Gainward GTX 260 Golden Sample - £151

Ok,

Looking at upgrading my 8800GT to the above mentioned card.

One thing I was looking for was the option of using HDMI, as its a useful interface to have in the future. The gainward website clearly says "HDMI", but looking at pictures there is no HDMI port on the rear.

Am I missing something?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GW-265

My board is a P45 and thus supports ATI crossfire. However if I never plan to have more that one GPU will I lose out by not going with ATI? Or is it only the multiple card benefit?

I have a Crossfire set up, but if i was wanting just one card, then i would choose the 260 over the 4870 every time (even though i have 2 of them).

They're refering to HDMI via a DVI-HDMI adapter dongle. The outcome is exactly the same as having a native HDMI port, it's just a less elegant solution. I agree with Blitzen that if you just want a single-card set up you should go for the 260, but if you are interested in Crossfire, you'd get superior performance from 2x4850s, let alone 2x4870s. Basically it comes down to what your budget is!

Two HD4830s will give superior performance to a GTX260:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159719

The HD4830 also has better power consumption than an HD4850 too!!

Ordered one of these cards last Saturday using free their delivery and it's been in my rig since Monday afternoon. I stepped up from an 8800 GT too and so far I've been impressed with the increase in performance. £4.49 cashback showing as validated on QuidCo too ;)

As CK says, HDMI it's by means of the supplied DVI to HDMI dongle. If you want to output audio over HDMI you'll also need to use the supplied SPDIF header cable, running between the motherboard and graphics card.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Two HD4830s will give superior performance to a GTX260:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159719

The HD4830 also has better power consumption than an HD4850 too!!

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Is this true?

What do you base this on? benchmark/review?

I wonder if a 216 core GTX260 will SLI with a normal 192 core.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by djglenn

Is this true?

What do you base this on? benchmark/review?

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Most of the reviews seem to indicate this. Of course it depends whether you can be bothered with a multi GPU setup.

Also the HD4870 will be a better card if you intend to use HDMI as it delivers sound via the HDMI output too unlike the GTX260.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?SAP-48701

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Also the HD4870 will be a better card if you intend to use HDMI as it delivers sound via the HDMI output too unlike the GTX260.

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Assuming you have a capable motherboard, that 260, like many others, will happily output sound over HDMI providing you link the graphic card's SPDIF header to the one on your motherboard.

I am now rather interested by this dual ATI setup.

I found a Hexus review and in COD4 the 2 x 4830's wiped the floor of the GTX 280!

Thats mind boggling.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16300&page=1

I always thought that crossfire / sli was a rich persons way of fooling themselves into thinking that they where getting better performance.

Does it actually give that good of performance boost?

Maybe I should consider the dual gpu's after all.......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by djglenn

I am now rather interested by this dual ATI setup.

I found a Hexus review and in COD4 the 2 x 4830's wiped the floor of the GTX 280!

Thats mind boggling.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16300&page=1

I always thought that crossfire / sli was a rich persons way of fooling themselves into thinking that they where getting better performance.

Does it actually give that good of performance boost?

Maybe I should consider the dual gpu's after all.......

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Its sad you do not have an SLI capable motherboard otherwise a second 8800gt would have given you a nice performance boost!!

The only issue with multi-GPU setups is that you may have to wait for the games to be supported. If you want to play the latest games just after they have been released a single card setup is normally better.

Here is another review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...fire,2098.html

This thread maybe useful:

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...d4870-1gb.html

Hexus also used a X48, a more expensive option than a P45 motherboard. If you go for a P45 or lower, crossfire capable MB, you will only have two x8 PCI-E lanes, rather than 2 full-fat x16 PCI-E lanes of the X48 board. This will impact on performance, especially in recent games, see the link below for further details. Multi-GPU is also dependent on good driver support.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/14...ce/index7.html