Well, Maximum PC and Extreme tech have been giving the 4870 the nod in the last few months... a better card and cheaper. Particularly when it comes to video. I think the cooling / noise is more about the specific manufacture then it is the GPU.
I too have a X1950, although it is AGP. And I just bought this five minutes ago... pretty good deal, considering it is an ASUS. Newegg has free shipping for the next hour or so.
ASUS EAH4870/HTDI/512M/A Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121276&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-N82E16814121276 At 10:09 PM 9/23/2008, you wrote:
I'm upgrading the video card in my gaming rig and have the choice narrowed down to two in my price range, the Nvidia GTX 260 or ATI HD 4870. Both seem to score fairly identical in most benchmarks so I guess the decision might come down to extras. For me, noise and cooling are a big issue. My PC case is right next to my desk in my office and I can't stand loud fans. What's the experience from the group with either of these cards and fan noise vs temp? I am leaning towards the 260 because I have heard better things about their drivers as opposed to ATI's. My last 3 cards have all been ATIs and while they have served me very well in terms of hardware I've always had some sort of issue with the driver. For example, x1950 I currently am using doesn't seem to be able to control the fan speed properly using the ATI Tool so I have to manually set it high for gaming and low otherwise. I don't plan on going dual cards if that makes a difference between the two. ---- Brian
