Graphics Card Advice.

[x434343]

Hey guys,

I need a new graphics card, and I've been told to narrow my cards down to 2 Radeon and 1 nVidia card.

The nVidia cards considered are the nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ and the nVidia GeForce GTS260.

The Radeon cards are the Radeon HD 4850, the Radeon HD 4870, and the Radeon HD 4890.

Please tell me any feedback you have on those, as well as good companies to order them from.

 

[x434343]

Ummm, do you mean the GTX 260? I don't think there's a gts 260. If so I'd go with that, much better than the 9800. I have a GTX 275 and I love it. I've had bad experiences with Radeon cards, but that's probably just me.

Yeah, probably a GTX 260. And my tech guy says Radeon Crads tend to last longer than nVidia cards.

 

[vampyricvoid]

Without a doubt, either the Radeon HD 4870 or the 4890 (depending on your budget). My friend's system used to run Crysis at lowest/medium settings with a bit of lag. Then he got the Radeon HD 4870 and it ran it at max setting (including Anti-Aliasing) without any lag whatsoever. I'd go with that card any day (plus you can hook 2 of them together if Crysis 2 comes out with better-than-real-life graphics).

 

[TMAN10112]

I have the Radeon HD 4870 and I can run most modern games (COD:4/WAW, Deadspace, Fallout 3, ect.) at full settings with a smooth frame rate.

I looked up the core clock on those cards, and I would suggest going with the Radeon HD 4890:

GTX 260-576MHz
Radeon 4850- 625MHz
Nvidia 9800- 738MHz
Radeon 4870- 750MHz
Radeon 4890- 850Mhz

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I would run with the GTX260, but the Radeon HD 4890 isn't too bad either.

In the end it boils down to how big your budget is.

 

[AbuFace]

I have the Radeon HD 4870 and I can run most modern games (COD:4/WAW, Deadspace, Fallout 3, ect.) at full settings with a smooth frame rate.

I looked up the core clock on those cards, and I would suggest going with the Radeon HD 4890:

GTX 260-576MHz
Radeon 4850- 625MHz
Nvidia 9800- 738MHz
Radeon 4870- 750MHz
Radeon 4890- 850Mhz

You can't really compare core clocks between different cards though, as the architecture between cards can vary wildly. If core clocks were all that mattered, we'd still be using 3.4 ghz pentium 4 CPUs instead of the current offerings.

Nevertheless, I agree with you that a 4870 1GB would be a fantastic card to get. It has amazing performance for its price and the 1GB of memory will suffice for quite some time. I used one of these [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161269] on a friend's computer a few months ago, and it's worked fantastic since. Try browsing the list of 4870 models on newegg [http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000048%201067940678%201068320729&Description=4870&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE] and see if you find one that strikes your fancy.

Yeah, probably a GTX 260. And my tech guy says Radeon Crads tend to last longer than nVidia cards.

You should ask your tech guy what the heck he's talking about =P
I guess you could say that since the radeon 4xxx series supports DX10.1 and nvidia only supports DX10 that there's more longetivity, but DX11 cards are coming out soon and it'll be a moot point.

Edit: Check out this review [http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4890,2262-6.html] to see how the cards perform relative to each other and which cards work better for the games you like to play.

 

[TMAN10112]

I have the Radeon HD 4870 and I can run most modern games (COD:4/WAW, Deadspace, Fallout 3, ect.) at full settings with a smooth frame rate.

I looked up the core clock on those cards, and I would suggest going with the Radeon HD 4890:

GTX 260-576MHz
Radeon 4850- 625MHz
Nvidia 9800- 738MHz
Radeon 4870- 750MHz
Radeon 4890- 850Mhz

You can't really compare core clocks between different cards though, as the architecture between cards can vary wildly. If core clocks were all that mattered, we'd still be using 3.4 ghz pentium 4 CPUs instead of the current offerings.

I see, thanks for correcting me on that.