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Hi guys.
I have been reading through lots of forum topics in these forums trying to learn all i can about graphics cards.
I just got a $150 voucher for a computer store here in perth (PLE computers) and have narrowed my options down to 2.
the GTX460
http://ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=606218
and the HD6870
http://ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=601930
I had my heart on the GTX 460 until i got an email from the store saying the HD6870 has better performance for a better price.
I could really do with some input from people who know their stuff about this topic.
(Also if you see any other cards cheaper and better from that store please let me know.)
Thanks in advance
-Alk
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I would honestly pick the gtx over the ati card any day. Ati cards may have better performance as a card but their drivers are terrible. I HATE ati drivers. Riddled with bugs everywhere. Save yourself some headache and go with nvidia.
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6870 is "faster", but as above said ATI drivers a horrid, and i think going the safe route with the 460 is well worth the 8%~ performance gain you'd get over the ati card.
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ati actually really has a good timing sometimes. i personally would choose the 6870 over the 460 too. had a similar case when the 5870 was released and i initially planned to get the latest nvidia card at that time 
never regreted that choice so far and from what i know the 6870 would be a great choice too
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6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past.
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Thanks for such fast replies guys!
Are both fine for overclocking later on if i choose to go down that path?
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On May 23 2011 17:16 Alkadizar wrote:
Thanks for such fast replies guys!
Are both fine for overclocking later on if i choose to go down that path?
Both cards only have stock heatsinks so overclocking potential may not be that great on either card.
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On May 23 2011 17:08 skyR wrote:
6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past.
And having had a horrible experience with ATI in the past isn't a good enough reason to recommend the NVidia card?
I have had quite a few ATI cards and I must say my GTX 295 was so much more stable, no driver crashes and such.
I would gladly sacrifice some preformance for stability anyday becouse there is no worse thing then PC crashes.
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Hmm, I'm in a similar situation.
What about GTX 560 Ti vs 6950 (1GB)? I was told that the 560 Ti is a much better option, would anyone care to shed some light on it?
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Whatever you do, please, just PLEASE, do NOT take the ATI card. Their drivers are TEERRRIIBBLEEEE. I'm about to go emo because of them so save your soul and go for Nvidia.
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I find it funny how many people are saying AMD/ATI drivers are terrible. While this was the case years ago, they have stepped up their game. Their drivers aren't any better or worse than NVIDIA's. In fact, CF scaling is slightly better than SLI (not that this applies to you, since you're not going dual GPU)! And stability is no problem either.
Anyway, either will work just great. I'm inclined to recommend the AMD option because I've been using an 4890 since it has been released without a single problem. But really, go with the cheaper one that is available to you.
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On May 23 2011 17:08 skyR wrote:
6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past.
This.
If I had to choose between the two, I'd get a 6870.
I've never had problems with ATI drivers. And when choosing between items in similar price ranges, I always look @ the benchmarks because statistics > brandism.
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5930 Posts
AMD taking over ATi pretty much fixed their driver issues to the point that they're just as bad as nVidia's drivers. The user interface in Forceware is better, you get proper 3D Vision, and PhysX (which no one uses) and that's about it - the distance in driver quality is no where near what it used to be.
The only places AMD lags behind nVidia is in their professional cards and OpenGL performance. None of this concerns end users unless you use Linux and even then the open source drivers for AMD cards are still capable and are apparently better than nVidia's open source drivers.
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On May 23 2011 17:30 Zalman wrote:Show nested quote +On May 23 2011 17:08 skyR wrote:
6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past. And having had a horrible experience with ATI in the past isn't a good enough reason to recommend the NVidia card? I have had quite a few ATI cards and I must say my GTX 295 was so much more stable, no driver crashes and such. I would gladly sacrifice some preformance for stability anyday becouse there is no worse thing then PC crashes.
Recommending based on past personal experience is not a good reason. Nvidia also had problems in the past (their driver recall last year come to mind.) and you're one of the lucky ones that didn't come across these problems.
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On May 23 2011 17:54 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On May 23 2011 17:30 Zalman wrote:On May 23 2011 17:08 skyR wrote:
6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past. And having had a horrible experience with ATI in the past isn't a good enough reason to recommend the NVidia card? I have had quite a few ATI cards and I must say my GTX 295 was so much more stable, no driver crashes and such. I would gladly sacrifice some preformance for stability anyday becouse there is no worse thing then PC crashes. Recommending based on past personal experience is not a good reason. Nvidia also had problems in the past (their driver recall last year come to mind.) and you're one of the lucky ones that didn't come across these problems.
Don't forget the debacle of the DA2 release, where you needed a minimum of SLI 460's with a custom SLI profile or a 480 to turn DX11 on and get above slideshow if you had nvidia, although I think AMD had a hand in that since they were the graphics partner.
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On May 23 2011 17:54 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On May 23 2011 17:30 Zalman wrote:On May 23 2011 17:08 skyR wrote:
6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past. And having had a horrible experience with ATI in the past isn't a good enough reason to recommend the NVidia card? I have had quite a few ATI cards and I must say my GTX 295 was so much more stable, no driver crashes and such. I would gladly sacrifice some preformance for stability anyday becouse there is no worse thing then PC crashes. Recommending based on past personal experience is not a good reason. Nvidia also had problems in the past (their driver recall last year come to mind.) and you're one of the lucky ones that didn't come across these problems.
personaly I would rather take a recomendation from someone with experience with something then someone that just read somewhere on the internet what as better.
Back on topic. The rare times i have had driver crashes on my Nvidia cards the screen just went black for a few sec and the Nvidia thing tells me it has reset the graphic driver and then I can keep playing like nothing happned.
When the same happned with my ATI card it did the same except the game I had running just stayed black and I had to alt+f4 it and restart, is this somethign ATI has since fixed or is it still an issue?
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On May 23 2011 20:44 Zalman wrote:Show nested quote +On May 23 2011 17:54 skyR wrote:On May 23 2011 17:30 Zalman wrote:On May 23 2011 17:08 skyR wrote:
6870 is better and less expensive. Anyone saying get the GTX 460 is clearly Nvidia bias either through blind fanboyism or bad experience with ATI in the past. And having had a horrible experience with ATI in the past isn't a good enough reason to recommend the NVidia card? I have had quite a few ATI cards and I must say my GTX 295 was so much more stable, no driver crashes and such. I would gladly sacrifice some preformance for stability anyday becouse there is no worse thing then PC crashes. Recommending based on past personal experience is not a good reason. Nvidia also had problems in the past (their driver recall last year come to mind.) and you're one of the lucky ones that didn't come across these problems. personaly I would rather take a recomendation from someone with experience with something then someone that just read somewhere on the internet what as better. Back on topic. The rare times i have had driver crashes on my Nvidia cards the screen just went black for a few sec and the Nvidia thing tells me it has reset the graphic driver and then I can keep playing like nothing happned. When the same happned with my ATI card it did the same except the game I had running just stayed black and I had to alt+f4 it and restart, is this somethign ATI has since fixed or is it still an issue?
Uhm, personal experience from someone on the internet is, from an objective point of view, at best equally anecdotal to an online review site. If you use good review sites, it's more so.
As for how well things work when they aren't working properly, that's not exactly what you should be looking for in any hardware.
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was in a similar situation just now.
the 460 is a overclocked version and is def a nice card but imho quite overpriced. you can get cheaper 460s just sadly not at that shop.
the 6870 does have more power no question. but it has the reference cooling design which is known to be very loud.
also XFX seems to be not the nicest company when it comes to RMA/warranty issues.only heared bad things about their service but its possible that this is limited to europe. while EVGA has its interesting step up programm (http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/).
so unless you wanna use their stepup programm ( im not sure how it works in this case since the card at the shop is more expensive then other stronger cards at their site) or really cant stand some fan noise the 6870 is the far better deal bringing more power at less cost to the table.
and ignore the nvidia vs ati debates and fanboy answers. fact is both companys hugely fucked up in the past and both will fuck up again in the future. right now they both have great cards esp in that price segment and only the deal should decide over what you buy.
On May 23 2011 17:19 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On May 23 2011 17:16 Alkadizar wrote:
Thanks for such fast replies guys!
Are both fine for overclocking later on if i choose to go down that path?
Both cards only have stock heatsinks so overclocking potential may not be that great on either card.
the reference heatsinks on the 460s are quite decent while the ones one the 6870 are known to run very loud. and the 460 in general has very good overclocking potential. its said that you can get evry chip to 850mhz and most hit 900 with some more voltage. at that point a 460gtx can beat a 470gtx.
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get the 6870, dont listen to this bad driver crap, the 6000 series have great drivers
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EPT
