ATI Still the best choice for performance per dollar

[DrPepper]

Yes but nvidia recent driver releases have improved performance exponentially. In all fairness the GTX280 is almost as fast as a 4870X2 and I think Age of Conan is optimised for ATI just like crysis is optimised for nVidia.

 

[wolf]

Let me clarify.

There was only a 5FPS difference between GTX 280 SLi @ 700 on the core and GTX 260 Core 216 SLi @ 711 on the core in heavy grass situations in AoC. If there was no SLi profile I would not have been getting close to 300 FPS indoors. I tried these tests with SLi on and off. With SLi off a single GTX 280 hovered around 24FPS in the same grass situation at the noted quality settings in my other post.

When SLi was on, I could turn off the grass at that area and the FPS would jump to near 90.

The ATi solutions are simply faster in deep grass situations in AoC. Even stock HD 4850 1GB Crossfire will turn in 45FPS there.

I did test the HD 4870s, GTX 280s, and GTX 260 Core 216s on an Evga X58 motherboard with 6GB ram and a Core i7 920 @ 3.96GHz. The 4850 numbers I just mentioned were put up on a Phenom II 940 @ 3.6GHz. I have yet to try them in my Intel system. It is possible the much higher bandwidth would see an increase in their numbers.

As I mentioned before, outside of the grass scenarios, the noted setups feel and perform remarkably similar in AoC @ 1920x with the quality|filtering settings I use.

If AoC is your favorite flavor and you play 1920x with filtering active, I'd look long and hard at a HD 4850 X2 2Gb for 275usd.

still sounds like a crappy SLi profile to me really.

Yes but nvidia recent driver releases have improved performance exponentially. In all fairness the GTX280 is almost as fast as a 4870X2 and I think Age of Conan is optimised for ATI just like crysis is optimised for nVidia.

+1, choo choooooooooooo

 

[Drizzt5]

9.2 have given me HUGE performance boosts in crysis btw.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Just got an XFXHD4870x2 for the price of a GTX285 and they may be close in performance in SOME benches but having just sold a 280 for this card I can say.....

1. In synthetic benches ie 3D Mark 2006 the x2 gains over 3000 points

In the games I regularily play.....

2. COD 4 + 11FPS
3. COD 5 + 9FPS
4. Fallout 3 + 14FPS

All the same system settings, both cards on max overclocks though not at stock which may show a slightly different story as in the 280 waas clocked 140mhz over stock on the core, the x2 only 50mhz over stock.

At the end of the day, the 260/280/285/295/4850/4870/x2's are all outstanding cards you just gotta decide your budget and get the performance you can afford.

 

[wolf]

At the end of the day, the 260/280/285/295/4850/4870/x2's are all outstanding cards you just gotta decide your budget and get the performance you can afford.

I really like that statement, jolly good show.

 

[DrPepper]

At the end of the day, the 260/280/285/295/4850/4870/x2's are all outstanding cards you just gotta decide your budget and get the performance you can afford.

Yep got to agree there.

 

[wolf]

Yep got to agree there.

so much just comes down to personal choice.

eg. say if someone comes on here saying they want a GTX285, and everyone still tries to talk him into a 4850X2, at the end of the day, no matter what everyone says and what reviews he reads, he will probably still buy the GTX285, because thats what he wants, and peoples minds are hard to change.

at the end of the day people will buy what they want to buy, and im really thankfull the gfx market is so vivid in terms of the choice out there and spectrum of cards you can get.

the difference from top to bottom is utterly staggering aswell, dare to compare a GTX295/4870X2 to a 9300GT/4350. it will blow you away.

 

[Frizz]

the difference from top to bottom is utterly staggering aswell, dare to compare a GTX295/4870X2 to a 9300GT/4350. it will blow you away.

I upgraded from a 9550 128MB ATI Radeon and a P4 Rig. When I first played Crysis on my new rig... I was hooked and I lost a few nerves from my jaw then I added a second 4850...... I will never look back again at playing wow just at 30fps or under 5fps in raids I will never ever settle for less than 60fps with vsync! In fact, I will never play WoW at all!

lol although my P4 RIG was able to run crysis on low with a 128mb super outdated GPU. I think companies set their minimum requirements too high, same with HALF Life 2 all medium - high no bloom or shadows and was able to play near 50fps from what I can visually recall (Never benchmarked with my rig, it'd be like letting a puppy run a horses race.)

 

[wolf]

I upgraded from a 9550 128MB ATI Radeon and a P4 Rig. When I first played Crysis on my new rig... I was hooked and I lost a few nerves from my jaw then I added a second 4850...... I will never look back again at playing wow just at 30fps or under 5fps in raids I will never ever settle for less than 60fps with vsync! In fact, I will never play WoW at all!

lol although my P4 RIG was able to run crysis on low with a 128mb super outdated GPU. I think companies set their minimum requirements too high, same with HALF Life 2 all medium - high no bloom or shadows and was able to play near 50fps from what I can visually recall (Never benchmarked with my rig, it'd be like letting a puppy run a horses race.)

ahahaha, nice experiences, i'd like to see that puppy race

yeah upgrading to even say the mainstream cards of today from anything lowish from an outdated series would be huge too.

i cant even begin to imagine the theoretical difference between a 9550 and a HD4850, your probably looking at 8-10 fold the sheer power, at a vague guess.

it is indeed interesting times we live in, and a great time to follow such an ever changing market.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Agreed but two £110 HD4850's would be faster than both!

maybe so - but prices for 4870's are still dropping. before they vanish off the face of the earth I will nab myself another one for crossfire.

 

[eidairaman1]

I upgraded from a 9550 128MB ATI Radeon and a P4 Rig. When I first played Crysis on my new rig... I was hooked and I lost a few nerves from my jaw then I added a second 4850...... I will never look back again at playing wow just at 30fps or under 5fps in raids I will never ever settle for less than 60fps with vsync! In fact, I will never play WoW at all!

lol although my P4 RIG was able to run crysis on low with a 128mb super outdated GPU. I think companies set their minimum requirements too high, same with HALF Life 2 all medium - high no bloom or shadows and was able to play near 50fps from what I can visually recall (Never benchmarked with my rig, it'd be like letting a puppy run a horses race.)

COD4 minimum Spec Requirements call for a Athlon 64 2800, well that puts me out of the Race except the little tweak in the bottom of my Sig allows for proper playability.

 

[wolf]

Agreed but two £110 HD4850's would be faster than both!

more like:

two HD4850's "could" be faster than both...

with CF/SLi its all situational and profile dependent, its almost impossible to generalise and just state that is clearly faster.

I agree there are many (if not most) situations where these cards scale BEAUTIFULLY, and does considerably better than GTX280 over average FPS, however consider the cases where it gets its ass handed back to it by a single GTX280.

 

[dieselcat18]

maybe so - but prices for 4870's are still dropping. before they vanish off the face of the earth I will nab myself another one for crossfire.

I agree..........These are US prices and some great deals for both the 512mb & 1GB models, but you get the idea. And prices will most likely continue to fall with the release of newer cards...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0549 106792627 1067940678&name=Radeon HD 4870

I'm thinking of picking up this to crossfire with my current 4870....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236

*+

 

[Aceman.au]

Prices have dropped a fair bit in Australia...

Brought mine for $424 AUD that was one of the lowest... I found the same card, $364 AUD thats a good drop... And they first retailed for about $500 AUD...

 

[D007]

Lol same war..
different day..

 

[Aceman.au]

What???

Btw like ur avatar D007 FFVII rocks!!!!

 

[wolf]

Lol same war..
different day..

i could start a thread just as epic with the title, "nvidia, still the best choice for quality/overclockability"

honestly i think its just the title that ask's for it.

 

[Drizzt5]

i could start a thread just as epic with the title, "nvidia, still the best choice for quality/overclockability"

You could, but it wouldn't be as true as the title for this thread.

 

[wolf]

You could, but it wouldn't be as true as the title for this thread.

Your right, it would be MORE true

 

[wiak]

the reason people still likes ATi including me is

1. ATi's Sane Naming Scheme (Nvidia=Insane naming Scheme)
also i mean 4800 = highend, 4600=midrange, you got 4830, 4850 and 4870 in highend, and you got 4670 and 4650 in midrange

if you look at nvidia, you got 9800 GT also known as 8800 GT also known as GTS 240?, and 9800 GTX also known as 8800 GTX, you also got 9800 GTX+, and GTS, then we have 260 192shaders, 260 55nm, 260 212shaders, and best of all all the 260 cards has same name..
now midrage, 9600 GTO, 9600 GT, 9600 GSO etc

2. ATi has onchip audio codec that can transfer lossless sound upto 7.1 channels with 6.112mbps bandwith via hdmi
nvidia only has this on their IGPs, like 8200/8300

3. Same driver quality, if you say ATI's drivers suck, you might want to recheck why vista crashes
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/28/nvidia_vista_drivers/

basicly people like value and EASY naming scheme
if ati keeps this up they will win many, a friend of me that got him self a 3870 and he said he didnt want to go back to nvidia

 

[Tatty_Two]

maybe so - but prices for 4870's are still dropping. before they vanish off the face of the earth I will nab myself another one for crossfire.

I have got to say, having had two Palit HD4850 1GB Sonics I prefer them bang for buck over the 4870, I say that because the palit Sonics/Gainward Golden Samples and Xpertvision Sonics (all Palit brands) overclock like rockets, all seem to do at least 790mhz on the core, couple that with excellent aftermarket cooling as standard and the 1GB of memory and you will find that not only are they cheaper than the 512MB 4870 but in many cases they are faster. Now strangely enough, in some game benches, crossfired 4870's are actually beaten my a crossfired 4870 and 4850 (God knows how)..... I am at work ATM but when I get home I can provide you with a linky to support that statement.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I really like that statement, jolly good show.

Thanks, of course the one area where ATI wins is the low > mid sector, apart from the 9800GTX/GT the 4850, 4830 etc are the preferred flavour, I know NVidia are trying to address that with their forthcoming 250's, but currently for the budget conscious consumer, ATi has the goods!

 

[Frizz]

All I know is my 4850's have win written all over them

 

[raptori]

Possibly THE biggest rant / flame fest I have ever seen on tpu. :shadedshu

agreed

if I'm gonna say any thing about ATI vs Nvidia i'll put myself in the flame of this hell"thread".

and hayder don't put any thing related to ATI vs Nvidia in TPU again its full of kerosene and they just need a spark to burn.

 

[eidairaman1]

wasnt a good move as it brings out the nasty side of people, if they aren't always nasty