ASUS ENGTX260 TOP 896MB (NVIDIA GTX260) vs Asus HD4850 512mb PCI-E Graphics Card EAH4

[LebronJames23]

Hi i am in a dilemma to purchase a graphics card for my ASUS P5Q3 DELUXE. First of all, just to allay my doubts both graphics cards as mentioned above. The former is created by nvidia, while the later ATI? Next, would someone kindly enlighten me on the specifications of both graphics card and the terminology involved. In addition, may i know what wattage and manufacturer's PSU should i purchase in order to maximize the full potential of the graphics cards. As the bench marking PSU utilized was a TUNIQ ENSEMBLE 1200W. Last of all which graphics card would outshine each other in terms of rendering work-based applications for e.g. AutoDESK Inventor 2009; AutoCAD 2009, 3D STUDIO MAX, ADOBE CS3 SUITE etc. Hope to hear from you soon thank you.

 

[Ham]

Yes, the manufactures you've stated produce the GPUs you've mentioned.

You could quibble all day over specs and benchmarks. The bottom line is, out of the two, get the 4850. Saving circa £100 and it will handle all the applications you've mentioned with no problem.

If you yern for that bit more performance, read up on and learn to overclock the card. The 4850 overclocked to the same level as the 4870 is only a tad slower due to the memory used. But its still circa £50 cheaper.

 

[LebronJames23]

Power Supplies Recommended?

May i know what manufacturer's PSU would be recommended for the ASUS ATI HD4850 graphics card? I have a few in mind like the ANTEC TRUPOWER TRIO 650W, OCZ S61EPS SILENCER 610W, CORSAIR HX620W etc. Could anyone recommended me some makers' reliable yet efficient PSUs for the graphics card as mentioned thank you.

 

[jokers_greg]

May i know what manufacturer's PSU would be recommended for the ASUS ATI HD4850 graphics card? I have a few in mind like the ANTEC TRUPOWER TRIO 650W, OCZ S61EPS SILENCER 610W, CORSAIR HX620W etc. Could anyone recommended me some makers' reliable yet efficient PSUs for the graphics card as mentioned thank you.

What kind of budget do you have for a PSU? Any of those above mentioned PSU's would handle a 4850 without problems. I have a TT 650W Qfan power supply that works wonderfully, and is dead silent, but it's a little pricey. Even more so that the Corsair. In the end It's up to the money imo. Read some reviews on whats quieter (since I'm pretty sure all of those PSU's are 85%+ efficiency rated)

 

[Rastalovich]

In terms of real life performance and quality during a gameplay, since the 8800/3850 cards, I don`t feel u`ll experience any difference. Benchmarking doesn`t mean anything like what it used to.

On the back of that, get the card that fits in with ur budget, either camp.

 

[jokers_greg]

The former is created by nvidia, while the later ATI? Next, would someone kindly enlighten me on the specifications of both graphics card and the terminology involved.

Well if you're going to pick based on the size of the RAM... please don't. What size monitor are you using? Amount of GDDR is only important when you start getting into higher monitor resolutions. 512mb is more than enough for todays big monitors, but once you start getting ridiculously big (30" and up), you may want to consider >512mb solutions.

 

[LebronJames23]

Terminologies>?

Could anyone here care to explain what are the terms used, and how are they derived from thank you.

 

[jokers_greg]

Could anyone here care to explain what are the terms used, and how are they derived from thank you.

There are a few important things to know about video cards. Firstly there is usually one core frequency (like on your processor), one GDDR frequency (like your DDR2/DDR3 RAM), and one shader frequency (unique to GPU's). Increasing these frequencies results in increased performance 99% of the time. Does this mean that you should just pick the cards that have the highest GPU/MEM/SHADER frequencies?

NO!

different gfx cards have different architectures. Much the same way how an intel 478 northwood @ 3ghz is slower than an intel 630 @ 3ghz. Unfortunately this isn't always clear, and the only way to tell is by reading reviews. What IS the same between card manufacturers is how the RAM size affects performance. At low monitor resolutions (e.g. 1024x768) a 128mb RAM size is sufficient. However, for resolutions like 1680x1050, a 512mb RAM size is recommended. If you have a low amount of GDDR RAM (a.k.a 256mb), you will notice that the card will begin to stutter at higher resolutions, and FPS will drop significantly.

Those are just 4 attributes to video cards. there's tons of more things involved, anything from pipelines to bus widths. But again, the easiest way to see what graphics card is good for you, is to read reviews. They always show head to head benchmarks against competing cards