Picking the right Card

[Heff04]

Hey Everyone! I'm looking for a new video card. I'm looking for the best ATI 4870 for under $250? any input would be great!

[Silvgearx]

Well, in my opinion, i think the sapphire 4850 + 4870 versions are excellent. they are really overclockable and runs really cool

The sapphire ones with the black top and head pipes runs even cooler <-- these retail around $220-240 CAD these days and some times have $10-40 rebates.

And Visiontek has lifetime warranties on there 4870's

And i did a little research for ya

Brand____________Core MHz___________Mem clock MHz
Sapphire_________750 ________________900
HIS_____________750_________________900
PowerColor_______800_________________925
Asus____________750_________________900
MSI_____________780 ________________1000
VisionTek________750_________________900

Sorry about the mess, don't know how to add a chart in here

[Heff04]

Thanks for the reply and the research!

i was actually looking at getting the Sapphire 4870. newegg has a special i can get it for $215 after rebate

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

I might pick this up. Hopefully it will run crysis maxxed out for me =)

[rjbarker]

I might pick this up. Hopefully it will run crysis maxxed out for me =)

Sorry to disappoint you but that will not happen.

[Heff04]

meh, as long as i can run it I'll be happy. though i saw a review on canucks on video cards.. I'm looking into the EVGA GTX 260 core 216 OC seems to perform better and only cost $20 more on newegg.

[chrisk]

Originally Posted by Heff04

meh, as long as i can run it I'll be happy. though i saw a review on canucks on video cards.. I'm looking into the EVGA GTX 260 core 216 OC seems to perform better and only cost $20 more on newegg.

Personally I have found that nVidia's drivers are better than ATI's. Basically, you can't go wrong with either card for performance as they are pretty close.

If you are into folding, then the nVidia is the way to go. Also, if you want to go to a multi video card setup then your choice may be limited to your chipset (ie. if you have an nVidia chipset then you want the GTX 260, or if you have an ATI/AMD, or Intel chipset then you might consider the 4870. If you have a fancy new Intel X58 chipset, then either will work.)

So if you are just going to put one video card in there both are good choices for gaming. If you want a multi card setup then you need to look at the other specs of your motherboard.

[-n7-]

Sapphire would be the last brand i'd buy as you'll be forced to not only pay to ship out to them, but for a $15 processing/handling scam fee if you ever have to RMA.

Stay the eff away if you ever want to use the warranty.

Not sure how much better things will be from the other brands (AMD is sadly lacking in good partners for their cards), but at least i don't believe you have to pay a nonsense fee like that with the others.