ATI Radeon 4850 vs Nvidia 9800 GTX+ - Best Card Poll

[superchris7]

ATI Radeon 4850 vs Nvidia 9800 GTX+

Help me decide!!!

 

[cjl]

4850. Slightly faster, cheaper, and dx10.1.

 

[JuiceJones]

The main win for the 9800 is Unreal engine games and folding at home, otherwise 4850 is the better value

 

[tekzor]

I own a 4850, its cheap goodness.

 

[anonymous x]

9800 GTX+
1. I have one
2. Its faster (don't just read one review and decide on that) on most games (execpt ati biased ones like COD4 and source based games)
3. Runs much cooler (with stock 35% fan speed LOAD my card never gets to 70°C
4.OC's higher
5. Physx and CUDA (now with the support base (lots of people have geforce 8/9/2xx cards), more games will come out with this support

 

[br3nd064]

Depends on what games you'll be playing mostly.

 

[Sus-penders]

4850

cheaper
smaller
one PCIe 6 pin plug
same/better performance (depends on game obviously!)
Racedriver: GRID's best friend

 

[dagger]

It varies in different games. See benchmarks.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=19

Either one may be better, depending on which game you play.

 

[spoonboy]

9800 GTX+
1. I have one
2. Its faster (don't just read one review and decide on that) on most games (execpt ati biased ones like COD4 and source based games)
3. Runs much cooler (with stock 35% fan speed LOAD my card never gets to 70°C
4.OC's higher
5. Physx and CUDA (now with the support base (lots of people have geforce 8/9/2xx cards), more games will come out with this support

2. 9800gtx+ probably is, but theres very very little in it. 9800gtx is generally behind the 4850. Especially if you pump the res and AA. COD4 is on 'The way its meant to be played' by the way . As our most top titles:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_twimtbp_gameslist.html

3. The 4850 and 4870 run hot, but its utter childsplay to make a custom fanprofile in Catalyst control centre:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1MiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

If this page at madshrimps.com is anything to go by, a sensible 40% fan speed should chop 20°C of load and idle temps.

My 4870 never gets to 60°C with 30% fan speed under load, idles in the low 40's. 35% fan speed load in the low 50s and idles between 38-40°C. 40% fan speed has little effect on temps over 35% for me, so over 40% would just be noisey and not all that effective.

4. Overclocking the 9800gtx/9800gtx+ has some pretty steep diminishing returns. The G92 core has acute bandwidth/framebuffer bottlenecks at the higher end.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1NCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

5. Physx and CUDA are just as ambiguous in usefulness right now and the immediate future as dx10.1. Games brought out using it might very well need more shading power for the physics calculations than a 9800gtx can provide. Browse through this article and make your own mind up:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15261/1

6. 4850 uses less power than the 9800gtx, marginally more than 9800gtx+

7. 4850 has better audio features, if your a home cinema fan.

 

[anonymous x]

2. 9800gtx+ probably is, but theres very very little in it. 9800gtx is generally behind the 4850. Especially if you pump the res and AA. COD4 is on 'The way its meant to be played' by the way . As our most top titles:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_twimtbp_gameslist.html

3. The 4850 and 4870 run hot, but its utter childsplay to make a custom fanprofile in Catalyst control centre:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1MiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

If this page at madshrimps.com is anything to go by, a sensible 40% fan speed should chop 20°C of load and idle temps.

My 4870 never gets to 60°C with 30% fan speed under load, idles in the low 40's. 35% fan speed load in the low 50s and idles between 38-40°C. 40% fan speed has little effect on temps over 35% for me, so over 40% would just be noisey and not all that effective.

4. Overclocking the 9800gtx/9800gtx+ has some pretty steep diminishing returns. The G92 core has acute bandwidth/framebuffer bottlenecks at the higher end.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1NCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

5. Physx and CUDA are just as ambiguous in usefulness right now and the immediate future as dx10.1. Games brought out using it might very well need more shading power for the physics calculations than a 9800gtx can provide. Browse through this article and make your own mind up:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15261/1

6. 4850 uses less power than the 9800gtx, marginally more than 9800gtx+

7. 4850 has better audio features, if your a home cinema fan.

2. got me there on the COD4 thing, but the point is most games on review sites run about faster on the GTX+
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1297&pageID=5020
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/731/17/
"The GeForce 9800 GTX+ was faster in the majority of the benchmarks we tested it on and it had a tad more overclocking head room than the ATI Radeon HD 4850 did"

3. I was comparing stock to stock...
If I made a fan profile with my card it would idle and load much lower (not that I need to)
Also, using your 4870 as an example is irrelevant as this is comparing the 4850 to the 9800 GTX+, using a different card with a different cooler would be like me comparing a 9800 GTX+ to a 9500 GT in power usage- different cards, different price points, not comparable.

4. These are MID RANGE cards, ($200 and below- mid range) neither the 4850 or the 9800 will be adequate at the "higher end, " whatever that is according to you (if you mean higher resolutions and 8x AA, the average user would be looking for a bit more oomph then these cards can provide- like your 4870 )
anyway, review sites overclocking results are not half bad...
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/732/6/
"At 1920x1200 the overclocked GeForce 9800 GTX+ enjoyed a 14.1% performance increase for free!"
note that this card is slower than the 4850 at stock settings, but when overclocked (and it OC's higher), at 1920 by 1200 (is that res "higher enough" for you?), big improvement.
similar results in other games too
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/732/5/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-9800-gtx-512mb-plus-review/11
"You can expect to push another 10%-15 additional performance out of the card, completely free"

5. "Physx and CUDA are just as ambiguous in usefulness right now and the immediate future as dx10.1"
remember that there actually ARE games that support physx right now
http://physx.cwx.ru/

6. well you stated it right there, "marginally more than 9800gtx+"

7. these cards for overkill for HTPC, any way, If i was an audio freak, I would prefer my sound to come from a dedicated sound card
*tired after typing this
*edited some typos

 

[dagger]

Overall average performance, across multiple games, multiple resolutions, with and without aa/af:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_9800_GTX_Plus_Amp_Edition/26.html

 

[ron123]

i read this article on xbit a while back comparing a volt modded overclocked 9800GTX(c-875/s-2188MHz/m-1100Mhz) to a standard 4850/70 and found that the only games in which the OC'd GTX beats the 4850 are already well above playable fps for both cards, so it makes no noticeable difference.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce9800gtx-voltmodding.html

check the article urself (if lazy just read the conclusion).

PS: the extreme OC 9800GTX died shortly after the tests, so i doubt pple can oc the GTX much more than this.

 

[radnor]

Pick a version of the 4850 with non stock cooler. They are now plenty. Runs much cooler and much more quieter.

I got this one for 2 euros more than the stock one. Its is nice to put the Ms watching a film on the big LCD and i can play PES2008. At the same time, no stuttering.

 

[falcodakrzz]

4850, it does run faster than a 9800gtx, and is great for crossfire if you wish to upgrade.

 

[one-shot]

Anonymous X. ^^^^^^^^^

You said comparing a 4870->4850 is like a 9800GTX+ to a 9500GT. As you probably know. The main difference between the 4850 and 4870 is the memory. They are pretty close in specs. The difference between the 9800GTX+ and 9500GT is a huge difference. My 4850 idles around 60 with 35% fan and 57 with 40% fan speed.

Spoonboy wrote that his 4870 idled around the 60 as well. So comparing the two GPU's isn't that much of a difference or anything even remotely significant. Again, 9800GTX and 9500GT is a horrible comparison, they aren't even in the same class or targeting the same users.