August Graphics Card Upgrade
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
Sure is a nice month for graphics card upgrades. Why? Because AMD have released the monster 4870 x2 graphics card. This is the direct competitor to nVidia’s Geforce 280. Checking any of the reviews littered through out the web, it seems that the 4870 x2 easily beats nVidia’s best offering even though the 4870 x2 is priced at around 550$ compared to the G280 price tag of 400$.
Anyway, here is my advice if you are planning to buy a graphics card during this time:
- If you want the best single card solution, get the Radeon 4870 x2, period.
- If you are on a tight budget, then the Radeon 4850 is the best option priced at a low 200$.
- If you play at 1650×1080 resolution or a notch higher or lower and would like the best value, consider getting the Radeon 4870 (not the x2) priced at around 300$.
- If you want to play at higher resolutions (way above the resolution mentioned above) and can’t afford buying a 5xx$ card, consider the Geforce 280.
- If you have a Geforce 8800 GT or better, then consider waiting for another generation to upgrade since there aren’t that many coming games that your current card won’t be able to run (of course some will require reduction in graphics fidelity), especially if you are tight on cash.
As you can see, the Geforce 260 seems to be left out based on my analysis. When the 4850 is slight behind the Geforce 260 at a far much lower price point, buying the G260 isn’t a good decision. Even if you can buy the G260, going for the 4870 is a better option due to it being cheaper and faster.
Do also note that I didn’t provide any recommendations for Duel card setups (SLI or Crossfire), for the simple reason that I personally think that they are costly, consume a lot of power, generate a lot of heat and they still pose a moderate amount of headaches for the user.
Happy shopping 
