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Best GPU for under $250

S

SparksIT

Member
I'm looking for a single GPU to pair with my AMD PII955, I have no intentions of going xFire or SLI, I was looking a either the 4890 or the 275 both around $250, but it was suggested that going with the pervious models of 4870 or 260 would be the better buy as the performance loss is that big compared to the $50 drop of price? Also is there any disadvantages from running nVidia on an ATI chipset? (besides lack of SLI)

Also, Its been a long time since I bought an ATI card, so I have no idea of what constitutes a good brand. For nVidia i've always like EVGA, but willing to take suggestions. Would like a brand with decent warrenty, quality, costomer service. (not necessarly in that order)

I've also been hearing alot about PhysX Cuda vs OpenCL, though not makeing much heads or tails of it(been out of the GPU Loop for a while), but what I have taken is that OpenCL is pretty much going to be the industry standard, are there any cards out now that will have OpenCL support? However I may/will be doing some graphic intesive task(video editing/encoding/etc), and I've seen/heard that Some of Adobe's software is capable of offloading some of the work to the GPU, and I would be interested in picking up a card capable of doing this
 
Usually a person can get a 4890 for $180-$190 after rebates/live cashback at places like Ewiz.

 
4890 wins in bang for the buck. it's a little cheaper than a comparable nvidia card and only about $30 more than a 4870 1gb or gtx260. the speed increase for $30 is fairly significant, though.
 
Originally posted by: SparksIT
So if I go with a 4890 what is a decent Brand?
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Brand doesn't really matter: Almost all HD4890 cards are reference model and made in same factory in same assembly line. You can find some difference in sticker and some of them might include some game with that card.

 
Does your motherboard support crossfire? If so I'd go for an ati card just to keep the option open. In a year or two, you may want the extra performance on the cheap.

ATI cards generally win in bang for buck. I think Adobe's software uses opengl to offload to the graphics card, so CUDA is no help.

A 4870 1GB, 4890, or a GTX 260 core 216 would all be good choices. You can find core 216s for under $200, so they're not a bad buy.
 
I wouldn't recommend spending that much on a video card. If you buy a 4870 or 4850 you can save a lot of money and put that towards more frequent upgrades, which seems to be more effective in the long run. You'll always be able to play the newest engines with high settings. A 4850 can be found for $95 after MIR right now, you could upgrade again with the next generation for the same price.

or, if you still want to spend $200, you could actually crossfire two 4850s right now and get much higher performance than one 4890 can provide, I'm surprised no one mentioned this.
 
4890 easily. The GTX 275 is overpriced and stock numbers have them close with the 4890 edging it out. When overclocked even to 900mhz the 4890 competes with and beats the GTX 285 at times.
 
If ATi could get their drivers straightened out I wouldn't feel so hesitant about buying one of their cards. As things are, I would still go for the 260-216 or wait for the 275 to drop in price.

And given my past experiences with ATI cards, you don't want to recommend I buy an ATi card unless the drivers are actually as solid and stable as NVidia's have been for me, else I'm going to b*tch up a storm about wasting money on an ATi card if all it does is crash out of games because their drivers still suck. =

ATI's got the best bang-for-the-buck cards out right now and I hope they succeed in profitability and revenue for being the better deal right now, but I can't support them by buying a card if it comes at the expense of my system's stability.
 
Originally posted by: yacoub
If ATi could get their drivers straightened out I wouldn't feel so hesitant about buying one of their cards. As things are, I would still go for the 260-216 or wait for the 275 to drop in price.

And given my past experiences with ATI cards, you don't want to recommend I buy an ATi card unless the drivers are actually as solid and stable as NVidia's have been for me, else I'm going to b*tch up a storm about wasting money on an ATi card if all it does is crash out of games because their drivers still suck. =

ATI's got the best bang-for-the-buck cards out right now and I hope they succeed in profitability and revenue for being the better deal right now, but I can't support them by buying a card if it comes at the expense of my system's stability.
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Most people have absolutely no problems with ATi drivers.(Same with nVidia) There's probably at least as many people who have problems with nVidia drivers as ATi ones. Both drivers are incredibly solid. Problems are more likely to be caused by user error or by using some really way out there system configuration.

As far as anecdotal evidence goes, I've purchased at least one ATi card a year for the last ten years and not once did I have an issue. I've purchased nVidia cards slightly less, but still had my fair share of them and not once did I have an issue with their software either.
 
Originally posted by: Rusin
Brand doesn't really matter: Almost all HD4890 cards are reference model and made in same factory in same assembly line. You can find some difference in sticker and some of them might include some game with that card.
Click to expand...

What about Customer service or warrenty between the brands? or Does ATI/AMD handle all the CS calls for the cards?

 
4890 Hands down best price performance card right now. $200 for a card that can run just about any game maxed out at just about any resolution. And go with XFX lifetime warranty and get CS...
 
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