ATI or Nvidia? Which card? Help needed!

So, As the title says - I'm looking for suggestions on which card i should get come the 15th, I'm looking towards a ATI card for Eyefinity, or a Nvidia GTX 4x series for just overall "power" - I'm really not looking to spend anymore than $200 on a video card, As i'm looking to purchase a SSD after the video card.

The video card will go into a AMD X4 630 Propus - 2.8ghz
6GB DDR3 1066 Ram
1TB HD
650 Watt Antec truepower Trio

I am currently 4 - 5 boxing on the following with a HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 driving one monitor and Keyclone with /console maxfps 25 set on all the toons, low detail with viewing distance up a bit; Runs just fine.

Again, Just looking for suggestions on a new video card to purchase, Nvidia or ATI cards, And a little over $200 is fine, but not looking to spend some $350 or anything like that, as i really don't need that much of a video card.

All suggestions are appreciated..

Thanks!

My first suggestion is to go here for a comparison unique to Cataclysm.

This is really a Ford vs Chevy discussion. Some folks have had no end of issues and quirks with ATI and some have had the same with NVidia. They constantly leapfrog each other in performance, so it's really down to price, heat and power use.

I would be leery of running any GTX460 or higher NVidia on a 650W PSU, IMO. I've run a 5850 on a 600W PSU without any PSU-related issues, though I'd probably go 750w+ just to allow for extra HDDs or other additions.

I am currently recommending this as it is the cheapest card with 2G video ram (single gpu):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:B:SS:US:1123

Whenever I want a graphics card within a specific price range I go to toms hardware. This is the latest one from February 11. Hope it helps.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...card,2857.html

I hope this will be helpful. I here offer my two bits gleaned from the above referenced article by Bollwerk. I am only giving you a synopsis of a comparison I am providing between what you currently are running and an Nvidia GTX 460 1024 MB card. I don’t currently have much experience with AMD cards though I think they are fine cards and you should definitely consider them for your needs. I do however contend that the Nvidia 460 might fit your needs and your budget perfectly. So here are the stats for you to review at two resolutions I hope are helpful to glean insight from in regards to your monitor setup.

First ATI :

1920x1080
Good Quality Settings.
4670
45.06 fps

And,

1680x1050
Good Quality Settings
4670
49.71 fps

And they said at resolutions of 1920x1080, or even 1680x1050, the 4670 really couldn’t cut it at Ultra High Settings. Thus they did not provide numbers for Ultra High Settings. They also did not discuss High Settings. That however is not to say it was not playable at High Settings.

Now for Nvidia

1920x1080
Ultra High Settings.
GTX 460 1024 MB
81.52 fps

That is getting close to almost double the fps of your current card at two Video Quality settings up the ladder. Sorry again they didn’t list results for High, nor for Good so there is not a direct comparison. But I say it compares well at what it is fair to say is far greater video quality.

Also, if you drop a resolution things look even better.

1680x1050
Ultra High Settings
GTX 460 1024 MB
89.57 fps

A jump of 8.5 fps in their tests. Just about a ten percent gain in fps dropping down to 1680x1050.

In conclusion, and for the moment not taking into consideration what ATI has to offer, if you like the bump in frame rates at much higher Video Quality Settings (I am not stressing resolution here,) that the GTX 460 1024 MB gives you over your current card, then I think it should be a strong contender for your money.

Here is a link for a page of such cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%2050001402 %20600007323%20600062521&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce%2 0GTX%20460%20%28Fermi%29

To help narrow the choices from this page a little, I will point to the -

EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR

After rebate it is $189.99 and $2.99 shipping. It is $219.00 (and the same $2.99 shipping) before the rebate. This card is what they term superclocked

FYI - With EVGA TR means two years and KR means three years. AR - Lifetime.

Also if you are confident you run a cool case with good airflow etc., you might want to look at the super super clocked version of the above card with a different heat shroud. I will direct you to the -

EVGA 01G-P3-1380-KR

After rebate this card is $189.99 and comes with free shipping. It is $209.99 before rebate (free shipping). And as you probably noticed, comes with a solid three year warranty. Lifetime is always nice, but not always necessary.

In factoring your true cost, you can decide if you will 'really' use the little rebate debit card they will send you. I use them all at my local computer store. Just make sure you always are certain of your balance on the card.

Again, I think AMD and ATI are great and hope some people with more familiarity can throw you some numbers from that camp.

That said, at your price point these are two Nvidia cards I would heartily recommend.

Let us know how it works out.

Grail

p.s- All above numbers for Toms's tests were for just one instance of WoW I am sure.

;)

One last bit of information just to place at your fingertips...

The stated specifications for power usage are as follows:

450 Watt or greater power supply
with a minimum of 24 amps
on the +12 volt rail.

The above stats are actually right off the box of the EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR .

I have the card and am putting it in a machine in the next 48 hours.

Sorry, you will have to check on the other cards specifications as I don't have those at 'my' fingertips.

Lastly, I want to mention that we all know that the "24 amps on the +12 volt rail" matters just as much as the number of watts a psu has at its disposal.

So in the end it all depends on what else your system is running but I would be confident running a quality 650 Watt psu with requisite amps per appropriate rail if your box isn't packed to the gills.

Grail

I would like to thank everybody for the input / comments put into this thread. I actually purchased a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121415

ASUS ENGTS450 DC OC/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card is what the above link is.

It works very well and runs on High / Ultra settings with about 40+ FPS in non crowded zones.

Next step is 12GB of ram and a SSD, With a new monitor.

Thanks again everyone.