HD4870 or GTX 260?

[rufeo]

Time for me to upgrade my gfx card.... But i'm having a bigger problem deciding which card to go for than a lot of people.

First off, after finally convincing myself the gtx 280 is not worth spending £400. I'm stuck with the hd4870 and the gtx 260. Now if the actually prices of the ati offering was £180 i don't think I'd be starting this thread. After browsing the usual sites, the only place that has the hd4870 is ocuk and they're asking for a bit over £217. Found a gtx 260 for a bit over £230 and that's making it even more difficult for me to order from ocuk before they run out of stock. I'm selling my 8800gts, but will have a 7600gt to tide me over, hopefully, before i get the new card.

After reading as many reviews as I could find, I'm still none the wiser as to which one to go for. Some sites are saying the hd4870 is faster the gtx 260, whereas others are saying the opposite and then the ones in which say that they're the same.

I'll be looking to overclock the card, but I can't use many good aftermarket coolers since my case has a side fan which doesn't go into the case by quite a bit. My room at uni is also insanely hot, Quite alot of the time I'm topless or just in my boxers.... This combination is exactly ideal, and it's one of my bigger reasons why I'm holding off from buying a hd4870 since they're meant to be run really hot.

I've got a 24" monitor btw, so would ideally like to play games at 1920x1200. Oh and I don't want to go down the multi gpu route, so no cross-fire/sli or X2/GX2. Any suggestions?

[staffsMike]

I'd pre-order at £180 and be done with it.

Both with be exceptional at 1920 x 1200, even the HD4850 is exceptional at 1920 x 1200 for the money so I hardly think you would make the wrong decision buying either.. but you save £50 getting the ATi.

[rufeo]

That's true i could save £50, but my fingers are itching to get at some new hardware.... plus the start of next week is the only time i know when i'll be free enough to wait at home for the card to arrive, so i'd rather order one now than wait for a few weeks.

any idea which overclocks the better out the two? also the heat issue is bothering me quite a bit, if the ati card runs at 80-85 degrees i can be sure to add at the very least 5 degrees on top of that. then there's the extra heat from overclocking.....

Know i'm sounding like i'm leaning more towards the gtx 260, but i do like the ati. more so if it wasn't so hot though.

although the 4850 is very good for the price, i'm ruling that out as i'd rather just upgrade now and have enough power to run games as close to max settings as possible till next year and i think the 4850 will start struggle.

[ikix]

I would say go for the 4870, if you can get it for £180 (for mine for £175) then there is no need for spending the extra cash on the GTX 260. If you can get it from somewhere like scan then you can set the date of delivery and will know if u need to be in on a particular day rather than a vague couple of days when it may come. Both cards run very hot tbh with the GTX 260 only a bit cooler. The way i see it, find the 4870 at the good prices (still around, e.g. ebuyer and some on scan) then get that, but if you really can't wait (although there still does seem to be a lack of the cheap GTX 260s) and don't mind the extra £50 or more then get the GTX 260.

[Hicks12]

id say get the 4870, it is good and these temp issues can be void if the review doesnt say what speed the fan is at, im not sure if they still have the issue the 8800/9000 and the 3850/70 series suffered from where the fan does not spin higher than aroudn 29%, this is fixed by rivatuner or something similar. If it is stuck at 29% i can be 99% sure it will drop by atleast 10C for bumping speeds up to 50%(shouldnt be noticed in noise).

pre-order http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146415 £180

or the gtx260 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146007 for £250

personally id say get the ati card as its £70 saved if you can wait a week, amd have said there will be loads of stock coming next week so expect these prices togo down.

[shadowcreaper]

get a 4870 as i am going to get one instead of GTX260, it runs games high lvl and unless you need the stupidly high res gaming there no point in getting 260.

[crush]

I think you have your answer, dude.

[Fornowagain]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...review--asus/1

[rufeo]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...review--asus/1

Thanks, think that review has finally won me over now. hopefully what they said about the overclock not increasing the load temp is true! all i need to do now is decide whether to hold off for a week or buy now.....

thanks everyone for their input

[Andy3536]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...review--asus/1

See that review yesterday, great performance against the GTX260 and for much less, another good thing too is they recomend a 500 W PSU. So my HX 520 will work fine.
Might wait for a manufacturer to put a better cooler on them which never takes long.

[Biscuit]

Im wondering if my Greatpower 550W will be enough... i have an overclocked CPU, DVD drive, card reader, plenty of USB devices attached, soundcard, extra ethernet card, and 3 hard drives :s (look at my system) what do you reckon guys?

[rufeo]

bit of a potential problem now.... a thread was started in the scan forum asking if ppl have had any problems with their 4870s, seems like there are alot of ppl out there with cards failing already!

anyone got any news on this?

[Blitzen]

bit of a potential problem now.... a thread was started in the scan forum asking if ppl have had any problems with their 4870s, seems like there are alot of ppl out there with cards failing already!

anyone got any news on this?

There is stacks of news on this.
People flashing the card = Dead unit
People altering fan speed = dead unit.

People doing little else and getting a dead unit.

Seems like its the new gen memory causing the issues.

It may be £50 cheaper than the nVidia but at least the nVidia does what it claims to I would rather pay £50 for something than works, rather than save £50 on a paper weight.

[rufeo]

seems like that may be the way to go. rather spend 230-250 on something that works rather than 180 and end up rma'ing. bit disappointed now, really liked the neat way the card handled sound through hdmi. oh well, unless someone can prove otherwise looks like i'm going with a gtx 260 now. so glad i didn't place an order for a 4870 already!

[Biscuit]

Well if it is faults with the hardware then you will be able to get as many replacements as you need until they are fixed. I know thats a ballache and not a lot of us would want to have to go through such a pain int he arse procedure but the problem will eventually be fixed. Im going to wait it out till it has before i buy one, im in no rush to upgrade right now anyway

[rufeo]

unfortunately i do need to upgrade. selling my current card, will have a spare, but not exactly ideal running a 24" monitor with a 7600gt. performance is about the same between the 4870 and the gtx260, but i'd rather have the knowledge that my gfx card won't die on me and pay the 50 quid premium for less hassle. if i wasn't in a rush i'd be doing the same thing as you