Nvidia. Simply because you will have less compatibility probs. Ati may be technically advanced, but I got probs with ATI as long as I can think. With so many games "made for Nvidia" its just the better bet that a game will run properly.
Nvidia consistently has better drivers (in both linux and windows). ATI has poor driver support and in some cases (and operating systems) none at all. I think it's just waiting to die.
You should be really researching them both.. No clear cut "winner' in this battle tbh, although as one said before, the driver and support may be the deciding factor for most potential buyers..
I just did some research myself, and as I was poised to go grab up 2 8800 GT's, I read about the model I was getting and the heat and power issues that come with it... Scrapped that idea and went with 2 9600 GT's at the last minute..
should i get a GTX 260 or a 4870 i'm looking to get a graphics card that will last me at least 2 years until i graduate from college right now i have a 7900GT do you guys reccommend anything else?
GTX 260 is 10% faster then HD 4870. Its also like 10% more expensive.
Yes they will. But that depends what you want to do with them in the next 2 years. 2 years from now you will not be able to play games on high setting, but medium or something.
Both cards can currently run Crysis on Very High DX10 settings and are one of the best cards out there.
get an nvidia 8800 good bang for your buck wont mind upgradeing in a year or so when its required and the drivers are great. the ati cards have driver issues, and i for one having had to sort out drivers for my laptops mobile gtx cards sli setup can tell you driver issues suck so go the easy cheap route 8800s dominate war on max settings np sli if you want some ridiculous hdtv monitor setup at like 2500 1600 and skip the headache of ati driver issues. see you in game, youre gonna love the pvpness of rvr
As to the memory question. A 32 bit based operating system can't address more than 4gig. A 64 bit operating system can address over 4gig. Microsoft varies the upper limit a 64 bit system can read(from 8GB to 128GB) depending on which version of the operating system you buy. On the video cards either way you will be fine. The ATI card does run hotter and that probably translates into a noiser system. And there tend to be more issues with ATI drivers. If you get a 9800GTX+ it outperforms the 4850. This is the cheapest 9800 gtx+ I found looking real quick: ($200 and a $30 rebate) http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SkuSearch_v2.asp?SCriteria=AA73790
I have a HD 4870 - its on 24/7 and it is right at my feet.
My dog makes more noise when it does a silent fart.
Guys my comp spec at the moment: core2duo 2.13ghz 2gig RAM vidcard: 7600gtx
Now, i been wondering, should i benefit more if i only upgrade my video card? or should I also upgrade my processor? because its really useless to upgrade high end video card if ur processor cant handle it right? So wat processor speed would make a good pair for this high end video card(4850, 9800)
From what I see here, your 7600 is a huge bottleneck. That card will slow down any game before your processor even breaks a sweat.
Oh, but if you are going to upgrade both, for games I prefer the higher clocked speed dual cores over the lower clocked speed quad cores. A Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 should be plenty.
Also, when asking about upgrading, its a good idea to include your motherboard specs, such as the model number and chipset(Intel P45, Nvidia 780i, etc).
To sum it up, only upgrading your video card should give you a really nice boost for any game. But if you go high end on the video card(GTX 260 or Radeon 4870), your current processor might slow you down a bit.
Waiting for:
-Games- -Re-Launch of Hellgate:London US/EU Servers -Diablo 3
-A PvE centric MMORPG with- -Fast paced twitch-action combat that requires hand-eye coordination, where you can manually aim your attacks instead of having to acquire/lock target(s) first. -FPS-style WASD and mouse control that determine your overall success when attacking or defending.
>The post you are replying to by Archillez, posted on 9/02/08 7:01:34 PM
>Guys my comp spec at the moment:
>core2duo 2.13ghz
>2gig RAM
>vidcard: 7600gtx
>Now, i been wondering, should i benefit more if i only upgrade my video card? or should I also upgrade my >processor? because its really useless to upgrade high end video card if ur processor cant handle it right? >So wat processor speed would make a good pair for this high end video card(4850, 9800)
Only Graphic card, and ram never hurts if you have the extra $
should i get a GTX 260 or a 4870 i'm looking to get a graphics card that will last me at least 2 years until i graduate from college right now i have a 7900GT do you guys reccommend anything else?
GTX 260 is 10% faster then HD 4870. Its also like 10% more expensive.
Yes they will. But that depends what you want to do with them in the next 2 years. 2 years from now you will not be able to play games on high setting, but medium or something.
Both cards can currently run Crysis on Very High DX10 settings and are one of the best cards out there.
I would stick with the ATI simple because DX10.1; you'll benefit more from it in the long run. Games will start implementing it as soon as nvidia releases its first DX11 card (end of 2009) and some games will already have it. 4870 is for sure you best choice and it will last 2 years as Psiho246 said it depends on what your going to do with it and you will have to slowly down grade your setting on new games only in a year or so. Hopefully you don't have a huge 24" lcd or more since that will also be a factor.
radeon.. i own 3 nvidia things.. mainboard and 2 cards running in sli.. i never had ati.. in my life..
but with all the problems with nvidia motherboard i had.. and overh alf year to fix issue which 50% of ppl with one of most used mainboard had was just way too much.. , not to mention nvidia charges just too much.. untill ati came and it had to drop prices.. ati visual quality is better than nvidia. it have better anti alliasing.. better crossfire scaling.. nvidia drivers are far from good.. and 4850 outperforms 9800+
you can say nvidia got psyhix.. wtf its spelled .. um so what.. there is 1 game ( moded unreal 3 on 1 map ) which supports it. agea games doesnt support nvidia psyhix.. you cant even install half of those games.. cuz agea driver wont install over.. and canceling wont work on some game.. so unless you wana reinstall all over again shit.. you cant play them
and ati does have psyhix too.. if its not released yet it will be soon..
Assuming good quality 550+ W power supply with decent single 12v rail :
Option 1: 8800gt 512MB in SLI if you have a nvidia board.
Option 2: 4850 512MB in Crossfire if you have an Intel board.
Both combos are great and incredibly future proof unless you are looking at combinations of 1920*1200 resolutions and upwards with really high antialiasing on (8x and upwards) and even then both these combos are incredibly competitive for their price.
I have 2 computers with the aforementioned setups and their game performance is almost identical with ATI abit higher in benchmarks like vantage but still the differences are almost non - existant in games.
Just my feedback.
PS. If you are buying a card for WAR strictly, you might want to check if it's multi-gpu optimised because I am not sure about it myself. If so a new 55nm 9800gtx+ or a 4870 for single card setups are both fantastic.
Comments
Nvidia. Simply because you will have less compatibility probs. Ati may be technically advanced, but I got probs with ATI as long as I can think. With so many games "made for Nvidia" its just the better bet that a game will run properly.
Nvidia consistently has better drivers (in both linux and windows). ATI has poor driver support and in some cases (and operating systems) none at all. I think it's just waiting to die.
You should be really researching them both.. No clear cut "winner' in this battle tbh, although as one said before, the driver and support may be the deciding factor for most potential buyers..
I just did some research myself, and as I was poised to go grab up 2 8800 GT's, I read about the model I was getting and the heat and power issues that come with it... Scrapped that idea and went with 2 9600 GT's at the last minute..
The power of the net..
GTX 260 is 10% faster then HD 4870. Its also like 10% more expensive.
Your choice...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-comparison,2007-35.html
they'd be good for at least 2 years right?
Yes they will. But that depends what you want to do with them in the next 2 years. 2 years from now you will not be able to play games on high setting, but medium or something.
Both cards can currently run Crysis on Very High DX10 settings and are one of the best cards out there.
get an nvidia 8800 good bang for your buck wont mind upgradeing in a year or so when its required and the drivers are great. the ati cards have driver issues, and i for one having had to sort out drivers for my laptops mobile gtx cards sli setup can tell you driver issues suck so go the easy cheap route 8800s dominate war on max settings np sli if you want some ridiculous hdtv monitor setup at like 2500 1600 and skip the headache of ati driver issues. see you in game, youre gonna love the pvpness of rvr
I have a HD 4870 - its on 24/7 and it is right at my feet.
My dog makes more noise when it does a silent fart.
Caveat Emptor
From what I see here, your 7600 is a huge bottleneck. That card will slow down any game before your processor even breaks a sweat.
Oh, but if you are going to upgrade both, for games I prefer the higher clocked speed dual cores over the lower clocked speed quad cores. A Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 should be plenty.
Also, when asking about upgrading, its a good idea to include your motherboard specs, such as the model number and chipset(Intel P45, Nvidia 780i, etc).
To sum it up, only upgrading your video card should give you a really nice boost for any game. But if you go high end on the video card(GTX 260 or Radeon 4870), your current processor might slow you down a bit.
Waiting for:
-Games-
-Re-Launch of Hellgate:London US/EU Servers
-Diablo 3
-A PvE centric MMORPG with-
-Fast paced twitch-action combat that requires hand-eye coordination, where you can manually aim your attacks instead of having to acquire/lock target(s) first.
-FPS-style WASD and mouse control that determine your overall success when attacking or defending.
>The post you are replying to by Archillez, posted on 9/02/08 7:01:34 PM
>Guys my comp spec at the moment:
>core2duo 2.13ghz
>2gig RAM
>vidcard: 7600gtx
>Now, i been wondering, should i benefit more if i only upgrade my video card? or should I also upgrade my >processor? because its really useless to upgrade high end video card if ur processor cant handle it right? >So wat processor speed would make a good pair for this high end video card(4850, 9800)
Only Graphic card, and ram never hurts if you have the extra $
GTX 260 is 10% faster then HD 4870. Its also like 10% more expensive.
Your choice...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-comparison,2007-35.html
they'd be good for at least 2 years right?
Yes they will. But that depends what you want to do with them in the next 2 years. 2 years from now you will not be able to play games on high setting, but medium or something.
Both cards can currently run Crysis on Very High DX10 settings and are one of the best cards out there.
I would stick with the ATI simple because DX10.1; you'll benefit more from it in the long run. Games will start implementing it as soon as nvidia releases its first DX11 card (end of 2009) and some games will already have it. 4870 is for sure you best choice and it will last 2 years as Psiho246 said it depends on what your going to do with it and you will have to slowly down grade your setting on new games only in a year or so. Hopefully you don't have a huge 24" lcd or more since that will also be a factor.
I have always had good success with ATI cards plus I enjoy the fact that ATI cards have less power requirements than Nvidia.
radeon.. i own 3 nvidia things.. mainboard and 2 cards running in sli.. i never had ati.. in my life..
but with all the problems with nvidia motherboard i had.. and overh alf year to fix issue which 50% of ppl with one of most used mainboard had was just way too much.. , not to mention nvidia charges just too much.. untill ati came and it had to drop prices.. ati visual quality is better than nvidia. it have better anti alliasing.. better crossfire scaling.. nvidia drivers are far from good.. and 4850 outperforms 9800+
you can say nvidia got psyhix.. wtf its spelled .. um so what.. there is 1 game ( moded unreal 3 on 1 map ) which supports it. agea games doesnt support nvidia psyhix.. you cant even install half of those games.. cuz agea driver wont install over.. and canceling wont work on some game.. so unless you wana reinstall all over again shit.. you cant play them
and ati does have psyhix too.. if its not released yet it will be soon..
Assuming good quality 550+ W power supply with decent single 12v rail :
Option 1: 8800gt 512MB in SLI if you have a nvidia board.
Option 2: 4850 512MB in Crossfire if you have an Intel board.
Both combos are great and incredibly future proof unless you are looking at combinations of 1920*1200 resolutions and upwards with really high antialiasing on (8x and upwards) and even then both these combos are incredibly competitive for their price.
I have 2 computers with the aforementioned setups and their game performance is almost identical with ATI abit higher in benchmarks like vantage but still the differences are almost non - existant in games.
Just my feedback.
PS. If you are buying a card for WAR strictly, you might want to check if it's multi-gpu optimised because I am not sure about it myself. If so a new 55nm 9800gtx+ or a 4870 for single card setups are both fantastic.