My gtx 260 vs. my hd 4870

[unr3al]

Buying any one of them would be a great investment, I agree. If you can get them at the same price point. Buying the more expensive one over the other, slightly slower one, is pointless however; the framerate difference isn't enough to make this true: HD4870=unplayable; GTX260=playable.

I would say if you have an nVidia board, then go for the GTX. If you have an ATi/AMD board, get the ATi. If I had an Intel board with one PCIe slot my choice would have been the GTX. On a multi-slot Intel X38/X48 or similar mobo I would go for the ATi though, simply because it could crossfire.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i would love for rivatuner to come out so we can see how far these clocks can go on the 4870 and go OC to OC

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues
i would love for rivatuner to come out so we can see how far these clocks can go on the 4870 and go OC to OC

There is a pretty good HD4870 overclocking thread going over at XS. Some really good results well north of 800MHz on the core.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself

But since the GTX 260 is so overclockable out of the box, if you dont mind voiding the warranty I guess its the better card

You would only have to worry about that on the ATI card as several NVIDIA card makers cover overclocking in their warranty.

Because the 4870 already runs too hot, it's difficult to get much of an overclock out of it.

The GTX260+ should be a monster. I may actually hold off my video card purchase and try and get one. (or at least see if the $225 deal shows up again).

It looks like the hype is starting to wear off the 48xx.

 

[taltamir]

I think as that people simply don't look at the prices... the 4870 @ 300$ was AWESOME in comparison to a GTX260 @ 450$...
There was simply no reason to buy a GTX260 at that price. But people took it as "no point to buy a GTX260"...
to the point that the GTX260 actually fell to much lower then 4870 prices. at which point I snapped it up... This is why I hate it when reviews slant their conclusion based on price, just tell me where it falls compared to other cards, I will shop around and see which to buy.

anyways, any tricks and recommendations for OCing the GTX260? I am getting one of those eVGA 260 SC for 225$ and would appreciate advice on how you managed to get such an awesome OC on your GPU.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: nkdesistyle
Yes for two days the hd 4870 was running fine at 840 and and after two days it would not run anything higher than 790, tried 800/810/820 but I was running in to stability problems. I even saw messed up pixels on my 2d desktop in vista.

I gave the card to my cousin, he is happy with it, but out of curiosity I really wanted to see it for myself.

I really dont think it should matter because technically hd 4870 that I benched with was running at 790/1100 and it is still overclocked to the max stable speed.

but even at 840 It did not scale well, I mean 3dmark vantage increased a few hundred points but I did not see a significant difference between 790 and 840 in games. crysis increased on 1 or 2 frames on average.

what software did you use to oc the 4870 beyond 790?

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: gene57
I can comment on GTX 260 overclockability.
Yesterday I started testing my new BFG GTX 260 OC card, and I went straight to 702/1458/1188. Rock stable, max temp under load is 66C. I didn't try any higher clock, but I will...
The only benchmark I have for now is 3DMark06, ~16,500 (~6,600 SM2.0, ~7,200 SM3.0, ~5,200 CPU by memory). This is on Abit IP35 Pro, Q6600 3.3GHz (367x9), XP32.

Playing Crysis for one hour or so (2560x1600 noAA, high settings) gave me a very smooth feeling. I will benchmark later.

All in all, for now I love this card.:thumbsup:

Let me get all of the common red team fanboi responses out of the way here for you:


"Woah, is this part of your Nvidia focus group campaign?"

"Pfft, I doubt you even own a 260"

"I dont know, those results look a little fishy to me, they dont jive with the review @ x.com"

"Every time someone buys a GT200, god kills a puppy"


Enjoy the card

I believe that god kills a baby seal...they're much rarer and thus god is doing a way meaner thing by killing one of them

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: nkdesistyle
Yes for two days the hd 4870 was running fine at 840 and and after two days it would not run anything higher than 790, tried 800/810/820 but I was running in to stability problems. I even saw messed up pixels on my 2d desktop in vista.

I gave the card to my cousin, he is happy with it, but out of curiosity I really wanted to see it for myself.

I really dont think it should matter because technically hd 4870 that I benched with was running at 790/1100 and it is still overclocked to the max stable speed.

but even at 840 It did not scale well, I mean 3dmark vantage increased a few hundred points but I did not see a significant difference between 790 and 840 in games. crysis increased on 1 or 2 frames on average.

what software did you use to oc the 4870 beyond 790?

considering he seems to be the only person ive seen able to clock over 790, this is a good question. and since he has already sold and tested the 4870 he must have had this overclocking utility for at least a week if not more already. that's just crazy! cause nobody on hardforums or this forum has even HEARD OF IT!

 

[nkdesistyle]

amd gpu clock tool, bios flash, you name it there have been ways to overclock hd 4870 a week after it came out and amd gpu clock tool the latest version has been available for a few weeks now, so I dont know why there are any doubts about the overclock on hd 4870. sorry I have not been the only person who has been able to clock the card over 790, go to xtremesystems forums and you will see posts their with hd 4870 overclocks with bios editing and all sorts of ways.

I dont know why you have not heard of it, but bios flashing after editing the bios with RBE gets you the clocks you want.

 

[nkdesistyle]

Originally posted by: taltamir
I think as that people simply don't look at the prices... the 4870 @ 300$ was AWESOME in comparison to a GTX260 @ 450$...
There was simply no reason to buy a GTX260 at that price. But people took it as "no point to buy a GTX260"...
to the point that the GTX260 actually fell to much lower then 4870 prices. at which point I snapped it up... This is why I hate it when reviews slant their conclusion based on price, just tell me where it falls compared to other cards, I will shop around and see which to buy.

anyways, any tricks and recommendations for OCing the GTX260? I am getting one of those eVGA 260 SC for 225$ and would appreciate advice on how you managed to get such an awesome OC on your GPU.

well here is what I did, I actually had a hard time getting the oc first, I actually had to flash it with evga ftw bios, the stock bfg bios had voltage of 1.12v under load when I read the bios with NiBitor, and when I read the ftw bios because I wanted to see if there was any voltage difference between the two, indeed there was, the evga Ftw edition ran at 1.18v under full load, and so I flashed it with that bios, and I was able to get core clock of 750 but I could not get the shader above 1533, with gtx series you have to maintain the clock ration between shader and core clock otherwise the core clock will just reset to the highest allowed ratio, so since I could not get the shader clock stable after 1533 I could not get the core clock higher. I could bench at 1566 shader but it would artifact in ati tool.

right now I am at 702/1480/1150 for 24/7 usage, I decided to stay at these speeds, but it is one hella of a performer at those speeds.

hope this helps.

for whoever that says I probably don't even have a gtx 260, may be posting a screenshot of my card registered with bfg would make you feel better.

 

[taltamir]

mmm... yes, flashing to a higher end bios should work wonders. It is the same physical hardware (and I am actually getting an eVGA 260 SC), only they did all the balancing of voltages and frequencies for you to get an ideal overclock... and if you want to push further from there... very good, very good.
I might just flash it to the FTW bios and leave it there. (who am I kidding... I would probably get the OC itch and push it further )..
Thank you for excellent advice. I would probably not have been able to get as good an OC otherwise.

 

[nkdesistyle]

Originally posted by: taltamir
mmm... yes, flashing to a higher end bios should work wonders. It is the same physical hardware (and I am actually getting an eVGA 260 SC), only they did all the balancing of voltages and frequencies for you to get an ideal overclock... and if you want to push further from there... very good, very good.
I might just flash it to the FTW bios and leave it there. (who am I kidding... I would probably get the OC itch and push it further )..
Thank you for excellent advice. I would probably not have been able to get as good an OC otherwise.

yea I think they can give that much voltage through software, so may be that is how nvidia designed its cards, none the less I have it flashed with ftw bios and have it overclocked via evga precision overlocking tool, that bios actually gave me a stable oc, otherwise with 1.12v I would have been stuck at 650 or so. with the default bios the card did not pass atitool artifact testing, but it did with the ftw bios at 700/1479 and 750/1533 or 729/1533 default shader/clock ratio with the ftw bios.