BFG GTX 260 Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

To me murky waters are good. It means that companies are competing with eachother so there is no "clear" winner.

[yycraven]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

To me murky waters are good. It means that companies are competing with eachother so there is no "clear" winner.

Great review SKYMTL. That's the way it should be, no winner.

[magictorch]

I enjoyed reading through this.

Its also great to see people arguing again as to who makes the best card.
For too long nvidia released one card after another with the performance bars on the graphs all bunched up-yes they did improve price to performance but not performance.

Anyway I think the 4870 is the best choice for gamers with 1680-1900 resolutions the AA coding is a real advantage. I know the GTX260 oc's great but so will the 4870 once some decent oc tools for it are updated. With the massive sales of the 4 series more game developers may work to optimize these cards than presently.

Anyway they are both great cards and anyone owning either shoudl be happy

[ipaine]

Another great review SKYMTL.

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

If someone is looking for the absolute best price / performance ratio without taking warranties or trade-up programs into account, the HD4870 is still the best way to go.

One thing that I know I have to consider when purchasing a card is the warranty and/or trade up/step up programs. I think that is what would make me choose the 260 over the 4870. Even though like you said it is the best price/performance without the warranties, once you take them into effect it makes the murky waters even murkier.

I'm sure you will agree that is an area that all of the ATI cards are sorely lacking. When you compare it to most of the Nvidia cards, like the BFG and EVGA ones, the warranties really can effect your choice.

That said if I could get a 260 at the same price or maybe even a couple dollars more than a 4870, I would have to pick the 260. The performance difference is just not big enough for me to be willing to go with a vastly inferior warranty.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by ipaine

I'm sure you will agree that is an area that all of the ATI cards are sorely lacking. When you compare it to most of the Nvidia cards, like the BFG and EVGA ones, the warranties really can effect your choice.

That said if I could get a 260 at the same price or maybe even a couple dollars more than a 4870, I would have to pick the 260. The performance difference is just not big enough for me to be willing to go with a vastly inferior warranty.

Time to take off my reviewer's hat...

Well, I have to agree with you but you have to consider a little something: many people who have the money to buy a $300+ graphics card and are reading these reviews (ie: DYIers) will probably be changing it out of their system within a year or two anyways.

Before I got into reviewing, I used to change out my graphics card about every nine months. To me, that makes a lifetime warranty a pointless proposition especially considering when you sell it, the warranty becomes null and void (minus XFX's of course). I just find it interesting how many people make such a big deal about lifetime warranties even though they will never, ever benefit from them. They are buying into the marketing of these companies hook, line and sinker.

This is why for my personal computers, performance has always trumped warranty length. However, if I can get a low price and a lifetime warranty on the same product I'm not going to complain.

*puts back on reviewer's hat*

[Dashock]

I agree with Ipaine most people would probably not use the warranty but just having the piece of mind of having a warranty is comforting for me. And i do not plan to change video cards for atleast 2-3 years depending lol to be honest the 8800gt was the first " High performance " card i had ever bought i came from a 7300gt and before that i always bought mine second hand from a friend who switched videocards every 7-8 months. Good ole days.

[magictorch]

Well the HIS and Visiontech cards for example at NCIX come with a 1 year warranty straight through them. Saves a lot of messing around, if they accept.

[Shadowed]

Another fantastic review!!!

Heavy competition rocks... so many choices.

I don't know how much longer I can wait to make a purchase decision.

Kinda leaning in the 4850 direction though.

[Retro]

Really enjoyed the review, SKYMTL
The gaming benches with all of those cards, at various resolutions, AA levels, DX9 & DX10, really provide a complete picture on the 260's performance, as well as the other cards. And I like the fact that you still use 3DMark 2006, I like to run it occasionally for benching, regardless of how valid it is considered by others. With XP, Vantage is not an option
No question that the 260 is a fine card. But so is the 4870, and it has very competitive pricing to boot. I agree that there is no clear cut winner here, but it's good to have a choice.

[FreqE1]

Edit- No longer relavent due to removed post I was responding to.