Radeon HD4850/4870 or GeForce 250?

After hours on agonizing over which card to buy, I finally settle on 9800 GTX+ only to find out that I should have brought out my trusty old ruler in the beginning. At 10.5 inches long, it doesn't fit in my case.

So now, I need to decide between Radeon HD 4850 or 4870 and the Geforce GTS 250. Newegg has an ASUS 4870 (512mb) for $135 after rebate which sounds like a killer deal but the newegg reviews on the product aren't pretty. The reviews on the 4850 aren't great either.
The reviews on the GTS are okay.

I would think that the 4870 is an upgrade over the GTS250, am I right?

Which one is the best card?

Thanks for your help.

If hook up to TV nvidia all the way people seem to have less problems with that else i'd just go by game performance in certain and price.

if your case is too small then heads up that the card has enough cooling for your case - small case = not for gaming (most of the time)

don't know why newegg has bad reviews on the ATI cards the 4870 is one of the best cards around

Just became it's newegg doesn't meant he computer builder has intelligence. About 1/4th of all of those comments should be removed and are wrongfully place esp in the ram section where ppl expected OC ram like 1066 to run native on their mobo's without setting the settings themselves. 90% of all computer problems are between the chair and the keyboard.

I bought that card for 134 AR from asus. It's great. The cooler does a good job. Picture quality is fantastic. Came from 3870.

q9550 oc 3.8ghz zalman 9700
abit p35 pro
6GB 2.0v pc6400 880mhz
asus hd4870 512mb
asus hd 2600xt
640gb main
1.2TB raid0 data
34gb system
Lg blu ray/hd dvd 16x dvd-rw
Lg 16x dvd-rw
lite-on 20x dvd-rw
cm 690
corsair 750watt

The 4870 should be fine, as it collects air and pushes it all out the back of your case. Case fans should handle any radiant heat from the card

um, I guess I should mention that I went to ASUS site and the only dimensions they give is 9.5 X 4.376 which doesn't tell me how thick the card is.

Whats your rigs name, or case?

If you have the lower slot, it should be fine, as its almost always the length that is the problem when fitting a card in a case, tho they do make whats called low profile cards for such situations . Id guess a lil more than 1 1/2 inches for the thickness on the card. The motherboards are usually laid out in such a way as to accomodate things such as this, as there are standards for it

PS Its usually something from the case itself thats the obstruction

if you ask me i would cut a hole in the side of the case for a fan, i have a friend with a medion with one fan with a nvidia 6600 and you cant touch the thing without burning your finger, dont know why the thing still runs