Video Card Buyer's Guide - Spring 2009
by Derek Wilson on March 30, 2009 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
For our ~$100 price point (plus or minus a bit) we are going to strongly recommend that people wait for about a month. This price point will be shaken up a bit in about that time and we really aren't comfortable recommending anyone purchase something in this market until sometime in early May. This may or may not further compress the sub $100 market, but there really isn't much more room down there, so we don't expect much change except at right around $100.
~$100 Recommendation: IT'S A TRAP!!! (wait about a month)
It just so happens that this price point is also the highest volume price point. Certainly neither AMD nor NVIDIA will be happy that we recommend waiting, but this is all about the consumer. If you are going to spend about $100 on a video card, just try really hard to wait a little bit longer.
From $130 to $150 we are looking at the a tightly contested price point. At the lower end of the spectrum, the Radeon 4850 gets our nod, while at the higher end the 1GB GTS 250 does perform slightly better in our tests (we do not recommend the 512MB variant though). Whether that slight difference in performance is worth the $20 difference in price really has to be up to the end user, but you get a much bigger bump by jumping up out of the price range to the ATI Radeon 4870 512MB at $165 (which is why we don't recommend the GTS 250 1GB at this point).
$130-$150 Recommendation: ATI Radeon HD 4850
| ATI Radeon HD 4850 | |
| PowerColor | $129.99 |
| Diamond | $159.99 |
| XFX | $169.99 |
This next bit is a little more tricky. Between $165 and $180 there exist the 4870 512MB and 4870 1GB. These cards perform nearly the same at lower resolutions, so for gamers with 1680x1050 and lower resolution monitors, we would recommend the 512MB variant with the caveat that some games are becoming memory hogs. The 1GB might be slightly more future proof, but it's really hard to say whether or not that will last beyond when you'd want to upgrade both either way when talking about 1680x1050 and lower.
$165 (At 1680x1050 and Below) Recommendation: ATI Radeon HD 4870
| ATI Radeon HD 4870 | |
| ASUS | $164.99 |
| HIS | $169.99 |
At resolutions above 1680x1050, the 1GB 4870 and the GTX 260 core 216 are both viable options that come in at $180. So save $20 at average to lower resolutions or make a choice based on the games you play (or preference for a hardware designer) at higher resolutions. NVIDIA and AMD really do trade blows depending on the games we choose to test, so if you want the best performance at this price point, you'll have to pick the games in which performance matters most to you.
$180 Recommendation: End User Preference (4870 1GB or GTX 260 core 216)
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Zoomer - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
http://www.dailytech.com/ATI+RV740+Performance+Fig...">http://www.dailytech.com/ATI+RV740+Performance+Fig...justniz - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
ATI 's Linux drivers are a joke.If you plan to run Linux at all, go with nvidia.
stmok - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
Depends on perspective: I see things in the long term.ATI/AMD is opening up documentation specifications in a gradual manner. (Has to be cleared of legal issues). The result is the ability for the open source community to write their own driver...Which is one less step during installation and set up of a Linux system. (A benefit for the end user).
Ubuntu 9.04 will support Radeons from R100 through R500 families with full 3D Acceleration. There is also X-Video and EXA support for the ATI R600 (Radeon HD 2000/3000) and R700 (Radeon HD 4000) series.
According to this, AMD is helping with the 3D Acceleration code of the R600 series.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&am...">http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&am...
They are also pushing out some R700 series documentation.
http://developer.amd.com/gpu_assets/R700-Family_In...">http://developer.amd.com/gpu_assets/R700-Family_In...
What's Nvidia doing? Intentionally restricting any form of open source contribution down to mere trinkets of code for 2D acceleration only, nothing more. Everything else is all proprietary support. (Which means an extra step during installation of Linux for everyone!)
The Nouveau project is working to address this "proprietary deficiency" with their own open source driver for Nvidia cards. They have a long way to go as they have to "reverse engineer". (No support from Nvidia).
On top of that, there is an effort to shift everything to Gallium3D driver architecture. (Which will simplify future video driver development).
In the short term, you would consider Nvidia.
In the long term, it may be better to look at ATI.
anglesmithtitanius - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
ATI drivers compile and install without going to single user modeLast time i checked Nvidia drivers did not compile with the latest and greatest kernel, BTW ATI does
stop the FUD.
HelToupee - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
Bullshit. nVidia's latest drivers compile everywhere ATI's do.nVidia's drivers DO NOT and HAVEN'T in the past 3 YEARS required you to go to single user mode to install. Jesus Christ in the sky, where do you get this shit?!?!? Yes, if you update your kernel, you have to recompile your kernel modules, just like you would with ATI's stuff.
What ATI's drivers leave out is support for output on all formats (HDMI, TV). nVidia has that. Support for hardware video acceleration of hi-def formats (H.264, so Bluray) is also not available in ATI's stuff yet. (even though it was promised last November. I guess the hooks are there, but they've yet to release any code so it can be used by players) nVidia's H.264 and VC-1 acceleration has been usable in most major players (mplayer, Xine, XBMC video player) for months. Newest builds of Mythbuntu, Boxee, etc FULLY support it.
You stop your own FUD, FUD-tard!
Sincerely, someone who's been running a 7600GT under Ubuntu for 2+ years.
Zoomer - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
Don't really care since I don't game in *nix environments. Well, if I do, it's nothing that requires serious gfx acceleration.Anyway, their drivers does work in most variants of linux. Sure it's not updated monthly, but so what?
Ananke - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
So we are going to have news regarding 4890? Is it really that good? I am waiting for that card.XiZeL - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
looking at its spects the only diferences is that its an overclocked 4870 1Gb, and i run my powercolor 4870 at the same clocks as the announced 4890 clocksretrospooty - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
Except the 4890 is a much better overclocker. Most early users are claiming at or near 1000mhz core on air, 1000+ easy on water.explicit4u - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
exactly, the 4890 is a completely different card.