I am having a problem deciding which video card to get for the best GTA 4 performance for about $240. Currently I am running a Radeon 4850 512MB and most games look great. Now that I have GTA 4, I can see that it is time to upgrade if I want to enjoy all of the eye candy that Liberty City has to offer. So here is my dilema:
Being that I don't want to spend more than $240 on a new GPU, and it needs to have a semi-quiet fan since this is going into my htpc in the living room, I have only a few options. Unfortunately the best bang for the buck seems to be with ATI, even though Nvidia supposedly has better drivers for GTA 4. The only problem with Nvidia however, is the price/performance ratio at $240 seems to suck, as I can get more performance with ATI. Perhaps I am wrong about that? I understand that GTA 4 needs 1 - 1.5 GB of RAM and a fast CPU to run at full tilt. So here are the video cards I am considering:
1. SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102826
2. SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830
OR PERHAPS Nvidia?
3. EVGA 896-P3-1258-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130441
Anybody getting great performance with GTA 4 from one of these cards and an AMD Phenon II CPU?
Thanks!
Being that I don't want to spend more than $240 on a new GPU, and it needs to have a semi-quiet fan since this is going into my htpc in the living room, I have only a few options. Unfortunately the best bang for the buck seems to be with ATI, even though Nvidia supposedly has better drivers for GTA 4. The only problem with Nvidia however, is the price/performance ratio at $240 seems to suck, as I can get more performance with ATI. Perhaps I am wrong about that? I understand that GTA 4 needs 1 - 1.5 GB of RAM and a fast CPU to run at full tilt. So here are the video cards I am considering:
1. SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102826
2. SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830
OR PERHAPS Nvidia?
3. EVGA 896-P3-1258-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130441
Anybody getting great performance with GTA 4 from one of these cards and an AMD Phenon II CPU?
Thanks!