Holiday 2008 GPU Guide: Price Cuts Galore
by Derek Wilson on December 18, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Stuntin': $300+ Single and Multi-GPU Graphics Solutions
From the introduction of the GeForce GTX 280, it hasn't done enough to justify it's own price. The GTX 280 is the fastest single GPU in most games out there, but the Radeon HD 4870 1GB leads the GTX 280 in performance in too many cases for us to be comfortable recommending spending a lot more money even just to have the fastest single GPU out there -- since it sometimes is not. Until now, based on the value of the hardware, we recommend those looking at the GTX 280 go with the cheaper Radeon HD 4870 1GB or a highly overclocked GTX 260 core 216 unless they are looking at going with SLI. Price drops and rebate madness have gone quite far, and the GeForce GTX 280 is now available at a decent price. You do still pay a premium for the card, but it is a premium we can stomach and that makes sense. Since AMD doesn't have a part that directly competes with the GeForce GTX 280, we give the $300 nod to NVIDIA. Had the price remained closer to the $400 mark, we would left the GTX 280 off our recommended list altogether.
Selling at around half of what it debuted at: The GeForce GTX 280 (Image From EVGA.com)
Single-GPU Recommendation: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
| Newegg | ZipZoomFly | TigerDirect | Buy.com |
MSI GeForce GTX 280 | EVGA GeForce GTX 280 | BFG GeForce GTX 280 | EVGA GeForce GTX 280 |
| $300 | $325 | $345 |
What buyers get for their money here is playability on 30" monitors with the highest quality settings and antialiasing in almost every game. There are some new games that won't be playable with everything turned up, and as with everything else games that come out will continue to demand more and more horsepower. But in the meantime, this stuff is the cream of the crop. For monitors smaller than 30", spending this kind of cash isn't really necessary. For huge (60"+) HDTVs, these solutions could also be useful as they can provide huge levels of antialiasing that could help improve image quality on monitors with very large pixels. If you've got a smaller monitor (19x12 or below on a less than 30" display), you'll be better off going with a cheaper card and saving up for a bigger monitor.
Beyond $300, and aside from the GTX 280, this market encompasses the world of multiGPU solutions. The Radeon HD 4870 1GB, GeForce GTX 260 SLI and GeForce GTX 280 SLI are the options here. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is currently the only single card multiGPU option available at the ultra high end, and thus this is the option you will want if you only have a single PCIe x16 slot on your board. The added advantage that the 4870 X2 runs in any PC also helps. It is for these reasons that the Radeon HD 4870 X2 gets our recommendation here.
Image From TigerDirect.com
Multi-GPU Recommendation: AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2
| Newegg | ZipZoomFly | TigerDirect | Buy.com |
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 | Gigabyte Radeon HD 4870 X2 | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 | Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2 |
| $500 | $460 | $535 |
For those who don't mind multiple card multiGPU solutions, we whole heartedly recommend going with NVIDIA's SLI on a supported Intel Core i7 system. This combo will bring you the maximum performance you can find on PCs today. The return on investment isn't there, but there is always a premium to have the best of the best. Three way SLI with GeForce GTX 280 on a 3.2 GHz i7 system is the ultimate build today. Even though we don't recommend this option both for the protection of your wallet and because the cost benefit analysis is not favorable, this is the only option for those who need the highest performance out there.
Final Words
That does it for our recommendations for this holiday season. Remember that these prices might change even day to day at this point, but some of these deals are absolutely terrific. Of special note are the Radeon HD 4830 for $85, the Radeon HD 4850 for $130, and the 1GB Radeon HD 4870 for $220. Pay attention to mail in rebates here, as most of these great deals are enabled by them. You'll have to do a little more shopping around if avoiding mail in rebates is particularly important. But some of these deals are just too impressive to pass up.
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JonnyDough - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - link
I'm a bit confused about the budget cards for an HTPC, although this article did help me a bit. It's something I've been looking into. I have a projection t.v. with HDMI that runs 1080P. With the desire for multi-channel hi-def sound figured in, I would assume I should go for an AMD 4670 or a 4830 card. But I also want to make sure it's producing good hi-def picture too. If it won't give me the same quality as a Blu-Ray player I don't want to bother with it. Right now I'm using an HD-DVD player for upscaling my movies, and I have a chassis, Windows XP MCE, and some older systems for an HTPC. All that's left is the right card and a Blu-Ray drive/software.This card will likely be paired up with an old Athlon X2 running at 2.0ghz or a single core Pentium4 2.2ghz.
If I can get away with an even cheaper card, let me know. I'd like to do some light gaming on it (TF2, etc @ LAN parties) but the gaming is a distance second in importance to watching movies.
What's the cheapest reasonable solution for a good movie experience when pairing a card with an old processor, 2GBs of RAM, and a huge tv? Sound isn't really an issue, as I have an X-Fi that can do the job - although I'd prefer to keep that with my gaming system.
marc1000 - Monday, December 22, 2008 - link
your card would be the 4670 or maybe even the 4550 if gaming is not important. but sound is a issue, for sure. because you can not play blu-ray content without a "secure channel" for the audio. of course, you can always use the lower-quality sound channels, but I remember reading something about the hi-quality sound on blu-ray discs and special software and hardware needs. browse some articles here at anandtech and you will find the answer. BUT if your display is 24hz then the only options are the 9500gt or 9600gso.teohhanhui - Saturday, December 20, 2008 - link
It points to the 4830...Noobnugget - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
Nothing like be horribly inaccurate by quoting mail in rebates(which you may not even get back) as the actual price you pay. When will people learn..?JonnyDough - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - link
Seconded. I made the same statement on Tom's Hardware I think (or else it was here) for using rebates as a buying decision factor. Don't purchase MIR items unless you're ready to pay full price for what you're buying. Rebates are a way to steal money from consumers. Nothing more than a cheap gimmick to rob you.BLaber - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
ahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhaLMAO :- CORE i7 RECOMMENDATION MY A$$
JonnyDough - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - link
From everything I've read I have to agree. Unless you're doing memory specific work or games that require more memory bandwidth, there's no reason to upgrade from a Core2Duo or Core2Quad to i7 yet. Maybe with the next tick or tock (I don't keep track of which is which) then it will be more worth upgrading. Wait for i7 to be seasoned a bit (new proc revisions) before bothering with a change from a Core2 system. Not many modern games really make good use of multiple cores yet anyway. I'm looking forward to GPUs made on smaller dies and Windows 7. PC gaming may make a come back. But these $300 GPU's that create massive amounts of heat and run up my electric bill, and a lack of solid SSD support for XP and Vista make me want to wait a year or two to upgrade my PC from my old socket 939 Athlon X2 systems.kevinkreiser - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
any opinions on the best single slot gpu? i'm looking to make a small computer that can do graphics intensive work, but i'm limited to using up only 1 slot). maybe i could water cool a dual slot to make it a single slot? no idea. suggestions welcome. thanks.SiliconDoc - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - link
How about an EVGA 9800GThttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
How about this one with a free full game
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Single slot superclocked core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
XFX
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool...">http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...tails.as...
marc1000 - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
that would be the radeon 4830, because it runs cooler than the 4850 and these are the only high-end single-slot gpus today... or you could stick with older hardware.anyway, who will be REALLY jealous is the people overseas and below the equatorial line... i live in Brazil and we have no such price wars here. the cards stay with the initial price for their lifetime... i mean, a 4670 that was 130USD when it debuted, still cost 130USD today over here... and the 4830 that launched later have a "premium tag" because the 4670 costs 130USD... so the sellers charge the 4830 for 150USD... and these prices will not fall. that is really something to be jeaulous about. (PS: of course our currency is not dollars, i'm converting the values here)