Geforce or Radeon, which one should I get ?

SO I am about to buy a new PC, well more like buying it in parts.

this is my constellation

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Stepping: G0)

RAM: Corsair XMS2 DIMM Kit 4GiB CL5-5-5-18 DDR2-800

GPU: either Radeon HD 4870 1024 MiB or Geforce GTX280 (not so sure since both cards have their dis/advantage)

HDD: Western Digital Velociraptor 300 GB (the old version WD3000GLFS)

POWER: be quiet Dark Power Pro P7 550W ATX 2.2

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L, P45

CASE: Antec Three Hundred

I will use my old mouse and anything else that is futher needed.

So I wanted to know if I should go with a Geforce or a Radeon both cards are quite interessting for me.

Radeon:
+low price (250 Euro)
+good price/performance relation
+less energy consuption when in full usage(30 watt less)
+good availability

-more energy consumption in idle (40 watt more)
-less performance than the GTX 280

Geforce:
+best performance
+less energy consumption in idle (40 watt less)

-more energy consuption when in full usage(30 watt more)
-high price (350 Euro)


SO I am very shilly-shally if radeon or geforce...(60% geforce and 40% radeon) what do you guys think.

well im all bout geforce so yeah

GEFORCE PWNS!!

Its true that nvidia cards have been number 1 for the past couple of years but the latest ati cards are way cheaper than nvidias and are about the same in performance. If I were you though I would probably SLI 2 3870s for cheaper than both of those combined and have even more performace gain than a single one of theirs.

i may not know much but for the love of god go for geforce it kills all competion... seriously always better to spend that lil bit more

Indeed, I normally don't use ATI cards, but the new HD 4000 series just blows up nVidia cards. If you do decide to get an ATI card there's only one downside. Most of them run hot as balls. So I'd suggest googling the ATI fan fix.

-Cheers!

I still have a Zalman VF900-Cu on my old geforce 7950 GT, I read that it can also be mounted on any HD4000.

And I am further interessed HOW hot the new radeon would be, can you tell me.

let's see...if you are getting a P45 motherboard,then Radeon would make more sense...

doesn't all P45 motherboards Crossfire-compatible?
then if you'd like to use GeForce you can't use the SLI should you need/want it in the future.

actually I don´t intend to use SLI ever.
for two simple reasons

first: one GPU is enough for me.

second: the p45 only supports pci-e x8, meaning that it has 8 lanes for each pci-e GPU slot. If I wanted to use SLI properly, I would get a x48 since this chip supports 16 lanes per pci-e (p45 is simply in efficient when it comes to SLI). Oh and besides the mainboard I have chosen only has one pci-e x16 slot.

http://www.gigabyte.de/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2755

Oh ya, if you somehow want to play some old-ass games on your comp - you'll want to go ATI. Newer Nvidia dropped 8-bit textures I think? But I think you can still software emulate it if the game allows it but it will look like crap.

And if your looking for performance benchmarks all you have to do is google "4850 vs gtx280" and you'll get a buttload of them. Try to find a benchmark that compares more than just those 2 though and try to look into sli'ing or xfire'ing some older cards - it's definitely worth it and it's a lot easier on your wallet. And get a motherboard that suits your card like mnx said.