2x 4850 1GBs or a GTX260?

[matty-hodgson]

well.. i've recently bought another 24" monitor to go with my first one.. and now i'm wanting to upgrade from my 8800GT (it's awful at 1920 x 1200 resolution )

so basically.. which would you pick?
i've just ordered a x48 motherboard so it's got 2 x16 PCI-E ports on it..

4850s?

or

GTX260?

got a maximum of £300 to spend on it..

if you have any better suggestions, please go ahead

i'll also be doing GPU folding on this set-up.. so take that into account aswell

[SiM]

get the 260 or a 4870. Life is so much simpler with 1 card... btw the x48 is a waste of money... I would stick with P45

[DaveVader]

1 4870? Less than £200 and bloody worth it.

[0iD]

HD4870 ftw here!

[matty-hodgson]

get the 260 or a 4870. Life is so much simpler with 1 card... btw the x48 is a waste of money... I would stick with P45

so it's a good job i never ordered the x48?
and only said i ordered it so that no-one said my motherboard wouldn't support the dual cards?
i was gonna order it with the GFX cards


which P45 should i go for then?

also looks like the 4870s winning :O

[staffsMike]

Yeah 4870 1GB will be nice Gainward to a nice golden sample with a decent cooler.

260GTX MAXCORE has a nice stock cooler though.

Take a look at the DFI P45's very nice for about £100. The Asus P5Q-E is nice too if you want a better feature set.

[Zsev]

Its a no brainer. Go straight for gtx260 unless you have 3 monitors or something that required 2 graphics cards.

[moogle]

get the 260 or a 4870. Life is so much simpler with 1 card... btw the x48 is a waste of money... I would stick with P45

Best advice for you. Sli or XFire is usually used later on when the newer cards come out and you want a performance boost. 1 powerful card is always good. 4870 if you want some serious room heating and some serious GPU power. The 216 core edition of the 260 will better or equal this (I think) but I think it's usually more expensive. Depends on what company card you like too (ATi or NVIDIA)

Why would you want to switch to a new chipset? Old mobo going to your Dad?

[matty-hodgson]

Best advice for you. Sli or XFire is usually used later on when the newer cards come out and you want a performance boost. 1 powerful card is always good. 4870 if you want some serious room heating and some serious GPU power. The 216 core edition of the 260 will better or equal this (I think) but I think it's usually more expensive. Depends on what company card you like too (ATi or NVIDIA)

Why would you want to switch to a new chipset? Old mobo going to your Dad?

well i've never owned an ATi card..
had a FX5200
6600GT
8400GS
9800GTX (dad stole it off me cos i couldn't pay him the £150 it cost )
and i've got the 8800GT now

what's this thing with the 192 core and the 216 core?
is this the unified shader things?
1 of them has 192 and the other has 216?

the IP35 gets absolutely red-hot while i have the Q6600 at 3.6GHz..
so i want a new motherboard
and yeah, the IP35 is going to my dad

are you recommending the GTX260 or the 4870?



just something for everyone saying about the 4870 btw.. 1GB or 512MB?

[DaveVader]

1GB or 512MB I suppose depends on what res you are using. 1GB will help if you will be using a large monitor really.
As for a P45 Motherboard, A P5Q variant, a Gigabyte P45 (there's loads) or a DFI LanParty DK P45 T2RS (basic, Plus or JR).

[Webby]

I picked 2x 4850s get the DFI DK X38-DS2R (cheaper than the P45) more gaming grunt than a GTX280 but with the pit fall that in the game crossfire doesn't work in your down to 4850 speeds, although those are fewer now than ever before.

[matty-hodgson]

another question:
would it not be worth getting this GTX280?
seeing as it's only £293 and it's still within my budget?
or would it be total overkill and be far too futureproof?

i'll be gaming at 1920x1200.. unless i somehow manage to get it to be 3840 x 1200 (anyone know how, on Vista..?)
or is that still an XP only thing?


and can someone recommend a IP45 board please?
there's about 40 million IP45s on the Scan website and they all confuse me!

[TAKTAK]

the GTX260 is better than a HD4870 @ 1920x1200+
below that the opposite is true

[-iceblade^]

i beg to differ. http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=2, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=4

i'd get the DFI listed earlier, and the 4870 1GB. at such a high res, the extra video memory will be well worth it

[matty-hodgson]

that review definitely makes the 1GB 4870 look like the best card to go for.. especially with it being cheaper than the GTX280 and 260. but beats them both on almost all benchmarks.

i've also realised i'm going to have to put the motherboard 'on-hold' cos it's the GFs birthday in 5 weeks so i'm gonna get her something nice

4870 1GB it is then?
and then maybe sometime in the next half a year or so, buy another 1 and crossfire?

[staffsMike]

4870 1GB it is then?
and then maybe sometime in the next half a year or so, buy another 1 and crossfire?

If you really felt the need for it. Better to wait a bit longer and just replace it with the next best thing.