Radeon 4870 vs Geforce 9800 gx2

K so both of these cards stock are about the same price on newegg. I've been doing tons of research for about a week now and still cant decide which one of these babies to choose from. I find so many benchmarks where they compare the 4870 to the gtx 260/280 and since the 9800gx2 seems to be an older card, I cant find much comparing 4870 to the 9800gx2 ....

I'm hoping that the small amount of benchmarks I did find aren't just talking about the XFX version of the 9800 gx2 Which then wouldn't matter and I'd stick with the radeon 4870. (the 9800gx2 dominates games like mass effect it seems, and strangely is ahead of top cards in other places as well)

So question is, which one of these cards is better? I'm planing on playing lots of fps which is my main reason to upgrade. (Crysis, UT3, half life 2 episode 2, quake 4, some mass effect and will be interested in Fear 2 and Half Life 3 whenever they end up coming out as well.)

Here's my 2 chosen cards .....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133231


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814103064 (These cards welcome to criticism )

Also if anybody knows where I could get the 8 pin adapter for the power supply that connects the 9800gx2 to the PSU because the Power supple I've chosen only has 2 6 pin connections. THanks

Price will only go up $10, nothing to sneeze at for those that aren't made of money, but still cheaper than the 4870 by that amount + shipping on the 4870.

Its still almost 20 cheaper(30 if you get it today).

They're erring on the side of caution (which is the right thing to do). This way they don't get complaints from noobs with small psus.

Actual system power consumptions is quite a bit lower.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=22

Total system power consumption under load for 9800gx2 is still higher than 4870 though, 289.2 compared to 278.6 watts.

lol wow, those have to be the most biased benchmarks I've ever seen. They only show the ones where the 9800gx2 wins .... (high res matches with no AA, AF filters) Isn't AA and AF a good thing?

if you've got an nvidia motherboard go with the 9800gx2, but if you think DX10.1 is going to be prominent in games and you've got any other motherboard go with the 4780

Dagger, this guy that reviewed the card on this page:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133231

says that he had to purchase the converter separately

"Cons: Does NOT come with PCIE 6-pin to 8-pin converter. BFG and XFX include this with their products; I was forced to purchase seperatly."


I also cannot identify it in the package contents

VCG98GX2XPB-OC
Driver Disk
User's Manual
Power Cable
DVI to VGA/D-sub Adapter
S/PDIF Cable

Lol, strange that they show it in picture of package contents. False advertising.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Show [...] -%20Retail

The adapter is pretty cheap though, doesn't really make much of an impact on bottom line, just annoying to buy separately.
http://www.google.com/products?q=8 [...] en&show=dd

Well, 9800gx2 quad sli still outperforms 4870 dual sli, but that's really only because the existing gap between single 9800gx2 and 4870 is so huge already that it can't be overshoot despite the handicap. The amount of increase is small for twice the cost.

4 gpus can eat up a lot of juice though.

im not talking about quad sli, the thread clearly states 9800gx2 Vs 4870, get it together and keep up

admittedly, that made me blink a few times.


The 9800GX2 is faster than the 4870 I think in every title except race driver grid? It might even be faster in that too.

I don't think its really up for debate.

There is no difference.

And the Anandtech benchmark I linked use Intel DX48BT2 (x48 chipset) for ATI cards (single or cf) and single Nvidia cards, 790i was only used for the sli setups.

Its true, the nVidia dual x2 is faster than any single card out, as it should be. However, looking at cheap solutions, the 4850 in CF which is more in price, but not too much higher, depending on buyer, wins out over the GX2, and the 4850x2 will show slight increases, as shown by the 4870x2 vs the 4870 in CF. Its a great price for the GX2, and until the 4850x2 comes along, has its own bracket in both price and performance as well as price vs performance. This shouldnt even be argued. You may as well say the same thing against G280 vs GX2, especially the price performance scenario.

Both 4870 and the 9800gx2 are very good cards. performance wise the 9800gx2 would do better only reason its 2 cards packed in one card, so even with the extra performance comes a price; there more power hungry, generate more heat/causing fan speed to increase, sli card so games that don't support sli will not benefit and price is slightly above the 4870. The 4870 is a very fast single card, handles aa very will and supports nice extra features such as tessellation and dx10.1, they also have some heating issue and noisy fans. If it were up to me i would go with the 9800gx2 if u can pass some of its issues. All in all you wont get disappointed with either cards.

yes what was it he said in one of his posts "bioshock is a heavy ati optimized game" the way its meant to be played yes he speaks sense, and your just as stupid for listening to him, so go and blow it out ur @ss

what the heck are you talkin about? I'm talking about popularity your trying to combine the jokes?

Or wat?

When did I ever say anything about optimization??

Grid is a heavily optimized for ATI cards, the GX2 sitll wins.

I don't understand what your getting at????

your arguments are like shooting blanks.

Anyways I think I'm done arguing with you, and I'm sure other posters have enough to say about you and your out of whack posts.

Its ppl like you that led others into buying the 2900 XT for the same price as a 8800 GTX, and the XT performed lower than the 400$ 8800 GTS 320.

Have good life!

P.S

Your like a leech and commoner of society, you look for the Name of the brand not the background information. NO1 here said the 4870 is a bad card, every1 encourages the card, but it doesn't not compete with the GX2 PERIOD

Your feeling are wrong. Mixing brands don't affect performance.

gx2 gx2 gx2 gx2

link us to the problems with nvidia boards. I searched and nothing official or unofficial.

In all honesty you would recommend it, lol be honest I kno you would.

I kinda miss the whole XT Pro, GTO, XL SE naming they should bring it back. They made it to easy for customers lol

indeed. Stupididy....err I mean human error is very comon these days LOL

My friend said his com wasn't working...it wasn't plugged in...sigh!

You could include the 6 boards too. Theres alot of people that complain about the nVidia chipsets. Unstable, hot etc, not as good ocing. I know theyve cleared most if not all of that up, but it happened, just like nVidias pricing. Just like their poor AA performance this round. Previous round? They were superior. It changes, as do the cards abilities to competition, and Im saying both sides here. I take it a release at a time. I prefer ATI, but Im still (dang it) on my old 320GTS, because it was the better card at the time. You cant knock the GX2 for its price point, yes theres heat issues, and power issues, and micro stuttering etc, but thats the norm from a x2 card, tho I hate the sandwitch design, shows much lack of innovation. Thats why I say, it has its own niche, cant be compared to single cards, just like the 4870x2, tho it appears the microstuttering is all but elimated, it still suffers from x2 card problems, tho its a much better card than the GX2. And itll only get better due to driver releases that the older GX2 has already seen. The 4870, has much potential, as seen by a few games where its faster than the G280, so IMHO has much more to look forwards to as far as ability down the road compared to all the cards around, including the G280. If it were me, and dont give a r@+$ arse about bling, but about performance, Id go for the 4870, simply because, unless Im playing at 25x16, which I dont, the 4870 can handle everything Id throw at it, and doesnt have all the issues of a x2 card, and has more potential for growth, due to driver improvements....whooooo

Not a chance. Not even close. ATI is either known notoriously or favorably, depending, on their continued driver improvements. Ive heard the 8.9 drivers will be where we actually start seeing great driver performance, as the first few have had to deal with more than the usual amount of bugs. By the time the 4850x2 comes out, you will see a different scenario concerning where the 4870 sits comparatively with current cards, as will all the 4xxx series.

Yep, historically, single gpu cards, ATI or Nvidia, don't get significant performance increase with new drivers. It's unlikely they'll start now.

Lol, bigbang2. I'll believe it when I see it.

OP:
Go for the 9800GX2 as long as your PSU can handle it, I`d have one now but for the fact that it is still sooooo much more expensive here in the UK than the HD4870.

Geez, when has any single gpu card improved performance by 15-20% across the board just from driver updates?