GTX 285 or 4890

todd5854

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Feb 8, 2009
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Hello, tomorrow I am going out to Micro Center, to buy my next gaming rig.

I am somehow able to afford either ATi's 4890, or nVidia's GTX 285.

I DO plan to SLI, but only in the future.

I play a lot of games.

-Flight Simulator X
-Crysis
-Grand Theft Auto IV
-Call of Duty 4 and 5

For these games, which is the logical choice?

They both have 1gb of VRAM, but the ATi has a much higher core clock.

Thanks
~Todd5854
 

xaira

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the ati 4890 @ 1000mhz is as good as the nvidia gtx285 and its cheaper, the ati supports crossfire and the nvidia supports sli, if ur getting an i7 you can get a board to support both, id choose the 4890, its got dx 10.1 whereas the 285 is 10.0
 

Good choice as it's the better performer.
slixfire-370x370.jpg
 

meatwad53186

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The guys at micro center are most likely going to want to sell you the GTX 285, seeing as its more expensive, and probably harder to sell. They don't really care about which one would benefit you the most, they just want to make the better sale, at least from my experiences in-store.
 

soundefx

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I too hate it when people say that an OC 4890 os on par with a stock 285. Which means if you oc the 285, you are right back where you started.

Stock vs stock, the 285 is better, but the ati card is an avg. of $60 to $80 cheaper and is not too far behind in performance (a few FPS behind .) There is where Ati is making their money, especially in this economy. People want the most out of their money.
 

meatwad53186

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Why shouldn't the OC be brought up? Maybe not everyone wants to bother with that, but since it requires almost no effort at all and anyone can do it with a little research and 30 minutes of their time, and with the economy being the way it is, being able to take such a small amount of effort and time and have it equate to savings of roughly $100 definitely deserves a mention, and is worth it in my book.
 

brett1042002

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4890, imo. Yes, the GTX 285 does yield better synthetic benchmarks for all your e-peen strokage needs. In gaming, the results are very similiar between both cards. The 4890 wins the Price/Performance ratio as well. I am very satisfied with my 4890.

Just my .02.

Good luck!
 

Both cards are very good with the GTX285 being a bit faster. You get what you pay for with either card. Buy based with your experience with Nvidia/ATI and/or customer support for the card. I would favor XFX or EVGA for their customer support.
 

Jaysin

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Micky_lund - just use the catalyst control center

to the OP, stick with the 4890. The extra cost isn't worth the few frames and overclocking makes it pointless. And yes, the 4890 does have a higher OC ceiling than the 285 for the most part.
 

todd5854

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Here's what we ended up getting. So far so good on everything:

Core i7 920
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P
6GB OCZ Gold 1600mhz
Diamond 4890 (stock clock speed of 850)

Will overclock TO HELL once I get a better cooler, and more stable power.

Currently I'm using two 500 watt power supplies. I would of bought one 850W or something, but we had no extra money :(