The eternal quandary for system builders has been much less quandarious (to coin a term) for the last year or so. Intel processor, AMD video card — anything else would be uncivilized. AMD’s 48xx series has been the only choice for a while, but the latest products from AMD and NVIDIA are a little less starkly separated. For around $250 (the mid-high sweet spot), the 4890 and GTX 275 are remarkably well-matched — more so than any two equivalently priced cards from the companies have been for some time.
They score similarly and their discerning characteristics are pretty low-key. So what do you buy? I’m tempted to take the advice in the conclusion and snag something from the more mature 4870 series, which will be a tremenjus bargain. Tremenjus. Of course, if you’re planning an AMD-based system (something in a Dragon, perhaps?), you’ll definitely want the 4890 to make sure you get all the benefits of a mobo-processor-video card monopoly from AMD.
The GTX 260 has been a well matched rival to the HD 4870 since it’s last price drop. There are no games pushing these new graphics cards atm though (Crysis aside).
I don’t know, I’ve always heard the 4870 does more for the money.
When I bought my last card there was no better choice than Nvidia. And, though I’ve loved my 8800 GTS 640, the nv4disp.dll bug popping up from time to time has ruined Nvidia for me. I’m heading back to the other side.
Yeah, I’ve got an 8800 GTS too that was good at the time, but I’m thinking I’m going to go back to Radeon this generation.