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Help me pick between a AMD 6850 or GTX460 1GB

Bearach

Senior member
Hi,

My previous graphics card a 9800GT finally gave up just recently, and now I'm looking into getting a quick replacement, because it's near Christmas these two are the maximum I can afford.

I have never tried AMD, and had bad and good experience with nVIDIA, for example my first a RIVA TNT 32mb had a nasty conflict with a MVP3 chipset from VIA... but from the Athlon/PIII era I've had GeForces 2/4/6/7 so have a lot of experience with them.

Their drivers have always been pretty solid for the most part, and not really had trouble with the games I play, but that's one thing that does worry me about AMD. Are the comments just fanboy rants or is it true about driver issues being frequent with AMD drivers?

I'm debating whether to get a (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244442) or (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/233611) from reviews I've found it seems AMD win most, and wins out in higher resolutions more often... but then there was talk of recent updates by nVIDIA making the 460GTX on par or faster.

I'll be gaming at 1920 x 1080 as much as possible, so that's what I need the best performance for in most games. Thank you everyone for your help.
 
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There is a Evga gtx 460 on newegg for 160$ AR, (if you put it in your cart you get 30$ off).
For that price there is no reason to get a 6850.
 
If they're the same price, and either does offer better power numbers and performance then I think there would be (which I'm trying to find out).

Thank you for your reply, but I can't buy from newegg.

NOTE : Just looked at the card you said about, it's the SE version which would be smoked by a 6850, has 288 cores instead of the usual 336.
 
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At 160 the 460. I've had poor luck with rebates myself. I'm still waiting on one from 6-8 months ago

But being me id buy a6850 and OC it Near 6870 levels
 
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Id get a 6850 over a 460 1gb, if they cost more or less same.
Newegg has a Diamond 6850 for 179$ atm (most of the 460 1gb are around the 200$ mark as well, so that diamond 6850 is a good buy).

Amd driver thingy is a myth and FUD spread by nvidia wannabies. From my own experiance, when I switched to a ati card (did it with the 4xxx and 5xxx series).

GET THE 6850! 🙂 (get a cheap one though, like that 179$ offer)

Overclock the hell outta it, the 6850 and you can get it running at better than stock 6870 rates, get two of them in crossfire and watch the thing fly. 2x 6870 Crossfire almost beat 2x480 in SLI, you can reach those levels with a 6850 thats OCed, where 2x6850's would beat 2x480 sli at stock levels in performance.
 
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Id get a 6850 over a 460 1gb, if they cost more or less same.
Newegg has a Diamond 6850 for 179$ atm (most of the 460 1gb are around the 200$ mark as well, so that diamond 6850 is a good buy).

Amd driver thingy is a myth and FUD spread by nvidia wannabies. From my own experiance, when I switched to a ati card (did it with the 4xxx and 5xxx series).

OC a 6850 and you can get it running at better than stock 6870 rates, get two of them in crossfire and watch the thing fly.

He said he cant buy from newegg? We need a link to where he shops.
 
Thanks, I saw them benchmarks, then some people started saying they were invalid now, since the 260 release from nVIDIA increased the performance of the 460GTX to above the 6850, but I assume AMD are working on performance increase in their drivers too.

It's hard with so many conflicting benchmarks and comments across the internet, this is probably the hardest hardware choice I've had in a long while.

I gave a link in first post to one shop, I shop from the UK thus US stores are pretty much out of the question as most don't deliver here I'm sure.
 
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If they're the same price, and either does offer better power numbers and performance then I think there would be (which I'm trying to find out).

Thank you for your reply, but I can't buy from newegg.

NOTE : Just looked at the card you said about, it's the SE version which would be smoked by a 6850, has 288 cores instead of the usual 336.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-565-_-Product

If you put it in the cart it will be 160$ AR.
There is another evga gtx460 1gb with free Just Cause 2 for 170$ AR
 
Thanks, I saw them benchmarks, then some people started saying they were invalid now, since the 260 release from nVIDIA increased the performance of the 460GTX to above the 6850, but I assume AMD are working on performance increase in their drivers too.

It's hard with so many conflicting benchmarks and comments across the internet, this is probably the hardest hardware choice I've had in a long while.

I gave a link in first post to one shop, I shop from the UK thus US stores are pretty much out of the question as most don't deliver here I'm sure.

So at the same price I'd buy Nvidia ,just because it has more features.
Its really a toss up though. Flip a coin?
 
So at the same price I'd buy Nvidia ,just because it has more features.
Its really a toss up though. Flip a coin?


They're the same performance, same power requirements but one offers me more features? You mean Physx? Cuda? What are the other features? (As I think I can live without them)
 
At the same price point I would get the 6850, as it is slightly faster than a stock GTX460. But maybe it's best to see which card performs better in the games you play, as you know some games prefer NV hardware, others ATI.
 
They're the same performance, same power requirements but one offers me more features? You mean Physx? Cuda? What are the other features? (As I think I can live without them)

Don't worry about it. Either choice is a good choice. I would caution you to dismiss the AMD driver Fud . Because it is in fact fud. Its part of the NV negitive hype. That Ex-AEG members and there fanbois put out all over the net . NV is a great company as far as hardware goes. The reason I won't touch their GPUs is because of the Ex-AEG Hype put into Forums to create disinformation . I personnally won't touch NV products because of it . 1000's of people feel the same way .

That said either card is a good choice and will not disappoint. But AMD is struggling economics wise so buying an AMD card helps out in that respect.
 
They're the same performance, same power requirements but one offers me more features? You mean Physx? Cuda? What are the other features? (As I think I can live without them)
Basically the same ol' Eyefinity vs. Physx/Cuda tradeoff.

Honestly the cards are both fantastic values with massive overclocking potential, you can't go wrong with either. Drivers are a wash. I'd base my decision first on any great deals (if you can find one significantly cheaper than the other), and second on which games favor which architecture (look at the graphs above and in the AT review for an idea).
 
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