Top 10 games Radeon 4870 1 GB & GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 test

Guru3D News

Probably the article with the longest title name evah!
In this test we'll take six of the newest ranked Top 10 games your money can get you. With December luring around the corner two very popular...

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dougk · 11-19-2008, 02:09 | posts: 3,182 | Location: England | User is Offline

hmm its a very close race

UnrealGaming · 11-19-2008, 02:14 | posts: 1,204 | Location: Serbia | User is Offline

Nvidia FTW !

poo417 · 11-19-2008, 02:32 | posts: 8 | Location: Dumfries, Scotland | User is Offline

As usual a very good article. When you get the time it would be nice to see is the 'New ATI Hotfix for X58' actually makes any difference. All this competition just makes it good for us consumers.

Poo

wud03 · 11-19-2008, 03:27 | posts: 264 | Location: Flushing, NY | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by poo417

As usual a very good article. When you get the time it would be nice to see is the 'New ATI Hotfix for X58' actually makes any difference. All this competition just makes it good for us consumers.

Poo

Which is why in a virtually tied race (I game at 1280x1024 so any difference is negligible FPS wise), I always go for the underdog. It supports competition and the evener a market share is divided, the better it is for us consumers.

Cold Fussion · **Memory**: 6gb patriot 9-9-9-24

What about the minimum fps? In such a tight race that would be the deciding factor.

UnrealGaming · 11-19-2008, 03:56 | posts: 1,204 | Location: Serbia | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cold Fussion

What about the minimum fps? In such a tight race that would be the deciding factor.

True, that would be a nice info to include.

kylzer · *Last edited by kylzer; 11-19-2008 at 04:05.*

wow as i thought it is realy close.

cowie · 11-19-2008, 04:04 | posts: 5,634 | Location: new jersey | User is Online

being such a tight race i feel other facters must come into play when buying either of the two cards price,warrenty,bundle,step up,drivers etc.

mR Yellow · 11-19-2008, 04:15 | posts: 238 | Location: South Africa | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by poo417

As usual a very good article. When you get the time it would be nice to see is the 'New ATI Hotfix for X58' actually makes any difference. All this competition just makes it good for us consumers.

Poo

I would like to see this too.

zlojack · 11-19-2008, 04:59 | posts: 21 | Location: Toronto | User is Offline

Meh...10%-15% performance sounds impressive, until you realize it's really only 1-5 FPS difference depending on the game.

Really, they are neck and neck.

If you want SLI, grab the 260, if you want Crossfire, grab the 4870.

Both sides win this one.

Skiddywinks · 11-19-2008, 06:36 | posts: 3,991 | Location: North Wales | User is Offline

I would like to see more AA enabled as a comparison. Everyone knows that ATI have a distinct advantage when mountains of AA is enabled. Might just be something worth exploring. I remember the bit-tech articles, and when you see the 4870 thrashing a GTX 280 with 8x AA on, it is mind boggling.

BlackZero · *Last edited by BlackZero; 11-19-2008 at 08:09.*

Great review as usual.

ps. Increasing aa to 8x will make the game unplayable (around 30 fps) on either card meaning sli would be required, which would naturally defeat the object of this being a value orientated review.

MAD-OGRE · 11-19-2008, 07:27 | posts: 2,120 | Location: Alabama | User is Offline

very nice, now maybe every time some one asks about a card in the NV forums, ppl won auto tell the to buy ATI.
Woot GO BIG GREEN.

p.s.
that system is

zlojack · 11-19-2008, 07:36 | posts: 21 | Location: Toronto | User is Offline

"Woot GO BIG GREEN"?

Anyway, I'd like to see those benches with the newly optimized for i7 drivers that just came out.

Also, with some more AA, I bet the difference is negligible.

The settings and drivers in that review favour nVidia, so no surprise that the 260 came out on top.

Stukov · 11-19-2008, 07:57 | posts: 2,247 | Location: South Dakota | User is Offline

Nice to see the GTX gaining some good ground with those new 180 drivers. It really makes them a really good product. I would be interested to see how the benchmarks turn out with its cranked up to 8xAA.

MountainLynx · 11-19-2008, 10:49 | posts: 793 | User is Offline

TBH, I wouldn't call Dead Space a massive win for nVidia, considering the ATi card still renders nearly 60 fps at the highest tested resolution. It's still a win though.

NeoElNino · 11-19-2008, 11:42 | posts: 617 | Location: Canada | User is Offline

nothin really exciting there.. both vendors have great cards.
it all rest on one's preference, bundles and drivers stability and future driver support.

Skiddywinks · 11-19-2008, 13:17 | posts: 3,991 | Location: North Wales | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Protocol_48

Great review as usual.

ps. Increasing aa to 8x will make the game unplayable (around 30 fps) on either card meaning sli would be required, which would naturally defeat the object of this being a value orientated review.

You would think that, but ATI cards seem to take AA in their stride. After an initial dip in frames once activated, adding on more AA does not make as big a difference, espeically compared to nVidia's offerings. At least in DX10.

Cybermancer · 11-19-2008, 13:46 | posts: 12,530 | Location: Cyberspace | User is Offline

A very nice article. Thank you, Hilbert!

ChRiSxXx · 11-19-2008, 14:30 | posts: 597 | Location: United Kingdom. | User is Offline

I was waiting for this battle to come up and from a great / trusted source, and you've done it Hilbert!

Thank you very much

Spirit02 · 11-19-2008, 15:25 | posts: 75 | Location: Brisbane, Australia | User is Offline

All well and good, but the only 216 260 readily available near me, is the EVGA (which admittedly is the superclocked edition) but it runs AU$555.

The Sapphire 1gb 4870 = AU$445

I'd want to see a little more than 5fps for that price difference.

BlackZero · 11-19-2008, 15:30 | posts: 3,836 | Location: England | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skiddywinks

You would think that, but ATI cards seem to take AA in their stride. After an initial dip in frames once activated, adding on more AA does not make as big a difference, espeically compared to nVidia's offerings. At least in DX10.

Well I just had another look at the [H] fallout 3 performance review and they found the hd 4870 1gb to be playable even with 8xmsaa at 1920x1200, though the min fps dropped to 20; which imo is still a little too low for smooth gameplay in fallout 3 atleast.

At 2560x1600 the standard 4870 512mb was unable to run any aa while all the rest including gtx 260 could run atleast 2xaa and still with higher minimum fps than the 4870's.

zlojack · 11-19-2008, 16:10 | posts: 21 | Location: Toronto | User is Offline

All of the reviews that did this little "Head to Head" of this card vs. the 4870 1GB used cherry-picked nVidia benchmarks, settings and drivers to favour the nVidia card.

BlackZero · 11-19-2008, 16:23 | posts: 3,836 | Location: England | User is Offline

You're kidding right?

Those games came from the current most popular list (i.e played the most), latest drivers and the same settings were used (generally all maxed), or would you like dmc4 and grid added even though no one really plays them any more.