Which Gfx setup is best?

[OrderChaos]

Hello, I am purchasing a core i7 920 rig and play on a 24" monitor at 1920x1200.

I mostly play first person shooter like L4D and TF2, with some casual and RTS games thrown in.

I was wondering which of these setups would be best while staying as close to $200 as possible, the cheaper the better without sacrificing performance.

Anyway here are the possibilities I found, all prices are from Newegg and before rebates which I don't count:

Splurge even more and get a Radeon 4850X2 for $259

get a GTX 260 core 216 for $175

or buy 2 4830s and put them in CF for $84 a piece, a total of $190 roughly.

or buy 2 4770s at $200 ($99 apiece, thanks to those who recommended this!!)*

or 1 4890 at $225 (after the 5% off as pointed out by FullMetal, Thx a bunch dude)*

stars indicate my current leaning towards.

Thanks in advance for all the advice and please leave any and all fanboism out of your suggestions, however if you prefer one over the other, that is fine, just don't be biased beyond all reason.

THX!!!

 

[Helloworld_98]

how about 2x 4770's? or a 4890 and OC it as far as possible.

 

[fullmetall]

4890 oc'd is the far better buy if you can afford it for your kind of playing.

 

[OrderChaos]

@Helloworld_98 2 4770 would be more expensive for less performance Than I want, It would be over $200 and I'd rather get one gtx 260 for cheaper.

I will add the 4890 on the table at $249, I forgot that was out XD

I am leaning towards either the 2 4830s cf or the 1 gtx 260 right now, anybody know which gives better performance? Both of these options are less than $200 (which is what I'm trying to stay at) which is why I'm thinking of them right now.

 

[Kill@dor]

I would have to say the GTX260 is far better ^_^

 

[fullmetall]

um,if you haven't read, cf 4770's compares to the 4890 and there going to put it against the gtx 280 next to see the performance.

thats $200 for a cf 4770 vs a stock 4890 at $250.

Not saying you should jump right in and buy them but, the 4890 stocked vs the cf 4770 is about the same, oc'ing a 4890 is your best bet.

You can get one now as i just checked for $234. and theres the HIS with the 5% off promocode aswell

 

[OrderChaos]

Ok, reread the 4770 CF review and will add them to the table too

Also I didn't see the promo code for the HIS 4890, with that extra $10 (roughly) off that makes it a pretty good offer too.

The 2 4770s at $200 is a pretty good deal. I have decided to Remove (also edited original post) the GTX 275. If I spend over $200 I might as well go for the best value at that price for the 4850x2.

Thanks for the input and I apologize for being mistaken about the 4770s...For some reason I was thinking the 4830s were supposed to be better...Thank you for correcting me.

Also as of now I am leaning towards 2 4770s or the 4890, but I still would rather go a little cheaper if possible.

 

[Kill@dor]

Good choice, in my opinion ^_^

 

[fullmetall]

Hah, alright, 2 4770's will be a good buy for only $200.

 

[Cpt Deadboots]

A single 4770 would probably play both TF2 and L4D at max settings.

If that's honestly all you'll be playing (in addition to RTS games), why not go for a 1GB GTS 250? It'll provide stellar performance at your resolution, and I doubt you'll notice a difference between it and a $200+ setup for those FPS's and any RTS out there.

 

[Kill@dor]

RTS's are starting to come up in fps ranks believe it or not...

 

[fullmetall]

A GTS 250 and a 4770 perform about the same so you wont get much difference in the 2, only thing i see is a 512mb card vs a 1gb card thats $50 more than the 4770 and if cf'd will be a way better buy still...

 

[Siggy19]

For 1920x1200 resolution, you may find that having at least 1GB of video RAM is necessary to get the best performance... while the CF 4770s mostly match the 4890 at lower resolutions, they start losing to the 4890 at higher resolutions - simply too much data for them to handle with only 512MB. In case you weren't aware, although 2x4770s have a total of 1GB, because they are running in Crossfire, they share the memory addressing and therefore only effectively have the memory of a single card.

A single 4870 1GB may be worth considering since it is a bit cheaper that the dual 4770 and, while the performance at lower resolutions is less, it pretty much matches the 4770s at 1920x1200 because of the larger memory. This then gives you the option of crossfiring it at a later date for perhaps $125 (assuming prices continue their usual trend), which would blow the 4770s outa the water.

 

[OrderChaos]

Lol the only problem with having both CF and SLI as options is it create TOO MANY options...

Thanks everyone for your input, I think I'm gonna go ahead and get the PNY gtx 260 core 216 for $179 with free shipping and COD 5 free which I don't own.

This keeps my options open for future upgrade and I did the research and found that it performs (slightly) better in the games I play (edit: than the 4870).

Unless anybody has a serious and compelling argument for why I shouldnt get this, I am going to order it tomorrow.

Thanks for all the input guys!

 

[Cpt Deadboots]

^ This is why I recommended the GTS 250 1 GB - plus, it consistently beats the 4770 in every bench that Tom's put up in the 4770 review.

It doesn't beat it by a whole lot, but this is the same scenario that we see with just about any "upgrade" - for example, the GTX 260 (a newer, more "advanced" architecture than the G92b) has 216 stream processors. Two hundred and sixteen! - and it still only manages to beat the GTS 250 by three FPS or so for just about any given setting configuration in Crysis. It beats it handily at games that don't require such intense shader power, but honestly: who cares about getting 65 as opposed to 80 FPS? Sure, it beats the GTS 250 by a better margin in WIC - but 30 FPS is more than enough for any RTS I have played (and the GTS 250 garners this framerate at 1920x1200/max detail/4x AA/16x AF).

I'd buy the GTS 250 as opposed to any of the cards listed above because it runs ice cold (never see it over 69 C), provides stellar performance (consistently beating the 4850 and 4770, by however small a margin), and provides an extra 512mb of buffer.

 

[fullmetall]

But, if he ends up gettings 1 of those, why not just get 1 gtx 260 or 4870 1gb...

Got to think about it, he wants to spend $200 at most.. getting 2 of those will be $300...

getting 1 4870 1gb now for as cheap as it is and then one later would be your best bet....

If your going to get him to buy 1 card, might as well give him the best for $200 and an option for cf or sli later.

Bigger resolution.. i pick the 4870 1gb Sapphire as it will run any game with just 1 card, most games wont run but 1gb of a card so the other card is just left sitting there but, games like crysis will run both cards.

plus, i dont see why 216 stream proccessing units is exciting to you when the 4870 has 800....

streaming wont give you much, it's in your clocking and power.

 

[Cpt Deadboots]

1 nVidia SPU = ~4 ATI SPUs

 

[fullmetall]

Still a gts 250 wouldnt make sense getting 1 now and another later, when you can get 1 4870 or gtx 260 now and get one later for a little more over the gts 250.


First, what is the motherboard/psu/ram? if your trying to purchase this, you need to make sure all these components will be good with each other.

 

[Cpt Deadboots]

^ Good point. I recommend the GTS 250 primarily because I have one, though - and love it.

I bought it over the 260 and 4870 because my PSU doesn't have two 6/8-pin connectors.

 

[Kill@dor]

Phail!!!

 

[OvrClkr]

It really comes down to how much you are willing to spend, meaning if you had a 240$ budget I would personally go with dual Gts 250's opposed to any ATI card at this moment. But thats just my opinion. Ati cards are great for the money but Nvidia is in front at the moment. Heck, for 240.00$ you can get a GTX 275 and I don't think Ati has a video card at 240.00 dollars that can compete with the 275.

 

[OvrClkr]

BTW Stream Processing Units and And Stream Processors are 2 different things, don't get this mixed up. ATi and Nvidia use a totally different architecture. So in the end you can't compare Ati's SPU's to Nvidia's SP's.