26 inch monitor.....which video card?

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D

DennisP

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I will be replacing my current (Intrim) video card in the near future and cannot decide which way to go.

I was originally going to wait for another price drop and pick up a GTX 280. I've been reading about the new ATI 4870 and how it stacks up against the GTX 260 (falls somewhere between the GTX 260 and the GTX 280 but leans more towards the GTX 260 in actual performance).

Since I'm using a 26 inch Samsung monitor and run my resolutions at 1920X1200.....I'm wondering which card could provide the best performance without breaking the bank. Of course, I'd love to have a Radeon 4870 X2......but not at the current price....but maybe after the next seneration of cards comes out...that may be a possibility.

With the introduction of the new ATI 4870 X2...perhaps Nvidia will speed a new card to production thereby making the GTX 280 a bargain priced model....I'm not in a real rush to get a card right this minute.

My concern is having a card that will push a 26 inch monitor with no problems.

Cheers
 
D

DennisP

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Mobo won't support crossfire or SLI Gigabyte EP35-DS3L...so single card solution is only option. Surprised not a big push for the ATI 4870...I was leaning toward that card. Seems like I am changing my mind after every review and comparison I read. Some reviewers are pitching the GTX260..others are pushing the ATI 4870 ....some rate them almost even. With talk of a GTX260+ for close to the same cash due out this month.....that would be a no-brainer......just not sure. If only the GTX 280 would drop another $100....my quest would be over. I'd prefer to not spend over $300 for a VGA........

 
emp

emp

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If your budget is up to $300 and you can't do multi-GPU, then HD 4870 is the only option. Don't even bother thinking about the GTX 260, not worth it.
 
D

DennisP

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What have we heard about this card?

Diamond 4870PE51G ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCI-Express 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Video Card

Selling for about $9 over the $300 mark and has 1 GB of GDDR5 Memory. The extra memory has got help overall performace over the 512MB version......yes?

This one looks like it could be the one :bounce:
 
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dagger

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If you plan to run that huge monitor at its highest resolution, single 4870/gtx260 will probably not pack enough punch. Since you can't crossfire/sli, you're probably limited to the 3 fastest single cards: 1st 4870x2($550), 2nd 9800gx2($280), 3rd gtx280($420).
 
emp

emp

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Please. The GTX 260 is a failure on wheels with funky plastic cover. As much as I dislike dagger's beloved Peanut-Butter-&-Jelly-GX2, I have to admit that it does hold some value compared to the GTX 260.
 
spathotan

spathotan

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9800GX2 is a good buy. But make sure you got the powersupply for it, and the ventilation. But that might be a ehhh buy since the 4800 cards handle AA alot better.
 
L1qu1d

L1qu1d

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I'd still say 4870

vga-crysis.png


vga-cod4.png


vga-stalker-dynamic.png


Here is one of the games that favor nvidia

vga-quakewars.png


Not really this 1, except at 2560
vga-wic-med.png


All of these are from guru3d, check em out
 
emp

emp

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Try enabling AA, and after you do that, try enabling AA of the same quality as Ati's... just to see how low the dive of your precious GTX 260 goes.
 
chef_jd

chef_jd

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You can go to a dozen different sites and get different results. Even tomshardware puts them in the same catagory. I say if you have nvidia chipset go with gtx 260, if you have amd chipset go with ati, if you have intel then choose as you really will not notice a real difference between the gtx 260 and the 4870. I like and use both ATI and Nvidia so I could care less who is on top as long as they are truly on top. People just need to post facts. The 4870 does do better on some games and some benchmarks, but then again the gtx 260 does better on some games and some benchmarks. Choose which games you play and pick the one that does better on those.
 
-Fran-

-Fran-

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Facts:
- ATi has DX10.1, nVidia has DX10
- ATi has AVIVO, nVidia has paid PureVideoHD
- nVidia has CUDA, ATi has OpenCL and a promise to do a better thing, lol
- nVidia has PhysX, ATi has Havok
- nVidia has defective chips (on notebooks confirmed at least), in ATi no one really knows of defective chips so far, lol.

How those facts affect you, no one knows better than you :p

I like the fact that ATi has DX10.1 NOW, so i won't have to upgrade my hi-end card to a new one on the mid run to play new content decently :p

Esop!

EDIT: Spelling
 
emp

emp

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Umm that's the thing, Tom's articles are slightly biased in nvidia's favor. But if we're trying to talk about facts here. Nvidia's standard antialiasing is of lesser quality than Ati's antialiasing, however you can set it up in the control panel to match Ati's quality, however this takes an incredible performance toll, something which is usually never reported on articles and very poorly documented so far. Not only that, but Ati cards are all around superior when AA is enabled, bar a few "The way it's meant to be played" titles like Crysis.

With this I'm not saying that the HD 4870 is good a buy for that resolution, because I think it's lacking just like the GTX 260, just that the 4870 is a better for the price. If you really think that AA is no big deal for a card at this level, then you're just kidding yourself.

EDIT: And before anyone comes with the "fanboy" word, look at my avatar with the EVGA logo that I've carried for nearly a year I think now, and also note I am running at the moment an 8800GTS (even though my HD 4850 should be here any day now...). Nvidia just dropped the ball this time around and I'm unable to recommend their cards past the $130 price point (8800GT).
 
L1qu1d

L1qu1d

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Its not about failiure, its about who gave the the best price first:D. Not only that bu ATI cards seem to handle AA better and also produce better image quality than Nvidia:)
 
D

DennisP

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Do you guys think the 4870 with the extra 512MB of the GDDR5 (1GB total) will have enough push of my 26" Samsung running at 1920X1200?

I've read that the extra Memory does make a difference on larger displays.
 
L1qu1d

L1qu1d

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it makes a very minor difference, there were some cases where the card with the higher frame buffer under performed, like the the 8800 GTS 320 and 640. There were times where the 640 under performed.
 
-Fran-

-Fran-

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If i recall correctly, in this case, the 4870 1GB stays always on top of the 512MB version. And on larger res it just goes far far away from the 512MB version.

I know some one has that benchmark link XD

I'll look for it around :p

Esop!
 
L1qu1d

L1qu1d

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That site barely says anything, they benched a card in DX 9, and also had 2 benchies in DX 10, Vantage and Crysis. The 4870 1 gig only won by a huge difference when AA was enabled in Crysis, and the frames remained un playable....

So I'm still skeptical it will actually make much of a difference:D

Next link:p
 
-Fran-

-Fran-

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Well, in Crysis it was ahead all the time, also in Vantage it was ahead all the time, right? Even on XP it was ahead all the time.

That was my point. The 4870's scaling is not like on the 8800 series :p

So it is worthy of an upgrade NOW and will last for even a longer time than the 512MB version.

Come on, agree with me on this one >_<

Esop!
 
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