HD 4850 or 9800GTX?

Performance is basically the same, they edge each other out in about the same number of benchmarks. I would buy the 4850 myself, I tend to prefer AMD cards to nvidia. I think the 4850 runs a little bit cooler too, it does use a single slot cooler compared to the dual slot on the 9800GTX. Really, since price and performance are pretty much the same, it doesn't matter much. I would say it boils down to if you have a brand preference, and whether or not you mind a dual slot cooler.

Another one that I'd add to your list is that the 4850 will easily fit in most cases, while the Nvidia cards are extremely long and can be hard to it in many cases.

In addition to everything alrdy mentioned 4850 is 55nm and 9800 65nm.

If I were you I'd wait till 4870 is released, I think it'll cost less than 300$ so is a good option.

Actually they're the same price now.

of course 4850
you can oc the card to 700mhz easily by adjust the catalyz-control center
but 9800GXT is on a high frequence now

Apparently ASUS has just such a card that will be available in the near future.
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525 [...] x57fu4.jpg

Plus the 4850 needs a lot less power, an aspect to consider if you have a less powerful power supply.

Yep HD 4850 on this one. at the same price. With additional feature for HTPC is more like an all around card HDMI feature really is something to consider.

Nvidia launch the 9800GTX+ which is basically 8800GT rev.3.

There's no point posting a poll since you can't see the results.

BTW I voted HD 4850.

I chose "Something else" because if you were considering a 300$ card, you had the budget for it. Therefore the 4870 coming soon could be of interest to you; moreover, it might have a dual-slot cooler which I prefer for temp control in my case. If you insist on buying right now, I don't think you can go wrong with a 4850 for 200$.

I'm going for the 4870 or 4870 x2 ... depending on my budget...
you should do the same

ATI for the sole reason that having them compete keeps nvidia a little more honest.

Nvidia halved the cost of the 9800GTX in the space of a few months - which just shows how much they were reaming us in the first place.

Reaming us? No one has to have a 9800GTX. It's purely a choice. And the cost of any piece of hardware is exactly what the market will bear.

The new 9800GTX's that are Physics enabled are looking pretty good to me. They will simply trounce the 4850.

The only big title is Unreal Tournament 3. All the other games, even physics intensive ones, like Crysis, use their own physics engine that runs off extra cores of dual/quad cpu instead of gpu.

Have a read......http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nvidia-PhysX-GTX2800,5725.html
How much this really helps outside of benchmarks is still out for debate....
But the synthetic benchmarks, especially for the CPU are simply outstanding.

i'm buying a 4850 just because i've had nvidia since 2003 and i'm ready to try something new. plus the 4850 has so far proven to be a good choice. even if it runs a little hot, you could just turn up the fan speed or get an aftermarket cooler. not the end of the world

Voted 4850 all the way. About same raw performance. Sometimes 4850 getting near 260gtx performance though. Much better 8xAA than 9800gtx or even the ultra. More processing power than 9800gtx that will start leading when more shader heavy games appear. It's cheaper and more quieter.

There's a sale going on best buy. People are getting 25% off visiontek cards making 4850 $150.

1. 4850 driver refinements will see it pull ahead of the G80/92/92b GPUs which are much further along the development path (thus less scope for improvement).

2. AMD/ATI driver updates are now much more regular (and in my view better) than Nvidia's rather scattergun approach.

3. Nvidia are carrying out some questionable actions in the market (TWIMTPB), which is negatively affecting the consumer IMO.

4. Crossfire X leaves you will much more flexibility with a 4850 and other cards in the future rather than a 9800

5. 7.1 channel HMDI audio out on 4850.

SLI is soon to be dead so the only forward thinking answer is CF.

Even Intel is only going to push CF.

Since Intel won't license Nehalem's SB to NV then their chipset division is wrecked.

Other than single socket cards and the promise of CUDA they are soon to be toast ... even in the CAD end they are now getting some serious competition.

Bummer when you bite the hand of both of the masters who feed you.

Goodbye Nvidia ... and thanks for the bent benchmarks, crap drivers, and all of the lies.

You can keep the Itanium too ... the new 260 / 280 will be more of a paper launch than the Ultra ... lpus they won't make money out of a die the size of my mother in laws ass.

RIP.

4850. Why? Because it's faster than the 9800GTX and it can overclock as well. Just get an aftermarket cooler (the same thing any sane person with a 8800GT would do).

That has got to be the most annoying sig pic ever. Thank god for adblock plus. (no offense mate)

4850


Heat doesnt really matter tbh as long as its not too hot

how many times recently have people got their hopes up about cards from both companies, i say we all take a big spoonful of pessimism and hope for the worst, at least then we won't be disappointed.

get hd 4870 price $229 really good


HD 4850 easy overclock beat 98000gtx