GTX280 Vs HD4870 - Help me decide!

[LightningRider]

That is complete bulls#it. ATi's driver support is far more superior compared to NVidia's. OFFICIAL releases almost every month and every release performance in an area is increased. That is just AWESOME.

I'm not buying it full price. I was going to use my step up and get it for the same price as what it would cost me to get a HD4870, unless I sell my old card. Read the thread buddy.

But I agree with you, I would never buy it full price if I didn't have the step up.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: LightningRider

That is complete bulls#it. ATi's driver support is far more superior compared to NVidia's. OFFICIAL releases almost every month and every release performance in an area is increased. That is just AWESOME.

I'm not buying it full price. I was going to use my step up and get it for the same price as what it would cost me to get a HD4870, unless I sell my old card. Read the thread buddy.

But I agree with you, I would never buy it full price if I didn't have the step up.

Ah... now I feel like a tard. I'm sorry. Should have read the first post.
In that case... go for the 280!

 

[Denithor]

But you really are buying it full price, you paid ~$300 for the 9800GTX and now you're looking to add another $325 to that to get the GTX 280. That's full price as far as I can see.

If you don't want to go SLI the next best option is sell the 9800GTX for whatever you can get and buy a 4870 (or 4870X2 if you're willing to wait).

Or, depending on the time remaining on your step-up program, wait a while and see if nVidia drops the MSRP on the GTX 280 in response to the price/performance available from the 4870. You might be able to step up for $200 or something within the next month or so if you can wait that long.

 

[LightningRider]

Don't worry bout it lol. I can still get the HD4870 cheaper cause I can sell my 9800GTX.

But what about the driver support? I see you have an HD3870. In your experience has support been there?

 

[allies]

Depending where you are in the queue, Step Up, sell your GTX280 for $550, buy a 4870 for $300, and have $250 in cash

Edit... sh!t I didn't see you have to pay $325 after SH.. hmm.. I didn't read the rest of the thread but I take it you don't have a SLI capable mobo on hand?

 

[LightningRider]

Nope I don't, the more I think about it, I like having the ability to go X-fire, even if I don't ever use that option.

The only thing that I'm really thinking about now is the 512MB vs 1GB. I read on these forums and in reviews that the Radeon cards are much more memory efficient and can swap data faster then Geforce cards and that's why that having more memory doesn't really affect performance as much as on Geforce cards.

But I'm still thinking about future games too, ya know?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
Don't worry bout it lol. I can still get the HD4870 cheaper cause I can sell my 9800GTX.

But what about the driver support? I see you have an HD3870. In your experience has support been there?

AMD's driver support is way ahead of Nvidia's right now, at least in Windows. AMD releases a new official driver update pretty much every month. The last Nvidia card I've owned was a 7900GS, so all I can comment on is the very numerous threads here about how bad the 8 series drivers are. I think Nvidia had some better official drivers for the 9 series? Odd since they are very, very similar. Anyway, if you're using Windows the general consensus is that AMD has better driver support.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder

Originally posted by: LightningRider
Don't worry bout it lol. I can still get the HD4870 cheaper cause I can sell my 9800GTX.

But what about the driver support? I see you have an HD3870. In your experience has support been there?

AMD's driver support is way ahead of Nvidia's right now, at least in Windows. AMD releases a new official driver update pretty much every month. The last Nvidia card I've owned was a 7900GS, so all I can comment on is the very numerous threads here about how bad the 8 series drivers are. I think Nvidia had some better official drivers for the 9 series? Odd since they are very, very similar. Anyway, if you're using Windows the general consensus is that AMD has better driver support.

WORD.

 

[LightningRider]

Well, good to know, so I guess that just leaves the memory issue...

 

[Rhino2]

If the memory issue has you that concerned, you could always sell the 512mb 4870 once the 1GB ones are around in a month or two, but at least then you can make the decision on whether or not it will even be worth it based on reviews that will no doubt be out on the 1GB version then.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Rhaze

Originally posted by: Gnitepracdlo
get the 4850 now for around $150 ar and then get the 4870x2 when it comes out. that's what i'm doing.

Unless I'm retarded... and I am completely open to this possibility...

I would Step up to the GTX280 for the 325... eBay it 'New, factory sealed box' for 550+

Buy an HD4850 and beer with the gains... this would be a slight upgrade with slight profit after the sale and beer is the mega win.

THEN... wait for the HD4870x2. Sell the used HD4850 on eBay, or CF it.

that's very complicated and I was about to say it's crazy...but thenmn sorry, 8 month old wanted her input. where was I? then I saw the beer part and thought: "Rhaze is a genius!".

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
Well, I had always intended to step up to the GTX280, that's why I bought the 9800GTX when I did, knowing it wouldn't be high end for long. I am thinking of just going for the HD4870.

The only things I'm still thinking about are:

- 512MB vs 1GB of memory
- ATi driver support, I've heard it's a bit worse than nVidia's

I can't comment about the memory issue from my personal experiences, but I have read from a few more knowledgeable than myself that at 1920x1200 it shouldn't come up for you. ati driver support has been equal and probably even a bit better than nvidia's since the 8800 series came out. Just ask bfg about his 8800gtx driver issues.

 

[LightningRider]

Alright, well I like that idea of selling the 512MB card if the 1GBs provide a performance gain that's worth it.

I think I'm almost sold on the HD4870. The GTX280 step up queue is moving painfully slow, haven't even moved down 100 almost a week later and I still have a few hundred to go.

I'll probably get a VisionTek or HiS brand if I go Radeon. Those seem to be the two top brands when it comes to ATi parts.

Still, if anyone can provide anymore convincing arguments before I decide, especially more info on 512MB vs 1GB, then I'd love to hear them.

 

[Nurn]

Remember... the 4870 has GDDR5 ubermemory.... from Anand's review:

"Priced at $299 the Radeon HD 4870 is clocked 20% higher and has 81% more memory bandwidth than the Radeon HD 4850. The GPU clock speed improvement is simply due to better cooling as the 4870 ships with a two-slot cooler. The memory bandwidth improvement is due to the Radeon HD 4870 using GDDR5 memory instead of GDDR3 used on the 4850 (and GDDR4 for 3870); the result is a data rate equal to 4x the memory clock speed or 3.6Gbps. The Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 both use a 256-bit memory bus like the 3870 before it (as well as NVIDIA's competing GeForce 9800 GTX), but total memory bandwidth on the 4870 ends up being 115.2GB/s thanks to the use of GDDR5. Note that this is more memory bandwidth than the GeForce GTX 260 which has a much wider 448-bit memory bus, but uses GDDR3 devices.

The use of GDDR5 enabled AMD to deliver GeForce GTX 260 class memory bandwidth, but without the pin-count and expense of a 448-bit memory interface. GDDR5 actually implements a number of Rambus-like routing and signaling technologies while still remaining a parallel based memory technology, the result is something that appears to deliver tremendous bandwidth per pin in a reliable, high volume solution."

512MB of GDDR5 is plenty. Just look at the high fps numbers in Anand's review, even at 1920 x 1200.

 

[Kuzi]

Get the 1GB version, you said you game @1920x1200 resolution, I'd say at this resolution many games almost max out a 512MB card, and maybe a few games go a bit above 512MB. Newer games with better graphics are being released every month, and soon the card with 512MB will slow down especially at ur resolution with highest quality settings and AA/AF etc.

Maybe wait for the 1GB 4870 card, I don't think you'll have to wait very long 1 or 2 months max. Your 9800GTX can hold you off till then

 

[LightningRider]

Mmm, I don't know. Nurn makes sense and he is quoting Anandtech. I think I'll just snatch up the 512MB flavor and if the 1GB makes a hella difference then I'll upgrade and sell the 512MB. Or crossfire it? I'm not sure how efficient that would be but maybe. I'd have to do more reading on X-fire in that case.

 

[Kuzi]

The memory bandwidth will not matter if the game textures can't fit in the 512MB, the system will start using main memory for some of the textures, which is much slower, and fps will go down.

But anyways for most current games you should be fine with 512MB of memory as many already said.

 

[LightningRider]

Yeah, I know that's why I was worried about that to begin with. But I think most games today still don't use more than 512MB, perhaps unless at very very high resolutions like 25x16 +. I've also read that Radeons can swap out the memory faster than Geforces when the memory is full.

 

[themisfit610]

Do you guys really think any games out now or in the next few months will really use close to 1GB of VRAM?

Who exactly has this much VRAM? Early adopters only.

Look at the market - the only "big, bad, can't max it on anything yet" game is Crysis - a glorified tech demo / moneymaker for video card makers.

Everything else runs basically flawlessly on an 8800GT or above.

It's going to be a long time before we start seeing games that actually need more than 512MB to maintain smooth performance. Oblivion with texture mods doesn't count

A 512mb card is more than adequate, and will be for quite some time, unless you're doing 2560x1600 with AA.



Now, regarding the OP - I think you should really do an honest evaluation of what you need Your 9800gtx is a very fast card. It can basically max everything. What is the performance of this card preventing you from achieving?

~MiSfit

 

[LightningRider]

Nothing, I just have the upgrade itch and I originally planned to step up to the GTX 280 when I bought the 9800GTX. It's just that now it hasn't quite turned out what I expected it to be yet I still have the expectation of having some new top end card.

Silly I know but I have the money so I don't mind, plus I'll probably end up selling the 9800GTX anyways. Thanks for your input on the VRAM. But there are a lot of games coming this year that I want to make sure I can run on high settings.

 

[ginfest]

I entered the EVGA step-up and ordered a 4870. Whichever suits my needs better I'll keep and sell the other. Best of both worlds and gets me some value for my 9800
I'll also get to see which is really the better card for the games that I play!

 

[ViperV990]

Haven't seen it mentioned yet, so I figure I'd at least throw this suggestion into the ring:

Step up to a GX2 instead of the 280?

 

[Ryan Smith]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
- Havok Physics Support (is this on-card support like PhysX?)

Hey guys, I just thought I'd stop by and comment on this since I saw it. We've looked in to the matter and I have been unable to get any confirmation that Havok/AMD are seriously working on a Havok implementation on CAL for hardware acceleration. The press release at the heart of the matter seems to have been a strategic press release against NVIDIA (both Havok and AMD compete against NVIDIA right now) reaffirming that yes, Havok does take in to account AMD CPUs in their development efforts. It doesn't look like there are any new products in the pipeline right now, Havok seems pretty dead on the idea since Havok FX died.

 

[Nurn]

I wouldn't recommend a GX2 over a 280, due to the memory issues that he's worried about. The GX2, while having 1GB total memory, has only 512MB useable VRAM due to the way SLI works. That, coupled with its 256 bus and GDDR3 make it a worse choice for hi-res gaming than the 280 or the 4870. I've seen posts on other sites from people who have given up their GX2 for a 280, for this very reason:

http://forums.overclockers.co....wthread.php?t=17888181

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
Well I game at 1920x1200, but a new monitor's always possible

Also, my temps on the 9800GTX are around 62C idle and I've seen that the idle temps on both the cards are lower than that. Also, I wouldn't pay less upfront for the GTX280, but after shipping and everything it would probably be about the same price. I'm not sure if I would sell the 9800GTX or keep it.

Don't go by idle temps. My 8800GT idles around 52-54C, and this is a eVga SSC version. But that doesn't mean anything more than the fact that I have good cooling with my case.