AMD or Nvidia ?

[richardgal]

Hey everyone!

I have just built my new budget rig recently and I'm just about to order my VGA in 10 days. However, this gives me some time to think, as I've heard that some of the games I play (GTA IV) favour Nvidia. Now, I was completely sure I'd go for the Radeon 6850 before the rumour as I know for a fact that it is better than it's price/performance competitor in the first Crysis games, the GTX 460 768mb. Also, I know this is not the most reliable source, but it seems to perform better under GTA IV on Youtube.

My max resolution is 1440x900, at this point, I could recieve many "Both of them are plenty" comments, but no. Not with IceHancer and Ultimate Textures 2.0. I'll be happy if I could run it at 720p with those enabled...

You see, unfortunately, most of the games I'll play are hardware heavy, except for the Modern Warfare series and possibly Battlefield 3. I would appreciate any opinions/experience reports on how the GTX 460 768 performs under GTA IV. So far from what I've seen, at maximum sets, 1080p, the 6850 gains 36-40 fps, while the GTX 460 768mb gets 50-70 of max fps. But in other games like crysis, the GTX 460 768 has 28 fps at max presets, and the 6850 has 34.

The GTX 460 1GB, HD 7770 and 6870 are not in my bang-for-buck list nor in my budget, and therefore, are out of the question.

Also, the GTX 460-768mb would be the CAPTIVA brand, and the HD 6850 would be the MSI model, both with 2 year warranty.

My rig:

-Asus 19" VW192S - 1440x900
-2x4 Gb GEIL Enhance Corsa CL9 1333 1.5V
-AsRock H61M-HVS B3
-i3-2120 3.3 Ghz 2cores, 4threads with HT
-FPS Hexa 500w 80+ PSU
-160GB WD Sata drive

 

[akxpckwb]

AMD tends to have better price/performance ratio so if you're concerned about money I'd go with AMD. Some games prefer Nvidia cards that's true but the problem with GTA IV is not exactly the GPU brand. GTA IV is bad coding. It requires more horsepower than it should

 

[richardgal]

AMD tends to have better price/performance ratio so if you're concerned about money I'd go with AMD. Some games prefer Nvidia cards that's true but the problem with GTA IV is not exactly the GPU brand. GTA IV is bad coding. It requires more horsepower than it should

I know that GPU brand is not the real reason why it could suck so bad on performance. But we've already seen the last patches, it won't get any better, so I take what I can get. My friend with a 2600k (GTX 480) switched over to Nvidia just because of GTA IV, it is clear that rockstar has a contract with them, and since this game is one of the main reasons for my upgrade, I would consider Nvidia as an option if it worth it, though I hate them as hell.

 

[shamsmu]

what is your budget?

if your fixated on nvidia, then the gtx 460, gtx 560 and gtx 560 ti are the only gpus I can think of. Personally, I have owned a nvidia gts450, a gtx 560 ti superoverclocked, gtx 580 and the gtx 670. I would say all of them except the gts 450 were able to run GTA IV all maxed at 1680x1050.

 

[bctande1]

I just came from a 6850 myself with GTA AND ICEEnchancer and it was an absolute mess -- 460 will be the same.

The problem with GTA 4 is that it is CPU-Intensive, the RAGE Rockstar game engine relys heavily on the CPU and the GPU capabilites are never used up. So to be honest, you will see more improvement going up in CPU than in GPU, not saying that you should, but those are facts.

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

It's been my experience that Nvida drivers and generally better then AMD. Usually this outwieghs any performance gains the AMD cards would have over their Nvidia rivals. Just my opinion.

 

[fantastik250]

Price/performance the 6850 is the better card as well as an extra bump in VRAM.

I also went ahead and looked at the 7770. But on newegg, the prices seem to be the same level. So if you just look at overall performance:

The cards are relatively matched.

 

[richardgal]

First of all, thank you for the fast and supportive replies I'm not used to them.

shamsmu-

-My budget is the maximum of 35 000 HUF (153 USD, if my calculator is right)
This matches the MSI 6850 with shipping. Unfortunately, none of those you mentioned are in my budget.
-The GTX 560 SE is around 36k while being a toned down weak version.
-The normal GTX 560 is around 38k, in which case the 6870 for 42k would be a much better buy.
-The GTX 560ti is at the 56k price point, by almost doubling my budget. No need to discuss the 580... So it's either the 460 768mb or the HD 6850. :\
(I can't enjoy Newegg offers as I live at the opposite end of the world. Shipping would multiply the price by 3x.)

 

[fantastik250]

The 6850, the 1GB of VRAM enables you to have higher graphics settings at the resolution you are playing at

 

[richardgal]

I just came from a 6850 myself with GTA AND ICEEnchancer and it was an absolute mess -- 460 will be the same.

The problem with GTA 4 is that it is CPU-Intensive, the RAGE Rockstar game engine relys heavily on the CPU and the GPU capabilites are never used up. So to be honest, you will see more improvement going up in CPU than in GPU, not saying that you should, but those are facts.

Thanks.

Well I chose the i3-2120 over the Phenom 2 X4 965/970 because it performs a lot better in dual-threaded applications/games, while consuming half the power the phenom would eat. I was aware that Hyper-threading does not help much in GTA IV, but considering the minor -1 -2 fps loss because of fewer full cores and possible +5-+10 fps on other games, this was the logical choice. I would have obviously gone with a 2500k if I had double the money for my build...

Strange thing that games with the RAGE engine were not getting better over time, as for my friend with the same i3-2120 and a HD 7750, GTA 4 runs 30+ fps on max sets 720p, Episodes from liberty city produces micro-stuttering and awful lag even when cruising around town in the game.

 

[richardgal]

Price/performance the 6850 is the better card as well as an extra bump in VRAM.

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7770/images/perfdollar.gif

I also went ahead and looked at the 7770. But on newegg, the prices seem to be the same level. So if you just look at overall performance:

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7770/images/perfrel.gif

The cards are relatively matched.

I was actually very optimistic with the new 7770 as it turned out to produce 20(!!!) fps more in Crysis 2 than the 6850. Also leading in Battlefield 3 with 2-3 fps.
The downside of this fact for me is that I don't like the new crytek game too much, not nearly as I like the first one, in which the 6850 is far ahead in terms of performance. It also beats the 7770 in every other game except for the two above