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    ATI 4870 or SLI 260m

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by b0oMeR, Sep 28, 2009.

  1. b0oMeR

    b0oMeR Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys, I'm about to order and this is one of my final dilemmas. I cant decide between the two.

    They're the same price, does anyone know which will run games better?
     
    b0oMeR, Sep 28, 2009
    #1
  2. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    no one really knows because they cards came out 2 days ago.
     
    dondadah88, Sep 28, 2009
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  3. alienware-dell

    alienware-dell Notebook Geek

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    From what I heard, 260M are best for current games, in the future 4870's will be better.
     
    alienware-dell, Sep 28, 2009
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  4. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Oh bo. A single 260m vs a 4870 . The 4870 will eat it up.buy how much. Now that's a hard question. And a single 4870 vs 260m sli is the question of the month.

    The 3870x2 vs a single 280m stock, the 3870x2 was much faster. Bjut heavily overclocked(280m) it was 10percent slower then the 3870.....

    Now it it were single 3870 vs the 280. We already know what the winner will be.

    The problem is how well does sli scale and how much better is gddr5.

    We can get this info for some with a desktop 4870 and someone with the 260m sli. But we need to know the clock speeds of the 4870xt first
     
    dondadah88, Sep 28, 2009
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  5. Mandrake

    Mandrake Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    If it was me I would get the single 4870 with the intention of getting a second one down the road. We'll know more about the 4870s in a month or so.
     
    Mandrake, Sep 28, 2009
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  6. Quadzilla

    Quadzilla The eye is watching you

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    If you were going for a single GPU and a 1920x1200 panel the 4870 single would still be the better choice since the ATI should scale much better performance wise at that resolution .
     
    Quadzilla, Sep 28, 2009
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  7. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Yes. True. Ati isn't effected by resoultion as much for some reason. I still don't know why.
     
    dondadah88, Sep 28, 2009
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  8. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    i think at lower res. ati isn't being used affectively and just lets the cpu do all the work. then at higher one's it then tries to fully use the gpu.


    but with nvidia lower then 1280*800 sli doesn't run properly. and when you go to 1920*1200 there's an performance increasement...

    i would have to do some test on them to see what's up. ati vs nvidia vs res. vs crossfire vs sli vs cpu.
     
    dondadah88, Sep 28, 2009
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  9. sleey0

    sleey0 R.I.P. AW Side Topics

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    Considering some games don't benefit at all from SLI, I'd go with the single 4870.

    I will say I am biased a bit for ATI, but I still think the single 4870 might perform more consistently overall.
     
    sleey0, Sep 28, 2009
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  10. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    well this will be my first sli rig so i'm hoping for the best.

    i can say ati crossfire scales veryvery very good. my 3870x2 almost double the performance in all the games i played on it. excpet for 3 or 4 i believe. crysis, warhead, stalker cky sky and cryostatis.
     
    dondadah88, Sep 28, 2009
    #10