gfx card choices

[TdC]

erm, a mate's going to buy my trusty 8800GTS/512 off me, and thus I am forced to look again to the future.

so...help meh please, as I can't really manage to decide between something like a 4850 (or is that a 4580?) by our friends at Ati, or that spangly nVidia option the err 260? back in my days things were easier I'll have you youngsters know

criteria are: bang for my buck, but not stupid amounts of buck if possible. I do play games at 1900x1200 though!

 

[dysfunction]

At present I think the Ati4850 would be best or perhaps the 4870 if your budget goes that far.

I think the Nvidia 260 is more expensive than the Ati4870 and I dont think it has the same performance...actually they are about the same price but I think the 4870 outperforms it in most cases from the reviews Ive seen

 

[TdC]

cheapest I can get:

Asus ENGTX260/HTDP/896M - 248eur

Sapphire HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E - 214eur

 

[Chronictank]

4850 is the best bang for buck

4870 1gb is what i recommend to people with big screens

try Foundem - Search and Compare Prices for Electronics, Flights, Hotels, Property, Jobs, and more

 

[TdC]

well teh 4870/1gb is currently 34eur cheaper than the nVidia, so I will get that one and spend the diff on beer

 

[old.Osy]

You will spend the difference on pain relief pills caused by driver issues @ ati.

 

[TdC]

well can't be much worse than nVidia tbh. gamewise, Fallout 3 is completely unstable and actually BSOD's on the gfx drivers, whereas Dead Space is completely stable.

Waaaay back when I last had a Radeon card, it was much the same I recall.

 

[Kryten]

Aye, I dont know where people get the impression that nVidia drivers are a work of art - they've been a pile of shit since Vista, causing the #1 reason for Vista to crash. They still don't allow the use of the TV-Out port correctly, multi monitor support is somewhere between "just about works" and "fucking awful".

 

[Aada]

Been using ATI since the 9800pro yes the drivers weren't great back then but these days they are bringing out new drivers all the time.

Would always buy ATI.

 

[Embattle]

Don't try to get into a pissing contest as to which has the better drivers since they are both fairly crap at times.

 

[Kryten]

Aye, whichever you choose, you may still get wet

 

[Yaka]

Been using ATI since the 9800pro yes the drivers weren't great back then but these days they are bringing out new drivers all the time.

Would always buy ATI.

used to owne the 9800pro me self and modded it some what. used to find these
OmegaDrivers.net - Home of the ATI & NVIDIA Omega Drivers. Home were good and offered some built in tweaks. tho the guy who made them has had some rL probs

 

[Bahumat]

Aye, I dont know where people get the impression that nVidia drivers are a work of art - they've been a pile of shit since Vista, causing the #1 reason for Vista to crash. They still don't allow the use of the TV-Out port correctly, multi monitor support is somewhere between "just about works" and "fucking awful".

Warhammer online caused my pc to actually restart when using the Asus 8800GT (they've overclocked this card). This is more than enough proof to backup Kryten imo.

p.s. (to anyone wishing to delve deeper) dont waste your time about power supplies, drivers etc etc I did everything. Even overclockers.co.uk told me they were receiving tons of the same complaint regarding the Asus 8800 GT's.

 

[MYstIC G]

Aye, I dont know where people get the impression that nVidia drivers are a work of art - they've been a pile of shit since Vista, causing the #1 reason for Vista to crash. They still don't allow the use of the TV-Out port correctly, multi monitor support is somewhere between "just about works" and "fucking awful".

Different results for different people I guess. I've got a multi monitor setup using a GeForce 8800GTS and have had absolutely no problems. Don't know about TV-Out as although I have it, I've never used it. However again I guess I'm just lucky, so far vista itself hasn't ever tanked during use. It could be something to do with the fact that I go for the mainstream performance/price trade off kit rather than bleeding edge.

Edit: Missed Bahumat's post... mine is an Asus, so go figure?

 

[TdC]

well my 8800GTS is an Asus as well, and works spiffingly in all things except FA3 :/

 

[Litmus]

I got a 260GTX and the gfx are amazing, haven't found a game i cant play on max settings yet ;o

 

[TdC]

well my 8800GTS is an Asus as well, and works spiffingly in all things except FA3 :/

aaaaan my new 4870 works spiffingly in all things except FA3 :/

 

[Raven]

Nvidia drivers are so utterly shit I am thinking about replacing my £300 Nvidia with an ATI card (I have only had the Nvidia for 3 months)

I am getting quite tired of random crashes in games. It looks nice but its a bit of a lottery every time you do anything in a game as to whether it will crash.

Boo to Nvidia

Hurrah to ATi

(atm)

 

[Kryten]

Could all change rather too easily once you get that ATI card in and start swearing at them. It's a ruddy lottery as to whether you'll have years of trouble free gamage or years of swearing and hopeful driver updates in the vain hope of a fix

 

[TdC]

what Kryten said tbh. I thought my 8800GTS was awesome. It IS awesome. I think my 4870 is awesome. It IS awesome. Too bad FA3 crashes though, I can now bump everything to max, full AA/AF and I am running a custom config to render more terrain and use multiple cpus to do the extra things.

 

[Yaka]

Fa3?

 

[TdC]

eee ooo eerr I mean FO3 ofc heheh