Palit GTX275 vs ASUS GTX285.

[bigboss]

I'm looking to upgrade my two year old rig, I like to keep up with the releases, and when the GTX275 was released and turned out to be okay, I was almost convinced. I found the Palit GTX275 and was all about ready to buy it. After scanning around scan I found the ASUS GTX285 and now I'm stuck like a fat kid in an ice cream factory.

Before you laugh there are a few reasons that I'm have trouble making this decision. Normally it would be a no brainer.

1. The main selling points of the Palit are its price and its after market cooler, which to be frank are awesome.

2. I'm suspicious about the price of the ASUS card, I've looked at the specs and evereything seems fine but I'm still not convinced. I don't know if the extra money would be translated into that much of a performance increase.

I tried to look for benchmarks for both cards, but couldn't find two that ran other consistant hardware or games, making the test kind pointless.

I have the extra dosh to splash out on the GTX285, but my brain is telling me to only spend around £200, because of new DX11 hardware will be released around Christmas time. So my main question is should I go with the normal no brainer of the GTX285, or should I go with my initial gut feeling at get the 275?

- Thanks Simon.

 

[teejay73]

You could overclock the gtx 275 and have a cheaper and faster card than the 285 or save more money and get a hd4890 for £135-£140 overclock that and beat both the gtx275 and the 285, assuming you want to overclock?

 

[bigboss]

I don't know if I will oveclock my GPU, it's a lot of hassle for not a lot of results. So all I'm counting on is the stock performance of the cards.

On top of that the Palit GTX275 is a weak overclocker, so that's not an option. I could go for an ATi 4890 but the GTX275 out performs it at stock speed.

 

[j.woody]

if your motherboard is capable of sli get nvidia, if its capable of crossfire get ATI.

if its not capable of either get the gtx 285 or wait for new cards to be released.

 

[teejay73]

I don't know if I will oveclock my GPU, it's a lot of hassle for not a lot of results. So all I'm counting on is the stock performance of the cards.

On top of that the Palit GTX275 is a weak overclocker, so that's not an option. I could go for an ATi 4890 but the GTX275 out performs it at stock speed.

At stock performance i would go for the gtx285 then, though as the post above say`s, try and keep like for like if your motherboard supports either sli/crossfire if you want to go that route.

What monitor and res are you using?

 

[bigboss]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm going to get the Biostart T Power i45 which supports Crossfire. I'm a bit suspicious of multi GPU rigs however as power usage and price doubles but your performance doesn't with some games even refusing to run.

My res at the moment is stupidly low, it's 1360x768 (using my TV because my Dad stole my monitor), but hopefully I will be getting either a 20" or a 16:9 22".

 

[teejay73]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm going to get the Biostart T Power i45 which supports Crossfire. I'm a bit suspicious of multi GPU rigs however as power usage and price doubles but your performance doesn't with some games even refusing to run.

My res at the moment is stupidly low, it's 1360x768 (using my TV because my Dad stole my monitor), but hopefully I will be getting either a 20" or a 16:9 22".

at those resolutions you will be able to play very high fps, so the choice of any of those cards would be pretty much overkill on that monitor, having said that, once you move up to a 20" or 22" and bigger res, then the gtx285 would be the one............but what about the hd4870x2, i see overclockers have it @ £245 and only a tenner more than the gtx285 and it is in the gtx295 range performance wise?

 

[Lynx]

I don't know if I will oveclock my GPU, it's a lot of hassle for not a lot of results.

Now thats a statement of someone who has never overclocked a card properly!

My crappy 8500gt was getting like 15-25 fps in css, now it never drops below its limiter of 65 with maybe an extra 7-9 degrees..

 

[bigboss]

No, I have overclocked before, it depends on what card you have. I overclocked my 8800GT, granted it was already pre overclcoked but I was lucky to get a 7-9 FPS increase in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

However if you had an 8600GTS I would agree overclocking is awesome, those things overvolt like a ***** and you can get some real increases in performance.

My point was the Plait GTX275 has a reputation as a poor overclocker and I wouldn't see the need to overclock any of those cards as they have enough power at their stock speeds, few years down the line and I would consider each card on their own metris/abilitties for an overclock.

 

[bigboss]

Sorry for the double post, browser crapped out, this posts needs deleting.

 

[teejay73]

thats a fair enough point big boss, perhaps then the gtx285 is the card you should look at getting, though i still feel that the 4870x2 is the better option for the performance increase.

 

[bigboss]

I never thought about the 4870x2. You raise a good point, what are the drivers like for that card, and are ATi keeping up support for them or are they going to abandon it like they did the 3870x2?

 

[teejay73]

Well tbh i dont know much about the drivers for the 4870x2, doing a quick search reveals that the drivers have a mixed response, though not sure what they are like now.

I know ati has a bit of a reputation when it comes to support but i have the hd4890 and can say that i have not had any problems with support or drivers and i am using the latest drivers available.

If you plan on moving into the dx11 market when they become available then you may want to think about spending too much £££, which was why i suggested the hd4890 the xfx version is now £140 (overclockers) which makes the gtx275 look expensive imo, this was my reason for dumping nvidia as they could not match what i wanted in the price range and my mobo is xfire not sli.

 

[Bungral]

4870x2 is a great card for the price now. Driver's are released every month.

 

[Rastalovich]

You could overclock the gtx 275 and have a cheaper and faster card than the 285 or save more money and get a hd4890 for £135-£140 overclock that and beat both the gtx275 and the 285, assuming you want to overclock?

How about oc'ing the 285 ?

 

[teejay73]

How about oc'ing the 285 ?

yes of course this would make it faster than the 4890 or 275, my suggestion was aimed at the price of a gtx285 compared to the 4890 and what the op could save if he went for an overclocked 4890.

 

[Rastalovich]

If ur intent on oc'ing whatever u buy, it doesn't make sense to me to not just compare the pricing or performance at stock.

U just buy what u can afford and clock it.

Stacking a clocked "whatever" against a non-clocked "whatever" doesn't really work for me.

 

[teejay73]

If ur intent on oc'ing whatever u buy, it doesn't make sense to me to not just compare the pricing or performance at stock.

U just buy what u can afford and clock it.

Stacking a clocked "whatever" against a non-clocked "whatever" doesn't really work for me.

Horses for courses i guess, i prefer to have a fixed budget and stick to it, even if i can afford to spend more, i always stick to the principle of buying the best with the budget i have and then knowing i can out perform more expensive hardware via overclocking.

 

[Rastalovich]

I have the extra dosh to splash out on the GTX285

It's in the budget