Tomorrow is the day $250 4870 or 9800gx2?

[Smitty1258]

Ok well tomorrow is the day I get a new card, sold my 8800gts 512 about a month ago, and have been struggling on this 8500gt long enough.

Got $250 buring virtual holes in my pocket, what do I want to spend it on?


Ive been leaning on a 4870 for awhile, but then I see 9800gx2 from evga for $230.

Your thoughts, feel free to flame each card all you want nvidia vs ati, ive done research on both, I still cant make up my mind.

[Click__]

4870 hands down.

[sandyduff]

4870... newer card, GDDR5 memory... plus possible crossfire later... quad sli just doesnt work....

[bda1967]

I'd go with the 4870.

[ghost_recon88]

4870 hands down.

4870... newer card, GDDR5 memory... plus possible crossfire later... quad sli just doesnt work....

I'd go with the 4870.

+1

[deathman20]

Well it depends....

Me yes I'd go for the 4870 first of all since its a good high performance card, which can be easily upgraded to 2x of them in CF. It does very well at almost everything thrown at it up to 1920x1200.

But, the 9800GX2 will have more power overall. While a 9800GX2 is mostly a 8800GTS type core with a slight speed bump, its great for higher res's and AA compared to the single card. Its scaling though isn't as nice as the 2x 4870's but also thats more costly, but its an option that can be looked at later.

Back when these where released I went from a 8800GT to 2x 4850's, couldn't be happier with ATI's new line compared to the 1900XT, and 2900XT that I had of ATI's before. AA si better, less of a performance hit, textures are crisper, as well... ATI's memory management on the has been much better than nVidia's for some time, so if you fill you your memory on the GPU, it doesn't start making your game slow down drastically, it will slow down but it won't make a game running 40FPS drop to low 20's because it ran out of memory.

[White_Pawn]

4870 1gig or 4850CF. This would cost more like ~$320.

Otherwise, i'd still go with the single 4870 512mb.

[Smitty1258]

Ok, I didnt pull the trigger yet. Newegg had an asus 4870 last night for $194 open box, looked and went to buy this morning, and it was gone :(

Im still having a hard time between the 2, i run 1920x1200.
I see all the benches with the 9800gx2 ahead of the 4870, not by much. I read the 9800x2 overclocks better, but how much better? And how well does the 4870 OC? Whatever card i get, will be added into my loop sometime, so im not real worried about heat.

[aznkc730]

feel free to flame each card all you want

i hear 4870s are made in north korean sweatshops and profits go directly to funding terrorism and people who talk during movies. oh yeah, and if hitler was alive, that's the card he'd buy.

hope that helps you decide.

[mattgmann]

I picked up a 4870 for $195 off the egg a few weeks ago. I was going to get 2, but hesitated for a few minutes, and when I went to order, only one was left. Gotta be quick on the trigger with the newegg deals.

[Essenar]

Ok, I didnt pull the trigger yet. Newegg had an asus 4870 last night for $194 open box, looked and went to buy this morning, and it was gone :(

Im still having a hard time between the 2, i run 1920x1200.
I see all the benches with the 9800gx2 ahead of the 4870, not by much. I read the 9800x2 overclocks better, but how much better? And how well does the 4870 OC? Whatever card i get, will be added into my loop sometime, so im not real worried about heat.

If you are throwing water on, I would say, maybe consider just getting a 4850?

The 4850 is about 15% slower than a 4870 when they're clocked the same speed.

Volt modded 4850's get anywhere from 850 to 900 core which is the max the 4870 can hit.

If you're jumping to the $300 range, yes the 9800GX2 out paces the 4870.

They both OC very well, but 9800GX2 shows its age in higher resolutions when you stack on the AA. Limitations of the memory bus unfortunately.

The 4870 over-clocks really well, but really only about as fast as the 4850 can hit, so it kind of defeats the purpose of having one.

If you can get an X38 board, two 4850's will kill ANYTHING within $200 of their cost. They'll kill a 280GTX, a 9800GX2, two 260GTX's and hold ground with 4870x2's at 1080p and lower, even with AA cranked on.

The only game ATI can't slay is Crysis. You need a 4870x2 to put that game to shame. Crysis, I have a feeling, loves memory. I think that's why 4850 Crossfire doesn't do well in Crysis, but the 4870x2 does, even though in other games, they're pretty close in performance.

[Rattle]

Having had 8800gts 512 sli and 4850 x-fire and a 9800gx2, I can say for sure that 4850 crossfire and 9800gx2 trade blows.
4850's are faster in cod4 but 9800gx2 stomps them and my 4870 in crysis.
The 9800gx2 is alot of card for $250 range and it is the fastest thing inside of $300 you can get.

For $300 the BB 4850's is a steal and is fast as hell, i dont like having 2 cards though and the 9800gx2 was great for me right after that setup, being one slot and basically the same power, I didnt have issues with mine and it ran pretty cool considering what it is.

My use of these setups is at 1680x1050 with 4xAA in everything aside from crysis. If you play at 19x10 res then the 9800gx2 starts to slow down from what I see. all in all 4850 crossfire and 9800gx2 were about equal for me, both has their trade offs. My 4870 is the first single gpu card that I am happy with speed wise, probably going to step my 9800gx2 up to a gtx 280b+FTWBBQ or whatever its gonna be called.

[deathman20]

The only game ATI can't slay is Crysis. You need a 4870x2 to put that game to shame. Crysis, I have a feeling, loves memory. I think that's why 4850 Crossfire doesn't do well in Crysis, but the 4870x2 does, even though in other games, they're pretty close in performance.

Only some have issues with Crysis. Me personally I don't mind my 35-50FPS ingame at 1920x1200 with most things on veryhigh/high combo's. Yup thats with 2x 4850's, yes it works great. Mind you AA isn't on and is controlled by the software's AA (which for most part is only countered with 4x AA or better) so it works good for what it is. Surely if I can get my CPU speed up even past 4Ghz it will even help more with the GPU's since they are still scaling restricted with my CPU speed.

[ou_phidelt]

It's a tough choice. If you can realistically add a second 4870 in the forseeable future go that route. If not go with the GX2. If you can squeeze the extra $50 go with two 4850's and be done with it.