Choose which card would get your money! I left SLI and CrossFire out becuase i want to represent the mainstream of cards people would buy. Now people can come here when they need to know what the best card is for something and find out for themselves.

Lets keeps the flames out of here pick a card and tell us why you made that choice!

Thank you have a nice day!

While the 4850 is probably a better choice for the money, I'd get a 4870 for the performance. The latest cards from Nvidia may be a bit better performance wise, but they are too overpriced for what they offer, in my opinion. The only problems with the 4870 at the moment seems to be getting one, as well as the heat they produce. The supply is rather small so far.

I'm getting a 4850 because it has the best price/performance ratio of all of them. It is near the GTX260 at less then half the cost and beats the 9800GTX at about $30 less in price at the moment.

I agree with the above statements and I think the 4850 has the best price/performance ratio but I chose the 4870 due to the added performance. I am actually waiting for the 1gb 4870 to upgrade, I'm hoping that the added memory will give it a little more performance at higher resolutions since I play at 1920x1200.

Unless you're a nVidia fanboy, or money isn't an issue, there is no way that you can recomend the nVidia GTX-280. It's simply to expensive compared to ATis offerings for the performance gained. The choice between the two ATi offerings in the HD48xx series however is a bit harder as the HD4850 is more than enough for most users but the extra performance of the HD4870 is kinda nice.

This 8800GTS 512 at $120.00 after rebate. It's in my price range and it does everything i need it to do.
http://fxvideocards.com/ZOTAC-GeFo [...] 16280.html

There's no question that that's a great card at a great price but I dislike Nvidia's questionable business practices and I don't feel I need to support them.

same here but i would also add there overcharging which has come round and bit them on the arss

It's funny you said that because I was just thinking the same thing. It's amazing to me that in the last couple weeks the 8800GTS has almost halved in price and they are still making money, makes you wonder what the actual cost of a GTX280 is.

4870 best choice

Given the die size and the rumors about their horrible yields, I bet they are pretty damn expensive to make. That is going to be a big factor in the lowest possible price they can sell the GTX-260 and 280 for, which should give ATI an advantage in pricing.

I'd get the 8800GT 512 or the HD4850, they offer the best bang for the buck right now.

I agree that at current prices recommending the GTX 2xx is out of the question.

Honestly I don't care about "business practices" as long as they provide a good product, your statement is just another way of fanboyism.

I can see what your saying but I have a 8800GT in my system now. I will also go with the best product available but if given the choice between equal products I would go with ATI. I think it's less that I'm a fan and more just that I root for the underdog.

If I believed in such things, I'd say my computer with the 8800 GTS was listening when I said I'd like a 4870, because the 8800 GTS died this afternoon. Now I get to find out how well EVGA backs their "Limited Lifetime" warranty.

I just sent in one of my 8800GT's a couple weeks ago for replacement and they sent me back a Superclocked 8800GT so I would rate Evga pretty high as far as their service goes

GTX280 OR 4870x2:

If you've been waiting to do a video upgrade for quite a while, then these are assuredly the best performance increase you will get for quite some time.


A lot of people make a mistake of going from value card to value card every 6 months which is a big no-no I think. An example of this would be going from an Nvidia 8800 GT to an Nvidia 9800GTX - the performance increase is just so nomimal that even with the 9800GTX's now reduced price it is just not worthwhile.

Likewise a similar analogy would be going from a AMD 4850 to an AMD 4870 - or going from an AMD 3870 to an AMD 4850. Good examples of not going high enough on the performance scale to really get a substantial upgrade for your dollar. On the other hand, going from an AMD 3870 to an AMD 4870 is in some cases more than 2x the performance, and it makes it an exceptional upgrade.

THG did a pretty good chart a while back showing various GPU generations and classing them so that you could see which cards were around which performance levels; the idea and point was to make an easily illustrated example of how going up the performance scale while good is not going to net a substantial performance increase unless you go up at least 2 grades in gpu performance~

Basically, the only time I think it is good to go with a value card is if you've made a well informed decision about a gpu/motherboard combination which you explicitly intend to pair up with a second of its kind for increased performance as needed. The other circumstance where value cards are good is if you are building a new low-budget system where pure bang for the buck is the goal. But buying a value card as an upgrade? Usually its going to end up being a pure money sink in a single gpu situation~

the Gtx 280. BEcause it is still the fastest single card (and this used to mean something). Because it is going to be cheaper. Because it doesnt run as hot and doesnt consume as much energy when idle.

Because I run a 24inch screen and the gtx 280 is the best single card for this.

Umm no it doesn't...Check the reviews man it still not as you say it is, silly simpleton!



Well lookie here, the GTX 280 is under load at 310, and idles at 126

Well lookie here, the HD 4870 is under load at 283, and idles at 153

Why does every noob come here look at the idle watts and say thats all that matter b/c u know I don't game!!!!



Only at idle does it look slightly better, but again not by much, once you consider how much the thing costs!!!



OMGZ, it consumes more power when you are actually gaming!



As you can see the thign runs a little hotter, oh noes, idiot, GPU's can take way more heat than cpu's do some research than talk...

Again if you game you want your money's worth

Dude ashklon do some research, think about it, leave your fanboyish attitude at home, and you'll do just fine, continue to carry on this manner, nobody will ever take you seriously...