Don't Ignore Min Frames

[Blacklash]

The GTX 280 is most useful @ 2560x or if you want to pile 16x AA on the games you play @ lower res. An overclocked GTX 260 offers a lot of stiff competition to a GTX 280 @ 1920x and lower. The same may be said for the HD 4870. The 4870 sometimes falls down in min frames and that will equal to a rougher gaming experiences. You'll feel a drop to 9 much more than you will one to 20-22.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9479/palithd487064ge2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/1366/palithd4870103jl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

If you're lower than 2560x and you think the GTX 280 price is a bit much for you, try a GTX 260 from a company that supports user overclocking without voiding your warranty, like Evga or XFX.

So good reasons to have an overclocked GTX 260 or 280 besides solid average frames might be; no worries with multi GPU stutter or bugs, and solid min frames. Hard crashes to FPS below 20 you will definitely feel in game play.

IMO for 1920-2560x an overclocked GTX 260 is the best option for most.

[Ninja Prime]

The GTX 280 is most useful @ 2560x or if you want to pile 16x AA on the games you play @ lower res. An overclocked GTX 260 offers a lot of stiff competition to a GTX 280 @ 1920x and lower. The same may be said for the HD 4870. The 4870 sometimes falls down in min frames and that will equal to a rougher gaming experiences. You'll feel a drop to 9 much more than you will one to 20-22.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9479/palithd487064ge2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/1366/palithd4870103jl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

If you're lower than 2560x and you think the GTX 280 price is a bit much for you, try a GTX 260 from a company that supports user overclocking without voiding your warranty, like Evga or XFX.

So good reasons to have an overclocked GTX 260 or 280 besides solid average frames might be; no worries with multi GPU stutter or bugs, and solid min frames. Hard crashes to FPS below 20 you will definitely feel in game play.

IMO for 1920-2560x an overclocked GTX 260 is the best option for most.


Those are only because you have them to the point that 512mb isn't enough, it has nothing to do with the chips performance, really. Play NV damage control all you want though. ;)

[Tr1cK]

The 4800s drivers haven't even been finished yet. I got massive stuttering and skipping in XP with my 4850 on the first test of 3dMark06 and it still manages to get about 11500. I have yet to test it in Vista.

[azanon]

The 4800s drivers haven't even been finished yet. I got massive stuttering and skipping in XP with my 4850 on the first test of 3dMark06 and it still manages to get about 11500. I have yet to test it in Vista.

If you meant this point as a positive, ... it didn't work. A card could score 50,000, but if someone told me that it "stutters" while doing it, I certainly won't buy it.

[Tr1cK]

If you meant this point as a positive, ... it didn't work. A card could score 50,000, but if someone told me that it "stutters" while doing it, I certainly won't buy it.

My point was that the drivers need work. They still don't have a link to them on the ATI site and you still have to search around for the hotfix set. You also have to be wary of review sites that aren't using the hotfix drivers and just use what came with the card.

I'm extremely happy with my 4850. I played TF2 the other night for a while and it was running at maximum settings (8xAA, 16xAF, etc etc, all except bloom and blur which I hate) at 1680x1050 while getting at least double the FPS that I was getting on my 8800GTS 320 that wasn't maxed (4xAA, 8xAF, next to highest textures.) Every game I have thrown at it so far is faster, I just haven't had time for much testing. 3dMark06 was just a quick test.

FWIW, my 8800-320 scored 10700 in 3DM06 while my 4850 only is around 11500. There is a LOT bigger difference than that 10% in games.

[azanon]

I'd probably be happy with a 4850 too if TF2 was my poison.

Unfortunately, I got hooked on Age of Conan, and the only card(s) that game seems to really like are the GTX 260 and 280. My 260 comes in tomorrow.

[Tr1cK]

AoC runs a lot better than my 8800-320 did also. The IQ is a TON better, which may be due to a larger framebuffer too. I run everything on high, 4x AA, shadow resolution low, bloom off, cache maxed (it's 200 something mb), and the grass draw distance at around 100 and get mostly 40+ in Tortage. I'm just not too pleased with AoCs progress and haven't put much time into it lately.

The results aren't quite as dramatic as TF2, but ATI is also working on better drivers for it. The word is that Catalyst 8.7 will have AoC specific fixes in it.

edit: HardOCP did a review for the 4800s and included AoC benches.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUyNCw2LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[azanon]

AoC runs a lot better than my 8800-320 did also. The IQ is a TON better, which may be due to a larger framebuffer too. I run everything on high, 4x AA, shadow resolution low, bloom off, cache maxed (it's 200 something mb), and the grass draw distance at around 100 and get mostly 40+ in Tortage. I'm just not too pleased with AoCs progress and haven't put much time into it lately.

The results aren't quite as dramatic as TF2, but ATI is also working on better drivers for it. The word is that Catalyst 8.7 will have AoC specific fixes in it.

edit: HardOCP did a review for the 4800s and included AoC benches.

Well yeah, I imagine the 4850 will be the 8800-320 on just about anything. I'm replacing an 8800GT (512mb) myself.

If they get AoC "fixed", provided its a driver issue and not an inferior card issue, that'd be great for them. I was ready to buy now though, so I'd rather part with more money but have the better card for AoC, .......... at least for now.

For those where price is the most important factor, even I admit nvidia doesn't look great where that's the #1 priority for the buyer. The 4850 and 4870 seem like a great value now.

[Dazz]

I have been debating between a GTX 260 and a HD4870 card. The HD4870 is cheaper but with 512MB Ram it is becoming a limiting factor to it. Selling my 9800GTX on ebay so i can get either one of them.

[SH64]

Agr33d. Min framerate > all.

[bmg]

You're exactly right Backlash.

[Tr1cK]

I have been debating between a GTX 260 and a HD4870 card. The HD4870 is cheaper but with 512MB Ram it is becoming a limiting factor to it. Selling my 9800GTX on ebay so i can get either one of them.

The 4870 is 1gb of DDR5 RAM. The 4850 is 512mb of DDR3.

The 4870 is a no brainer and I would have gotten it if I could have found it available. I think the 4850 will tide me over for a while now though.

I agree that min FPS > all, but I haven't seen dips like that on my card yet. Not even in Age of Conan which makes COD4 look weak.

[Maverickman]

The HD 4870 for $299 comes with 512MB of GDDR5 memory. We'll certainly see a 1GB version, but that will probably cost about $100 or so more. Still a 1GB HD 4870 for $399 would beat a GTX 160 and would be a much better deal than the GTX 280. As for minimum FPS, that's crucial to the gameplay experience. Right now the GTX 280 can't be beat in Crysis. I had a 9800 GX2 which some say does better in Crysis, and the GTX 280 blows it away. The 9800 GX2 would stutter frequently in intense scenes while the GTX 280 hardly stutters at all!

[AMC_Duke]

i totaly agree with you guys whats the matter about having 130 fps or 160 fps max it is the difference what is the lowest fps because this is what makes Gameplay smooth sadly so i normaly go for reviews by Driverheaven.net they are one of less sites who benchmark the min fps !

[Dazz]

The HD 4870 for $299 comes with 512MB of GDDR5 memory. We'll certainly see a 1GB version, but that will probably cost about $100 or so more. Still a 1GB HD 4870 for $399 would beat a GTX 160 and would be a much better deal than the GTX 280. As for minimum FPS, that's crucial to the gameplay experience. Right now the GTX 280 can't be beat in Crysis. I had a 9800 GX2 which some say does better in Crysis, and the GTX 280 blows it away. The 9800 GX2 would stutter frequently in intense scenes while the GTX 280 hardly stutters at all!

That will be the memory 1GB on the GTX280 and 512MB on the 9800GX2

[K007]

The GTX 280 is most useful @ 2560x or if you want to pile 16x AA on the games you play @ lower res. An overclocked GTX 260 offers a lot of stiff competition to a GTX 280 @ 1920x and lower. The same may be said for the HD 4870. The 4870 sometimes falls down in min frames and that will equal to a rougher gaming experiences. You'll feel a drop to 9 much more than you will one to 20-22.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9479/palithd487064ge2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/1366/palithd4870103jl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

If you're lower than 2560x and you think the GTX 280 price is a bit much for you, try a GTX 260 from a company that supports user overclocking without voiding your warranty, like Evga or XFX.

So good reasons to have an overclocked GTX 260 or 280 besides solid average frames might be; no worries with multi GPU stutter or bugs, and solid min frames. Hard crashes to FPS below 20 you will definitely feel in game play.

IMO for 1920-2560x an overclocked GTX 260 is the best option for most.

512MB vs 1GB...the other cards are running out of ram.

[TheANIMAL]

The GTX 280 is most useful @ 2560x or if you want to pile 16x AA on the games you play @ lower res. An overclocked GTX 260 offers a lot of stiff competition to a GTX 280 @ 1920x and lower. The same may be said for the HD 4870. The 4870 sometimes falls down in min frames and that will equal to a rougher gaming experiences. You'll feel a drop to 9 much more than you will one to 20-22.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9479/palithd487064ge2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/1366/palithd4870103jl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

If you're lower than 2560x and you think the GTX 280 price is a bit much for you, try a GTX 260 from a company that supports user overclocking without voiding your warranty, like Evga or XFX.

So good reasons to have an overclocked GTX 260 or 280 besides solid average frames might be; no worries with multi GPU stutter or bugs, and solid min frames. Hard crashes to FPS below 20 you will definitely feel in game play.

IMO for 1920-2560x an overclocked GTX 260 is the best option for most.

I am going to quote all this so i can write a one line reply.

[hell_of_doom227]

In DX10 Games, i had chance to try HD4870 and compared to my single GTX280. To be honest HD4870 just sucks. I have no clue why people are hyped about it.