down shouting about it. How interesting would a thread be where nothing but 'works fine for me' was posted page after page?
Click to expand...

You imply you do not have a problem with the X2 because you have some experience with computers... so do many people on here. It's usually nothing to do with the user with the common ATI 4xxx series problem.
I'd hardly call all the postings of problems with the 4xxx series on many forums all over the net a tiny amount of people. Even ATI's own forums have many hundreds with problems with the 4xxx series. Even just looking on this forum you will see more people having problems with 4xxx series than NV's latest cards.

Look at everything i went through to try and get the 4xxx series to work.
 
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Well I had no problems, beyond having to pull a load of crap about old Nvidia drivers from the registry that the much vaunted Drivercleaner failed to remove. It manifested itself with hard locks when ever a particular function was called.

It is interesting that the people shouting the loudest in most cases had an Nvidia card in their machines before getting a 4800 card. I wonder what percentage of people recently picked up a 4800 card compared to the GTX range?

Anyway, it is obvious that the vast majority of people are having no issues, can you imagine the ****storm that would occur if these problems happened to most people as some here would have you believe. Obviously some people will have problems with bleeding edge hardware with what are basically beta drivers and BIOS, those are the risks we all take. Nvidia themselves had a world of trouble a little while ago, their drivers were responsible for almost a third of all reported Vista crashes upon release.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...t-paints-picture-of-buggy-nvidia-drivers.html - New hardware and drivers cause problems NON SHOCK! winky.gif
 
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There have been two threads on this exact topic in the past four days.

Meanwhile as a 4870X2 owner I am 90% happy with my purchase. I've had some RSODs in Crysis but everything else works fine. I think I'd rather have a more powerful monolithic GPU from Nvidia, but since they can't produce one, the X2 is where the performance lies at the moment.
 
It is personal choice mate, any advice you ask for will be based on peoples personal experiences. I think both ATI and NVIDIA are quality capable cards. Some peoples system configurations either work or don't work with specific cards. It is worth choosing either card and just going for it. You can always return it if you aren't happy with it.

My experience with the 4870x2 has been faultless. Blows away anything I play with all the max settings at 1920x1200. I'am a very fussy gamer who will turn down any settings just to get smooth frames. Now I can have eye candy AND smooth frames. TF2 looks amazing and plays silky smooth. It really has amazed me at how much power it has to offer. COD4 runs and looks stunning.

B
 
I also agree that it is a minority of people having problem with the the 4870. I have had the 4870 512MB version and now the 1GB version. No problems and I play crysis maxed out and I am happy. My cousin has the 4870 X2, and he is loving it also, and has never had any problems.

If you want the best go for X2 I say. Also if you ever go for a 30 inch monitor in the future the X2 will get much better fps compared to 280 GTX.
 
TNA said:
I also agree that it is a minority of people having problem with the the 4870. I have had the 4870 512MB version and now the 1GB version. No problems and I play crysis maxed out and I am happy. My cousin has the 4870 X2, and he is loving it also, and has never had any problems.

If you want the best go for X2 I say. Also if you ever go for a 30 inch monitor in the future the X2 will get much better fps compared to 280 GTX.
Click to expand...

Nice post clear and straight to the point.
 
TNA said:
No problems and I play crysis maxed out and I am happy.
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At what res?

I certainly couldn't play Crysis maxed out on my 4870 at 1920x1200 even running the core at 850. It still suffered from pauses when I reducing the settings.

Fact is the 280 is the only card that will play every game with consistent performance.
 
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