How are there still should I buy 260 or 4870 threads still?

[LAX182]

Depends on the games you like to play and what resolution you are at. If my friend who is an avid age of conan player asked me today what card to get I would point him toward a GTX 260. He asked two weeks ago while the prices weren't nearly as competitive, he is very happy with his 4870. Yea he could have been using 2xAA with max grass and ground quality view distances but who cares. He doesn't. Buy what you want and be happy =)

I'll stick with my 8800gts 512 till nehalem rolls around.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
Well I see 4870's on new egg right now for $255 and the cheapest 260 is $255 so NOT cheaper that is for sure. Like I said in my original post when you turn ON FULL AA and all the eye candy the 4870 blows the 260 out of the water and it is not close. When the AA is turned OFF and the extras that is when you see them neck and neck. So again I game at 1920 x 1200 and it is a no brainer to go with the 4870 even if they are the same price today. The reason is same cost; BUT better performance WITH AA turned on.

Hmm, look at the these reviews and the 4870 priced the same beats the 260 by >10% in MOST games benched at 1920 x 1200; just about dead even at 2560x1600; BUT who the hell games at that resolution, lol There are not many who game at 1920x1200. Like I said look at the #'s WITH AA and the 4870 wins a hell of a lot more than it loses. So no brainer like I said

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14

no that is 4870 for 255 AFTER a 30$ MIR, and the GTX260 SC for 255$ BEFORE a 30$ MIR.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
Well I see 4870's on new egg right now for $255 and the cheapest 260 is $255 so NOT cheaper that is for sure.

Just because you don't know how to use newegg.com doesn't make your info correct. I posted links to the cheapest cards on newegg in the second post.

The cheapest GTX 260 on NE right now is $244.99 AMIR ($254.99 BMIR), and the cheapest 4870 on NE right now is $254.99 AMIR ($284.99 BMIR).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...60&bop=And&Order=PRICE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...70&bop=And&Order=PRICE

[/quote]

when you turn ON FULL AA and all the eye candy the 4870 blows the 260 out of the water and it is not close. When the AA is turned OFF and the extras that is when you see them neck and neck. So again I game at 1920 x 1200 and it is a no brainer to go with the 4870 even if they are the same price today. The reason is same cost; BUT better performance WITH AA turned on.

Again, the review sites are benching with just regular AA. I don't know what you mean by "FULL ON AA", but As far as I know the review sites are not using transparency super sampling AA.

HardOCP recently did a review on some of the differing AA modes available on ATI's new cards:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

The main thing that I take away from this is that depending on which type of AA is used lower levers of AA can look just as good or better than some of the higher levels. So, you really can't just say, "Oh wow, this card hauls ass at 8xAA!" anymore without looking a little bit more closely at which AA mode was used in the benchmark. Now, this isn't a jab at ATI at all, but I do feel the claim that the decision between the GTX 260 and 4870 is a no brainer is tad bit hasty and uninformed.

What I'd really like to see is an in depth AA performance/IQ comparison between the GTX 260 and the 4870 with different AA modes. In retrospect, I should have kept my 4870 and little longer and done some benching myself. ...maybe if I get a 4870X2

 

[Leon]

Hmm, look at the these reviews and the 4870 priced the same beats the 260 by >10% in MOST games benched at 1920 x 1200; just about dead even at 2560x1600; BUT who the hell games at that resolution, lol There are not many who game at 1920x1200. Like I said look at the #'s WITH AA and the 4870 wins a hell of a lot more than it loses. So no brainer like I said

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14

You contradict yourself...first you said that once you turn up eye candy, 4870 wins, then you slamming 2560 results, where 260gtx is faster in most tests. I guess by your definition, eye candy means lower res/settings

 

[E E Magenis]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Just because you don't know how to use newegg.com doesn't make your info correct. I posted links to the cheapest cards on newegg in the second post.

I still see the 260 as the cheaper one:

EVGA 896-P3-1262-AR $309.99 - $55IR (ex 7/27) - $30 rebate (exp 7/31) = $224.99

This model is listed the third from the bottom of the list on the rebate.

 

[AzN]

4870 does have faster 8xAA performance. You can't deny about that. Major sites like Anandtech, Tom's Hardware and techreport says 4870 is 10% faster than 260gtx at bone stock and fast as GTX280 when 8xAA is applied.

The choice is really a coin flip. Either you want faster performance with higher AA settings or you want to push more raw fps with GTX260 and try your luck with overclocking. Not all GTX260 will be pushing 750mhz core like that other thread. Seems 650-700 is the norm far as overclocking goes from 576. Not that 4870 can't overclock either that's been clocking the core to 790-840 and huge memory overclocks.

In the end you can't really lose if you went with either card.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: E E Magenis

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Just because you don't know how to use newegg.com doesn't make your info correct. I posted links to the cheapest cards on newegg in the second post.

I still see the 260 as the cheaper one:

EVGA 896-P3-1262-AR $309.99 - $55IR (ex 7/27) - $30 rebate (exp 7/31) = $224.99

This model is listed the third from the bottom of the list on the rebate.

Yeah, I do to... That's why I said that in my post.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Azn
4870 does have faster 8xAA performance. You can't deny about that. Major sites like Anandtech, Tom's Hardware and techreport says 4870 is 10% faster than 260gtx at bone stock and fast as GTX280 when 8xAA is applied.

The choice is really a coin flip. Either you want faster performance with higher AA settings or you want to push more raw fps with GTX260 and try your luck with overclocking. Not all GTX260 will be pushing 750mhz core like that other thread. Seems 650-700 is the norm far as overclocking goes from 576. Not that 4870 can't overclock either that's been clocking the core to 790-840 and huge memory overclocks.

In the end you can't really lose if you went with either card.

...where?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=1
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...deon-hd-4870,1964.html

 

[deerhunter716]

Not many game at 2560x1600- could have worded it better; but FEW do. Okay let me define all the eye candy since you do not know it means 8xAA and 16XAF And yes a lot game at 1920x1200 EXACTLY where the 4870 shines against the GTX260. When you put 8xAA and 16xAF on the 4870 beats the 260 EASILY almost in all games.

And newegg keeps changing prices faster than you can keep up; so do not quote me on newegg whent hey change a few times. So when I looked it up they were even. As of right now at 9:46 AM EST the cheapest 260 is $265 AFTER rebate and shows it plain as day. AND $255 for 2 brands of the 4870 - so you go learn how to use Newegg, lol

So even though the 4870 IS cheaper for sake of argument let's just pretend and say the 260 is cheaper at this moment by $20 or $30; still a no-brainer. Nice GDDR5 AND 10.1 support for the 4870 which in another thread titles such as Half-Life 4 and others are coming out with DX10.1. DOH - the 260 cannot support 10.1 go figure.

1) Oh for the proof you ask - from Anandtech article oh and this is compared to the 280; NOT even the 260 is mentioned because the 4870 compares so good to the 280, lol: "In fact, the few tests we did with 8xAA paints the 4870 in a much better light relative to the GTX 280."

2) Firingsquad Review: ATI?s really dialed in their 8xMSAA performance also. Whereas GeForce GTX and 9800 boards see a significant performance hit at 8xAA, the Radeon 4800 boards continue to scale well. 8xAA is actually playable in games like Oblivion, Company of Heroes, and Quake Wars. In fact, in our testing the Radeon 4850 was capable of giving the GeForce GTX 260 a run for its money in Oblivion, Quake Wars, and Episode 2, while the 4870 actually outgunned the GTX 280!

*** Oh yeah my bad again the 4850 gives the 260 a run for it's money, lol And the 4870 outguns the 280 in some cases -- sorry if I took this off topic and had to compare 4850 vs. the 260, hehe

Can find a lot more if I want to copy and paste all day, lol

 

[Keysplayr]

"DOH - the 260 cannot support 10.1 go figure."
This is true. Now, what is your stance on Physx? Can't wait to hear it.

 

[HOOfan 1]

"why are there still threads asking if they should get a 4870 or a GTX260"

Why is there a thread asking why there are still threads like this? Why do you care?

This subject has in fact been discussed ad nauseum in those threads you are asking about anyway, so what is the point of starting another thread just to rehash the same arguements over and over again. You know the same arguements from the ATI fans that the nVidia fans will ignore, and the arguements by the nVidia fans that ATI fans will ignore.

People are going to buy what they want to buy and it seems to me that there are not many fence sitters in this forum. Either they like one or the other better...especially since they are now at the same pricepoint.

 

[chizow]

Here's a really good summary of deciding points from a previous thread about the GTX 260:

Originally posted by: alkalinetaupehat
Meh, it was two weeks ago today that I bought my new rig. At the time the 4870 was topping the 260 by something like 6% and was $20-$70 cheaper, but instead of logically getting the card which was both FASTER and CHEAPER, I got the more-expensive card borne of a behemoth GPU.

The reasoning behind the illogicality of such a decision?

A multi-faceted understanding.

1. Board Partners
Nvidia has the cream of the crop for board partners, Evga has a Step-Up program to help consumers cope with the rapidly changing GPU market, XFX has a sweet package outlined below, BFG makes solid cards/lifetime warranty, and MSI offers factory OC'd cards for very small (~$5-$10) premiums, and in general a higher bar of quality. Well, if you take the skizzy 8800GT launch coolers and current QC problems with chips, mobile GPUs, and their top-tier GPUs with a grain of salt.

ATI's partners, well, er, Powercolor I believe went bankrupt in past years and somehow re-emerged, and Visiontek doesn't support OC'ers/modders and has a SINGLE Lifetime Warranty, causing your reincarnation to not have any warranty (or whatever schmuck you sell the card to later), all of which es no bueno. HIS does make nice coolers, but only after the card has been out for a right long time in tech time. Most of the others simply goof off with competing sticker designs (did anyone check out Diamond's sticker on the 4850?). The lackluster performance of ATI's board partners is indeed hindering ATI's comeback and will until the board partners come up with GOOD and ORIGINAL ideas/coolers/anything but more stickers, gah.

2. Package Deals
My card is an XFX GTX260 factory OC'd to 640Mhz core etc. and comes with a modder/OC'er-friendly Double Lifetime Warranty, which is enough marketing drool to fill up your next bowl of cereal AND help you sleep better at night. Which is good.
O YA I got COD4 with my card. Yay.

ATI's board partners' "packages" have been talked about above.

3. Specs
The GTX260 offers a larger 448-bit memory bus, more VRAM, better power management, arguably more OC'ing headroom, and Physx/CUDA. People who have tried out games with GPU Physx had somewhat lower framerates, but a better gameplay experience. CUDA support combined with F@H makes Nvidia finally competitive with ATI on GPU-accelerated processing (for lack of a better term)

ATI's 4870 has GDDR5 (which is coincidentally a five-letter acronym), the standard 512MB VRAM, more stream processors than you (800), DX10.1 (which so far has indeed show at least some degree of usefulness), 7.1 audio over HDMI, and should sometime have Havok/Physx.

I would probably call this either a draw or a close win by Nvidia. ATI here is ultimately becoming competitive again, rather than superbly spanking Nvidia or pulling off something crazy. I have hope for even better products from ATI in the future.

I really wanted to get a 4870 or crossfire two 4850s. They are indeed compatible with the Acceleros, and they have good performance. The lackluster support from board partners and lack of any incentive, outside of price and performance, of which ATI's engineering is responsible, is what really killed the purchase for me. SLI is on Nehalem, I have a solid card that is quiet and cool, and if I were to SLI two GTX260s with an upgrade to Nehalem, I would have a formidable rig for a good amount of time.

You can read some other comments here with some input from a few that actually switched from a 4870 to a GTX 260. It seems that in a coin-flip situation people prefer the quality, warranty, better cooling/noise and overclockability of the GTX 260 over the 4870.

 

[hans007]

i'd have to say at current prices, the 260 is a better deal than the 4870.



honsetly i think the real deal out there is the 4850. its significanly cheaper than both the 260 and 4870 to the point that if you had bought 2 during the 4850 deal for $135 a week ago, itd still be about the same price as a single 4870.

its only a little slower, but its something like 30-40% cheaper than the other 2 cards.

 

[Keysplayr]

I don't think anyone can go wrong with either card. That's the only "no-brainer" that applies here.

 

[deerhunter716]

I can agree there keys Still enjoy the discussion though, hehe

 

[solofly]

Have a look here...

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
(HD4870 vs 260GTX)

and here...

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...8893&prodlist=celebros
($239.99)

Nvidia hasn't done $hit in two years, same old tech. Ati on the other hand caught up and is surpassing nv at the moment in every way.

 

[LAX182]

If your like me and a huge cod4 fan then I'd be looking really hard at the 4870. Both cards max this game out but you get the nice added effect of the edge detect filter. As my first post said its all about the games that YOU play. My friends a big Aoc guy, HardOCP tells me the GTX 260 is the way for him to go for best game play performance. Though that was when the 260 was still in the mid 300's, so he is now enjoying a new visontek 4870 =p

Fanboys everywhere these days. I love it!

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Azn
4870 does have faster 8xAA performance. You can't deny about that. Major sites like Anandtech, Tom's Hardware and techreport says 4870 is 10% faster than 260gtx at bone stock and fast as GTX280 when 8xAA is applied.

The choice is really a coin flip. Either you want faster performance with higher AA settings or you want to push more raw fps with GTX260 and try your luck with overclocking. Not all GTX260 will be pushing 750mhz core like that other thread. Seems 650-700 is the norm far as overclocking goes from 576. Not that 4870 can't overclock either that's been clocking the core to 790-840 and huge memory overclocks.

In the end you can't really lose if you went with either card.

...where?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=1
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...deon-hd-4870,1964.html

It would have been easier if you weren't such a Nvidia fanboi with GTX280 and actually compared benches between the 2 cards.

I'll just post Anandtech benches since we are in Anandtech....

Crysis
HD4870 35.6 fps
GTX260 33.6 fps

COD4
HD4870 82.4 fps
GTX260 74.3 fps

Quake Wars
HD4870 96.8 fps
GTX260 84.2 fps

Assasin's Creed
HD4870 55 fps
GTX260 50.2 fps

Witcher
HD4870 48 fps
GTX260 46.1 fps

Bioshock
HD4870 107.7 fps
GTX260 69 fps

Oblivion
HD4870 41.5 fps
GTX260 43 fps

 

[fierydemise]

I posted this in another thread:
Overall the HD4870 and GTX 260 are the most evenly matched cards we've seen in a long time, they perform near identically and each have their own (counterbalancing) advantages, the H4870 has HDMI, DX10.1 and scales incredibly well with AA and the GTX 260 has PhysX, overclocks very nicely and has better board partners. For my money unless one of those advantages is a big deal to you the best bet is to get whichever card is cheaper when you buy. For me that was the HD4870 and for someone else it may be the GTX 260 (we've seen some great deals recently) can we quit trying to crown a winner, declare this round a tie and thank god for having two competitive companies again which gives us these wonderful price wars.

 

[deerhunter716]

I have to disagree and that the 4870 is closer to the 280 than the 260 period. Like Keys said both are damn good cards to buy but the 4870 is closer to the 280 than the 260; DEFINITELY with 8xAA and 16xAF

 

[Foxery]

There are still new threads because they keep getting new responses.

More specifically, many people are heavily influenced by "anecdotal" reports - i.e. they place more value on a personal opinion than on professionally tested results. It's a common psychological quirk.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
I have to disagree and that the 4870 is closer to the 280 than the 260 period. Like Keys said both are damn good cards to buy but the 4870 is closer to the 280 than the 260; DEFINITELY with 8xAA and 16xAF

Meh, the GTX280 is kind of in a league of it's own at this point. The GTX260 and HD4870 are close enough to call this one a draw. Including price, performance, and features. Very close. Hard decisions to be sure. One thing I have noticed is that the GT200's scale very nicely when overclocked. More than I expected actually.

I ran my GTX280 at 700/1500/2400 for a bit. Noticeable speed up in the few games I have tried. I would like to see if I can go higher. Temps still hover around 76C at load.

The GTX260 scales similarly. 55nm versions should be very interesting. With GDDR5 to boot.
Patiently awaiting word on these.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Azn
4870 does have faster 8xAA performance. You can't deny about that. Major sites like Anandtech, Tom's Hardware and techreport says 4870 is 10% faster than 260gtx at bone stock and fast as GTX280 when 8xAA is applied.

The choice is really a coin flip. Either you want faster performance with higher AA settings or you want to push more raw fps with GTX260 and try your luck with overclocking. Not all GTX260 will be pushing 750mhz core like that other thread. Seems 650-700 is the norm far as overclocking goes from 576. Not that 4870 can't overclock either that's been clocking the core to 790-840 and huge memory overclocks.

In the end you can't really lose if you went with either card.

...where?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=1
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...deon-hd-4870,1964.html

It would have been easier if you weren't such a Nvidia fanboi with GTX280 and actually compared benches between the 2 cards.

I'll just post Anandtech benches since we are in Anandtech....

Crysis
HD4870 35.6 fps
GTX260 33.6 fps

COD4
HD4870 82.4 fps
GTX260 74.3 fps

Quake Wars
HD4870 96.8 fps
GTX260 84.2 fps

Assasin's Creed
HD4870 55 fps
GTX260 50.2 fps

Witcher
HD4870 48 fps
GTX260 46.1 fps

Bioshock
HD4870 107.7 fps
GTX260 69 fps

Oblivion
HD4870 41.5 fps
GTX260 43 fps

I don't think there is much of a question if the 4870 beats the GTX 260 in most cases by a few fps, but none of those are with 8xAA... Also, note that the biggest win is in Bioshock, which just so happens to not have any AA at all.

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
Not many game at 2560x1600- could have worded it better; but FEW do. Okay let me define all the eye candy since you do not know it means 8xAA and 16XAF And yes a lot game at 1920x1200 EXACTLY where the 4870 shines against the GTX260. When you put 8xAA and 16xAF on the 4870 beats the 260 EASILY almost in all games.

And newegg keeps changing prices faster than you can keep up; so do not quote me on newegg whent hey change a few times. So when I looked it up they were even. As of right now at 9:46 AM EST the cheapest 260 is $265 AFTER rebate and shows it plain as day. AND $255 for 2 brands of the 4870 - so you go learn how to use Newegg, lol

So even though the 4870 IS cheaper for sake of argument let's just pretend and say the 260 is cheaper at this moment by $20 or $30; still a no-brainer. Nice GDDR5 AND 10.1 support for the 4870 which in another thread titles such as Half-Life 4 and others are coming out with DX10.1. DOH - the 260 cannot support 10.1 go figure.

1) Oh for the proof you ask - from Anandtech article oh and this is compared to the 280; NOT even the 260 is mentioned because the 4870 compares so good to the 280, lol: "In fact, the few tests we did with 8xAA paints the 4870 in a much better light relative to the GTX 280."

2) Firingsquad Review: ATI?s really dialed in their 8xMSAA performance also. Whereas GeForce GTX and 9800 boards see a significant performance hit at 8xAA, the Radeon 4800 boards continue to scale well. 8xAA is actually playable in games like Oblivion, Company of Heroes, and Quake Wars. In fact, in our testing the Radeon 4850 was capable of giving the GeForce GTX 260 a run for its money in Oblivion, Quake Wars, and Episode 2, while the 4870 actually outgunned the GTX 280!

*** Oh yeah my bad again the 4850 gives the 260 a run for it's money, lol And the 4870 outguns the 280 in some cases -- sorry if I took this off topic and had to compare 4850 vs. the 260, hehe

Can find a lot more if I want to copy and paste all day, lol

Here is the actual page from AT that you quote: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=10

Notice that while RV770 AA scaling is better, GT200 still wins at every setting except in 8xAA+Edge Detect vs. 16XQ CSAA where they are dead even.

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Meh, the GTX280 is kind of in a league of it's own at this point. The GTX260 and HD4870 are close enough to call this one a draw. Including price, performance, and features. Very close. Hard decisions to be sure. One thing I have noticed is that the GT200's scale very nicely when overclocked. More than I expected actually.

:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
I don't think anyone can go wrong with either card. That's the only "no-brainer" that applies here.

Originally posted by: deerhunter716
I can agree there keys Still enjoy the discussion though, hehe

That's somewhat of a U-Turn from your original post, isn't it?

 

[taltamir]

so. To summerize things:

1. The 4870 has less ram, but this would only limit performance in very rare games (oblivion with mod pack) or in very high resolutions (2560x1600 +)
For most people, by the time you get such a monitor the card will be obsolete anyways.
2. GDDR5 is not a feature (4870), neither is 448/512bit bus (GTX), it is a design decision. Memory bandwidth is a result of that, and it affects overall FPS (more in some cases then in others), memory bandwidth is a function of GDDR type and bus width (GTX = GDDR3 x 448bit, 4870 = GDDR5 x 256bit). This does not make it future proof either, this is what accounts for the 4870 being faster then the 4850 (GDDR3 x 256bit) today, that is the only difference between the 4850 and 4870. This is also helps the GTX280 be faster then the GTX260. Neither will make the card any faster as time passes.
3. PhysX is 10 times more valuable then DX10.1, but 10 x 0 still equals to 0. Both are insignificant right now, physX is actually USED in games at the moment, but it is extremely underwhelming even if it works.
4. The GTX will OC a lot higher and benefit a lot more from that OC.
5. The cheapest GTX right now is from eVGA, with awesome lifetime warranty and service, the cheapest 4870 has 1 year warranty and crap service. Only visiontek has lifetime warranty and service is meh and cost is high.
6. The cards are basically identical in performance, the 4870 wins some, the GTX260 wins some, especially in the minimum frame rates department, so normally, buying whichever is cheaper to buy and own makes sense. (the 4870 is now 255 after MIR, the 260 SC is 225$ after MIR)
7. The GTX takes a lot less power in both idle and load, it will cost you less to own in electricity.
8. The GTX runs more quietly and much cooler, and thus less likely to break (most likely because nvidia partners actually offer good warranties, it will cost them too much to replace a ton of cards later on, AMD partners don't have that problem, it will be out of warranty and the customer loses)

There are misconceptions on both sides here, there are "issues" with the 4870 that are not issues at all, and even more such "issues" for the GTX line...
Basically when the GTX and 4870 came out the 4870 was so much cheaper that every expert said "there is absolutely no reason to buy the GTX at that price point". However people took it as "there is absolutely no reason to buy the GTX". To the point where the GTX is actually cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, has better feature set, and comes from a better companies in terms of service and warranty. Yet people STILL say that there is no reason to buy the GTX... Their loss, my win. I was going to buy the 4870 cause it was cheaper, more bang for the buck, but with the GTX prices being actually lower I snapped one up for myself.

 

[airhendrix13]

Originally posted by: taltamir
so. To summerize things:

1. The 4870 has less ram, but this would only limit performance in very rare games (oblivion with mod pack) or in very high resolutions (2560x1600 +)
For most people, by the time you get such a monitor the card will be obsolete anyways.
2. GDDR5 is not a feature, it is a design decision. Memory bandwidth is a result of that, and it affects overall FPS (more in some cases then in others), memory bandwidth is a function of GDDR type and bus width (GTX = GDDR3 x 448bit, 4870 = GDDR5 x 256bit). This does not make it future proof either, this is what accounts for the 4870 being faster then the 4850 (GDDR3 x 256bit) today, that is the only difference between the 4850 and 4870. So its not like it will get faster as time passes.
3. PhysX is 10 times more valuable then DX10.1, but 10 x 0 still equals to 0. Both are insignificant right now, physX is actually USED in games at the moment, but it is extremely underwhelming even if it works.
4. The GTX will OC a lot higher and benefit a lot more from that OC.
5. The cheapest GTX right now is from eVGA, with awesome lifetime warranty and service, the cheapest 4870 has 1 year warranty and crap service. Only visiontek has lifetime warranty and service is meh and cost is high.
6. The cards are basically identical in performance, the 4870 wins some, the GTX260 wins some, especially in the minimum frame rates department, so normally, buying whichever is cheaper to buy and own makes sense. (the 4870 is now 255 after MIR, the 260 SC is 225$ after MIR)
7. The GTX takes a lot less power in both idle and load, it will cost you less to own in electricity.
8. The GTX runs more quietly and much cooler, and thus less likely to break (most likely because nvidia partners actually offer good warranties, it will cost them too much to replace a ton of cards later on, AMD partners don't have that problem, it will be out of warranty and the customer loses)

There are misconceptions on both sides here, there are "issues" with the 4870 that are not issues at all, and even more such "issues" for the GTX line...
Basically when the GTX and 4870 came out the 4870 was so much cheaper that every expert said "there is absolutely no reason to buy the GTX at that price point". However people took it as "there is absolutely no reason to buy the GTX". To the point where the GTX is actually cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, has better feature set, and comes from a better companies in terms of service and warranty. Yet people STILL say that there is no reason to buy the GTX... Their loss, my win. I was going to buy the 4870 cause it was cheaper, more bang for the buck, but with the GTX prices being actually lower I snapped one up for myself.

Agreed!