If only Crysis performance was better on the 48XX cards, whats up with that?! Personally I'd go 4870, I reckon there is more performance to be released using drivers on that card that Nvidias offerings, but we won't know until a few weeks/months from now!
More cards break on release as people getting them are usually enthuiasts oc-ing the tits off them (my opinion) so that may settle down.
yeah that is true, but there have been reports of a few number of ppl who haven't oc'ed yet still ended up with a duff card. i mean statistically there'll always be a few failure due to hardware fault instead of user error. but the fact that ppl who have the 4850, haven't reported this kind of problem does seem to point to the fact that there is something wrong with the 4870.Originally Posted by Rob_B
right now i'm not too concerned over with one is going to be the quicker, as i don't think one or the other is going to seriously bash the other with a huge huge stick due to future drivers. i just want a card i know that will not bother me having me rma it till whatever is wrong is fixed.
what i'm now wondering is whether that the cards were so cheap because of the supposed lower quality ram or other parts that ppl have been talking about. i must admit i was pleasantly surprised with the price vs performance ratio, but if they have cut corners then i for one definitely won't be touching them
CryEngine 2 is optimized for NVIDIA's shader-heavy pipeline.
Blitzen (30-06-2008)
You mean texture processing heavy right? ATI have had a bigger bias towards shader power for a few generations now.
Yeah, texture.
Since that was a public poll the results could be inaccurate (find it hard to believe the time i checked it that 50% of people's cards had died without even OCing, yeah right!), there is a solid answer on why a card definitely WOULD die, as I posted in other thread, here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/152
Hd4870 is the BETTER choice, GTX260 is the SLIGHTLY faster choice!
Is it?.. Most of the benchmarks I've seen show the HD4870 beating the GTX260 even in some games with nVidia-specific extensions coded into the engine.
In terms of features the HD4870 wins by a far margin. And it's a fair bit cheaper to boot.
Let me put this to you. You try to flash your 4870 and brick it.
Do you:
A: Go to Scan/Ebuyer/Other Reseller and say "Hey I cocked up my BIOS flash, new card please!"
or
B: Go to Scan/Ebuyer/Other Reseller and say "OMG these ATI's are crap! I did nothing and it just died! New card please!"
I think you'll find half the people who say they did nothing and the card just died out of the blue are telling porkies.
Maybe this is just me being an idiot, but the perception I get is that the HD 4870 is selling a lot better then the 260 GTX. I haven't seen any offical sales figures but there is a big buzz about and people are buying the HD 4870 whilst you hardly hear any posting about getting a new 260 GTX.
So using slighty faulty logic more cards being sold = more cards failing and more people complaining, even if the actual failure rate % is the same for both ATI and Nvidia cards. The Nvidia cards sitting in retailers warehouses aren't failing if they aren't being used.
For some reason everyone is complainging about the card failing when it is them making a mistake with the bios which there is a solution for.
Well no doubt the truth of the matter will become apparent shortly. But like others I'm waiting for things to shake out a bit before buying. Several questions remain to be answered.
1. Does the 4870 have anything much over a 4850 other than the better memory and how much difference that makes, i.e. will a 4850 with a decent cooler get to roughly the same clock as a 4870 can, and will that take it to 95% of the performance?
2. How does the GTX260 overclock?
3. Will NVidia lower the price on the GTX260?
4. Probably not worth waiting for (i.e. may be another upgrade), but when will die-shrunk GTX2xx be available?
It has two main differences - GDDR5 memory which doubles the memory bandwitdh, and two power connectors, enabling the core to draw much more power if needed. A 4850 with decent cooler will not get much closer to the performance of a 4870.
Theoretically not all that well - it has a large die area, and the reduction from the 280 is achieved by cutting pipelines which can never be 'regained' by overclocking. The 55nm revision should do better.2. How does the GTX260 overclock?
Of course. But in what time frame?3. Will NVidia lower the price on the GTX260?
No-one knows, probably by autumn.4. Probably not worth waiting for (i.e. may be another upgrade), but when will die-shrunk GTX2xx be available?
Nvidia have announced price drops on the 260 and 280 in direct response to ATI as "Cards haven't been selling as well as expected".
$90 off 280's and no word on 260's yet.
Worth considering that £45 off a 280 to retail partners does not mean we will see the same price drop @ retail. More likely Manufacturers will drop prices by less to increase profit margins.
Depends if they are selling the cards that they get in stock... if they arnt then it would be silly to not lower the cost
Depends if they were bought under a minimum price license.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote