Best PCIe Card: ~$300 To $350
Best PCIe Card For ~$310: Three-Way Tie
At approximately the same price, all three of these options retain the same advantages of their single-card counterparts: two Radeon HD 4870's offer the best price/performance ratio in CrossFire, two GeForce GTX 260's offer SLI compatibility, PhysX, and GeForce 3D Vision support, and two Radeon HD 5770's offer DirectX 11, Eyefinity, and high-def audio bitstreaming to CrossFire-compatible motherboard users. A good case can be made for any of these options, and none of them are a poor choice. Just pick your poison.
2 x Radeon HD 4870 1GB in CrossFire (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles
| Radeon HD 4870 1GB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 (2 x 800) |
| Texture Units: | 80 (2 x 40) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (3,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
As we all know by now, these aren't the most fully-featured boards any more. However, when your bottom line is all about frame rate, there remains serious value in ATI's Radeon HD 4870 cards. We don't expect these to remain available for long, since ATI's current focus is on its new Radeon HD 5000-series boards. So, if you're interested, now's likely the time to jump.
2 x GeForce GTX 260 (Core 216) in SLI (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles
| GeForce GTX 260 (Core 216) | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x GT200 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 432 (2 x 216) |
| Texture Units: | 144 (2 x 72) |
| ROPs: | 56 (2 x 28) |
| Memory Bus: | 448-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 576 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 999 (1,998 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10/SM 4.0 |
Nvidia doesn't have a DirectX 11-class architecture yet, but the caveat above applies here as well. If you're going to sink $300+ into DirectX 10 hardware, do so knowing that there are competing DirectX 11 boards available in the same price range. They won't offer the same level of performance as two GeForce GTX 260s in SLI; that's the trade-off for more modern functionality, though.
2 x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles
| Radeon HD 5770 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x Juniper |
| Process: | 40nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 (2 x 800) |
| Texture Units: | 80 (2 x 40) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 850 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,200 (4,800 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11/SM 5.0 |
Though the 5770s are somewhat pricey compared to last-generation's technology, the added benefit of DirectX 11, triple display outputs, and the ability to bitstream high-definition audio content from Blu-ray movies contribute significant value to ATI's newest mainstream graphics cards.
Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
That was a while ago though and hopefully they've overcome those problems by now. Plus half the idea of the first 40nm chips being released in the mid-range was because there would be less of a rush on them if I remember correctly.
FYI - in the chart the single Radeon 4850 is down as 485, not terrible but could be irritating if people search the page for it
Can you say how many tiers sli/crossfire of a particular card might bump it up the chart? Would 2 8800 ultra's be the same as a single GTX280 or 285? For example.
$75 = £45
$80-$130 = £48-£78
$140-$200 = £84-£120
$200-$300 = £120-£180
$300-$350 = £180-£210
$360$+ = £216+
Usefull info for people using the british version of THG who dont understand american currency
You seem to have forgotten VAT at 15% on that list. UK prices tend to be pretty much $1 to £1 by the time things get here
Fantastic reviews as usual.
However....
The new 5850 was a little underrated in my opinion for the following reasons:
It easily overclocks to the within a whisker of a 5870
It is almost silent
It looks so cool
It's performance is almost double the 4870
It's idle power consumption is so negligable
It supports DX11
Where the hell has Nvidia gone??????
Tips:
Dirt (original) runs BAD on Vista with 5850 (not sure on Widows 7) but on XP its gotta be seen to be belived!!!!! Just lovely!
Turn off Autogen on Flight simulator X.....it looks beautiful!
I bought a 5850 and agree with the previous post. Low idle noise, power consumption, better power management all round than 48xx and hardware protected against overheating. Overclocked the core from 725 to 850 and memory from 1000 to 1250 without raising the voltage. ATI Tool and Crysis Warhead stable. Raising the voltage will give you even higher core clocks - is this even possible with any other card? Asus card with 3 year warranty and voltage tweak advertised on the retail box - you really should factor this into any performance comparisons.
Please can anyone tell me whats the best video card between these 2?
Video Card ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
NVIDIA GTX 260M 1GB VRAM DDR3 Graphics Card
Another good review Don but I think your being very sympathetic to NVidia considering their availability of some of these cards is far worse than ATI.
The DX 11 factor will also become increasingly important ... pushing the current NVidia cards to the back of the heap.
How well do their cards stack up on frame rates against the new ATI cards on Win7 then?
TNX Tom's Hardware... Big Help!..
^_^
Looks like a 5850 for me then...