First build! 4870 vs 8800gtx

[ABQRugby]

Hey everyone, not only is this my first post but I am in the process of building my first gaming rig. It was the peerfect time to join, this is a good day in my life! : P

Well I am in the process of building my first computer (budget-mid range gaming/video editing machine, or at least thats my goal) I am little nervous and ALLOT excited!
I thought I had everything about ready to go and then one of my friends (who knows allot more about this then me) said everything was good besides my video card (4870) and that I should swap it out for an 8800GTX and I replied with something similar to "Whaaaaaaaat?"
I dont claim to know a ton about computers but I do feel like I know a decent amount and everything I have seen point to the 4870 winning that battle everytime. But I dont doubt him.......well... he seems very sure of himself. I know the 4870 costs more but if it would save me from upgrading in the near future then I have no problem with that. Im not an extreme bleeding edge freak but... lets say I appriciate the finer things in life ; D
What do you think? price vs performance/overall.

Here is what I am looking at so far:

Motherboard - ASUS P45 -

Processor - Q9450 2.66GHz -

RAM - Corsair 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 800 -

Video Card - Radeon HD 4870 OR 8800GTX -

Hard Drive - Seagate 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache -

Power Supply - 650w Antec OR 600w Raidmax Aurora 2

Case - Apevia X-Discovery


What does everyone think? I am totally open to any suggestions as this is my first build and any help is greatly appriciated. Thanks!

 

[Sparton 10]

i would say get a 4870 cuz the 8800gtx is sorta getting a bit aged know considerind were up to the 10 series. also a 4870 will probably be alot more future proof and save u having to upgrade again in the near future. But i'm no genious and this is just from my own experiences.

 

[Didou]

Another vote for the 4870. It's very good when you use features like anti-aliasing a lot.

 

[woody1191]

Have to say another vote for the 4870, would rather pay more to get a system more future proof. In this day and age when computers are advancing rapidly

 

[LinkedKube]

I voted for the 8800 myself. Just kind of bothers me that the g80gtx can outperform 4870 in some benchmarks, Maybe higher clock rates. The bigger question is. Are you planning to ever use 2 cards in sli or Xfire. If so this may help you decide as well. I'f I remember right P45 boards are Xfire only.

 

[ABQRugby]

I dont plan on running dual cards, in Xfire or SLI so that shouldn't be to big of a concern.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The HD 4870 is the better choice.
What is your total budget? And where are you buying all your parts from? Can you post any links to them?

 

[nickc]

I am going to vote for the 8800 GTX as I do not like ATI cards and I hate the way they come out with new drivers ever time the clock changes, plus I have over the years had several ATI video cards that where not good.

 

[Didou]

Both nVidia & ATI release driver updates in a regular fashion (neither doing it more than the other). It's should be considered a positive point rather than negative.

 

[ABQRugby]

Hey everyone,I will post some links shortly once I get up
To 5 posts haha.
Is it true that ATI cards just don't last as long as Nvidia cards? I have never heard of this but this is what he is now telling me. Ahh. I will
Post some links anyways so you can tell me what you think overall.
Thanks guys!

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Is it true that ATI cards just don't last as long as Nvidia cards? I have never heard of this but this is what he is now telling me.

That is just BS. Card quality depends upon the third-party manufacturer you buy it from. Most are quite decent, but there are some which produce sub-standard cards. And this applies to both ATI's and NVIDIA's cards. So you can't say one's cards are worse off compared to the others'.

 

[dustin_ds3000]

new drivers are updated to fix bugs or to support new cards, sometime newer drivers can even improve game frame rates and rarely overclocking ability, my vote goes for the ati 4870 just because it uses newer gddr5

 

[skitzo_zac]

I personally would go for a 4870, If I was in the market for an upgrade at the moment I would get a 4870 myself.

Also Bit-Tech recently did a review on a tonne of graphics cards.

Compares the following.

 

[ABQRugby]

Sweet! Well thanks everyone, after all the feedback I decided to go with the 4870!
Once everything comes in I will let you know how it works

Oh and by the way I was pretty excited, I got my Q9450 processor for $319 and it came with World in conflict + free 3 day shipping.....yes please:grinthumb

Well thanks again guys, you all really helped me out

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Definitely the 4870 as the 8800GTX is getting pretty old. Newegg doesn't even sell them anymore.

 

[ABQRugby]

Well I got everything put together and it is awesome! I cant thank everyone enought for the input! So really thanks again!
For my first build everything went together very smoothly.... better then I could have imagined.
I was very excited to see I had a windows experience rating of 5.9:stickout: ha. I love the 4870, it is a VERY powerfull card. Ive been playing World in Conflict maxed out; 8xAA - 16xAF - 1680x1050 - 40-65fps

So I just wanted to say thanks again to everybody