**260 Oc 216sp** Or **4870 1gb Oc**

[WaroDaBeast]

From what I understand about that cooler is it doesn't keep the pwm's and all that other stuff cool enough on a heavily clocked card. Unless you want to get separate heatsinks for everything.

What do you mean? Did you read somewhere that the heatsinks weren't good enough or plainly not adapted to the HD4890? In any case, could provide us with a link?

 

[10TaTioN]

I guess that you want to play the games on max details...

Since TPU has no Charts, here is what you're looking for: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/chart...s-charts-2009-high-quality/benchmarks,62.html

-- Overall performance at max details

I frefer ATi, never had problems with it, as well never got problems with nVIDIA. The difference is, nVIDIA has a lot of games that are optimized for their cards, while ATi doesn't have much (i know only 2, Source and GameBryo Engines (Source = Half Life 2, etc -- GameBryo = Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc).

nVIDIA releases more drivers, but they lack features when they release new drivers, they do obviously, but most of their drivers are just bugfixes for new released games, ATI releases features to the Control Panel, OC, etc. ATi also releases sometimes drivers that improve performance by 10% and up to 50%, many websites have tested it and it really works, but not a massive improvement like the 50%, but around 30% on those cases, which is pretty good.

ATi only releases 1 driver per month (sometimes they release Hot-fixes when really needed), current driver is 9.9 (which means year 9, month 9). If you are one of those who can't wait for having a bug fixed in-game, then go for nVIDIA, like i said nVIDIA releases more drivers often, which includes beta drivers, something that ATi doesn't have for open public...

IMO:The good and the bad

nVIDIA 260

- Better performance (~5%)
- More Drivers
- Bigger community = Better support

- Uses more Power (W) -- (216SP uses less power than the normal version, but still more than ATi)
- Produces more heat (depending on the manufacturer and/or model of the card)- 896MB of memory, could have 1GB
- Costs more (In both purchase and in Power usage)

ATi 4870

- Less power
- Less heat
- Has more memory (1GB)
- Cheaper

- Less performance (~5%)

If you don't have problems with the Bad (Red part) of nVIDIA, for a ~5% performance boost, go for the 260.

 

[newtekie1]

I don't know where you are getting that the GTX260 uses more power, and puts out more heat, they that simply isn't true. See here: http://techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_285_MARS/27.html

The HD4870 consumes more power in every graph than the GTX260 216SP. And more power always means more heat. The HD4870 even consumes more power than the standard GTX260 99% of the time, it is only the Peak where the HD4870 consumes less power. And the peak is only a single small instance.

nVIDIA 260

- Better performance (~5%)
- More Drivers
- Less power
- Less heat
- Bigger community = Better support

- Costs more

ATi 4870

- Has more memory (1GB)
- Cheaper

- Less performance (~5%)
- Uses more Power
- Produces more heat

So here is what the graphs look like adjusted to accuracy.

The cost difference will likely be made up over the course of the cards life by the lower power usage of the GTX260. However, relying on that is worse than waiting on a mail-in rebate. So I don't really consider it, and most others won't either.

Like I said, just get whichever is cheaper. The performance difference won't be noticeable, and you will be happy with either.

 

[10TaTioN]

Like I said, just get whichever is cheaper. The performance difference won't be noticeable, and you will be happy with either.

Damn i tough the power usage from the normal 260 wasn't so improved, but yay then!

Of course 5% is nothing lol, still nVIDIA has better support, which is always good in every way (frame rate, 3rd party apps, support forums, etc).

I don't know about your country, but i can buy a HD4890 1GB for the same price as the EVGA 260 Core 216SP.

nVIDIA 260: Pay more for 5% more performance.

ATi 4870: Pay less for more power usage, which most likely will get the same price as the 260 due to the extra power usage at the end of the month.

Anyway, i would go for the nVIDIA, 5% in some games (or even more) is actually noticeable, specially in High-End games like Crysis: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1.21,754.html (3 frames are actually noticeable, specially under 25FPS -- but this obviously changes depending on the card manufacturer and version of the card (Overclocked or not)

But up to you obviously, like i said i prefer ATi (as im gonna wait for the series 5K to upgrade from my old x1950 pro), but for this two i would get the nVIDIA for sure. Try to read some forums about user experience with both cards, maybe will help you better.

Anyway wish you good luck with your new card.

 

[SneakySnake]

the extra 100 MB's of VRAM really helps in Crysis, my one brother owns the 4870 1 GB, and the other has the 260 c216, and when you turn quickly in Crysis the game noticably stutters as all of the distant trees and stuff are loaded into the VRAM on the 260.

Although I never play Crysis except for benching new GPU OC's

 

[[Ion]]

I would have to say go for the Nvidia card if you plan on folding, Nvidia cards fold far better than ATi cards, but otherwise I would probably go for the 4870 to save a little money or the 4890 to get something a little faster

 

[Kenshai]

No one noticed that op purchased the 4890

 

[Laurijan]

No one noticed that op purchased the 4890

I ordered the ASUS 4890 TOP 1GB DDR5 because my local shop has it for 3€ more expenssive than the standart ASUS 4890

 

[BlackOmega]

I ordered the ASUS 4890 TOP 1GB DDR5 because my local shop has it for 3€ more expenssive than the standart ASUS 4890

Good choice. The 4890 beats a 260/216 hands down, and thats at stock speeds. Now OC that mamma jamma!