[Comments on [H]ardforum have convinced me that the GTX260 is the way to go! Mods, please close or delete this thread. ]
I'm working out the last few details of my first build, and it's down to deciding on the GPU. I've been going back and forth between the XFX GTX260 Black and the Asus EAH4870 1G Dark Knight for weeks. I was wondering whether anyone has any advice that might put me over the edge in either direction.
Here's what I've been able to work out so far:
-They're about the same price AR ($230 and $250, respectively), considering that I'd probably pick up Far Cry 2 eventually.
-The 260 Black seems to draw more power (suggests a 630w PSU minimum)
-The 4870 generally runs hotter, but the DK cooler should negate that.
-The 4870 supports DirectX 10.1 and HDMI 1.3, while the 260 supports PhysX.
-The 4870 has slightly more memory clocked faster, but that might be meaningless given the different architectures.
-The 260 Black has that made for Nvidia deal with game developers, but that quickly turns discussion into arguments between fans of the two drivers, so let's not make too big a deal about precise performance.
-The 260 Black has a lifetime limited warranty, whereas the 4870's appears to be for three years (though warranty is hardly a factor at all).
I'm not planning on using Crossfire of SLI, and will be running these in a Cooler Master 590 case with a Q6600 and 4 GB of G.skill 800 DDR2 RAM on Vista (or Windows 7) x64, if it makes any difference. I plan to be using these to run games for the next two years at least, as well as Photoshop and maybe some 3D rendering.
Any opinions or advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks!
Message edited by MoreGrease on 01-26-2009 at 08:40:56 AM
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