Video Card Buyer's Guide - Spring 2009
by Derek Wilson on March 30, 2009 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
At the $180 - $280 range, we are going to ask our readers to wait until the end of this week to make a decision. If you want a little more power than the 4870 1GB / GTX 260, but you don't want to spend the money required to push up to the next price point, we might have something (or two somethings) for you.
$180 - $280 Recommendation: Almost There ... Stay on Target (Wait a few more days)
I wish we could talk about this a little more now, but all will be clear by the end of the week.
The only real options between $280 and $400 are the 4850 X2 2GB and GTX 285 (we could only find the GTX 280 for a couple bucks less negating the value). Making this choice isn't for the feint of heart though. Yes, the GTX 285 does offer the highest performance of a single GPU solution in many cases. But the fact that the 4870 costs just a little more than half as much, and in some cases performs higher, leaves a sour taste in our mouths.
The fact that the 4850 X2 2GB comes in at the low end of this price range and the GTX 285 requires an investment of at least $50 more dollars tilts our recommendation heavily in favor of the 4850 X2 2GB in terms of value. But at the same time, Sapphire is still the only vendor out there building the 4850 X2. And while current drivers are doing pretty well, we are still reeling from the AMD driver issues we had from the end of last year up through the beginning of this year.
So there are caveats for both options. But our recommendation is the 4850 X2 2GB.
$280 - $400 Recommendation: ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
| ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB | |
| Sapphire | $279.99 |
At the highest end, there are only two options left. The 4870 X2 and the GTX 295. The GTX 295 is much more expensive, but does outperform th 4870 X2 in most cases. There are some games where the 4870 X2 does top the GTX 295, just like the 4870 1GB sometimes leads the GTX 285. But really it's diminishing returns.
If you want the top of the line, the choice is clear: the option is the GTX 295. If you want top of the line performance without breaking the bank as hard, the 4870 X2 would be the option to go with.
Our recommendation is that there are something like two games where this level of hardware make any difference at all. But if you have the money to spend we're going to go ahead and recommend the part that delivers better price/performance: the Radeon 4870 X2.
$400+ Recommendation: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
| ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 | |
| Sapphire | $429.99 |
| Diamond | $449.99 |
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just4U - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
260/216 and the 4870 are sweet spots currently for that resolution.JarredWalton - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
For me personally, I'd shoot for something at the level of the GTX 260 Core 216 or HD 4870 1GB... those will handle almost all current games at 1080P without difficulties. If you're willing to drop details, you can get by with a 4830/4850 512MB card, or the GTS 250/9800 GTX+ cards, but I'd try for more rather than less.bwanaaa - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
I think I am dreaming. Did I see that for 170 bucks x 2 ( that's 2 copies of the 4870 1 gb) you get a crossfire solution that is the second fastest thing going?! (just below an sli setup of 2 copies of the 295!)barn25 - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
Its articles like this i dont like if you gonna post something like dont say wait a month. Just post about what there then amend it when the time comes!7Enigma - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
I disagree. There are probably several people reading this article that were going to build there system this week. If Anandtech had posted the article without mentioning to wait a week/month those people could have gone out and built a system and then immediately felt like they made a mistake. I personally thank them even though I'm not currently building a system because back in January when I did build a gaming rig it was these types of articles that helped my buying decision. If I had been in that situation now, seen this article (without mentioning to wait a week/month, instead having the "choice" for a particular price point) and purchased a card that was a worse choice a week later, I would be very VERY peeved.RamarC - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
even with the impending shakeup, that's a great card for $90.alfredska - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
Why would you publish this article now, instead of at the end of the week? As it stands there are two categories that say, "wait". At least at the end of the week you could reduce this to one, and perhaps even be able to provide more insight into why we should wait for the ~$100 price range.SiliconDoc - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
Clucking for red cards and dissing the green ones couldn't be resisted. Come on man, don't you know who you're reading ?chrnochime - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
I don't understand how a NDA bars AT from even mentioning the name of the cards. Might as well not include those two categories if all we're getting in either one is a big wait sign.Sigh.
The0ne - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
You're being fed information that is not normally public yet. There are several issues with releasing some of the information ahead of the intended time. There's too many details on the subject alone to warrant a discussion here. You have marketing, pricing, customer schedules, testing, etc.I actually don't understand why you guys wouldn't want to know that products are going to be release shortly. It's almost a catch22 with many of you that feel this way. On one hand Anandtech is giving you a heads up on products within a weeks time and on the other hand you bitch about Anandtech not giving you a heads up when they do mentioned it in the article the same day it's release.
Wouldn't it be better for you to know that there are changes coming within the week rather than being surprise at the point and bitching that you could have gotten some warning before the announcement? You can't have it both ways, and seriously you're not in the business to be fed the info anyhow. So consider the heads up previliged information.