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ATI vs NVidia Help

Hello m4cc45, the ATI Radeon 4870 1024MB is a superb graphics card and if you do end up purchasing one, I'm sure you will love it.

The other card you may be interested in is the Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 Core 216 such as this one here which performs very similar to the ATI Radeon 4870 1024MB.

To help you choose though, have a look at the following articles which are both well worth reading:

Guru3D - Top 10 games Radeon 4870 1 GB & GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 test

Bit-Tech - Christmas 2008 Graphics Performance on Core i7

If you are willing to spend the little extra, you may be interested in this graphics card here which is slightly more expensive but performs very much identically to the Nvidia Geforce GTX 280 as you can see here but is around £40 cheaper. :)

Also, just a friendly suggestion to some of the above posters about mentioning competitors pricing which is against the rules so I would suggest editing your posts. :)
 
LoadsaMoney said:
4870 1gb is a cracking card, but an extra £6 gets you a 260-216 which is better. :)

Zotac 260-216

Easily worth an extra £6 that.
Click to expand...

A GTX 260 isn't 'better' *goes and gets bit tech benchmarks again :p*

These show the current state of the GTX 260 Versus the GTX 280 Versus the HD 4870 512MB and 1GB, and as people seem to think lately, the GTX260 doesn't perform on par with a GTX 280, and the HD 4870 1GB is generally faster than it, occasionally besting the GTX280.
 
!TIMMY! said:
The difference between the 1gba nd 512mb 4870 is only a few frames a sec. Might be worth a shout for the 512mb if £ is an issue.
Click to expand...

It's a lot more than you think, some times it's as much as 15 frames per second more on the 1GB card.
 
Fire Wizard said:
Hello m4cc45, the ATI Radeon 4870 1024MB is a superb graphics card and if you do end up purchasing one, I'm sure you will love it.

The other card you may be interested in is the Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 Core 216 such as this one here which performs very similar to the ATI Radeon 4870 1024MB.

To help you choose though, have a look at the following articles which are both well worth reading:

Guru3D - Top 10 games Radeon 4870 1 GB & GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 test

Bit-Tech - Christmas 2008 Graphics Performance on Core i7

If you are willing to spend the little extra, you may be interested in this graphics card here which is slightly more expensive but performs very much identically to the Nvidia Geforce GTX 280 as you can see here but is around £40 cheaper. :)

Also, just a friendly suggestion to some of the above posters about mentioning competitors pricing which is against the rules so I would suggest editing your posts. :)
Click to expand...

Those Guru 3D benchmarks are pretty much void now considering both NV and ATi have released newer drivers that gives considerable performance boosts in a lot of games. The bit-tech one being most relevant since they're using the latest drivers for NV and ATI.
 
Based on what i've heard people saying and reviews i'd go for a 4850 or a gx260. Apparently under good conditions they can perform nearly as good as their big brothers. Personally I would go ATI as their technology looks like its leaping ahead.
 
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kylew said:
Those Guru 3D benchmarks are pretty much void now considering both NV and ATi have released newer drivers that gives considerable performance boosts in a lot of games. The bit-tech one being most relevant since they're using the latest drivers for NV and ATI.
Click to expand...

Hi kylew, have you got links to any articles that show the latest drivers from both ATI and Nvidia giving a significant performance boost in games because I would be interested in seeing the sort of performance boost the latest drivers give.

Thank you. :)
 
Tbh I've been Looking at these new 55nm 260-216's might be a good choice if they work out cheap enough, i.e ~£200.
 
I was in the same position as yours either GTX 260-216 Black Edition or 4870 1gb.
And i decided Sapphire 4870 1gb with the new redesign cooler for £180 delivered inc Quidco from competitor site and i'm loving it :D
 
Fire Wizard said:
Hi kylew, have you got links to any articles that show the latest drivers from both ATI and Nvidia giving a significant performance boost in games because I would be interested in seeing the sort of performance boost the latest drivers give.

Thank you. :)
Click to expand...
Here you go:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/12/17/xmas-2008-graphics-performance-on-core-i7/1

They're using Nv's latest drivers, and ATi's latest drivers (catalyst 8.12s) I don't know the number for the NV drivers, should be on the bit-tech article though. :)
 
Fire Wizard said:
Hi kylew, sorry what I meant was have you got links to any articles that show the performance difference between ATI and NVIDIA's newest drivers compared to there older ones? :)
Click to expand...

Ahh I see, sorry. At the moment I don't have any links, I'm on my iPhone at the moment so I can't copy and paste :p but you should be able to find some on techpowerup of the older drivers. :)
 
Hi Guys

Didn't expect to see so many posts.

Basically, as some of you have figured, the card I'm debating is the 4870 1GB version against any NVidia alternative. As said the GTX looks pretty good though uses older technology. According to the stats on OCUK it does look slower.

I think I've decided on this version

It certainly, according to the stats, seems faster than the nvidia. If anyone can give me a really good reason why to buy the nvidia then I would listen. Have until boxing day before I pick up my new card!



M.
 
Damn, I'm in the same boat now I've seen this thread. I was set on buying a 4870 1GB and in some point in the future getting xfire but, looking at those results, it seems the 260's show their power with SLI.

I'm waiting for the new stock to come in after Christmas anyway, then I guess it'll be whatever is the cheapest. :)
 
m4cc45 said:
Hi Guys

Didn't expect to see so many posts.

Basically, as some of you have figured, the card I'm debating is the 4870 1GB version against any NVidia alternative. As said the GTX looks pretty good though uses older technology. According to the stats on OCUK it does look slower.

I think I've decided on this version

It certainly, according to the stats, seems faster than the nvidia. If anyone can give me a really good reason why to buy the nvidia then I would listen. Have until boxing day before I pick up my new card!
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll ever be fully satisfied whichever one you buy, you'll always be wondering "what if I'd gone with ....." so just go with your gut instinct, it's only really when you've used both can you get a clear picture of which you prefer.

The two cards are overall very similar and only features seem to separate them, it more or less boils down to DX10.1 vs Physx in my opinion, which do you think you will find the most useful and will have the bigger impact on gaming over the next few years?
 
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