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Need cheering up. GTX 285 vs 4890 (bit of a story)

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Graphics card Expert

so here is my story,

I have recently (the past 2 months) been in search of a new videocard. My 8800 GTS 640 is starting to show its age, the fan is slowing, the card runs hotter than it used to. I cant run the resolutions I would like in some games. At any rate, I felt it was time for a replacement.

Let me preface (the rest) by saying I am *not* a fanboy. I wont rage on one company or another. Ive used both, several, several times. They both have delighted, and left me more than frustrated.

I've been reading every review I could get my hands on for the 4890. At first most reviews all said the 275 and 4890 are equal, but the 285 is 5-15 percent on average faster than either. Most reviews confirmed this. Outside of the 4890 out performing a stock clocked 285 on a few choice games (gta4, grid...)

I decided I wanted to support AMD. Sure nvidia made a better single core card, but AMD has made something that plays games nearly as well (or better in some) but is a good deal too.

My problem is I got greedy.

1ghz. It called me. Tingling in the back of my mind. All the reviews I had read left this distinct number, laser etched through marketing genius into my desires.

Some were hitting 1 ghz, and competing head to head with a 285. But the fans were noisy. And lots didnt make the 1gz mark.

My first try at a purchase was an asus top 4890. i ordered one. however, they ran out. one week of waiting later, I told them to cancel.

I started finding out about the sapphire toxic releasing soon. then msi. and now another. all being released AT 1ghz, with headroom to clock higher. I wanted one so bad. So I waited..... about another week.

I became impatient and bought a gtx 285.... its in the mail....

now Ive seen benchmarks with the 4890CF blowing away the gtx 285 SLI. in more than just the few titles it was before... and now I'm sad.

/.endstory

More about : cheering gtx 285 4890 bit story

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I think it takes some kind of mental dysfunction to not regret a graphics card purchase 100%...i mean really...a week after there will be a 30$ price drop or a new card that runs cooler ocs higher and is cheaper

Unless you have those holy schematics for a time machine or can return the 285 just push all of this out of your head!


Really im just as impatient....i had my new 260 gtx just sitting on a desk in my room for 2 weeks as i unloaded enough money i didn't have any for a psu *facepalm*

I share your pain and confusion. I bought a GTX280 last December (2008), thinking it was the best card on the market (and it sorta was back then). My old 8800 Ultra had fried and I didn't want to wait for RMA, so I RMA the Ultra and bought the 280, gave the Ultra to my friend for his machine. That GTX280 played the crap out of Crysis, and my processor, a AMD quad 2.3ghz, wasn't crazy strong either, but the game was played with little frame rate slow downs.

Just last month I bought another GTX280 on ebay for half the price of the original. I plugged it in SLI only to find out I had my mobo running at PCI-Express 1.0 instead of the 2.0 it should've been. But you know what? That card still kicked ass, and Crysis is probably still the most demanding game out on the market. Your GTX285 is going to be even better.

So don't worry buddy, those games wont make that card sweat too much with the right processor and RAM. Also, a good motherboard is very important. I learned that the hard way, and I will change it soon. Maybe its not the very best video card out there, but if you step outside of the Tom's Hardware forums, you'll see that a GTX285 is still something to brag about. :) 

Great post Senvae!

My MB is 1.0 as well luckily i have no intentions now or in the future of sliing any of my cards...and i only have one slot mb's at the moment

So since im not sling 1.0 isn't a huge bottleneck for me :D 
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Graphics card Expert

thanks for the replies guys. ^^

tech specs:
asus p5q deluxe 16 phase.
e6750@3.6
8 gigs ddr2 (@900 and something, its underclocked)


its mostly because of gta too. i really want 1080p. ><

Who really cares about 1080p?

There is no difference its just a resolution...hell i would much rather play gta iv at 1280x1024 with high/medium settings on my 9800gtx+ system than whatever i would have to lower it to on 19xx res's....

I prefer the stay at 16xx resolution for gaming atm...no real reason to go for any higher of a res as it raises the cost on the gpu quite a bit...

Your gpu can probably do 19xx just fine but still anything past 16xx just feels like overkill

Why didn't you base your card choice off of something that could max out your resolutions and games in the first place...thats not greedy nor impatient...im not going to go on

Then again GTA IV runs like a pos on anything so who cares....im sure your card will run fine on more optimized games at your default resolution...its gta not you...lol

Helloworld_98 said:
^overclocking makes little difference with nvidia cards.

well, i guess that's what happens when you get unpatient then... :( 

gtx285 is still one hell of a card though. thats like quadruple the performance of my 3870s. not like your gonna suffer with a GTX285 :p 

Don't stress too much over whats the absolute fastest, cus trust me, those 4890 ATI cards will be second to something new and improved within a few months. When buying computer equippement, its better to worry about whether or not it will play your own choices of games, and not if its better than someone else's machine. Any top of the line Nvidia OR ATI cards are good enough to play every game the market has to offer, its all overkill with the right processor, mobo and RAM.

coozie7 said:
@ neon neophyte: Wait until you have it installed.
I expect to be able to hear your smile from here in the UK;)

most definately :) 

you wont be dissapointed with it, trust us

dude, i totally feel your pain, i bought the gtx 260 like a month before the core 216 came out, and then like a week after that the 55nm version was released, talk about regret, the new ones were cheaper and faster, the worst was that i had EVGA, and i could step-up the card, but i got some artifacting, so i decided to rma it first, about a month later, I'm broke and crying as i watch the step-up window closing, that sucked. but i got a second one for Christmas, and they are beastly, @ 1920 x 1080, i can max out crysis with 2xAA. so don't worry, not only is the gtx 285 better than my card, but i'm sure that it will be just as good if not better than the 4890's, and nvidia cards do overclock very well, i get 3-4 fps increase for every 10mhz i overclock the core in a lot of games (not crysis) and way more in some older games, like CSS, i get like 1-2 fps /1mhz core overclock! :p  and when you go from 576mhz core to 745mhz, thats huge

wolfdogelite said:
dude, i totally feel your pain, i bought the gtx 260 like a month before the core 216 came out, and then like a week after that the 55nm version was released, talk about regret, the new ones were cheaper and faster, the worst was that i had EVGA, and i could step-up the card, but i got some artifacting, so i decided to rma it first, about a month later, I'm broke and crying as i watch the step-up window closing, that sucked. but i got a second one for Christmas, and they are beastly, @ 1920 x 1080, i can max out crysis with 2xAA. so don't worry, not only is the gtx 285 better than my card, but i'm sure that it will be just as good if not better than the 4890's, and nvidia cards do overclock very well, i get 3-4 fps increase for every 10mhz i overclock the core in a lot of games (not crysis) and way more in some older games, like CSS, i get like 1-2 fps /1mhz core overclock! :p  and when you go from 576mhz core to 745mhz, thats huge



If you told EVGA you wanted to step the card up whilst it was out on RMA i know without a doubt they would have honored it than...

rewindlabs said:
If you told EVGA you wanted to step the card up whilst it was out on RMA i know without a doubt they would have honored it than...

you really think so? damn... i asked a buddy and he said it was unlikely, and i didn't think anything more of it. oh well i'm going to get 3 gtx 285's soon ;)  , that reminds me anyone interested in a couple used gtx 260's? :) 

wolfdogelite said:
you really think so? damn... i asked a buddy and he said it was unlikely, and i didn't think anything more of it. oh well i'm going to get 3 gtx 285's soon ;)  , that reminds me anyone interested in a couple used gtx 260's? :) 

I have only heard good things from EVGA

In any case your obligated to your step up even if the card was in for rma...i'd bet you my rig that if you would have called in and talked to a nice evga rep he would have been more than eager to help you through the process...

Of course this might not stand for other companies with general help anyways..

wolfdogelite said:
dude, i totally feel your pain, i bought the gtx 260 like a month before the core 216 came out, and then like a week after that the 55nm version was released, talk about regret, the new ones were cheaper and faster, the worst was that i had EVGA, and i could step-up the card, but i got some artifacting, so i decided to rma it first, about a month later, I'm broke and crying as i watch the step-up window closing, that sucked. but i got a second one for Christmas, and they are beastly, @ 1920 x 1080, i can max out crysis with 2xAA. so don't worry, not only is the gtx 285 better than my card, but i'm sure that it will be just as good if not better than the 4890's, and nvidia cards do overclock very well, i get 3-4 fps increase for every 10mhz i overclock the core in a lot of games (not crysis) and way more in some older games, like CSS, i get like 1-2 fps /1mhz core overclock! :p  and when you go from 576mhz core to 745mhz, thats huge

hehe, i have a story similar to yours. a month after i bought my 3870s, the 4850s and 4870s started appearing on the egg... i was sooooo pissseeddd when i saw how fast those single card sulutions were... ***fumes with anger***
but ya kno, i got over it soon because they run all of my games pretty much on max (accept stalker cs of course and crysis) and plus, when you look into my side panel, you can see those two monsters... and if some idiot looks at a case with a single 4870 in it then looks at my case with two 3870s in it, he will assume that mine is better!!!! :D  hehehehe jk
Graphics card Expert

You can driver yourself nuts with the "what ifs", price drops, using professional reviews and chasing the next "new thing".

If you need a new video card, buy it. Get the best you can at the time and go play your games. Having a GTX 285 isn't anything to lament over

As a favor, do you think you could send the link where you saw two 4890s beating two 285's? I'd like to see what games the 4890's are faster at.

I look forward to building a computer here in the next month or so, and my first choice is the gtx285 by EVGA. I'm hoping that maybe the better performance of the hd4890 CF is due to better drivers currently from ATI with that setup versus the gtx285. Who knows, maybe in a month or so the two 285's might be better than the two 4890s.
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