4870 vs. GTX 260

Yes I know this might have been debated in the past, but now that these two cards are about the same in price, I wanted to get opinions on what would be the better buy at this point.

I realize the 4870 performs on average about 6% better (according to Tom's benchmark) than the GTX 260, however, runs hotter and is higher on power consumption. I wanted to see where the latest drivers landed these two? Which one, in your opinion, would be the better buy at this stage in the game. I will use this for general web surfing and gaming purposes.

I will not run either one of these cards in SLI or Crossfire. It will be a single card configuration paired with an E8500 CPU on a "19 LCD at 1280x1024. I realized at that resolution I can pretty much run almost any game maxed out smoothly, however, I will upgrade the monitor to a "24 early next year and wanted to see which card might be the better bet down the road.

Nvidia with CUDA and physx or ATI with Direct X 10.1. Right now I dont know if any of that technology buys me much, but down the road, which one plays out.. Not sure.

Appreciate the help!

Some other reviews rate the difference at 1.5% or even 0. For all intended purposes, they're the same. If you have sli motherboard, get gtx260, if you have cf motherboard, get 4870.

4870 runs much hotter, but the gpu also tolerates higher heat without artifacting, so it shouldn't be a big issue. Power consumption is also around the same. Things like CUDA and DX10.1 shouldn't be counted on. Those things may not materialize. Focus on current performance, not fads.

Wichever is cheaper would be my general advice, but if you have poor airflow in your case, are easily annoyed by loud fans or have a weak PSU the choice would seem to lean towards the 260, IDK about performance gain with the new set of drivers, I do know however that in the past ati has shown more gain from it than nvidia, but I also know that drivers aren't magic, so you'll have to do some research.

Anyway, long story short, get wichever is cheaper, if they are around the same price and you have no heat issues go with a dual slot 4870, if you care a lot about power consumption go with the 260.

Havok is actually INTEL's version of physx, and it predates physx too, albeit it wasn't owned by intel at that time.

yeah definitly listen to these guys, they nailed it.

props for first unbiased (at least as close as you can get to unbiased) topic talking about a 4820 and gtx 260!

^+1

You did something wrong ... 'cause I didn't have any problems and the card rocks. I run it with 8x edge-detect (24 samples) high quality image settings and still get above 70 FPS in FlatOut and COD

Please show us the benchmarks where the 260 GTX is 15-20% better than the 4870....I really want to see them!

Also...
http://www.hexus.net/content/item. [...] 144&page=9

The way it's meant to be played...

Have a nice day!

In the UK at least, the GTX260 XXX is 26% more expensive than a HD4870.

Also, those benchmarks vary wildly but just saying the 260 is 10-15% faster isn't accurate. For example, in Crysis 1920x1200 High both cards pull off exactly 30fps average. In some other benchmarks the 4870 is faster.

There's no easy answer to this but if I was considering buying these two I would wonder why i'm paying an extra £45 when the cheaper card is capable of reaching the same performance level.

The first review you link was an OC which isnt a good compare and the second is with drivers predating the GPU. Try this review using version 8.7 that has optimizations for the 4800's. The second graph shows a wide margins but the over all is a draw. I would pick the 4870 due to the DX10.1 support in this case over the 260GTX which only supports DX10.
http://www.techspot.com/review/109 [...] age11.html
On your first link why pay someone extra to OC the card when you can do it for free? The 4870 can be OC'ed by the catalyst software ATI offers for free and im sure the Nvidia's can be OC easily. Before I would pay for OCing I would just buy the costlier 280 or 4870x2.

Speaking of oc, a stock gtx260 does oc better than 4870. So if you typically oc, this'll even out or reverse the small performance edge 4870 has once both cards are oced to their respective typical limits.

You've already seen it in that benchmark concerning the factory oced gtx260. Typical do-it-yourself oc tend to go higher than any factory oced card. It gives an indication.

it all comes down to choice you can choose to support a company that if it wasn't for the 4870 you would be paying £340 or you can go with the smarter option and get the 4870 and be happy in the knowledge that the card is only going to get faster when DX10.1 games come out

Exactly^ , plus you can't compare an OC 260 GTX with a stock 4870 ......Comon.. Don't you guys know that the 4870 can OC as well?

no1 mentioned about the benefits it might get from dX 10.1 (20% increase in performance apperently)

EDIT: I would like to add, that I don't trust that website even if my life depended on it

Heres one from Anands showing the 4870 using 16 watts more. http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=22 Heres one from Toms http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 64-15.html It shows the 4870 using 13 watts more. I can find others where the 4870 uses less, but overall its a moot point. Either way youre talking 1 amp at 12v. To me, not a deal breaker, and not anuthing near as important as getting that hot air out of your case. Just because ATI cards run hot, and they dont fail at those temps, they do remove all the heat, unlike nVidia cards, which push some of that heated air into your case. To me, when people say, gosh, ATI cards run hotter doesnt mean a thing. And when people claim its better by going nVidia because they run a lil cooler, thats the opposite of the truth, as they SHOULD be concerned about the hot air those nVidia cards are releasing into their cases

Yeah, thatd truly suck

Yes.

A single 4870? Yes.

I say this everytime this comparison comes up, pick the one you can get the best deal on. That said the 4870 is superior, but that's more theoretical than noticeable.

The deal is not the problem,these 500watt are!!!!
I dont have enough money for GPU and PSU.
So,the question is,which one can survive with Enermax Liberty 500 ????

For both that is.

Official requirement for 4870 is the same 500watts. They're overestimating just to be safe. It's fine.

You are my savior!!!