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Can't decide between heavily OC'ed 260 (Black Ed) or 4890.

BlueWeasel

BlueWeasel

Lifer
I'm a moderate gamer who can't decide between a XFX Black Edition 260 vs a Sapphire 4890. Would a is a 4890 worth $50 more than the Black Edition? After selling the 2 games (COD5 and Far Cry 2) and rebate, the XFX can be had for $130 net.

Sapphire4890 - $180 after rebate
XFX 260 Black Edition - $130 after rebate and selling COD5 and FC2

The reason that I ask is I'm finding a hard time with reviews that compare a heavily OC'ed 260 like the BE to a 4890.

Ultimately, I'm leaning toward the 4890 as I can replace the stock HSF with an Accelero S1 cooler that I already have. It will run cooler and should OC nicely. An OC'ed 4890 is clearly faster than the BE, right?
 
The XFX. Higher clock, as good a warranty, cheaper, two freebies instead of one. Also, I seem to remember hearing something along the lines of what lavaheadache said.
 
Edited OP to reflect choice between 260 BE and 4890. Hell, with all this research I'm doing, I should have just bought a damn card already. 😉
 
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Ultimately, I'm leaning toward the 4890 as I can replace the stock HSF with an Accelero S1 cooler that I already have. It will run cooler and should OC nicely. An OC'ed 4890 is clearly
Click to expand...

That could be a problem. The accelero S1 currently doesn't work with my HD4890, and Arctic Cooling don't recommend using it with that card. A minor problem is a collision between one of the RAM sinks and a heat pipe - no big deal. A major problem is cooling the voltage regulators. My card refuses to work with the Accelero, even with all the heatsinks on them. If I put the stock cooler back on, all works fine. It seems to need pressure from the heatsinks over the voltage regulators to work (and active cooling). I will probably end up hacking my stock heatsink, keeping the section that covered the voltage regulators, and then screwing that on to keep tight pressure - then install the Accelero over that.

You are probably better off getting an HD4890 with aftermarket cooling pre-installad:

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...lor/HD_4890_PCS/2.html
 
Originally posted by: kmmatney
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Ultimately, I'm leaning toward the 4890 as I can replace the stock HSF with an Accelero S1 cooler that I already have. It will run cooler and should OC nicely. An OC'ed 4890 is clearly
Click to expand...

That could be a problem. The accelero S1 currently doesn't work with my HD4890, and Arctic Cooling don't recommend using it with that card. A minor problem is a collision between one of the RAM sinks and a heat pipe - no big deal. A major problem is cooling the voltage regulators. My card refuses to work with the Accelero, even with all the heatsinks on them. If I put the stock cooler back on, all works fine. It seems to need pressure from the heatsinks over the voltage regulators to work (and active cooling). I will probably end up hacking my stock heatsink, keeping the section that covered the voltage regulators, and then screwing that on to keep tight pressure - then install the Accelero over that.

You are probably better off getting an HD4890 with aftermarket cooling pre-installad:

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...lor/HD_4890_PCS/2.html
Click to expand...

Interesting, the few things I've seem to indicate the Accelero S1 works fine on the 4890, as long as the VRM are properly cooled.

My plan was to add Zalman or TT copper heatsinks over each RAM chip and use this for the VRM cooling (might also use it on the RAM as well): LINK

These custom heatsinks for the RAM and VRM use screws for positive pressure. The L-shaped RAM heatsink looks pretty shallow, so it probably won't interfere with the Accelero's heat pipe. I've got the turbo module for the Accelero and I figure it will be sufficient for active cooling.

Let me know how your results go with the Accelero and VRM cooling.
 
My vote goes to the 4890. If the GTX 260 is $189 AR and the 4890 is $180 AR then....

The games are nice if you don't have them already and might sway my opinion if so, but honestly the hassle of selling the games isn't worth it. I used to base my buying decision on how much the games were worth and usually ended up buying the more expensive card and selling the accessories. It was more hassle to me than the small amount of money justified. Unless you have a buddy who has already spoken for the games I would save yourself the hassle and get the 4890 as it is a faster card.
 
Originally posted by: OCguy
4890 is far from being worth $50 more.
Click to expand...

The thing is the OP would probably get $30 at most from selling the two games so the difference between the cards he mentioned would only be $30. IMO, $30 is well worth the added performance and not dealing with the hassle of selling and shipping the games.
 
The 4890 is a good bit faster, especially if you overclock it. I actually bought and resold (unopened) an XFX 260 c216 BE and got a 4890 instead, after looking at the benchmarks. Keep in mind, the 260 won't have much room for OC'ing, but the 4890 will.
 
Another factor that's important to me is power consumption. While I like get as much performance as possible when gaming, I spend the majority of my time at the 2D desktop.

I think the peak power consumption is a wash between the 2 cards, but the 260 clearly wins in idle draw. Can the idle consumption of the 4890 be lowered even further using software underclocking or voltage modifications (Rivatuner, ATI CC, etc.)? There seems to be a slight issue when underclocking the 4890's memory (flickering), but others have been able to underclock both the core/MEM and voltage with success.
 
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Originally posted by: kmmatney
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Ultimately, I'm leaning toward the 4890 as I can replace the stock HSF with an Accelero S1 cooler that I already have. It will run cooler and should OC nicely. An OC'ed 4890 is clearly
Click to expand...

That could be a problem. The accelero S1 currently doesn't work with my HD4890, and Arctic Cooling don't recommend using it with that card. A minor problem is a collision between one of the RAM sinks and a heat pipe - no big deal. A major problem is cooling the voltage regulators. My card refuses to work with the Accelero, even with all the heatsinks on them. If I put the stock cooler back on, all works fine. It seems to need pressure from the heatsinks over the voltage regulators to work (and active cooling). I will probably end up hacking my stock heatsink, keeping the section that covered the voltage regulators, and then screwing that on to keep tight pressure - then install the Accelero over that.

You are probably better off getting an HD4890 with aftermarket cooling pre-installad:

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...lor/HD_4890_PCS/2.html
Click to expand...

Interesting, the few things I've seem to indicate the Accelero S1 works fine on the 4890, as long as the VRM are properly cooled.

My plan was to add Zalman or TT copper heatsinks over each RAM chip and use this for the VRM cooling (might also use it on the RAM as well): LINK

These custom heatsinks for the RAM and VRM use screws for positive pressure. The L-shaped RAM heatsink looks pretty shallow, so it probably won't interfere with the Accelero's heat pipe. I've got the turbo module for the Accelero and I figure it will be sufficient for active cooling.

Let me know how your results go with the Accelero and VRM cooling.
Click to expand...

Those heatsinks look like they should do the job, since they screw down with pressure. Too bad they cost as much as teh Accelero did to begin with.

The interesting thing is that my card won't even start up with the standard accelero heatsinks installed - not even for a second. The card immediately complains about the power connectors not being hooked up. I would think it would work briefly if it was an overheating problem.

 
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