NVIDIA GTX 260 or ATI 5770 or similar card

[Maniacal]

I have an XFX 8800GT XT (factory overclocked a bit) which, as I said in my other thread, no longer plays games for (it freezes with artifacts, but only during games afaik), the warranty is up and nobody has given me any solution ideas, so I am looking for a new card (and might try sticking my 8800 in the oven or something).

I don't want to spend more than ~$200. I'm familiar and comfortable with NVIDIA, but their only high end GPUs available now (the 275, 285 and 295 were discontinued last year and are out of stock almost anywhere) are the new 470 and 480, which at ~$350-$500 are way out of my price range. This leaves the GTS 250 (which is barely an improvement over my current card but around ~$150) or the GTX 260.

Alternatively, I could get an ATI card, though I have never had one and am a bit iffy about them, having heard about a lot more driver and card related problems (including Civ4 not being playable at release on some ATI cards) than with NVIDIA cards. I've heard the 57700 is about equal to the GTX 260, though it doesn't have PhysX or CUDA support? Would that really matter that much?

Keep in mind I am a heavy gamer and I am CANADIAN, so no links to newegg or prices in USD please. I also can't shell out much more than $200 due to financial reasons. My preferred site ot purchase hardware from is NCIX, which does have price-matching.

 

[Fëanor]

ATI hasnt had any "Driver and Card problems" for half a decade, in fact nVidia had way more serious card problem just a couple of years ago. Ended up spending a couple of hundred millions recalling and replacing Geforce 8 series cards that died way too soon but considering that your 8 series card died and you know about the oven trick you probably already know this.

That being said, currently the best deal on NCIX are two 9800 GT cards, both for 89.99 CAD
They perform about 33% worse than the 5770 but cost half the price.

EVGA E-GEFORCE 9800GT 550MHZ 512MB 1.8GHZ 256BIT DDR3 VGA HDMI DVI-I HDCP Video Card
Palit GeForce 9800GT Green 550MHZ 512MB 900MHZ DDR3 PCI-E VGA DVI HDMI Video Card

 

[Abaddon]

EBAY.

Ebay one of those "out of stock" ones.. i'm sure you will find one a lot cheaper than you expect.

 

[Maniacal]

Okay does anyone have any real answers to my question?

I'm not getting a 9800 GT as its not going to be as good as my current card is/was. I don't really trust e-bay for something like this, especially since I want a warranty.

 

[Maniacal]

Well thanks to another forum I got some responses, most of which were anti-ati

But anyways I will get a GTX 260 after I try baking my 8800GT in the oven.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

EBAY.

Ebay one of those "out of stock" ones.. i'm sure you will find one a lot cheaper than you expect.

NO. Don't follow this advice.

As you've learned PrinceScamp, a warranty (a valid one too) would be a real nice thing to have. You buy that card off ebay, and unless its sealed in the box, you have no guarantee that you will have a warranty.

Ebay is alright for replacement parts or hard to find parts for laptops and OEM pc's, but I would never buy recent desktop components off there. Too much of a risk.

 

[Fëanor]

$139.99 CADPowercolor Radeon HD 5770 850MHZ 512MB 4.8GHZ GDDR5 VGA DVI-I HDMI DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card

Cheaper than most 250's and as fast as a 260. It wont be a really huge difference from your last videocard (Which was 30% or so slower) but with nVidia having discontinued most of their mainstream cards and stockpiling their next gen cards for a proper launch (hoping to prevent a Fiasco like the Fermi/GF100/GTX4xx release) the 5770 is the only card meeting your requirements.

 

[NBAfan]

Not sure if this helps but I bought a Nvidia GT 240 for only $40 with a rebate.

 

[Zelig]

Ebay isn't a terrible idea as long as you stick to new cards, but the odds of getting much of a deal on ebay for a new card isn't great.

For the 5770, I would say it's worth getting the 1GB card.

Cheapest 1GB card is going for $150 after rebate: http://www.ncix.com/products/index....1GBD5-PPG&manufacture=PowerColor&promoid=1068

Unless you particularly love CUDA, there's no point in paying an extra $50 for a GTX 260 card.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Not sure if this helps but I bought a Nvidia GT 240 for only $40 with a rebate.

It doesn't help at all. PrinceScamp's old card is faster than the GT240

 

[jono256]

If you can get a heavily discounted HD4870/4890 and you don't mind not having DirectX11 go for it, otherwise the hd5770 is a good choice, best price/perf. ATI owns the mainstream right now, Nvidia's new architecture needs work, maybe next gen. Right now ATI is the way to go.

IIRC, Nvidia is way better for linux systems than ATI.

 

[Maniacal]

I already bought a MSI GTX 260

And jono I am sorry but the 4870 isn't any better than my old card.

 

[Zelig]

I already bought a MSI GTX 260

And jono I am sorry but the 4870 isn't any better than my old card.

The 4870, 5770 and GTX 260 are all more or less on par.

 

[taper]

..after I try baking my 8800GT in the oven.

DON'T! You'll easily get hot enough to reflow the lead solder on the board. In the production area of the electronics company I work we have high volume suction at all soldering areas to keep lead levels within OSHA limits. Food and drink of any kind is completely banned in these areas, and I would never cook in an oven used for soldering.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

DON'T! You'll easily get hot enough to reflow the lead solder on the board. In the production area of the electronics company I work we have high volume suction at all soldering areas to keep lead levels within OSHA limits. Food and drink of any kind is completely banned in these areas, and I would never cook in an oven used for soldering.

Thats the point. The fix revolves around your ability to get the solder to reflow.

Secondly, your production line uses slightly different amounts of lead, and in fact, Im surprised you guys still use lead solder.

Thirdly: unless the lead vaporizes, there will be very minimal amounts of deposition on the oven walls. Your daily radiation exposure is more dangerous.

Last of all, the solder might be lead free, so all these worries would be gone.

 

[Fëanor]

I already bought a MSI GTX 260

And jono I am sorry but the 4870 isn't any better than my old card.

Im sorry to have to tell you this but not only the 4870 is better than your old card, unless you got a well factory overclocked GTX260-216 an average 4870 will also be better than your "new" card.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Im sorry to have to tell you this but not only the 4870 is better than your old card, unless you got a well factory overclocked GTX260-216 an average 4870 will also be better than your "new" card.

1. He got a factory OC'd card
2. He already bought it, so there's no point berating the decision.

 

[Fëanor]

Im not berating his decision, i'm merely pointing out that his statement that the HD4870 is not better that his old card is extremely wrong and that in fact most HD4870's match and at times surpass most GTX260's, also considering that the HD4870 costs significantly less than a GTX260 its an obvious conclusion is that not only the HD4870 is vastly superior to his old card, but its very likely better than his new card.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Im not berating his decision, i'm merely pointing out that his statement that the HD4870 is not better that his old card is extremely wrong and that in fact most HD4870's match and at times surpass most GTX260's, also considering that the HD4870 costs significantly less than a GTX260 its an obvious conclusion is that not only the HD4870 is vastly superior to his old card, but its very likely better than his new card.

The GTX 260 is in most cases slightly faster than the HD 4870. A factory OC'd 260 leaves the 4870 behind by 10-15%.

 

[Fëanor]

Maybe if you only look at articles where the reviewer went out of his way to find the best settings for the GTX260 and then pitted it against a Reference HD4870 (512MB).
But on average i've seen the HD4870 keep up and often (usually the OC'd 1024 model, which most of still available HD4870 are) beat the GTX260

Some examples: 7 Different games from 7 Different Reviewers.

Spoiler Quake 4/TechPowerUP :

Spoiler Fallout 3/XbitLabs :

Spoiler BioShock (DX10)/Motherboards.org :

Spoiler Half-Life 2: Episode Two/HardwareSecrets :

Spoiler World In Conflict (DX10)/HardwareCanucks :

Spoiler Devil May Cry DX10/Firingsquad :

Spoiler Race Driver Grid/AnandTech :