What's a better deal? 4870 512 or 1gb or gtx 260 216 core?

Ok so right now I've set my mind on a 1 GB radeon 4870 from Diamond because many folks here have been talking about future proofing for the later games coming out next yr. However in Canada, we've got a shortage of the 1gb version. I've already placed an order on that card and it cost me about $336 CAD (after tax and all that). I've waited about 2 weeks now and still no progress on their shipments. On the other hand I've found a guy who's willing to sell me his used 4870 512mb for $225 CAD. He used it for about 1 week but the risk I'm buying is that there's no warranty to cover (since warranty is not transferable). I have also the choice of an already available GTX 260 216 core for $317 (after rebate, tax.etc)

Do you guys think it's worth to wait for the 1 GB 4870? Should I go with just the used 4870 and forget about it? What about the already available GTX 260 216 core?

^+1 though i dont have the superclocked edition, it is EVGA though. i overclocked mine to the superclocked speeds. saved a little money that way. so i basically have the same card but for ~$20 less. get the stock board then overclock to the superclocked editions speeds with the utility that comes on the disk. oh and if your interested in benchmarking, it comes with 3dmark vantage after you register your card online. this card is a beast and will handle anything with high settings no problem, like above post it is like a GTX 280 only losing to the GTX 280 by like 1~5 fps in games. its a great buy.

well if u can get the super clocked version like the article then its a good buy but the stock clocked 216 cores are significantly slower then the super clocked ones...so u can either buy the superclocked versions if available or simply try overclocking the stock ones but obviously u can do the same with the 4870 as well....so my advice get the one which is "available" at the moment...u wont go wrong either way

P.S. make sure your case has enough room..the 260 is much longer then the 4870

well it's something similar to ebay but for locals. But I'm just wondering if it's better to take the risk of no warranty and buy it off him or if the new cards + guarenteed warranty actually warrant the extra cost.

My question now then is... Say if I give up on 4870 (due to no stock) does that mean that if I buy the SC version, I can OC even higher or will it be the same as me OCing with a stock card to a higher level?

Same clocking capabilities. The sp216 is significantly lowered in stock capabilities even the Water cooling version can't clock as much as the old 260 GTX FTW which isn't water cooled.

@ FTW it will surpass the 216...even if its 1-2 worse lets say, is it worth and extra 50$-100$ for 1-2 frames?

because the FTW outperforms it, well I don't kno are you more into OCing? If you kno how to OC properly you can get much more out of the old 260 GTX, but if you want to play it safe then go witht he 216 if its only 33 $ more.

If I didn't have the 280 GTX I would've went for the old 260 GTXs I got my friend's GTXs to outperform my 280s @ stock In almost every game

well then if you want to play it safe go for the sp 216. The card stays relativly cool, on full load using my friend's 260 they ran @ 65 max and they were crazy overclocked, 762, 1250 and 1601 shader.

Didn't really ever change coolers on a card (never had to even with quad GX2s) So I'm sorry i don't have any but I'm sure there are alot of users in the forums that can help you with that.

Well the EVGA GTX 260 216SP I've found on DirectCanada is about 317 after tax, rebate and shipping.

The 4870 is about 20 bucks more expensive.

I'm trying to wait it out and hope for the 4870 to come soon. I've heard the new 1gb version has temp controls on the fans rather than the board which helps with measuring surrounding temps more accurate thus having the right speeds to keep the card cool without having to sound like a jet engine.

yeah I was considering that as a reason I might want to look at GTX 260 but... ATI has DX10.1 and it seems to scale better in a lot of the tests especially under DX10 (vista). And since I'm going to most likely crank up the AA, I'll need an ATI card to help me

yup if you have a CrossF board.

But even with AA cranked up the 4870s don't take the lead too much to justify the old 260 GTX, but against the SP 216 where they are the same price then yes.

DX 10.1 shouldn't be a reason, the 1 gig bandwidth is your reason.

I went with tri 280s because I have a tri board and also because they are the dominant cards when tri slied lol.

My second option was the 260 GTXs tri but my friend didn't have em

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd- [...] b-review/9

I think the cards are soo close together that it should depend more on ur mobo then whats the price range.

well then since its not crossFire then you chose the good card, since now your going to have to upgrade the mobo in the future anyways, you can make ur choice then

the 6 molex should be ok. when i ran tri 260s I didn't have enough six pins available, Corsair has 4 six pins and 6 eight pins, if I counted right, so I just used the 4 pin to 6 pin molex.

It came wiht my friend's cards. They just convert 2 [o o o o] [o o o o] converted into:

[o o o]
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It will work fine for 1 260 or 1 4870, nothing more (The 280 and the 4870 X2 are out of the question, same with the 9800 GX2)