I am buying a new i7 computer tomorrow, building it online.
I am having a hard time deciding what should be the video card. I have almost always been an Nvidia buyer, but after looking at some tests of the latest 280 cards, I am unsure if it’s worth the buy. Any help would be appreciated.
Basicly, my choices are as follows:
2x Geforce GX2 9800 w/ 1gb
2x Radeon HD 4870 w/ 1gb
Geforce GTX 295 w/ 1792mb
I can’t think of a terribly good reason to go with the Nvidia card unless you have literally unlimited sums of cash and a strong predilection towards brand-loyalty-turned-fanboyism.
Unless the 295s have changed something VERY significant, then per dollar, you are incapable of getting better performance per dollar than the 4800 series right now. Past that, if memory serves me on what little I read of the 295s, there aren’t a lot of monitor sizes out there which provide the sort of resolution you’d need to start seeing serious benefits from that card.
So, unless you have a 26" monitor, love Nvidia more than your own privates, and have a trust fund larger than most Wall Street bonuses (Ho! Timely!), then I’d go with the 2x 4870s or one 4870x2, able to crossfire with a second one later on.
Or just skip all that SLI malarkey. Get the 285 or something and upgrade in 2 years. It’s a simpler life.
Thanks Armando. I ended up pulling the trigger with the duel 4870’s. We’ll see how the system performs once it comes in next week.
Best of luck–definitely make sure to upgrade to the latest version of Catalyst when you get the cards, then immediately go into the settings and set their fan speeds between 50-80.
Stock, they ship out at 20% (or 2% in some rare cases) and the version of Catalyst mine came with (admittedly, this was 8 months ago) didn’t allow fan adjustment without .ini editing.
Anyways, latest versions of catalyst will give you a cooler and MUCH faster card. I got a 5fps improvement in Fallout 3 between 8.10 and 9.1