4870 all the same?

[terran2k]

thanks to my thank you points from my Credit Card. I can get a free video card. I have alot of options, but I figure I should go for the 4870s, but different ones cost different amount of points. If I can get the same performance for less points, then I can use my remaining points for something else.
they are listed high to low. They all look the same to me? I guess, I don't know, I haven't bought a video card since my 7900GS.

HIS H487FT512P Radeon HD 4870 Turbo HDMI Dual DL-DVI HDCP 512MB 256bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 X16 RoHS Video Card - Retail

HIS H487F512P Radeon HD 4870 HDMI Dual DL-DVI HDCP 512MB 256bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 X16 Video Card Retail (RoHS)

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

Sapphire 100247L HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E/2 Port DVI-I/TV Out Video Card

they 4850s are less points, but I figure the 4870 would have better performance?
I can pick from nvidia cards as well, but ATI is king as of right now right?

here are some nvidia's for reference

XFX GX260NADDU GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 XXX Edition 640MHz PCI Express 2.0 SLI Ready Video Card (Dual DVI/S-Video)

XFX PVT88GYDD4 GeForce 8800GTS 512MB DDR3 678MHz PCI Express 2.0 SLI Ready Video Card ( Dual DVI / S-video )

XFX GeForce 9800 GTX+ Black Edition 512MB DDR3 785 Mhz PCI-E 2.0 DirectX 10 Video Card

MSI N9800GTX-T2D512 OC GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail


what do you all recommend?

[liftedcj7on44s]

out of the 4870s i think the HIS cards will have better coolers on them. Other than that there the same cards just some may run at different speeds.
As far as the nvidia cards go the gtx 260 is the better card. about the same as a 4870 in terms of performance

[Duo Maxwell]

What res are you pushing? I'd go for a 1Gb if you're doing 1920x1080 or higher.

Also, since you run linux today AMD released 3D docs on the R600 and R700 series GPUs http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_r600_oss_3d&num=1

[terran2k]

res is 1680 x 1050 today, but I plan to buy a 1080p LCD Tv and use that later half of 2009, so I expect to eventually run 1920 x 1080. I was also concerned about ATI Linux support, I read it was on a upswing, I had a hard time using Linux and my last ATI card. Good to see they're improving on it.

[Duo Maxwell]

Yeah, since AMD bought ATI their Linux support has improved leaps and bounds, but some problems still exist. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_ayir_2008&num=1

But since the release of the HD4/R700 series they've had same day support, even going so far as to try and get all of the card makers to put the Linux FGLRX driver on the disc along with putting Tux on the box.

They've also released tons of docs fo the open source community, theres 2 current Radeon drivers going on right now, the Radeon which looks to make all cards usable, and the RadeonHD, which only works on R500 on up, and uses Atom Bios to implement different features. You can track the progress of both here: http://wiki.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

They still have yet to release XvBA, the Linux implementation of their AVIVO video acceleration though. Nvidia already has implemented PureVideo though, its called VDPAU.

Though both will support Flash10 GPU acceleration and OpenCL for more GPGPU goodness in the future.

Even S3/Via is sourcing their driver these days. This is all coming down at the same time X.org, with the help of Intel and Tungstun Graphics are doing a complete overhaul of the way Linux handles graphics, so things tend to go slow for a while, then a sudden rush of new drivers and features get implemented all at once when the pieces all fall into place.

The Linux world is getting interesting again, hopefully Valve comes through with porting the Source Engine.

[Cuiiey]

4870 :thup: if you plan to get that LCD TV then get a 1gb version as it will help with AA and stuff like that