Please help me with choosing either ATI 4850 512mb or Nvidia GTS 250 512mb

[matt445]

well. ok i understand now. I am waiting for a while before upgrading my 8800GS. but for now i think GTS 250 is a better buy. but things might change later.

My 8800GS 384MB served me well till now. i can play most new games on high settings even Crysis. its such a great budget card.

My advice to u is that not to listen to others saying that g92 based cards are "old" now or outdated. just because Nvidia released 8800gt or gtx 2 years ago doesnt make them any slower.

8800gt or gts or gtx are still such performance card and can put up some great performance on most new games and of course except unoptimized games like Crysis which hardly any new card can play it nicely.

regardless of how old g92 based cards might be, Nvidia 9800GTX+ is a firm competitor against the 4850 as far as i can see. Considering the new GTS 250 which is smaller and power effecient and also way cheaper in here, it might be a solid card against the 4850 if u superclock it and gain 7 or 8 fps out of it.

Since im not afraid of overclocking, i will most likely overclock one of those to its limit.
Seeing as how i overclocked my 8800GS to 800mhz core, 1900mhz shader and 1030mhz memory.
sometimes in games the driver fails because of that aggressive overclock, but again i quit the game and turn down the clock a notch just to find out the sweet spot for that particular game.

 

[Ketxxx]

HD4850 ALL the way. Its newer technology, you will get better FPS at high resolutions, and it'll OC better. The GTS250 is a rebadged G92 core, which is old, has less features compared to the HD4850 and the G92 in every way is architecturally inferior to the HD4850.

 

[PennySavre]

I doubt there's much reason to be put off by either card, both are probably great. I'm not sure what kind of temps the GTS 250 will reach but if the cooler with the 4850 isn't great, the card can either run hot or you could just turn the fan speed up to cool it better which might mean the fan being a bit noisey. I'm not sure how the various equipped coolers of the 4850 are though, just the reference one.

 

[solofly]

I'm using an 8800 GTX and I wouldn't take any of those over it unless I was trying to fill up my house with similarly performing PCs.

Not me. Had the 8800GTX since Nov/06. It's a nice card and all but HD4850 keeps up with it at half the size and power consumption.

 

[Jeffredo]

Not me. Had the 8800GTX since Nov/06. It's a nice card and all but HD4850 keeps up with it at half the size and power consumption.

The extra power it uses will never exceed the cost of a new card and I have a roomy, well ventilated full tower case.

 

[Wile E]

HD4850 ALL the way. Its newer technology, you will get better FPS at high resolutions, and it'll OC better. The GTS250 is a rebadged G92 core, which is old, has less features compared to the HD4850 and the G92 in every way is architecturally inferior to the HD4850.

It's architectural design does make a damn bit of difference to the end user. Only the performance matters. Tech specs don't always translate to real world performance gains.

Now, back to the matter at hand. If you grab the GTS250, your only option for future upgrades with your setup is to completely replace it with a different card. If you grab the 4850, you have the option of adding a second 48xx card down the road for more performance. Just something to think about.

 

[matt445]

Wile E: well. My motherboard only support 4x crossfire. and also i will have to buy a better PSU for crossfire if i add another 1. so it will be expensive.

I dont think there will be any games that will run slow on a 9800gtx+ or GTS 250 anytime soon. apart from unoptimized games like Crysis. Crysis just doesnt take advantage of the new hardware because its released in 2007 and also there hasnt been updated with a patch to take advantage of the new hardware. and thats why every cards run slow on it.

as u said, i dont care about the 4850 architecture. its 800 SP does nothing. in theory it should "slaughter" 9800gtx+ with its 800 SP but it doesnt. its the performance that matter to me and at the moment 9800gtx+ is faster than 4850.

people say 4850 is faster when u apply 8x on higher resolution but who will need or use 8x AA or AF? i hardly use any AA or AF.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I would stick to my 4850 no doubt vs a 250... The 250 would be better at F@H though...

 

[matt445]

PVTCaboose1337 : 250 will be better at everything my good friend . Nvidia drivers are keep improving so it will even be better. ATI drivers are too messy right now. also no physx support.
also i heared 250 can be overclocked like crazy. another advantage.

 

[matt445]

I will likely buy Galaxy GTS 250 PCI-E 2.0 512MB DDR3 256-bit 738/2200MHz http://www.extremepc.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=124_127&products_id=3673. if 4850 continues to be behind 9800GTX+ even despite the new drivers.

 

[Wile E]

PVTCaboose1337 : 250 will be better at everything my good friend . Nvidia drivers are keep improving so it will even be better. ATI drivers are too messy right now. also no physx support.
also i heared 250 can be overclocked like crazy. another advantage.

Yeah, no Physx on ATI, but also no DX10.1 or tessellation on nVidia. It's a trade-off either way.

Neither card would be a poor choice.

 

[matt445]

wile E: but there arent any games that use tessellation . i dont know what does it do . but there are games that use Nvidia physix.

So how did u manage to overclock the core to 900mhz?? is it the core clock or memory?????

 

[Wile E]

wile E: but there arent any games that use tessellation . i dont know what does it do . but there are games that use Nvidia physix.

So how did u manage to overclock the core to 900mhz?? is it the core clock or memory?????

Core clock. It took a voltmod. Could probably be done with a vmod and after market air cooler, but I'm on water for added temperature safety.

 

[matt445]

oh. lol. so its an expensive and risky experiment .

 

[matt445]

wile e: in most of the benchmarks, the performance gap between 9800GTX+ and 4870 isnt too large. i think 4870 is 10fps faster than 9800GTX+ at best in which can be narrower by an overclock. dont u think?

When i get my GTS 250 i plan to overclock it like crazy. maybe to the point of seizure. lol.
trying to get it close to the 4870 performance. which is more possible than with a 4850.

 

[Gzero]

Don't get your hopes up

 

[theorw]

Don't get your hopes up

+1

 

[theorw]

wile e: in most of the benchmarks, the performance gap between 9800GTX+ and 4870 isnt too large. i think 4870 is 10fps faster than 9800GTX+ at best in which can be narrower by an overclock. dont u think?

When i get my GTS 250 i plan to overclock it like crazy. maybe to the point of seizure. lol.
trying to get it close to the 4870 performance. which is more possible than with a 4850.

Dude what is Up with u and the 9800gtx+??????
Its a nice card good for the money it costs but its not THE CARD!!!
Its midrange,a click closer to highend but thats all.
If u think that (for example:cod4 1920 1200 all filters)
94vs 78 fps is a little difference...
or (extreme example crysis 1920 1200 all filters on)
10.8 vs 5.5 fps is again small then ok try to fill the gap of 5 frames in crysis and u have my respect...
But please dont say that 9800gtx+ is such card and great ocer etc...It get annoying...
Try oc 4870 and u ll see that theres a HUGE gap between them.
And by the way the benches are from tomshardware...

 

[matt445]

theorw: i dont care about 1920 1200 resolution or the AA or AF. my monitor only support 1600*1200 resolution and i dont use AA or AF. so ur point is moot.

ATI drivers arent reliable. 4870 would be good but only if it was in the same range of prices as 4850 or 9800gtx+.

What i mean is that ATI hyped the 800 SP of the 4850. they made it a big deal. but in reality it doesnt do a thing against the 128 SP of 9800gtx+!!!!.

I know they all work differently. but whats the point? Why ATI made it like that? why they didnt go with the Nvidia way???

 

[matt445]

I am inspired by the 9800gtx+ or GTS 250 512mb. i cant wait to get it. im still saving up.

 

[theorw]

Your way of thinking si ANNOYING dude!!!
The same way MAZDA RX8 has a WANKEL engine of 1300cc of 230 HP and the other cars need 2000cc+TURBO to get to 230.U mean to tell me that u wouldn t get a CIVIC TYPE R because its only 2000cc and the RX8 is almost as fast and being 1300cc only???
Stop being blind dude!U dont know enough yet to say such things and have no point on them.
And if u want a true SOLID AND STUPID EXAMPLE as stupid as the things u say,No one uses 9800gtx+s or 250s to break the VANTAGE RECORD.but only 4870s,4870X2 or 295s.U know why because they are all far stronger than 9800gtx+.Check out on futuremark to see yourself.I think that 4870s hold the record...

 

[wolf]

VANTAGE RECORD ... I think that 4870s hold the record...

i think youll find it was broken by GTX295 Quad SLi Liquid Nitrogen cooled, it was insane, all 4 gpu's were running 1GHZ + and 1800+ on the shaders if memory serves.

that is, unless its been broken since then and nobody told me!

 

[theorw]

Well i am sure they stole the1st palce from some 4870s and deffinately not from some 9800gtx+ s.
Right...?

 

[wolf]

Well i am sure they stole the1st palce from some 4870s and deffinately not from some 9800gtx+ s.
Right...?

yeah my guess is from 4870X2 Quad CF or maybe even 3 HIGHLY overclocked GTX280/285's had it too? they do well for themselves in vantage, especially against 4x4870 GPU's

 

[theorw]

Well thats the situation for now until HIPRO5 decides to make a few 4870x2 freeze to death and break the record again...