Radeon 6870 vs GTX 470

[aladd04]

Hey all, I'm going to be grabbing a new graphics card soon, upgrading from my current 512mb radeon 4850. I'm debating between the radeon 6870 or the gtx 470. I've been doing some crazy research to see which of these 2 cards is better, since they can both be found for very similar prices, but I'm gonna ask some more peoples opinions . Here's my current system specs:

AMD Phenom II x4 965 Processor 3.4 GHz
4 Gb's DDR2 800 RAM
ATI Radeon 4850 512Mb
Kingwin MK-750W Power Supply
500 Gb 7200RPM Hard Drive
Windows 7 64 Bit Professional
Asus M3N78-VM Motherboard
eMachine 21.5" 1080p monitor

My current card is starting to get a little outdated and I have a spending limit of, at most, $250. So let me know what you guys think. I'm planning on purchasing as soon as i can come to a conclusion, unless i should wait for better deals/cards to come out? Also, another question I have is, whichever card we decide is better, what's the best brand of that card? I'm not sure it really matters, but I'm just curious.

I'll be mainly using this card for gaming purposes in 1920x1080 resolution. Mainly newer fps', but also some others as well.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Tamz_msc]

If you want to buy now, get the HD 6870.If you can wait, wait for the GTX 560 to be launched which is expected by the end of this month.

 

[yesitsmario]

They're both really close in performance. The 6870 uses less power and produces less heat. The 470 has extras like physx and CUDA.

 

[mrjericho1991]

well my friend has one gtx 470 and its a monster i should say,play every game with maxed settings and more than 40fps in each game as 1920x1080 setup,go with it its really awesome,physx delievers ultra realistic features as dx11 does,so what more you want man go with gtx 470,it has horsepower and everything that a gamer wants!

 

[myfunkychannel]

i dont get why some cards are more expensive than the hd6870 but at the same are much slower in core and memory clock? and what is shader clock? ati cards dont have them listed but nvidia does

 

[Tamz_msc]

i dont get why some cards are more expensive than the hd6870 but at the same are much slower in core and memory clock? and what is shader clock? ati cards dont have them listed but nvidia does

ATI Cards have te shader clock and core clock running at the same speed.On NVIDIA cards, the shader clock is twice that of the core clock.

 

[aladd04]

Thanks for all the tips guys, I ended up going with the 6870, found it for $210, great deal for that powerful of a card, I think.

 

[yesitsmario]

Have fun gaming

 

[myfunkychannel]

Thanks for all the tips guys, I ended up going with the 6870, found it for $210, great deal for that powerful of a card, I think.

US dollars??? cause cheapest I can find is $260 AUS

 

[g00fysmiley]

thats a really good deal on a 6870 , it'll fit your system nice and unliek the 470 there's not nearly as much of a concern for cooling

 

[aladd04]

Ya, US$, there was an HIS radeon 6870 for $229 with a $20 mir and free ship on newegg the other day. deals gone now

And it's running nice and cool around 39C idle, and only went up to 70C on full load with 33% fan speed