Whats better ATI HD 4850 or Nvidia GeForce GTS 250?

[mexicanca]

I want to now what video card performs better in a 20 inch monitor 1600X900??

 

[shubham1401]

Both are close in terms of performance.
Its really your choice.Get whichever you get cheaper.

One more deciding factor is whether your mobo supports SLI or CF.

I would choose 4850 if i was in place of you.

 

[xc0mmiex]

Cheapest one you can find... 4850 would also be my preference

 

[mexicanca]

thanks

 

[Kithzaru]

There are charts here on Toms that should give you a good idea. The chart i will link below is based on 1680x1050 with 4x AA, which should be relatively close to what you're doing.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1680x1050,1342.html

As others stated above some games will give a preference for one company over another IE, ATI and Nvidia. That is why the link above i posted because it is the sum of all frames, so a much broader look. For your application i would maybe get a closer look into the specific games you want to play.

Based on that chart though,

GTS250 = 370.90
4850 = 319.20

there are (as was posted) other things to consider, like cost and whether or not you want to CF or SLI and if your MoBo supports one or the other.

To specifically answer your original question though

GTS250 > 4850

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143191
$119 after MIR, and has 1gig of RAM. Also BFG has the lifetime warranty

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161275
$106 after MIR, 1 gig of RAM

*shrug*

personal preference i suppose.

 

[razzb3d]

I own a hardware butique, an recently build 2 PCs with almost the same configuation:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2,83 GHz
4Gb DDR3 1600MHz CL7.7.7.18 Kingmax MARS (1,9v)
DFI Lanparty P45 T3RS
500Gb WD SATA2 HDD
550W Antec Neopower PSU
Antec 300 PC Case
Microsoft Windows 7 X64 RC1 Build 7300 (30 day trial)
Catalyst 9,9 and respectively Forceware 191

One client wanted a Radeon 4850 512MB from Powercolor, an the other one went for the more expensive GTS250 1GB from Sparkle.

Before handing over the sistems, i installed Win 7 RC1 and several games i had around the shop, that came bundled with several VGA card to get a feel for them. These are my conclusions:

Crysis Warhead @ 1680x1050 - gamer preset no AA, 16xAF
- GTS250 1GB ~ 42 FPS (keep in mind this is a nVidia optimised game)
- 4850 0,5GB ~ 38 FPS

Sltalker Clear Sky @ 1680x1050 - maximum detail, 4xAA, 16xAF
- GTS250 1GB ~ 28 FPS
- 4850 -0,5GB ~ 35 FPS (keep in mind this is a ATi / AMD optimised game)

Far Cry 2 @ 1680x1050 - maximum detail, no AA, 16xAF
- GTS250 1GB ~ 55 FPS
- 4850 -0,5GB ~ 56 FPS

The diffrence between cards is minimal. I would go 4 the ATi because:

- it is WAY cooler (37 degrees celsius while idle, while the GTS250 idles at 49.)
- Crossfire works with ALL games, it doesn't require the game to support it like SLi does.
- requires just one PCIe Power connector, and less power to run properly.
- CHEAPER.


My 2 cents.

 

[Kithzaru]

Not saying you're wrong, but i haven't seen any GTS250's that require more than 1 power connector. The BFG and XFX ones i've handled all take 1x6 pin. That's odd that the Sparkle one would take more.

I completely agree with the "cooler" part.. my gts250 runs pretty hot. Mind you, it still works, and still has a lifetime warranty but, if the card didn't exhaust directly out of the case, this would be a much bigger deal.

The difference in games is really going to be minimal..

Not all games support Crossfire.

~ go with whichever is a better price and offers a better warranty.

 

[C-Winters]

i bought a 4850 but regreted it almost instantly once the gts250 came out 2 weeks later. if i remenber correctly, the toms hardware review favored the gts250.

also, i would chose the gts250 because more games seem to be nvidia optimised, atleast most of the games i buy are

 

[mexicanca]

but will it be the same performance with a amd Athlon X2 ?

 

[Kithzaru]

Do you mean, will an ATi GPU perform better when paired with an Athlon CPU, as opposed to an Nvidia with an Intel?

If that's what you mean, then you can mix and match the pairs just fine. An ATi GPU isn't going to provide better graphics when paired with an AMD CPU rather than an Intel. UNLESS, clearly one CPU is better than the other.

So, assuming the CPU's are the same, the GPU really won't care.

 

[mexicanca]

ok thanks i think i will buy the GTS 250

 

[rangers]

the 4850 is the better all round card, there should be dx11 games out in a bit then the gts250 will not get a look in

 

[Mousemonkey]

the 4850 is the better all round card, there should be dx11 games out in a bit then the gts250 will not get a look in

Neither will the 4850, unless it's a new DX11 version.

 

[rangers]

the 4850 will handle dx 11 games better than the 250

 

[hunter315]

No, because the 4850 is still restricted to DX10.1 and thus will not be able to run using the DX11 superset of instructions. Its not fully DX11 compliant therefore it is not DX11 compliant, just because it has a tessellator doesnt mean it will be able to run the code that will make use of it.

 

[rangers]

yes it will run dx11 games in dx10.1 and as every one knows dx10.1 is faster than dx10

 

[OvrClkr]

I own a hardware butique, an recently build 2 PCs with almost the same configuation:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2,83 GHz
4Gb DDR3 1600MHz CL7.7.7.18 Kingmax MARS (1,9v)
DFI Lanparty P45 T3RS
500Gb WD SATA2 HDD
550W Antec Neopower PSU
Antec 300 PC Case
Microsoft Windows 7 X64 RC1 Build 7300 (30 day trial)
Catalyst 9,9 and respectively Forceware 191

One client wanted a Radeon 4850 512MB from Powercolor, an the other one went for the more expensive GTS250 1GB from Sparkle.

Before handing over the sistems, i installed Win 7 RC1 and several games i had around the shop, that came bundled with several VGA card to get a feel for them. These are my conclusions:

Crysis Warhead @ 1680x1050 - gamer preset no AA, 16xAF
- GTS250 1GB ~ 42 FPS (keep in mind this is a nVidia optimised game)
- 4850 0,5GB ~ 38 FPS

Sltalker Clear Sky @ 1680x1050 - maximum detail, 4xAA, 16xAF
- GTS250 1GB ~ 28 FPS
- 4850 -0,5GB ~ 35 FPS (keep in mind this is a ATi / AMD optimised game)

Far Cry 2 @ 1680x1050 - maximum detail, no AA, 16xAF
- GTS250 1GB ~ 55 FPS
- 4850 -0,5GB ~ 56 FPS

The diffrence between cards is minimal. I would go 4 the ATi because:

- it is WAY cooler (37 degrees celsius while idle, while the GTS250 idles at 49.)
- Crossfire works with ALL games, it doesn't require the game to support it like SLi does.
- requires just one PCIe Power connector, and less power to run properly.
- CHEAPER.


My 2 cents.

it's a matter of taste.. you will not notice the difference in performance.... The cards are almost equal in everything....

Btw I have a 250 1Gb in my dell xps and it idles at 35/36/37c depending on ambient temps... It uses only one PCI-E connector.....just FYI

 

[hunter315]

Yeah, DX10.1 is so much faster than DX10
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-220,2445-13.html
With the results from all 5 cards, DX10.1 comes out a mere 3FPs better total, it showed a max boost of 2 and a performance hit of 1 so to say its faster is wrong.

 

[mexicanca]

so the ati is better ??
and i have read in a forum that the ati 4850 runs hotter than the nvidia 250 GTS
if thats true??

 

[Kithzaru]

It comes down to, again,

Which one is a better price, which one offers a better warranty?

If you had a choice between a PNY 4850 and a XFX gts 250, go with the XFX because of the warranty.

I have to say though, IF your power supply has the appropriate connectors and can handle it, the 4870 is better than both the GTS250 and the 4850 and can be found for not much more cash.

 

[mexicanca]

but which card will play better call of duty modern warfare 2 ?

 

[IzzyCraft]

Hard to say ionno what engine mw2 uses. Also the game isn't out yet so no way to bench. You could just try to guess if the engine favors one brand over another based on latest cod release which is just a small tidge bias to nvidia cards. But really again all you can do is guess at this point.