HD 4870X2 Beats GeForce GTX 280

[a_ump]

The ATi cards will be really good cards but I dont think they will compete with the gtx 280, because ATi makes cards for speeds thats why the perfom better on 3d mark, but there shaders are grouped much more largely, while Nvidia makes them smaller witch makes them run better, ATi will be good competition for the 9 series but i dont think they will compete, in performance but in price they might, and lets remeber the GTX 280 is a single gpu and the 4870xw is 2 and this is a speculation, but the GTX 280 has just been released and the drivers are still new so will see. The ATi cards should perform well in 3d mark but when it comes to games i dont think they will compete though they should show some great improvement over the 38** series.
Nvidia knows what there doing as do ATi
ATi=good price good performance
Nvidia=not so great price but bareble, but great performance

no offense, but please research before u post, the HD 4870x2 is definetly a match for the GTX 280 and i would guess it will sell more since it offers better performance for just a little more, and even if GTX 280 is on beta drivers these benchmarks are on engineering samples of the HD 4870x2 WITH beta drivers so i would think that that would set the HD 4870x2 back more than the GTX 280. How could u logically think that nvidia makes their stream processors smaller than ATI's when they have a little more than 1/4th the processors yet their GPU is about 2.1x larger yet the HD 4870 has 800 processors.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=581&type=expert
GTX 280= 576 mm^2
HD 4870= 260 mm^2

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-preview/
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3354
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2325444,00.asp
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-preview/
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/745/1/
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=590

please research instead of saying your speculation

 

[trt740]

The ATi cards will be really good cards but I dont think they will compete with the gtx 280, because ATi makes cards for speeds thats why the perfom better on 3d mark, but there shaders are grouped much more largely, while Nvidia makes them smaller witch makes them run better, ATi will be good competition for the 9 series but i dont think they will compete, in performance but in price they might, and lets remeber the GTX 280 is a single gpu and the 4870xw is 2 and this is a speculation, but the GTX 280 has just been released and the drivers are still new so will see. The ATi cards should perform well in 3d mark but when it comes to games i dont think they will compete though they should show some great improvement over the 38** series.
Nvidia knows what there doing as do ATi
ATi=good price good performance
Nvidia=not so great price but bareble, but great performance

I own a 280GTX and it is a monster video card but a 4870x2 will be about 25 percent faster or more in somethings, even when my 280 is oced to 717/1509/1280. Your talking about a dual gpu card against a single gpu card. The 3870 cards were slower and not aswell made as the current 4870 cards. Take it from me the 4870x2 is gonna be faster than the 280 gtx and about 100.00 more expensive. Now the 280b revision, the 4870x2 maybe 5 to 10 percent faster. The 280 is the fastest single gpu card but not the fastest video card (atleast it won't be in about two weeks)

 

[Nick89]

get a proper cooler like zalman VF900-CU

VF900cu's are crap, they arnt powerfull enought to cool a X1950XT let alone a 2900XT.:shadedshu

 

[newconroer]

I own a 280GTX and it is a monster video card but a 4870x2 will be about 25 percent faster or more in somethings, even when my 280 is oced to 717/1509/1280. Your talking about a dual gpu card against a single gpu card. The 3870 cards were slower and not aswell made as the current 4870 cards. Take it from me the 4870x2 is gonna be faster than the 280 gtx and about 100.00 more expensive. Now the 280b revision, the 4870x2 maybe 5 to 10 percent faster. The 280 is the fastest single gpu card but not the fastest video card (atleast it won't be in about two weeks)

25% is the rough estimate of how much faster the X2 and the GT200b will be.

Yet 25% isn't telling us much. A 25% increase to clocks all around will do very little in real world.

If you're running a 3d application now, with a 280, and are still suffering low frames in some situations, the X2 and GT200b aren't going to noticeably fix that.

Given the brute power and capabilities of all recent GPUs both Nvidia and ATi, the problem(s) lies more with the correlation between CPU>GPU>RAM and the coding of the application you are running.

If we look at a modern game such as AoC, and compare results under heavy taxing circumstances, a 640 GTS, GT, 4850, 9800 GTX, 260, 4870 and GTX280 will all provide nearly the same performance, with gaps being less than 10fps, and in some cases less than 5fps.

For most people, that's not worth an upgrade to any of the cards.

Which means the X2 and the GT200b aren't going to break this mold.

Now if you're looking for another 3fps, then by all means purchase one. Yet there's more important issues that latter generation cards address ; stutter, microstutter, taxation at high resolution when using MSAA, SuperSampling AA, HDR, minimum fps stability etc. Those should be the reasons why or why not to upgrade.

Having said that, the X2 and the GT200b are not likely to address those said issues any better than a 4870 or 280 do.

The only real benefit would be less power consumption and heating issues.

Yet anyone who's serious about using high end GPUs should be involved in aftermarket coolers, whether air or liquid, and if that is the case, the die shrink will be more or less irrelevant.


Prices on both cards are down to a very reasonable cost. I can't imagine the new ones will be that much cheaper.

So the question becomes, do you want to wait a few more months just to save 10 degrees?

 

[trt740]

25% is the rough estimate of how much faster the X2 and the GT200b will be.

Yet 25% isn't telling us much. A 25% increase to clocks all around will do very little in real world.

If you're running a 3d application now, with a 280, and are still suffering low frames in some situations, the X2 and GT200b aren't going to noticeably fix that.
Given the brute power and capabilities of all recent GPUs both Nvidia and ATi, the problem(s) lies more with the correlation between CPU>GPU>RAM and the coding of the application you are running.

If we look at a modern game such as AoC, and compare results under heavy taxing circumstances, a 640 GTS, GT, 4850, 9800 GTX, 260, 4870 and GTX280 will all provide nearly the same performance, with gaps being less than 10fps, and in some cases less than 5fps.

For most people, that's not worth an upgrade to any of the cards.

Which means the X2 and the GT200b aren't going to break this mold.

Now if you're looking for another 3fps, then by all means purchase one. Yet there's more important issues that latter generation cards address ; stutter, microstutter, taxation at high resolution when using MSAA, SuperSampling AA, HDR, minimum fps stability etc. Those should be the reasons why or why not to upgrade.

Having said that, the X2 and the GT200b are not likely to address those said issues any better than a 4870 or 280 do.

The only real benefit would be less power consumption and heating issues.

Yet anyone who's serious about using high end GPUs should be involved in aftermarket coolers, whether air or liquid, and if that is the case, the die shrink will be more or less irrelevant.


Prices on both cards are down to a very reasonable cost. I can't imagine the new ones will be that much cheaper.

So the question becomes, do you want to wait a few more months just to save 10 degrees?

Your kidding right the 280 gtx kills every prior card I have owned with all the settings turned up even at lower resolutions and the minimum frame rates are mutch higher. Also since the 280gtx is a single gpu it doesn't suffer from micro stuttering. As for suffering in 3d application, that not happening in my machine. As for this part of your statement If we look at a modern game such as AoC, and compare results under heavy taxing circumstances, a 640 GTS, GT, 4850, 9800 GTX, 260, 4870 and GTX280 will all provide nearly the same performance, with gaps being less than 10fps, and in some cases less than 5fps. The 640 gts struggles at max setting in new games and if your telling me that the 280gtx and 4870 will only increase frame rates by 5 fps your kidding right. Also the minimum frame rates of a 280gtx are double a 9800gtx or near so most of the time when it is overclocked, and yes 5 to 10 frames is a giant difference in some cases. The difference of 18 frames per second to 28 frames per second is significant. The 18 frames would be unplayable but at 28 frames the game becomes very playable. If your saying that the majority of the video cards you listed, excluding the 8800gts 640 mb (and in some cases even it), can play most games out very well I would agree and if we are talking about the average person I would agree, but this is not a average users forum and we are not average users. If we were we would all have P35 motherboards with, e7200 or Q6600 cpus, DDR2 800 ram and 9600gt video cards (very good systems I might add for the money) at stock speeds with stock cooling.

 

[StarYoshi]

I have yet to find a card that's a worthwhile upgrade from my 8800GTS 640mb at 1680x1050, a common medium-high end resolution. For 1600x1200 and higher resolutions these new cards (HD4, GTX) are great, but I'm wanting for a card that really scales with resolution and doesn't give a flat performance for me at lower resolutions. The Hd4870 only improved my Crysis framerates. All other games were negligible. It's beginning to look like i'll have to settle for SLI 8800GTs or pick up another 8800GTS if I want more performance at this resolution. That said, this beast still maxes most games

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I have yet to find a card that's a worthwhile upgrade from my 8800GTS 640mb at 1680x1050, a common medium-high end resolution. For 1600x1200 and higher resolutions these new cards (HD4, GTX) are great, but I'm wanting for a card that really scales with resolution and doesn't give a flat performance for me at lower resolutions. The Hd4870 only improved my Crysis framerates. All other games were negligible. It's beginning to look like i'll have to settle for SLI 8800GTs or pick up another 8800GTS if I want more performance at this resolution. That said, this beast still maxes most games

The performance between the HD4 and 640 are miles apart at 1680x1050 with 4xAA/16xAF. Then you go on to talk about a 8800GT in sli which is no comparison on your 640 that you referenced earlier in your post. Then you talk about a 8800 GTS which is no competition to a HD4870. This entire post of yours contradicts your thought that there are no cards worthwhile upgrading to.

In hindsight of your post there are plenty of video cards to upgrade to when using a 640. The only thing that is preventing you from do so is your own personal preference.

 

[AsRock]

I have yet to find a card that's a worthwhile upgrade from my 8800GTS 640mb at 1680x1050, a common medium-high end resolution. For 1600x1200 and higher resolutions these new cards (HD4, GTX) are great, but I'm wanting for a card that really scales with resolution and doesn't give a flat performance for me at lower resolutions. The Hd4870 only improved my Crysis framerates. All other games were negligible. It's beginning to look like i'll have to settle for SLI 8800GTs or pick up another 8800GTS if I want more performance at this resolution. That said, this beast still maxes most games

Just wait till next year then... It's that simple. It's not as if you have to or really need to so why bother ?. I had the chance to get a 4870 last week but decided against it and waiting for the R800.

 

[Kursah]

That's another thing to choose...buy this "next best thing" or wait for the next "next best thing" lol! I decided to jump now, and I may step up to the GTX200b later on if it's out, and go from there.

I say if you're gaming without much issue with modern games (crysis aside), don't worry too much...if you have the itch and the money, then nothing will stop ya. But I'm sure ATI's and NV's next-next best thing will be pretty kickass too!

 

[wolf]

well we have it, a slightly overclocked GTX280 or stock GTX285, according to our very own in-house review, can par a 4870X2 - give/take ~1%

nvidia always have an answer to ATi, as does ATi for Nvidia, but the question is, which company answers performance, and which answers price?

naturally neither company always answer one aspect.... but i think i can see a trend ....