Nvidia GTX-260 Core 216 VS ATI 4870 1GB 5 Game Shootout

[Kougar]

Reviewer: Mr. Mark "Methious" Taliaferro

Date Published: November 19th, 2008

Excerpt: "Christmas is getting close and it's time to look at which GPU is best for the seasons hottest titles. We're doing a 5 Game shootout with the GTX-260 core 216 vs the ATI 4870 1 GB."


http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/games/2008_5_Game_Shootout/5_Game.jpg


Please feel free to post your comments and questions here!

Link To Review (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1414)

[Nocutius]

That was a bit unexpected. I don't remember the regular gtx260 beating hd4870 512mb this consistently.

[Methious]

That's not a GTX-260 that's a GTX-260 Core 216, halfway between the GTX-260 and GTX-280.

They're at the same price point. I think a lot of it is the new Nvidia 180.xx drivers.

[Nocutius]

yea i know it's the new core 216 one, that's why i mentioned the 'regular' one and hd4850 512mb.
Then again the new Radeon only has additional 512mb ram, not really an significant improvement compared to the new gtx260.

[Goliath182]

Mark I almost think that this is a little early with Cat 8.12 comming up, and promiseing better performance. Along with the full 180 release from Nvidia. You just may want to do this one again when that happens. ;-)

[Methious]

Probably not gonna happen. The drivers for the Nvidia cards are the pre release WHQL drivers.

If we went by that we'd be redoing articles every week, and the beta 8.12 ATI drivers did worse. All we can do is give them a chance to send their best drivers and run with those.

[Scott]

Also this was not againts a 512MB ATI card, it was againts a 1GB ATI card.

[bobletman]

First of all, that was a great review.
second NVIDIA IS NOW DESTROYING ATI COMPLETELY.

All joking aside great review, and I can't wait to see more of them.

[fiskadoro]

How did you manage to enable AA on the GTX 260 in Dead Space? Was it through the control panel? I ask because I have the eVGA version of this card (and, truly, it is a great card!) but it would seem the anti-aliasing features of Dead Space don't work, or at least, it's a rather odd kind of AA that still looks jagged.

Still, Dead Space is amazingly atmospheric and scares the bejesus out of me, and it looks good anyway, but I still don't think it "properly" supports AA on NVIDIA cards just yet.

I actually RMAd a Radeon 1GB 4870 because I could never go more than 5 mins without a game crash *no overclock*. In the end, I went with the GTX 260 instead, and am glad I made the decision. Though I really wanted to "go red" with ATI after being an NVIDIA loyalist for many years, I was kinda bummed the 4870 didn't work out for me, because it still seems like a heck of a video card!

[Nocutius]

It all comes down to price. Here 4870 512mb is 30-40€ cheaper than the (old) gtx260, and the 4870 1gb is only 20€ cheaper than the gtx260 core 216.
1€ =1,25$ (boy € is losing value).

[vortex]

First of all, that was a great review.
second NVIDIA IS NOW DESTROYING ATI COMPLETELY.

All joking aside great review, and I can't wait to see more of them.

True...good review Methious! I hate seeing ATI beaten for sentimental reasons. Actually, I expected that they would do well in at least 1 game, being better than over 100mB compared to NVIDIA. It's not that they're doing so badly, the card isn't too bad, but in comparasin, and witht the same price, its no question.

[Unregistered]

"The muzzle flash, combined with the ejecting shells, makes this scene scream realism."

That wasn't a muzzle flash, that was a flamethrower!

[Methious]

I expected it to be a give and take battle, so much so I ran the tests a bunch of times, changed scenes, changed attack runs etc. After 2 days of trying to see if it was just the Attack patterns or game runs I was making I gave up to the numbers I was getting.

I think if ATI widened their memory path to 512 it'd be a big help. Seems like running GDDR5 they'd want to.

SLI is even looking better recently. I was running Warhead today at 1920x1200 Dual 280's, eye candy cranked all the way up and it was smooth as butter.

It's kinda nice being able to slice through the enemy in combat rushes and not have it stutter on you and cause you to lose your bearings. It was pretty sweet I cut through about 8 enemies 4 times and took them all out and hardly got any damage.

[Dragon]

the race is back on. but remember these are nvidia based games. maybe this will force ATI to do something better with there drivers

[Methious]

That's one of the advantages of Nvidia, they have a dedicated optimization team that helps developers optimize their games.

I believe they spend millions and millions to have the games optimized for Nvidia GPU's. Which is smart ATI should do the same thing.

[Goliath182]

I believe they spend millions and millions to have the games optimized for Nvidia GPU's. Which is smart ATI should do the same thing.
Only problem is ATI is owned by AMD, which is a little dry on cash lately.

[Methious]

AMD may be poised to change the playing field. I've seen the new Denab 45nm run 5 GHz on LN2, 4 GHz on good air.

If they don't make it with this Phenom run it's mismanagement. Properly marketed and presented at a good price point they could change the whole playing field.

With competitive GPU's, and CPU's now slated to run on the newly christened Dragon platform they need to make their move.

[Nocutius]

I will honestly consider an AMD CPU again if they can deliver what they promise. I'd have to upgrade everything anyways, so it doesn't matter which way i go.

[Methious]

It's not a promise. This wasn't even a highly binned chip, just a normal pick it right off the line CPU.

We're slated for Phenom 2 45nm mid December, with NDA being lifted early January.

This isn't a rehash. This is a take the whole shebang apart and make it work right launch.

Keep your eyes peeled as mid December approaches you'll be seeing more info leaking. Early indications are much more reasonable pricing than Intel's top of the line.

[vortex]

Only problem is ATI is owned by AMD, which is a little dry on cash lately.

AMD is considering downsizing currently and they have blamed ATI for poor company performance overall, so they cut down the number of engineers and the budget, expecting them to beat NVIDIA which is crazy.

[Goliath182]

AMD should put the blame on themselves, for not competing with Intel, and thus loosing a large share of their market share.

[vortex]

You're right...they thought that manufacturers would get sick of Intel pushing to have themselves at the end of every commercial where Intel was used and decided to be more passive, but it did not work. Now they have no money, and are making little profit, so the products just can't compete with Intel.

[Unregistered]

I notice at the time of this review, there was a flood of reviews from other websites linked from Bjorn3D in regards to GF216 vs 4870HD.

Note there is no details of the hardware configurations etcs. Moreover, the benchmarks were "PICKED" out bunch.


All these websites had done a thorough range of configurations and shows that Nvidia and Ati can both be faster at a certain settings. So if you are in favor of Nvidia cards, then you can buy Nvidia. Otherwise, go for Ati cards. both of them have their ways to setting things up. you don't loose out on either of them.

So overall, to have this review from Bjorn3d that claims Nvidia is a clear cut winner. That is very deceiving.

[pokute]

Want to get rid of my 8800gts for one of these but I'm trying to hold out for the 55nm refresh. Prices looking really good though

[Methious]

FYI in the review it states that every GPU tested got a clean load of Vista 64, was done on the same X58 platform, I designed the tests myself, ran each test multiple times and the speeds and settings on the test bed were kept exactly the same for every GPU.

It clearly states the hardware configuration on page 2 of the review, and like I said in the review, there is no more fair test of GPU's than being run on the same platform without altering the test bed in any way except to switch out GPU's.

I take it your an ATI fanboy, we get that. If you also notice the bulk of the reviews out there made the same conclusion we did which kind of invalidates your rant.

The games themselves were just the hot titles of the season, we infiltrated 5 different software houses, spent 5 years in college learning to program games, and manipulated the programming of each game just so we could alter the outcome of the tests.

Get a life dude.



I notice at the time of this review, there was a flood of reviews from other websites linked from Bjorn3D in regards to GF216 vs 4870HD.

Note there is no details of the hardware configurations etcs. Moreover, the benchmarks were "PICKED" out bunch.



All these websites had done a thorough range of configurations and shows that Nvidia and Ati can both be faster at a certain settings. So if you are in favor of Nvidia cards, then you can buy Nvidia. Otherwise, go for Ati cards. both of them have their ways to setting things up. you don't loose out on either of them.

So overall, to have this review from Bjorn3d that claims Nvidia is a clear cut winner. That is very deceiving.

[Nocutius]

AMD Reduces Pricing of ATI Radeon HD 4870 to $199. (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20081205200043_AMD_Reduces_Pricing_of_ATI_Radeon_H D_4870_to_199.html)
Ok it's only on newegg so far, but this should indicate some future price drops. I don't think Nvidia can follow ATI much longer in this price war.

[typh4u]

AMD Reduces Pricing of ATI Radeon HD 4870 to $199. (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20081205200043_AMD_Reduces_Pricing_of_ATI_Radeon_H D_4870_to_199.html)
Ok it's only on newegg so far, but this should indicate some future price drops. I don't think Nvidia can follow ATI much longer in this price war.


Sometimes price is not the only factor in what a consumer purchases. The fact that in the US the only ATI partner that offers lifetime warranty is VisionTek. However there customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I personally don't mind paying a little extra knowing that should something go wrong I know it will be fixed and taken care of real fast and in a hurry.

[Dragon]

you be amazed at how pricing makes a difference in someone choices especially if they are looking for a good card and either one of the manus can deliver that. not just nvidia or ATI but both can nowadays. then take in consideration that some peeps even consider crossifre or sli bc the cards are cheap enough for them to buy em. if one company makes it even cheaper then people will consider that card bc they can afford it and not only that they might be able to buy 2 instead of one. also take into consideration that its xmas time and people are looking at what will give em the best bang for there buck as well. the 4870 and the 260 are both great cards and will serve who ever gotten them well. but the cheapest one will allways win.

[Nocutius]

Sometimes price is not the only factor in what a consumer purchases.
You're right, price isn't everything but it's the biggest factor for most people. I'm not loyal to any brand either, i only try to avoid the 'bad apples'. As long as i get at least a 2 year warranty for a card i'm happy, it will be pretty much worthless after that anyway.
I've owned both Ati and Nvidia cards, it doesn't really matter to me, i will always go with the best bang for the buck, and with this generation ATI brings us a really big bang. Just remember how quickly Nvidia had to slash gtx200 prices to be able to sell their cards at all. 4800 cards are cheaper to produce than gtx200 ones, so ATi can have it's prices lower and still turn a profit, therefore they win market share.
I payed 30% less for my hd4850 than the 9800gtx was at the time, it was a no brainer, and if they can reproduce something like that with the hd4870 vs gtx260, they will win again. Gtx200 cards are good cards, but that doesn't mean much if ATi really manages to kill them with lower prices.

[typh4u]

You're right, price isn't everything but it's the biggest factor for most people. I'm not loyal to any brand either, i only try to avoid the 'bad apples'. As long as i get at least a 2 year warranty for a card i'm happy, it will be pretty much worthless after that anyway.
I've owned both Ati and Nvidia cards, it doesn't really matter to me, i will always go with the best bang for the buck, and with this generation ATI brings us a really big bang. Just remember how quickly Nvidia had to slash gtx200 prices to be able to sell their cards at all. 4800 cards are cheaper to produce than gtx200 ones, so ATi can have it's prices lower and still turn a profit, therefore they win market share.
I payed 30% less for my hd4850 than the 9800gtx was at the time, it was a no brainer, and if they can reproduce something like that with the hd4870 vs gtx260, they will win again. Gtx200 cards are good cards, but that doesn't mean much if ATi really manages to kill them with lower prices.

My original statement dealt more with Customer service and warranty. Say XFX, EVGA or BFG sold ATI Cards with their excellent customer service and warranty ATI would have a larger market share.

[Nocutius]

. Say XFX, EVGA or BFG sold ATI Cards with their excellent customer service and warranty ATI would have a larger market share.
Ok i get what you mean. I guess EU and US markets are a bit different in this regard. There is no customer service that would cover the entire EU. I don't deal directly with XFX or Sapphire or whoever, i send a faulty card directly to the store where i bought it, and they have to deal with it, it's not my problem. So customer service of those brands is pretty much irrelevant, the shop where you buy stuff is much more important.

[Dragon]

If XFX or EVGA sold ati cards i be all over them like white is to rice. either way when i do look for nvidia based cards i choose evga or xfx first. there customer service is top notch