Those currently thinking about purchasing a new graphics card over the next few weeks had better be paying attention, as the market has done some serious rearranging with the announcement of Nvidia’s GTX 275 and ATi’s HD 4890.
Reviews for both of these cards have begun emerging as of yesterday. We have already taken a brief look at some of the early in-game benchmarks that ATi’s new offering has been able to achieve, and we have been suitably impressed.
Billed as ATi’s fastest single GPU graphics card, the HD 4890 is capable of overclocking beyond the 1000MHz mark on the GPU, at which point it negates the performance differential between itself and Nvidia’s pricier GTX 285.
However, before ATi fanboys start celebrating, it is worth mentioning that Nvidia’s GTX 275 is proving to be a monster in its own right. In fact, according to Techpowerup the factory overclocked version of the GTX 275 manages to outperform its supposedly superior older brother, the GTX 285.
Techpowerup also managed to get its hands on two ATi HD 4890s and run them in Crossfire, a combination which was able to outperform Nvidia’s current performance king, the GTX 295. Dual HD 4890s may offer incredible performance, but the combined 380W power requirement makes it an impractical solution for most users.
It looks like at this point, the GTX 275 and HD 4890 are set to marginalize Nvidia’s other high-end components, namely the GTX 285 and GTX 295. The burning question at the moment however, is which is better between the two?
The overarching consensus at this point is that with similar pricing, and similar performance, there is not much to choose from between the GTX 275 and HD 4890. However, many publications have reported that the GTX 275 runs slightly quieter and draws less power than the HD 4890, making it a marginally better choice at this point in time. Some sites are also reporting that Nvidia’s product is currently slightly ahead of ATi’s in terms of performance in most titles. The slightly lower power consumption of the GTX 275 also makes it a better option for running in SLI, a combination that has yet to be tested but is sure to offer impressive performance.
We can say with relative certainty that these are the cards that are going to dominate the mid-high-end sector for some time to come, as their relatively low prices coupled with impressive performance capabilities may make anything more (GTX 285, GTX 295, HD 4870X2) seem un needed, while anything less (GTX 270, GTX 260, HD 4870) may leave one feeling as though they are missing out. Having said that however, those who already own any of these older products will see little performance increases in the HD 4890 and GTX 275, and these new offerings are only recommended for those sitting on older hardware.
We have yet to receive confirmation regarding local pricing or availability of these two products. Watch this space for more information, as well as a full MyGaming review.
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