Nvidia compatibility

Ok, I will try to make this question short. I am new to the site. My 4870x2 which I have had since it came out, died a few days ago. I am surviving on an old ati 3870. I am an FPS gamer. So thats not happening right now. LOL. Plopping the big bucks down on the ati 4870x2 when it was new, I had hoped to skip a generation of cards before purchasing again. Certainly if the card were still functioning, that would be the way to go and very viable as the card still is a monster to some degree.

I have owned both ati and nvidia, and don't care which I have. Being forced to make a purchase, I have to decide. Even though it might be smart to go ultra cheap and ride til next gen, I just cant do it. So, that being said, I am looking at middle to high end. Obviously that includes, 5850, GTX 470 (factory overclocked version) , and looking at new egg, even the 5870 at 419 for the HIS. Read so many reviews as well as forum posts. All these cards are good and I do not wish to get into arguments here as I simply am not a guru on the subject matter.

I have narrowed down my decisions down to two cards. But I have a question. First, aren't you glad this is the short version? ROFL. Ok, I have a Gigabyte P35 mobo. (Yes, time to upgrade and it will be by October). If I were to opt for an nVidia card, say the GTX 470, would CUDA and PHSYX matter? Do you have to have an nVidia chipset mobo for that stuff to work? whooo. Long winded to get to the question. I appoligize. This matters in my decision as even when I upgrade mobo soon, I do not plan to go nvidia chipset.

You do not need an nVidia chipset board for those features (CUDA/PhysX) to work. nVidia actually quit making chipsets, so LGA775 is the last socket to have them (nVidia chipsets weren't any good anyway).

Thank you for the reply and answer. Been so long since I shopped mobos I did not realize nVidia quit making their chipset mobo. Thanks again.

No problem.

Oh, and to OCForums!

Thank you Matt for the welcome! Just to cap this thread off, I thought I would post my decision. I am on a budget and had narrowed my decision down to a Gigabyte GTX 470 (seriously factory overclocked) version or the ATI 5870. The ATI 5870 was the best of these two regarding FPS even with the factory overclocked GTX 470 at 700mghtz core. My dilema was the slower and better priced GTX470 with (perceived better technology) ie... physx/cuda/fermi/ and better tessalation capability versus pure FPS in game results of the ATI 5870. It was a tuff call. Since the more expensive 5870 was considered in budget, and I realized the normally more expensive out of budget range GTX 480 had come down in price with mail in rebates, I realized, I could have the nVidia technology, and FPS performance I wanted in the same package.

GTX 480 it is! We have a winner. LOL.

Now, I will be CPU limited, but not for long. Or at least CPU limited in regards to some benchmark software scores if not in reality. That I dont know. I have an intel E6850 3.0 core 2 duo overclocked to 4.0 gigahertz on massive air, riding in an P35 gigabyte mobo, 4gig 1066 DDR2 GSKILL ram, with an 800watt modular power supply. Coolermaster case. Huge i might add. Dual 250 gig each WD drives in raid 0. Still I will be CPU limited til upgrade. But got to replace the video card now since that4870x2 died and I am riding on an old vid card from teh parts bin. No prob. By october I will have upgraded to an i7 quad proc, x58 mobo, and DDR3 memory. Maybe a few months after that, replace my Western Digital regular sata2 drives with some SSD drives but that is still PRICEY! So we shall see. Love this SITE! Wish I had found it before now. Great threads!