Should I get a GTX 260 216??

[tejas]

hey there,

well I own two 4870's and I hate them.... They have sh*t driver support which ATI are famous for and I have had enough...

Tell me.. is it fair to wait over 2 months for a Crossfire profile to play a new game??? How come Nvidia have their SLI profiles already shipped with the games??? Is SLI as smooth as Nvidia advertise??

I really hope that ATI rot as Nvidia have never let me down in the past...The 48xx series could be the best thing since sliced bread but Nvidia cards will forever pwn them due to superior game driver support.... (mini rant over)

So my question is which GTX 260 (216 core) should I get and if anyone is interested in buying the Sapphire ATI 4870's with their receipts and fully boxed then give me a PM. BTW I also have a Nvidia 780i mobo so I could run sli if need be. Many thanks :)


Intel Core Extreme Quad QX9650@3.6GHz 1600FSB
GA-X38-DS4 (Intel X38)
4GB Gskill 1066MHz PC-8500 RAM
2x Sapphire ATI Radeon 4870 in Crossfire (Not 4870x2’s!)
2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB
Pioneer BD-ROM 202
Corsair HX620W PSU
Dell 2408WFP- HC
Coolermaster Cosmos
Vista Ultimate x64

[sillyeagle]

I've got the EVGA Superclocked model and run it at 710/1420/2500, which makes it a bit faster than a GTX 280. You need to overclock these to make them shine, so I would go for a factory overclocked model as they seem to be binned higher.

[PaiN]

I just got a 260(216) to replace a 4870..and I'm very happy I did. The nV drivers are definately better(at least, for me running Vista 64bit). I've only clock to 675/2200 so far because there is no need to go for more, everything I've thrown at it runs fast and slick.

[Heinz68]

I just ordered the Gigabyte Radeon HD 4870 X2, getting ready for Core i7.
If my about 3 months experience with PowerColor HD 4870 was as bad as 'tejas' is claiming i sure would not have ordered the x2 card.
That's all.

[mailman2]

I got the first version, running 756, 1566, 1242, faster than a 280 GTX, paid $200 used. Love it. Had 2 x 4870s just die on me. Done with them.

[henrybravo]

I got the first version, running 756, 1566, 1242, faster than a 280 GTX, paid $200 used. Love it. Had 2 x 4870s just die on me. Done with them.
The difference between a 260 and 280 is more than clock speed. Your 260 is faster than a 280 in clock speed but may not be faster overall, since the original 260 had 192 stream processors/448 bit memory bus, and the 280 has 240 stream processors/512 bit bus.

HB

[john19055]

I thought the HD 4870's were pretty good cards,but it you got the 512mb versions then the vram could be holding you back.I would get either a EVGA GTX 260 or a BFG GTX 260 216 shader.I bought BFG this time around and have had real good luck with them.The first BFG 280 OCX I bought came clocked at 666/1458/2400 and it still overclocks great.the secound BFG GTX 280 I bought was just a plain GTX 280 that came clock at 602/1295/2214,but had no trouble overclocking it to 666/1458/2592,plus it come with a 100 day upgrade policy and you can upgrade to faster GTX 280's which evga does'nt let you do that.It comes with a game package FarCry2 ,3DMark vantage and a BFG super bright flashlite and a $30 rebate.The better deal is the BFG GTX 280 OCE that come s clocked at 615/ 1350/2214 ,you get the same game package ,but you get a $50 rebate makeing the card just cost $360.You get the same game package with the GTX 260 216 shaders with Evga cards except the flashlite,but the BFG offers a 100 day upgrade and is cheaper.you can't go wrong with either brand.They both offer good customer support.

[pault123]

I just got a BFX GTX 260 maxcore OC2

Core Clock 630MHz (vs. 576MHz standard)
Shader Clock 1350MHz (vs. 1242MHz standard)


I am never touching ATI again after my recent 4850 debacle!

better ingame colours with the nvidia, better special effects, smoother no jerkiness, NO crashes, runs at a constant 40% fan speed so quiet, stays a cool 55 degrees, everything maxes out including full AA and AF,

ATi have some serious problems with the 4800 range spent nights on the AMD forums trying to fix the 4850 as when it worked it was great. But from what i've learnt the core/clock 2d/3d drop bug crashes games and the VRAMS get far too hot and VPU recovery error constantly. The new 8.11 drivers fix none of this.,

ATI never again!


Got this for £220! which in UK is about £10 more than 1gb 4870!
http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgrgtx260mc896oc2e.aspx

[Vanzagar]

Hey tejas, I recently bought two of these bad boys, wow they dropped about $30 since I bought them a month ago:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370

and I'm very happy with them. I can overclock them to about 710, but I put them back to 680Mhz cause I was see some artifacting after about 30mins. I also now run the fans about 80-90% just when playing games...

I get about 40-50fps in crysis at 1920x1200 in high/very high mode using the natural mod and mstrconfig (sp?) 3.1... every other games runs 60+ fps with everything else turned on... Oblvion dips under 60fps and there are slight pauses about every 30-90s but when I drop down to 1 card I still get the pauses with decent fps so I'm pretty sure it's load times or something else wrong... no other games micro stutters at all, Grid, bioshock, fallout3, farcry2 and COD4 are all very smooth...

so I'd say for the price/performance I think they are the best value, just make sure your PSU is big enough to handle them:

SLI Power supply/Consumption requirements
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293/10

Good luck!

Vanz

[Blacklash]

If you want a GTX 260 with 216SP just get the Evga for 250usd-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130398

Lifetime warranty, StepUp, official support of end user overclocking and HSF replacement.

Manually OC where you want. The old GTX 260s can often do 660-700+. I'd think the new ones can do the same.

Someone already linked it, and the old GTX 260 from Evga is 30usd less-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370

That @ 660 on the core would be plenty of card for most people.

[ATi]

I think my 4870x2 died should I get a GTX260 im using my good ol' 8800gts? Will nvidia have anything new out soon?I dont like ati drivers either:cool:

[pault123]

What happened to your 4870 x2?

[DHP]

I just got a 260(216) to replace a 4870..and I'm very happy I did. The nV drivers are definately better(at least, for me running Vista 64bit). I've only clock to 675/2200 so far because there is no need to go for more, everything I've thrown at it runs fast and slick.

Indeed.

I'm ditching my HD4870X2 for 2 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 260 OC 896MB Core 216's. (I find 280's too expensive for the perf gain)

ATi drivers really suck imho... My X2 is stuttering all over the place on X58.

No more ATi for me.

Never.

Ever.

[Blacklash]

My X2 did fine in most situations. I noticed stutter and wild FPS fluctuations in large scale real time combat. It made raiding in some MMOs down right painful. I don't get that with my overclocked GTX 260.

[H]ard talked about the wild FPS variations and stutter @ high res in Clear Sky-

"Having faster average framerates does not necessarily always mean the video card will give you a better experience while playing the game..."

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU2MSw2LCw0MA==

I'll be sticking with single GPU now and in the future, unless something drastically changes.

[ATi]

What happened to your 4870 x2?


http://rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33935861

[john19055]

All the 260 (216) are about the same ,i would get the cheapest ones and ones with good customer support ,either the EVGA or the BFG both offer lifetime warranty and a step up program.

[Amaury]

Damn that XFX GTX 260 216 black edition looks good. Factory core clock is 785mhz and 2.3ghz mem clock. 55nm process. Quieter, cooler, less power hungry, cheaper, and equal or sometimes faster than the stock 280. $300 not bad. You get FC2 and 3dmark Vantage. Good interum card until Nvidia releases their 40nm DX11 cards late next year.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150330

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hardware/1836_1.html

[EciDemon]

XFX got there quality control act together now?

[Blacklash]

Eh? The BE GTX 260 is 666 on the core. You may be thinking about some of the massively OCed 9800GTX+ cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150325

As far as XFX QC goes my 7800GTs did great and this GTX 260 has been flawless. Haven't used their cards beyond that.

[EciDemon]

Eh? The BE GTX 260 is 666 on the core. You may be thinking about some of the massively OCed 9800GTX+ cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150325

As far as XFX QC goes my 7800GTs did great and this GTX 260 has been flawless. Haven't used their cards beyond that.

I had two XFX 7950GT's die on me within 10 minutes T_T

I did some searches about it and found other people experienced the same thing. It would artifact and then it would never go away. Total garbage during post

[Blacklash]

Here's a recent bench that shows the old 260 and GTX 260 SLi vs GTX 280 SLi. They look real good in SLi for 1920x in FC2.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1738/17835cr1.png (http://imageshack.us)

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3463&p=5

[mtl]

Today from Driver Heaven:

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=668&pageid=12
Therefore, for enthusiast gamers, there really is only one choice this holiday season when upgrading graphics card, the new 216 core Geforce GTX 260.

[MikeC]

PowerColor Radeon 4870 1GB vs. EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SuperClocked (http://www.nvnews.net/articles/holiday_2008_top_games_tested/index.shtml)

[john19055]

Where did you see the XFX GTX 260 (216) Black edition that has the new 55nm Chip and is clocked at 785/2300 .

[Rollo]

I just ordered the Gigabyte Radeon HD 4870 X2, getting ready for Core i7.
If my about 3 months experience with PowerColor HD 4870 was as bad as 'tejas' is claiming i sure would not have ordered the x2 card.
That's all.

ATi seems to be having driver issues of late, as reported at AnandTech:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3463&p=6

But that is not an excuse for the kind of horrific experience we've had with every single other AMD solution when playing this game.....Maintaining a monthly driver release schedule is detrimental to AMD's ability to release quality drivers.......But when a major title like Far Cry 2 is released to incredibly poor driver support, it is time to wake up and realize that something is wrong......we do see a lot more issues with AMD drivers than NVIDIA...And now it is time for AMD to learn from their mistakes and change over to a more manageable and sensible driver release policy....

In answer to the OP:

EVGA Core 216s on sale dirt cheap at newegg this weekend, my guess is they'll go fast.