Maximum PC

Looking to buy a new video card. I was wondering which card would perform better. Thanks for the help.

Nvidia
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130433

ATI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150438

Have a look at this Card summary from Tom's Hardware.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2646.html

tugboat's link is pretty good, have a look at it. I recommend you get something from this generation to take advantage of DX11 features and for future compatibility.

Good cards in a similar price range of the ones you listed include the HD 5770 and 5830.

The 4890 is faster, and for $190 its a good deal- it actually outperforms the GTX 260 and the $230 Radeon HD 5830. Worth losing DX11 IMO.

In a practical sense, the 4890 and 5830 have equivalent DX9 performance. DX11 is worth the extra $30 ($220 free ship from Newegg) - ensuring that any future DX11-only titles won't make your card feel obsolete. It happened with me and my X800 and Shader Model 2.0 vs 3.0; Bioshock didn't run on it. Absorb the small $30 blow now, and put your mind at ease for years.

The 4890 outperforms the 5830 on all fronts by 10% though. Honestly, I'm running a 4870 1GB and have yet to miss DX11 support.

I don't miss DX11 support either - not many DX11 titles have come out so far, and I also have a 4870. But there are other things you can take advantage of that the 4000 series doesn't have, including low idle power.

Also, regarding performance - in a recent review, any discrepancy between the 4890 and the 5830 has basically disappeared. I refer to this review:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... d5830.html

260 core 216 is a fine card, meaning you should be able to play any game you want on high at 1920x1080 except Crysis, but the 4890 is comparatively more powerful in all the benchmarks, isn't it?

Both have good bang for your buck, but it looks like the 4890 has a bit more.

Like the others have pointed out, a 5770 would be the modern equivalent to the 260.

If you want to look at strictly just the default bandwidth of both cards and excluding other factors, then 4890 is definitely faster than 260/Core 216.

http://mysite.verizon.net/pchardwarelinks/video.htm