BFG GTX 260 Review Comment Thread

[Jon_di2]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Unfortunately, we can all look at one price and say "hey look, it is cheaper". If you take a look at our price compare engine you will see that on average the HD4870 is cheaper than the GTX 260 before MIRs.

HD4870 pricing: Canadian Prices: Search Results

GTX 260 pricing: Canadian Prices: Search Results

In addition, before everyone gets bent out of shape I have to remind you that this review was about the BFG GTX 260 and many pricing comments were made in relation to that particular card.

Too bad that engine doesn't actually work that well, click on the lowest HD 4870 price " Visiontek Radeon HD 4870 "
Supposed to be 249.99 @ ncix... nope 294.99 @ncix

But I do agree that the the price comments were made on the particular GTX 260 card... but I do think that the GTX 260, and HD 4870 should be compared as a whole, and the price comparisons should be based on the suggested Retail prices from NVIDIA and ATI... because as you said we can all claim one or the other is cheaper.

[werty316]

Too bad the release of nVidia's GT200 was spoiled by ATI but none the less great review; the GTX260 is one sweet card

[encorp]

I still think ATI needs to hire Martha Stewart to design something more aesthetically pleasing for their cards? Maybe a GPU Kozy? haha.. They look cheap and flimsy. Although solid performers for sure!

[freakgeek1337]

Honestly, I just want a black PCB!

did I misread the graphs? To me the facts seem to put the GTX260 ahead of the 4870 in all but a few cases. The wording is a little fishy. when the GTX260 is ahead you say it's barely holding off the 4870 and when the 4870 is ahead "the GTX 260 plays second fiddle".

Umm wouldn't the more accurate conclusion be pick whichever card is cheaper? I mean they are both fairly even in performance. even with AA enabled the GTX260 is normally in the lead. So if you can find the GTX 260 for less then the 4870 I don't see any reason not to buy the 260.


Also I have a question. did you disable PhysX support or run the GTX 260 on outdated firmware with the 3d mark vantage test because there is no way the gpu and overall scores should be so aligned after Nvidias current update.

[Jon_di2]

Originally Posted by werty316

Too bad the release of nVidia's GT200 was spoiled by ATI but none the less great review; the GTX260 is one sweet card

Haha too bad for Nvidia, but not for others, there would be no way that they would have pulled their prices so low on the 260 if it wern't for the ATI's 4870

[Dashock]

Great Review SkyMtl nicely done i like the bolded picture graps and i am glad you still included the 8800gt good job.

[SKYMTL]

did I misread the graphs? To me the facts seem to put the GTX260 ahead of the 4870 in all but a few cases. The wording is a little fishy. when the GTX260 is ahead you say it's barely holding off the 4870 and when the 4870 is ahead "the GTX 260 plays second fiddle".

By my count it is 22 / 22 unless it is too early in the morning and I am messing up a calculation somewhere. Also, to me AA performance is right up there in importance and the HD4870 has shown that it has a superior implementation of AA. That counts for alot in my books.

Umm wouldn't the more accurate conclusion be pick whichever card is cheaper? I mean they are both fairly even in performance. even with AA enabled the GTX260 is normally in the lead. So if you can find the GTX 260 for less then the 4870 I don't see any reason not to buy the 260.

Now, why would I do that? As stated, the BFG GTX 260 reviewed here is about $40 more expensive than the cheapest HD4870. I am not about to give a cheaper card's price (notably the EVGA GTX 260) to a card with a higher price. Come on now. This is a review of the BFG card, not the GTX 260 series in general. :rtfm:

Also I have a question. did you disable PhysX support or run the GTX 260 on outdated firmware with the 3d mark vantage test because there is no way the gpu and overall scores should be so aligned after Nvidias current update.

How is it "outdated"? I am using the latest WHQL driver, not the Beta BS that Nvidia constantly releases to make their cards look as good as possible while causing BSODs in Vista. Sorry, I have done the reviews in the past with beta drivers and never again after Nvidia drivers corrupted two installs of x64. That being said, if you think I am being overly harsh on Nvidia, take a look around the forums and you will see me talking quite a bit about the steaming pile of crap that is the ATI 8.7 driver set.

Also, if it ever happens that there is a WHQL driver from Nvidia which supports PhysX in Vantage, I will turn it off in a heartbeat. Futuremark themselves have thrown all the scores achieved with PhysX enabled out the window on ORB, so I see no reason to enable it for the reviews.

[overlords]

Great review, i enjoyed it. Keep them coming :)

[DK2]

Performance wise looks like 280, 260 then 4870.
Its when you start including price, and the fact that the difference isn’t really that massive
that the waters get murky on what to get.
Good review sky, I really wanted to see the 280 and 260 side by side, interesting.