advice on a new graphics card

[brblx]

ATi doesn't really have a single card right now that's not a good deal. nvidia is spottier, that's the only reason i recommend ATi cards when someone doesn't have a price range locked in.

4850 is king shit in the $100 range right now (99AR at newegg, other deals in the 100-120 range), and they've got the lower end covered almost too well. nvidia doesn't really ramp up in competition until you get to the 4870 and 4890, and is not winning until you get to the price is no object kinda range.

 

[path]

there was a point earlier about how ram seems to be important at higher resolutions and for AA. The 260+ here (in India) only comes with 512 whereas the 4870 comes qwith 1 gig. How much should I let that affect me?

 

[brblx]

depends on the price point. the 896mb gtx is on par with the 1gb 4870. if the latter is not significantly more than than the 512 260, i'd definately buy it.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I didn't think the GTX 260 could have 512 MB of RAM. It uses a 448-bit memory bus, so wouldn't it only have either 448 MB or 896 MB? Or am I totally misunderstanding things?

As for the ATI vs. NV stuff, I don't hate either one, I just think that at the ~$100 price point, ATI generally has better offerings. That's not to say NV doesn't have any good values at those price ranges if you want/need an NV card for something, it's just that ATI is really kicking butt right now in terms of price/performance. There are still plenty of legitimate reasons to buy nVidia - CUDA, PhysX, stereoscopic, better Linux support, better Folding optimization, and certain games simply run better on nVidia cards.

 

[path]

well the truth is after taking all this into consideration, sadly I have other things I need to look into. Support in India and the cost here (since sometimes one product seems significantly more expensive than others even taking into account the exchange rate). Sadly tech is always significantly more expensive. Case in point the ATi 4870 1 gb is 310 USD here instead of 180. But if I buy it in the US and ask a friend to bring it here I might lose any chance of getting warranty support.