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4870 vs 260 maxcore

Roeg1

Roeg1

Roeg1

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Joined
2 Nov 2007
Posts
551
Question one
If we forget price, which overall is the best option..

I game at 1920x1200 and have a q6600 clocked to 3.2ghz on vista 64 running 4 gig of ram. Psu is a 620hx

I've been waiting and waiting to upgrade my beloved 8800GTX xmas holdiays are round the corner so id like something to play with over that period..

Are the 4870 still having software issues. Does the maxcore compete with the 4870 across the board now..

Question two
Which maxcore is the best option i see the point of view is priced well but the top bfg one is clocked so much ,more that it.? Are they the same apart from clocks?
 
4870 is still having more issues then 260 (mainly due to the fact far more 4870's have been sold then 260 max core :p). Both have there own issues still.

They are both around the same at stock, but rumor has it that the 260 overclocks better. Look at the prices closly before chosing, as the 4870 is cheaper then the 260 max for almost identical speeds.

Dont know which maxcore would be best, so i will leave that to others who have one ;)
 
EvilOne said:
4870 is still having more issues then 260 (mainly due to the fact far more 4870's have been sold then 260 max core :p). Both have there own issues still.

They are both around the same at stock, but rumor has it that the 260 overclocks better. Look at the prices closly before chosing, as the 4870 is cheaper then the 260 max for almost identical speeds.

Dont know which maxcore would be best, so i will leave that to others who have one ;)
Click to expand...


What issues does the 260 have ?? Not heard of any.
 
EvilOne said:
but rumor has it that the 260 overclocks better.
Click to expand...

Its no rumor, my GTX 260 (192) gives me the 3 highest GPU score on the OcUK 3D mark Vantage table, above of every single ATI card. The 216 is equally as good at overclocking but obviosly boasts extra stream processors which in real terms is around 5% performance increase over the 192 version.

Having owned both, I ran into numerious issues with the 4870 (I had a Sapphire 512MB one), since swapping to a 260, everything just works. Not to mention greater compatibility with games that require the most power. (Far Cry 2, Crysis)
 
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Hi Roeg1,

As you can predict you're probably gonna open up a can of worms from different users but i will give my impression of similar hardware that i have used.

I haven't used either the 4870 nor GTX 260 maxcore but i have used overclocked (vortex coolers fitted) and xfired 4850's and a plain vanilla 260.

From my experience i can say that the 4850 pairing was pretty good and ultimately a touch faster than the GTX.

However the GTX did IMO offer better minimum framerates, ran cooler, quieter and used less power.

I understand that many people have had no problems at all with the ATi driver suite but i did experience microstutters caused by framerates dropping into single digits.

In contrast my experience of the NV card showed no such issues and all games i've played have run smoothly and without incident.

gt
 
Roeg1 said:
So what the difference between these maxcore

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

against

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

Is it nothing more than a factory overclock ? witha bit of cherry picking for the best clocks ? Will i be able to get roughly the same clock out of the point of view one ? Or there abouts ?
Click to expand...

10 year BFG warrenty oppose to 1 year PoV and the OC speeds. Also you get Brothers In Arms with the PoV.
 
Thanks for the input GT these are the kinda answers im after.
get the 4870 it rocks nvidia sucks blah blah is a waste of a post..

I use the p35 so xfire is out of the question as id love to try it with 2 nice cheap 4850.
Im neither a nvidia or ati fanboy. Ive used both company since is started buying high end cards with my first offering a Ti4600 ultra GS which was stunning ive also had the 9800pro and a 850XT PE and loved both ati offerings.

I hear a lot of ATI driver issues which for the price difference I feel paying a little more for better software isnt an issue for me..

But maybe Ati have fixed these early issues now ?? or maybe not :(
 
Roeg1 said:
But maybe Ati have fixed these early issues now ?? or maybe not :(
Click to expand...

Its just chance, some people have bought 4870s and never had any problems, other have had loads, enough to make them send them back. I think 4870x2s are currently having more issues than the 4870s.
 
Think it just comes down to personal preference.

The experiences i've had have meant NV for the moment was best for me but others have had a great time with their ATi cards.

Probably more luck of the draw than anything.

I know some 280's had overheating issues but the 260's didn't seem to be quite as badly effected.

TBH i'm sure you'd love even the standard 260.

gt

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
EDIT: Just like elpedro says! :)
 
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.
 
Rroff said:
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.
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Main reason I returned my 4870, I was seeing FPS drops not even my old 8800GT suffered from.
 
I got the 4870 for a number of reasons.

- It was the cheaper card at the time (GTX260 was still £300 back then).
- Drivers are better and far more consistent.
- There was no MAXCORE version and the 4870 in terms of performance sits between the two varients of the GTX260.

As it stands I think the 4870 1GB is probably the best card you can get unless you want to spend the extra right up to the GTX280 or 4870X2.
 
Tute said:
I got the 4870 for a number of reasons.

- It was the cheaper card at the time (GTX260 was still £300 back then).
- Drivers are better and far more consistent.
- There was no MAXCORE version and the 4870 in terms of performance sits between the two varients of the GTX260.

As it stands I think the 4870 1GB is probably the best card you can get unless you want to spend the extra right up to the GTX280 or 4870X2.
Click to expand...

How long ago was this? I bought mine before the 216 version was released. MSI OC version for £174.99 - I now sit ontop of every single 4870 in the OcUK 3D mark Vantage table.

If I remember, the GTX 280 was being sold for around £245 at one point on OcUK before the exchange rate went crazy?

Also, if you take advantage of the massive overclocking potential of the 260 cards, you quite easily surpass the 4870 1GB in majority of cases is what I've found. As previosly stated, the 4870's OCing headroom is very minimal.
 
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