Anybody help me decide between 4870 and 260 please ?

Well basically, i'm in the middle of building a new rig. It's going to be for relatively heavy gaming, but i'm not too fussed about maxing everything at 1920x1080 resolutions because i'm using a 26" 720p HDTV for playing my games on.

So far i've got the Case and PSU, as well as the Motherboard which arrived yesterday (M4A78T-e). I'm almost certain that i'm going to go for the new X2 550 for a CPU as it gives me just the right performance i need, and the unlocked multiplier (and great heat efficiency) should allow me to overclock as much as i need to.

The only thing left to decide on is the Graphics card which is going to finally rescue me from playing Crysis on this laptop at blindingly low quality . I'm in the UK so i've been looking at Scan as well as Overclockers as they have some suprisingly decent prices on the newer GPU's.

The only advantage an ATi card would have is that my mobo is limited to Crossfire only, so no dual GTX 260's in the future. However, i'm not looking to upgrade for a while, as i can't see many games pushing computers harder than Crysis until it's sequel comes out.

Anyway, around £140 max to spend, any advice ? :help:

1GB 4870 is brilliant, if you can get one closer to £120 then bargain.

While I'd echo the call for the 4870, at (presumably) 1280x720 you could get away with a 4850/GTS250... but clearly you're looking to the future, so it's a good call to pitch at the GTX 260-level.

The GTX 260 has a couple of plus's:

1. Folding - If you fold and it's all about the PPD, you'd already know that the CUDA client outperforms the ATI cards.

2. PhysX. Nvidia bought Ageia a couple years ago, so if you're a fan of additional random eyecandy, or have an interest in game which ultilise it like Mirror's Edge, GRAW 2, then you might want to consider it since the 260 will have plenty of grunt left to drive the physics effects at 720p.


Personally, I don't fold due to the personal cost, and I've not seen many games I want that use PhysX, so I'd just go for the cheapest option really.

Thanks for the input guys. It's basically coming down to what is going to be the best brand/price ratio. For example Gainward 4870's cost about £140 and there 260 (216) costs around £133. The reason i was looking at Gainward is that they offer better cooling to stock on both, with the 4870 in particular being an aftermarket heatsink and fans.

I did a chart with newer pricing than hexus so look here:
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-net/16...1gb-136-a.html
(look for my post).

Looking at the gainward one at novatech http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GW-265 It would score ~2.265, thats not taking into account the overclocked speeds so id say its a safe purchase if you get that.

^That's the card i was looking at on overclockers, thanks for the score info :D I think this may even come down to a coin toss, it seems that everybody (including me) has no real decisive reason for one or the other.

So you need a real reason: If you're going Gainward bear in mind they're stopping doing ATI cards (note the lack of a 4890 from them) since ATI wasn't happy with the non-reference cards they made (e.g. GDDR5 4850). More on that http://www.ngohq.com/news/15967-gain...ct-policy.html.

So if you go 260 with them you'll potentially be in better shape for RMA/warranty issues.

AH HA ! Now that really is a reason. I don't want to buy a card and then find there is no support for it 12 months down the line. Gtx 260 it is.

Remember though that this only has 1 year warranty, so it may be worthwhile looking into a different brand.

Are there any other brands who offer a better warranty without a significant premium ? I was looking at EVGA 260's on scan but the price increase seems ridunkulous.

Well after looking around, it seems like this 4870 is the best all round deal everything considered.

-3 Year manufacturer warranty.
-Asus Brand heatsink is apparently a big improvement over the stock (lowers temps by 15C !)
-I personally think the card itself looks Bad ass (I'm not a fan of the basic ATi red casing)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=939

PLEASE tell me that there isn't some flaw with this choice ! Like Asus is some kind of evil company who install cyanide on the blades of their card fans.

Nothing wrong with asus, looks a good price aswell. Will give you a similar bang for buck rating aswell, very similar performance. Remember its power hungry and needs an OK PSU.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hicks12

Nothing wrong with asus, looks a good price aswell. Will give you a similar bang for buck rating aswell, very similar performance. Remember its power hungry and needs an OK PSU.

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^ Yeah, luckily i've got my 550w Corsair VX series, and if many other people are to be believed they are severely under rated (one of my friends from another forum actually runs a 4850X2 on his with no problems)

If I was in your position I would give serious consideration to saving an extra £19.99 and go for the XFX HD 4890 especially as you plan to max out @ 1920 x 1080:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1403

The card comes with a 2 year warranty which is more than adequate, as you know with items of this nature; if it hasn't failed within the first six months then it will likely go to it's full lifecycle unless you damage it whilst OC in which case you will void the warranty.

P.S. - It comes with a game (Tom Clancy HAWX) if you don't like it you could trade it in or sell it to offset the extra cost.

P.P.S - The VX 550W will run the card OK.

GRRR Typical, i meant 450vx not 550vx, and i think 450 would be cutting it too close to run a 4890 even with Corsair's quality.