Nvidia 260 or ATI 4870?

[[AK]Abaddon]

I'm trying to decide on my replacement card, and it has come down to these two. I've been an Nvidia user for the last two generations, but it sounds like ATI might have its act together again with the 4870.

Opions?

Anyone running either of these cards in a 64-bit system? I'm curious how the 64-bit drivers stack up for each of them.

System Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 at 2.4 gHz
4 gb Mushkin "black" DDR2-800 memory
Asus P5N32E-SLI motherboard
Enermax Noisetaker 650W power Supply
WD 500GB SATA HD
Vista 64 Home Basic

Thanks,

[[AK]Rocks]

I am running the GTX260 that replaced my 8800gtx which was an awesome card and still has life in it now for the kids. Vista 32 not Vistsa 64. Very new drivers right now, but I like it and games look great. Lower heat and watt profile from the 8800 and jumped my performance quite abit too. I didn;t go with the ATI due to price perfomance and I have had great support the luck with Nvidia. Evga is the brand I have been using the past couple of years. But the 4870 looks sweet and is a great price. GTX280 needs to have a price drop to compete..

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...vidia_gtx260/4

[[AK]Abaddon]

What kind of power supply are you running, Rocks? I've seen one post indicating that the 260 needs a 38 amp circuit to run; my PSU just has 34.

[[AK]Mydrial]

I suggest care when choosing ATI....they occasionally come up with a great card....then fall on their faces with support and driver upkeep. NVidia continuously strings together good card after card. And all of their drivers and apps are backwards compatible for many generations.


Just my .02cents.

[[AK]Hylander]

I'm an ATI guy because I rarely had problems with the drivers and NVIDIA has been nothing but a disaster for me in the past when it comes to that area. That said, I'm now using a 8800GTS 512mb card because at the time, ATI wasn't very competitive in performance.

If I were to buy a card today, it would be an ATI 4870 series most likely. Unless NVIDIA severely discounts the 200 series.

But in all honesty, it's great that ATI is again giving NVIDIA some pressure and competition so at least we have a choice to make again. For awhile, it was either sacrifice performance and get decent price/performance ratio from ATI, or if you really needed the performance, NVIDIA was the real choice.

My 8800GTS has been very good to me and been rock solid on VISTA-64 though.

[[AK]Abaddon]

Against my inclinations, I ordered from eVGA again.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130370

They do offer a lifetime warranty and a step-up program ... as long as I register. And they even warranty overclocked cards. I'm a bit upset about their warranty policy in regard to my 1-year and 4 months old 8800GTS, but I should have registered it to get the longer warranty.

I'm going to work on my case a bit to keep this new card cooler as well -- putting in some stouter fans soon.

Neither of the cards seemed to run at a reasonable temperature, but the 4870 runs hot enough that people recommend putting aftermarket cooling on it out of the box.

I liked the one ATI card I owned, my old 9700 Pro. It lasted a long time. But during its lifetime, ATI drivers became bloated and inefficient instead of better ... that's what made me buy a 6800 GT as my next card.

I'm running an ATI card right now that a friend gave me to tide me over until the new Nvidia 260GTX arrives. What's funny is that the temporary ATI card is a 256MB Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition ... I would have killed for it back in 2004. :-)

[[AK]Rocks]

I am lovin my GTX260. If I run into a game I catch play, then I order a second one and SLIville. EVGA has been great for me the past 4 years!

[[AK]Hylander]

My 8800GTS is also EVGA. I use their precision software to set Fan speeds, etc and it works great.

[[AK]Rocks]

You did the right thing.

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/...re/1814_9.html