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ATI vs NVidia Help

m4cc45

m4cc45

m4cc45

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2003
Posts
6,902
Hi,

Basically at the moment I have an 8800GTS 640MB - which has served me well for over a year now. As I have recenlty upgrade my screen the native resolution is now 1920 x 1080.

Now when moving my games up to that res (GTA4 / Tomb Raider Underworld) it runs okay - but occasional slowdowns.

So now I want a new graphics card. Santa has okayed it so just wondering what to get. Traditionally I've been with nvidia mainly because of the awful drivers on ATI after reading several posts they now seem okay.

The thing is the Saphire 4870 1024MB looks superb. I can't see any nvidia card equivalent though.

After all this rambling is the 4870 a good card to get for that res or should I be looking at alternatives?

Thanks,


M.
 
the 512mb card is very close to it, theres very very few games that need the 1gb, and I expect GTA to eventually move off that list, its woefully unoptimised rather than needs the texturespace. Quite a few people using the thing to trick the card into thinking they have 1gb have seen an improvement, we're all assuming it needs 1gig because their counter says so, what it its simply BS ;)

But realistically, your option(in that price bracket) is 2x4850 512's in crossfire, a little more for 1gb versions, a 4870 512/1gb, or a Nvidia 260 216sp version. Honestly you won't see a whole huge amount of difference between the 4870/260 in most games, both are good cards but AFAIK the 4870 is cheaper so makes it better value and has more memory for the future. 2x 4850's in crossfire would cost a little more but in most games it would be very very good performance, except the few that need the memory.

Hell, even a single 4850 will handle most games at that res pretty damn well, just maybe a little less AA levels than a 4870 can stretch to.


Really I wouldn't look along lines of which company, just how much you want to spend. A 4850 isn't a bad card at all and if the saved money is going to be helpful, all good. If you've got £250 choose want you really want.
 
Don't think I've seen less than 100% satisfaction from anyone after buying the 216 / 260 card. If I hadn't my bought my radeon then that's what I would have gone for. Without doubt.
 
magicroundabout said:
-1 for the 260.

maybe a shade faster but £60 dearer. Save the money and buy 2 games to use on the 4870
Click to expand...

Where is it £60 dearer ? The 1gb 4870 and the 260 216 sit roughly around the same price, the 260 is about £6 more as Loadsamoney stated, and for £6 its DEFINATELY worth it.
 
Latest review with the latest drivers from both company's show that the gtx260 216 and 4870 1gb are equal in pretty much every way swapping blows in different games. The 4870 has more memory and the 260 overclocks better so which ever one you pick up you won't go wrong. Personally i would just get the cheapest.
 
260 and 4870 1gb have same performance basically, so just flip a coin (that said ATI uses newer tech: ddr5, dx10.1 (some games use it allready like Stalker) and shader 4.1; although not sure if that makes a difference today, it may or may not in the future)

all in all whichever you choose, you won't really lose out
 
Sipha said:
Where is it £60 dearer ? The 1gb 4870 and the 260 216 sit roughly around the same price, the 260 is about £6 more as Loadsamoney stated, and for £6 its DEFINATELY worth it.
Click to expand...

Its not £60 dearer, if you go for the cheapest in-stock-inc-vat-del prices are around £185 for the 4870 and the cheapest 260 216 is £213

So £30 is the difference really.

Some places the 260/216 is actually cheaper than the 4870 1GB!

At the end of the day its the games that you play that makes the difference.
 
Infact I've seen the 260 216 for £200 new. Cant say where obviously.

Imo its just the better choice.
 
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