Another GTX 260 vs 4870 review

[Pneumothorax]

Crap, I made the biggest mistake of getting the 4870 1GB last week after reading Anandtech's review. Should've looked around and gotten the GTX216 instead... Plus since I've been using Hackintoshes, The nvidia GTX2XX series probably has the highest chance with eventually working as Apple seems to be in bed with Nvidia these days.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
It is a shame though they have to use an overclocked 260 216 vs. STOCK 4870 1GB. Let me know when you see some reviews of STOCK vs. STOCK. I love how all the reviews have to use overclocked GTX vs. stock 4870's. MAYBE the stock does still come out on top of some games; but I'd like to see it on even ground when quoting benchmarks.

STOCK vs. STOCK

You'll also notice they take OC version vs. OC version, and as others stated, this is also a legitamate comparison because it illustrates what you can expect out of the highest retail variants and also gives an idea of how well the parts overclock. NV parts have historically overclocked well; ATI not so much.

Here's 2 more from Fud, which hasn't exactly been favorable to NV over the years:

OC+Stock GTX 260 vs OC 4870

OC 280 with driver revision comparison vs. OC 4870

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
I mean hell there are so many conflicting reviews out there: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=10

This Anandtech review has the 4870 beating the 260 216 and states in conclusion the 4870 is the better buy.


Another review also --> And I quote: "In our testing though it seems there are mixed results, depending on the game. In Age of Conan the GTX 260 offered a better experience, but in GRID the 1GB 4870 offered the better experience. If we look toward the newer games Crysis: Warhead and Stalker: Clear Sky, there weren?t really any gameplay differences at all." http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxMCwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

So stop witht he 260 216 rules, lol In 2 minutes I found 2 reviews where one says the 4870 is still supreme and another where they are dead even. And yes of course the fanboys can find reviews where the 260 rules OR the 4870 rules. Bottom line is both seem about dead even.

You do realize the emphasis of this thread is new results with the recently released Big Bang 2 drivers from Nvidia right? The reviews you linked show us the 260 and 4870 trade blows, which was relevant info 2 weeks ago, but the new drivers boost performance sometimes 25%. This isn't just 1 or 2 reviews, its every review published since 11/20/08 that has used 180.47 or 180.48 except for AT, who uses archived results and older drivers and is clearly the outlier.

 

[Qbah]

An awesome comparison between GTX260, GTX260 216, GTX280, HD4870 512 and HD4870 1GB both OCed (each) and stock (each) with a lot of games at 1280x1024 and 1920x1200, AAx0 AAx4/8, recent drivers and min frame rates done on a 4GHz Quad and X48 mobo... by... Xbitlabs!

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/v...adeon-hd4870-1024.html

Yes, they finally have new equipment and the comparison is awesome, Xbitlabs at its best! Detailed, easy to read graphs, plenty of tests, good conclusions

 

[zod96]

As I thought, at lower resolutions like 1680x1050 and below the cards are pretty much even, with the 2 cards trading blows in every game, it would come down to personal choice at those resolutions.....

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Qbah
An awesome comparison between GTX260, GTX260 216, GTX280, HD4870 512 and HD4870 1GB both OCed (each) and stock (each) with a lot of games at 1280x1024 and 1920x1200, AAx0 AAx4/8, recent drivers and min frame rates done on a 4GHz Quad and X48 mobo... by... Xbitlabs!

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/v...adeon-hd4870-1024.html

Yes, they finally have new equipment and the comparison is awesome, Xbitlabs at its best! Detailed, easy to read graphs, plenty of tests, good conclusions

They used older drivers unfortunately, 178.24 for NV and 8.10 HF for ATI. But ya I'd agree the format and variety of cards/clockspeeds is excellent. Hopefully they run a follow-up, maybe when ATI releases their 8.12 drivers which are supposed to counter the huge gains from the 180.48s.