GTX 260 vs. HD 4870 vs. HD 4890

joh06937

joh06937

New Member
i have been building a gaming pc for a while and just recently have decided to start looking for a graphics card. i have been looking at different forums and benchmark websites and have decided to narrow my choices down to the gtx 260, the hd 4870, and the hd 4890. obviously, the hd 4890 will perform the best and has very good overclocking, but i am hoping to keep the price as low as possible. my highest resolution used when playing would be 1920x1080. assuming all quality (i.e. AA) options are set to highest, what would be the best way to go? is the hd 4890 really worth it at that resolution? another important factor for me is overclocking. which one gives the most room for overclocking (i plan to overclock to max or almost max)? also, which brands of each will be the most reliable? thanks.
 
i went with the 4890 and its brilliant, overclocks well...

my system run 19409 3dmark06 with my [email protected] and a slight overclock on the 4890!

all 3 gpu's you have selected are good but the 4890 hands down!
 
The 4890 is the best card out of those. I just bought one and I'm very impressed by it. The only down part is that it's fricken loud.
 
I hate ATI's software drivers, and for that reason my last build I went with Nvidia. I got a GTX 260. It runs all the games I play at 1600 x 1040 resolution on full settings. I can rock L4D2 at 80+ FPS on full settings. Sometimes it will lag a bit if there are 100s of moving models on the screen at once, but it is barely noticeable.
 
wow, jamin43, thanks for the awesome link. definitely interesting. i am thinking i will go with the 4890. are there any brands that one thinks is the best, taking cooling, warranty, overclocking, price, etc. into account?
 
lol well damnet, wish i saw that before i bought my gtx 260 , I agree with the drivers statement, how much is that ati card? I paid 198 for mine which was a great deal... Eh i guess i need to upgrade my sig
 
joh06937 said:
wow, jamin43, thanks for the awesome link. definitely interesting.
Click to expand...

No problem. I like Toms hardware for Hardware benchmarks - and articles - they have tons of info on CPU's - Video cards - pricing - in as much detail as you like on that site.

XFX, and EVGA are good brands for gaming GPU's. I'm sure there are others - but those are two that I know of.
 
The 4890 is the better card over the GTX 260. It really competed against the GTX 275 in performance against price wise.
 
4890 is the best of those, but I would still go with Nvidia haha. A single gtx260 will play any game at 1920x1080.

Single 4870, a single gtx260 is noticeably better.
 
I have XFX GTX260 and its great. If you buy one make sure you get the 216sp version, I don't even know if you can get the older version anymore but just double check that when buying. Its a beast at overclocking. Stock clocks are 576/1000/1242 and I can run it comfortably at 701/1211/1511.
 
thanks for the replies so far, keep them coming! the more opinions the better. i am thinking i will go witht he 4890 but am not sure on the brands. xfx seems to be my top choice, but i see on newegg that some other ones are cheaper in price for the same thing. does that price difference really reflect the performance/quality? a powercolor 4890 has a good rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131167

the rest seem to balance around $200. which is the best way to go?
 
joh06937 said:
thanks for the replies so far, keep them coming! the more opinions the better. i am thinking i will go witht he 4890 but am not sure on the brands. xfx seems to be my top choice, but i see on newegg that some other ones are cheaper in price for the same thing. does that price difference really reflect the performance/quality? a powercolor 4890 has a good rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131167

the rest seem to balance around $200. which is the best way to go?
Click to expand...


Go for it;)
 
Nvidia FTW...EVGA is THE best brand of ANY card hands down not even close comparison for any other brand.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434

There's a reason EVGA only uses Nvidia chipsets, they are only interested in using the best of anything.

My gtx260 core 216 also overclocks the same as previously mentioned, about 700 on the core clock with 1500 shaders but my memory overclocks to 1260!
 
Actually awhile back when ATI/AMD had openings for a few new manufacturers to make their cards, from what I understand EVGA lost and XFX got it.

I'm a old dude, I remember when EVGA first came out it was considered a lowend budget card. Kinda like Galaxy/Palit or Powercolor is now.
 
joh06937 said:
wow, jamin43, thanks for the awesome link. definitely interesting. i am thinking i will go with the 4890. are there any brands that one thinks is the best, taking cooling, warranty, overclocking, price, etc. into account?
Click to expand...

Just so you know, different hardware configurations and even updated drivers can change those results that were posted. I could not find any references to what hardware build they ran those tests on either. Which makes the benchmark a bit more meaningless than it actually is.
 
If it's the same price than 4890 is the superior card. It's meant to go head to head with nvidia's GTX275. My friend has a GTX260 with almost identical specs as my computer (even a faster processor) and my system still manages to pump more frames out.
 
Thanks for the comment diduknowthat. I have heard that from others as well. I am thinking I will go with an xfx. Anyone have a different opinion? Think a different brand is better?
 
I actuall h have the XFX 4890 and it's great. The cooler is a bit loud but having double life warranty is a plus.
 
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