260gtx or ati 4870 both selling for $200

What chipset are you using? Unless you have an nVidia board, get the Radeon.

They perform very similarly, but have ups and downs in different games. You may want to check the benchmarks for the games you play the most often.

LAME, REALLY LAME.

What I hope smithereen was trying to say is that unless you're getting an X58 or Skulltrail motherboard, you cannot run an SLI setup outside of nvidia chipset motherboards.

I think you can still use a second card for Physx though.

+1 @huron for unambiguous advice. If you cannot decide based on game benchmarks (too close or different one favored for different games), consider also noise and power consumption.

Unless $200.00 is your maximun limit you should consider the 4870 1gb
or the 260 216 core. Either card at Egg @ $229.00 after rebates.

It all depends on the games you play really. There are a few articles out there on 260 GTX vs. 4870 1GB. Here is one: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-h...

I went with the EVGA GTX 260 216Core Superclocked card based on the games I played COD4, COD:WaW, Crysis (even though 48701GB 8.12 did have higher fps), Farcry 2 and Fallout 3 just to name a few. Also The GTX 260 drew less power than the 4870 during idle and load times, a little less noisy and did not run as hot.

Either way both cards will do you well this really was a hard decision to make for me but just a word from the wise. I would stay clear of MSI, their support sucks a donkey. I haven't had a problem ever with my last EVGA card or support from them as well as you have a 90-day trade in with EVGA if they release a newer card and you want it over the GTX 260. Hope this helps.

my system is

asus p5q se p45 mobo
q6600@3.4ghz
4gb gskill ddr2 800 @954mhz ram
2x 500gb hd
700w silverstone striker series power supply
antec 12k
rezortherm nirvana cpu cooler
22" lcd

long story making short my 4850 died (note to self: dont mess with card voltages) and I was looking at replacement, for me the $200 is a sweet spot. When my 4850 was working I was playing gta4, css, far cry2, cod4, fallout 3. I'm playing on 22" 1680x1050

I'm not fanboy of any soft, my ati card was a champion until I didn't break it, so you think the 4870 1gb edition is worth it on 22"? Currently my fav game is gta 4 and the viewing distance eats a lot of memory so the 1gig would help right?

as of right now I'm leaning more towards 4870 than 260gtx.....

Thank you dunar for the link
I have to tell the extra $50 you have to spend on 1gig 4870 does not justify the small fps increase  

There is only one solution at this point ......quit leaning and pull the trigger.
LOL

I have to confess that the 4870 isn't my choice. But having said that, the 1gig of memory may only give you a few extra fps but having it also means that you can probably turn on the goodies and not have the card tank like it's 512 counter part.


woohoo..........900th post.