I'm starting to get excited!

[imported_cinder]

I'm getting pretty excited. Come Thursday. pay day, I'm gonna drop $300 on a GTX 260. I haven't had the need to upgrade my card since all I played was CSS. I picked up COD4 a week or 2 ago and it seems that my card can't handle the game as well as I thought it would. So, time to make the upgrade. I think I will like the GTX 260 better than the 4870 mainly because Im used to the nVidia drivers. My experience with ATI drivers has been, for the most part, terrible. Anyways, any thoughts that I could be helpful for me would be appreciated.

 

[OCGuy]

Enjoy your card, and get it from a top-tier partner!

 

[imported_cinder]

Yeah I was thinking MSI or eVGA..sound good?

 

[bryanW1995]

ati drivers are, if anything, better than nvidia drivers these days. ask bfg how much he has enjoyed his 8800 ownership experience...

if you choose to go with a gtx 260, evga and/or xfx are the ones to get. read the "early adopter" rebate thread for a good reason why.

 

[secretanchitman]

evga or xfx ftw. to be honest, my msi 7900GT (HDCP) was perfectly fine too, aka i didnt have any problems with it at all.

 

[LightningRider]

eVGA. But HD4870 is a good, maybe better choice too.

 

[wolf2009]

enjoy, plz take a look at my sig and help if u can .

 

[RussianSensation]

You should upgrade the monitor to 24 inch LCD

Nice purchase on the card; although I would have gone with 4870.

 

[shangshang]

Can't go wrong with the GT260. Next years' games will probably use Physx a lot, and you will get a huge boost in those games.

AMD hasn't even officially listed drivers for the 4850/4870 cards yet! Over a month after release, and still no official drivers. AMD is putting all their money into making hardware that their driver development team is an after-thought.



This isn't an anti-ATI thread. Keep on topic or stay out of the thread.


esquared
Anandtech Senior Moderator

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: shangshang

AMD is putting all their money into making hardware that their driver development team is an after-thought.

ROFL, which is why they've been release monthly official WHQL drivers since 2002.

 

[shangshang]

Business has changed since 2002. Stock is down a lot since 2002. Laying off 1600 heads soon. Doesn't matter what the past is. What is happening NOW is no official drivers for a month after a product has been released.

 

[Compddd]

Wait they've been releasing montly driver updates for 5 years now, and you're bitching about what now? The cards came out on June 24th, it's not July 24th yet smart guy.

 

[shangshang]

Best Buy had their $150 4850 deal on June 14th. It's now July 15th. So it has been at least a month, no?

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: cinder
I'm getting pretty excited. Come Thursday. pay day, I'm gonna drop $300 on a GTX 260.

All I can say is...... keep a sharp eye on the "hot deals" thread and on sites like "Techbargains".

Prices have been crazy lately. Some changing daily and some only lasting a day.

 

[dug777]

Not sure what's happening with young JK7600

Young shangshang isn't exactly deliver much other than enthusiastic, juvenile and often wildly inaccurate tirades against ATI on here either

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: cinder
I'm getting pretty excited. Come Thursday. pay day, I'm gonna drop $300 on a GTX 260. I haven't had the need to upgrade my card since all I played was CSS. I picked up COD4 a week or 2 ago and it seems that my card can't handle the game as well as I thought it would. So, time to make the upgrade. I think I will like the GTX 260 better than the 4870 mainly because Im used to the nVidia drivers. My experience with ATI drivers has been, for the most part, terrible. Anyways, any thoughts that I could be helpful for me would be appreciated.

I have just upgraded from Nvidia 7800GT to a Gigabyte 4870 card,never had any drivers issues with AMD/ATi over the years or even now,the drivers are as good as Nvidia nowadays if not better IMHO.


I do like the monthly official updates AMD has,however I hope you enjoy your card whatever in the end you decide to buy.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: shangshang
Business has changed since 2002. Stock is down a lot since 2002. Laying off 1600 heads soon. Doesn't matter what the past is. What is happening NOW is no official drivers for a month after a product has been released.

shangshang stopping spreading FUD about AMD/ATi drivers you are really showing your true colours and confirming you are a TROLL!!!.


Next you will tell me you had no drivers on the CD that came with your card or could not find the hotfix 8.6 drivers at AMD's website,did I meantion today we should get the 8.7 official drivers(got to love AMD's monthly updates).

 

[Magusigne]

Congrats Cinder,

I originally bought a 4870 but then switched over to the GTX 260 again. I was having some driver issues (I just have poor luck with ATI). There are many pro's and cons with each.

I honestly put the GTX 260 at the same level as the HD4870 for many reasons.

Memory bandwidth is Roughly the same, although the 260 has almost twice as much. This is important if you game at high resolutions with lots of textures.

Contrary to what you may have heard the GTX 260 can overclock to stock GTX 280 speeds. The 4870 can be overclocked pretty well too.

What made me switch though was the thought of dealing with a ATI partner, eVGA and XFX are some of the best vendor's around.

The 4870 I had though obsolutely SCREAMED through most games I play. Just make sure if you do get a 4870 get a Visiontech for the lifetime warranty!

 

[Qbah]

You can't go wrong with either card I myself lean more towards ATi (driver problems for my 7800GT almost made me go bald ), but the GTX260 is just as good. Both of these cards are very fast. I went from a 7800GT to a 1950XTX (saw a good performance jump, had a sucky gaming CPU - Pentium D 820) and then to a completely new rig (see my sig) and this performance jump made me go *wow* :shocked: Nothing like having games capped at 60fps and hardly ever dropping below it

As to the 'drivers-troll', the 4850s were sold before the NDA lifted. The launch should've coincided with the 8.6 catalyst launch, from what I remember. With supporting drivers on the bundled CD. A month later the 8.7s (this week) would come, obviously supporting 4850 and 4870. Also, do I need to remind you that the 8800 series cards were waiting until may 2008 since december 2007 to get an official driver update? Yes, 6 months... There you go, 'proper' support from nVidia. So just give it a rest.

 

[imported_cinder]

Yeah I think with my current setup the simple gfx card upgrade to the GTX 260 will provide lots of extra frames in COD4 and more unnoticeable frames in CSS (I already get around 150FPS constant on every map with my 7900GT so anything more wont really make much of a difference).

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Enjoy your card, and get it from a top-tier partner!

That would be EVGA, XFX or BFG.

 

[dakels]

I would maybe wait a few weeks for a 260. The 280's are starting to drastically drop in price, let the 260 deals start rolling first I would try to getone around $240 AR which I would expect in a few weeks.

 

[sticks435]

Originally posted by: dakels
I would maybe wait a few weeks for a 260. The 280's are starting to drastically drop in price, let the 260 deals start rolling first I would try to getone around $240 AR which I would expect in a few weeks.

I doubt prices are going to go any lower. I can't see the board makers taking anymore of a hit then they already are, and I doubt you will see $60 rebates.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: sticks435

Originally posted by: dakels
I would maybe wait a few weeks for a 260. The 280's are starting to drastically drop in price, let the 260 deals start rolling first I would try to getone around $240 AR which I would expect in a few weeks.

I doubt prices are going to go any lower. I can't see the board makers taking anymore of a hit then they already are, and I doubt you will see $60 rebates.

The 280 just dropped to $500 and they are already selling for $420 AR, the 260 rebates haven't really shown up yet, but they always do. Even with these fresh out of the oven, one just started at $30 MIR. I know this launch and repricing may be a bit unusual but I would still expect the discounts to start coming.

 

[videogames101]

Grats! I'm still on a 7800gt, but i'm upgrading to a 4870 soon, gonna be a giant leap