HD 4870 vs GTX 260 - Which is better?

[Saturn]

Which of the two cards, ATI Radeon HD 4870 or Nvidia GTX 260, do you think is best? They both cost the same, but is there a clear choice? Or are they really the same?

[Wheelchair]

They Cost the same? I'm pretty sure the HD 4870 is alot cheaper... by a couple hundred $... But I may be mistaking.

I myself would get the 4870... ATI fan

[Freddie]

I myself would get the 4870... ATI fan

Only because your Canadian and you feel obliged to support the Canadian company .

Canadian or not the 48xx are the better cards in terms of value of money. The 4870 is in fact faster then the GTX 260 but also a fair bit cheaper as well.

[Wheelchair]

Only because your Canadian and you feel obliged to support the Canadian company .

Canadian or not the 48xx are the better cards in terms of value of money. The 4870 is in fact faster then the GTX 260 but also a fair bit cheaper as well.

LOL! I didn't even know ATI was Canadian.

So hah! I like them because of the quality, Just astounding quality.

EDIT: This is my 400th post, yay

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

LOL! I didn't even know ATI was Canadian.

So hah! I like them because of the quality, Just astounding quality.

EDIT: This is my 400th post, yay

Actully, AMD, an American company, bought them a couple years back.

And yes, they have unrivaled performance/price ratio.

[Reidy]

The 4870 certainly has a performance advantage over the 260GTX (~15%) while also being cheaper on average by US$30-50 (according to newegg). That said they have a 260 available that is cheaper than any of there 4870s , and you'll also want to look at heat and power consumption, where the 260 is superior.

[Simetrical]

Only because your Canadian and you feel obliged to support the Canadian company .

Which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of an American company . . .

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

Which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of an American company . . .

[Freddie]

Which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of an American company . . .

True but there HQ's and R&D offices are still based in Ontario, Canada.

[Hounf of Culan]

I got the 4870 for my new computer because why would I want to pay a couple hundred bucks more for nearly identical performance.

[craziii]

get 2 8800gt in sli, it performs almost as good as geforce 9800 x2. and it will only cost 300.

[SPARTAN VI]

get 2 8800gt in sli, it performs almost as good as geforce 9800 x2. and it will only cost 300.

You're craziiiii! Why do you assume he an SLI compliant motherboard? Not sure about the power draw of two g92s in SLI versus a single HD4870. I'd go with the 4870. The GTX260's pricing is getting more and more competitive, it's becoming a reasonable alternative to those with SLI boards trying to keep SLI open as an upgrade path. I know I considered the GTX260 when I found that it actually performs significantly better in Company of Heroes over the HD4870.

Not to mention, ATi driver support is horrendous.. they didn't have an official 4800 series driver until a few weeks after its launch, no fan control when the 4800 NEEDS the fan to run higher than the LOCKED ~30% to stay cool (runs at 80C otherwise). Overall, prefer Forceware over Catalyst. Went with HD4870 this time around.

[craziii]

power consumption http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22 8800gt sli draws less power than a single 4870, like 10 watts more than a single gtx 260.

why not go sli? just giving him another option. 8800gt sli is about 20% better than 4870, the only thing that beats it is gtx 280 sli. that means this generation of vid cards are all junk.

[Roman Clone]

power consumption http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22 8800gt sli draws less power than a single 4870, like 10 watts more than a single gtx 260.

why not go sli? just giving him another option. 8800gt sli is about 20% better than 4870, the only thing that beats it is gtx 280 sli. that means this generation of vid cards are all junk.

Not all games support SLI.

[SPARTAN VI]

power consumption http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22 8800gt sli draws less power than a single 4870, like 10 watts more than a single gtx 260.

why not go sli? just giving him another option. 8800gt sli is about 20% better than 4870, the only thing that beats it is gtx 280 sli. that means this generation of vid cards are all junk.

I just don't think it's wise to go SLI for the hell of it. If he doesn't have an SLI board, then he'd have to buy one and go through that headache of swapping his components out then back in, have Windows whine about activation. Just not practical or cost effective at this point (around $200?). Just get a similar price/performance single slot solution and be done with it (HD4850 is right at that range).

So far I've only gone SLI when I already had one card, I could pick up a second one for cheap. Done it with dual 7800GT's and dual 7900GS's.

[Miraj]

4870s are one the best cards as far as cash vs performance value goes. And 2X4870s CrossFire priced at around $550 will be an amazing setup.

I have a GTX280 for $499, but if I was more financially wise I would have honestly gotten 2 4870s which perform better on many settings.. especially when Anti-Aliasing is turned on. I'm just such a whore for nvidia and I also got a nforce 790i SLI mobo so I sort of had to get a awsome Nvidia card.

As far as a GTX260 goes, don't even bother. 4870 is way better than it.

[invictus]

Id actually want to see these reviews where the 260 is better than the 4870 and especially the one with the 8800 gts in sli being better. -Leon

[craziii]

Id actually want to see these reviews where the 260 is better than the 4870 and especially the one with the 8800 gts in sli being better. -Leon

here you go

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13

page 13 - end are all real world game charts. if you want analysis and test setup, just read from page one. and it isn't even (newer version)8800gts sli, just 8800gt sli.

[Thor the Bassist]

My long lasting ATI memory is that Catalyst Control Center never bloody worked. Then again when they finally got it working it was better than the Nvidia center I have now. That was going back quite a while though...

[Commander Ruunu]

Going to update my computer too and im going for HD 4870