ATI Radeon HD 4890 vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on April 2, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The New $250 Price Point: Radeon HD 4890 vs. GeForce GTX 275
Here it is, what you've all been waiting for. And it's a tie. Pretty much. These cards stay pretty close in performance across the board.
Looking at Age of Conan, we see something we didn't expect. NVIDIA is actually performing on par with AMD in this benchmark. NVIDIA's come a long way to closing the gap in this one, and for this comparison it's paid off a bit. Despite the fact that this one is essentially a tie, NVIDIA gets props for being competitive here.
While NVIDIA usually owns Call of Duty benchmarks, the 4890 outpaces the GTX 275 at 16x10 and 19x12 while the GTX 275 leads at the 30" panel resolution. As long as its still playable, then this isn't a huge deal, but the fact that most people have lower resolution monitors who might want one of these GPUs isn't in NVIDIA's favor.
Crysis Warhead is really close in performance again.
AMD leads Fallout 3, and this is the first game we've seen any consistent significant difference favoring one card over another.
FarCry 2 takes us back to the norm with both cards performing essentially the same.
The 4890 does have a pretty hefty lead under Race Driver GRID. The gap does close at higher resolution, but it's still a gap in AMD's favor.
Left4Dead is also pretty much a tie with the card you would want changing depending on the resolution of your monitor.
Overall, this is really a wash. These parts are very close in performance and very competitive.
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SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
Don't worry, it is mentioned in the article their overclocking didn't have good results, so they're keying up a big fat red party for you soon.They wouldn't dare waste the opportunity to crow and strut around.
This was about announcing the red card, slamming nvidia for late to market, and denouncing cuda and physx, and making an embarrassingly numberous amount of "corrections" to the article, including declaring the 2560 win, not a win anymore, since the red card didn't do it.
That's ok, be ready for the change back to 2560 is THE BESt and wins, when the overclock review comes out.
:)
Don't worry be happy.
tamalero - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link
SD, you seriously have a mental problem right?I noticed that you keep bashing, being sarcastically insultive (betwen other things.) to anyone who supports ati.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, April 23, 2009 - link
No, not true at all, there are quite a few posts where the person declaring their ATI fealty doesn't lie their buttinski off - and those posts I don't counter.Sorry, you must be a raging goofball too who can't spot liars.
It's called LOGIC, that's what you use against the lairs - you know, scientific accuracy.
Better luck next time - If you call me wrong I'll post a half dozen red rooster rooters in this thread that don't lie in what they say and you'll see I didn't respond.
Now, you can apologize any time, and I'll give you another chance, since you were wrong this time.
Nfarce - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
I just finished a mid-range C2D build, and decided to go with the HD 4870 512MB version for $164.99 (ASUS, no sale at NE, but back up to $190 now). This was my first ATI card and it was a no-brainer. While the 4890 is a better card, to me, it is not worth the nearly $100 more, especially considering I'm gaming at either 1920x1200 on a 40" LCD TV or a 22" LCD monitor at 1680x1050.Nvidia has lost me after 12 years as a fanboy for the time being, I suppose. What I will do here when I have more time is determine if buying another 4870 512MB for CrossFire will be the better bang for my resolutions or eventually moving up to the 4890 when the price drops this summer and then sell the 4870.
Thanks for the GREAT review AT, and now I have my homework cut out for me for comparisons with your earlier GPU reviews.
Jamahl - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Good job with tidying up the conclusion Anand.Russ2650 - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
I've read that the 4890 has 959M transistors, 3M more than the 4870.Gary Key - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
That is correct and is discussed on page 3. The increase in die size is due to power delivery improvements to handle the increased clock speeds.Warren21 - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Maybe the tables should be updated to reflect this?Gary Key - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
They are... :)helpmespock - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
I've been sitting on my 8800GT for a while now and was thinking about going to a 4870 1GB model, but now I may hold off and see what prices do.If the 4890/275 force the 4870 down in price then great I'll go with that, but on the other hand if prices slip from the new parts off of the $250 mark then I'll be tempted by that instead.
Either way I think I'm waiting to see how the market shakes out and in the end I, the consumer, will win.