ATI 4870 or Nvidia 9800GTX....

I currently have a 8800GT, and Im looking to upgrade to something with more umpf. Im playing Age of Conan and the card runs the game fine, but not at high/max settings with a decent FPS/smoothness. I want to max this game out, that simple.

I was originally going to upgrade to the 4870, but im not sure as to how much stronger it will be than a 9800GTX, im sure nobody does really, but im sure some of the hardcore techies and research diggers here do. Thanks in advance for any advice.

First of all, like you said, no one really knows. My guess? The 4870 will be a superior gpu. That being said, if you bought a 9800GTX now, theres once again rumors, mostly fact, that theres a 9800GTX refresh coming out called the 92b, in 55nm. So just hold off for a week or so, and all will be good

Yeah, I expect the 4870 will do it, but evem so, if the OP went out and bought a 9800GTX now, I think hed be let down with the refresh coming on that card

Rumors have the 4870 running slightly faster then a 88GTX, so basically itd be on par to slightly above the performance of a 98GTX.

I run at the same res as you deuce, and have shadows off, bloom off as well. I run at the medium preset with 4x AA and AF at 13 and I get anywhere between 50-90fps in everyzone. My key problem is this "hitch" i get all the time, game just pauses when I say turn the camera fast or enter a high detalied zone, or just running through a zone period actually.

The 9800GTX Is down to $270 on newegg, MSI one.

BTW i think 8800GTto a 9800GTX? not worth it. At least for now(the price)

Yep, good choice!

Exactly. Shadows are do-able, but Bloom just SLAUGHTERS this card. With bloom on my FPS drops by a rough 75%, no ****.

It may, looks close. Maybe between the two. Too early to really tell yet, but Im thinking it will

Just add another 8800 GT in SLI for cheaper then all these suggestions, and max out every game, thats what I've got and I play everything at 1900X1200, on my 24" monitor. It out performs an 8800 Ultra, and an 9800GTX, and I get better than a 9800GX2 in 3dmark scores as far as what I've read. But my cards are overclocked as well as my processor.

NO, I cant play Crysis on maxed settings,(no one can) but at 1900x1200 med settings I still get 25-30 fps. Just gotta have a good CPU that doesn't bottle neck you.

The 4870 is going to be a nice card, but get the x2 version if your going to get it, supposedly 2.5 times faster than an 8800GT in benchmarks.

Other than that honestly you should wait for the benchmarks and final numbers before you make any decision. I am just sitting on my Sli 8800GT's until I see who comes out on top. It runs every games I have at maxed settings.

The GTX should be off the table, you can't compare the 2 cards. You better off getting a 8800 GTS 512 instead of the 9800 GTX.

But I'd say wait for 4780 benchmarks.

Well Thogrom, you just have the best 640 mb 8800 graphics card ever made.

You should immediately send it to the Guiness World Book of Records for approval to be admitted as the fastest 8800 period for that matter..

Because currently your doing better than anyone I know. Especially if you have a constant 30 FPS!! Even benchmarked 8800 Ultras havent maintained 30 constant frames per second.

My cards spike to 45-50 FPS sometimes too but thats not an average for that game. I am averaging about 30 maybe...just maybe 35 in about 90% of the game, with a quad core running at 3.5ghz and 4gb of DDR3 w/ (2) SLI'd 8800GT's overclocked. And I know my setup is solid and configured right.

So again.. Call Guiness..and get that thing plated in GOLD too!! Becuase you got the ultra of Ultra's... Oh and lets not forget that a single 8800GT outperforms an 8800 640mb by 30% in every benchmark out there.

So yeah, two of em definitely won't stand up to your amazingly fast Ferrari Edition 8800 GTS 640mb.

Geeze I got a 320mb 8800GTS right now that also out performed the 640mb card and it's sitting dusty on a shelf. You should tell your mom to quit putting vodka in your Kool Aid Kid.

Alright benchies are done. Used the GPU timedemo.

Crysis on Medium


Crysis on High


Crysis on VeryHigh

What's wrong with them?

They're cropped because i have 2 monitors, unless you wanna see an additional 1280x1024 pixels of extra space...

1680*1050 very high dx10 16x AF 0xAA gpu benchmark batch file; I get 38.7 fps max, 16 fps min; 27 fps average

8800 GT SLI Oc-ed 650/1620/950, e8400 @ 3.6ghz; nvidia control panel settings: alternate frame rendering SLI mode, 16x AF forced, multi display/mix gpu accelerration - single display performance mode

Its totally playable up until the level after paradise lost; the level with the sphere (the escape in the vtol) i'm not sure which setting it is, but one of the settings lags the living **** out of it anytime I look at the sphere on very high. Other than that, no issues; I think that part of the game might not be optimized for very high but i'm not sure.

Played through the game 3 times now, this last time was on those settings.

Crysis High is a cakewalk in comparison to very high