I don't know anything, in fact I am probably just as creditable as "le Fud" or "Teh Inq", however the way I see it would be that the HD4850 series would be more or less equal in terms of performance as the 260GT series.
The 1GB HD4870 would be within 5%-10% (slower) than the GTX280.

HOWEVER

The ATi cards would be a lot cheaper, I mean at the moment you are talking £460 for a GTX280. I estimate the Radeon 4870 1GB GDDR5 will be around £350

The only reservations I have when it comes to turning from Green to Red (yep call me a shameless nVidia fanboi if you must) are.

1) Poor FSAA performance. The R6x0 series cards were dogged with FSAA performance issues.

2) Lack of Physx support, yes it is not really a big deal now.....but will it become one?

3) ATi compatibility issues, this might sound like a mindless fanboy rant here but back in the day of my Radeon 9700 I had a few issues with games due to a lack of support by the Devs for ATi cards (SimCity 4 and Metal Gear Solid). Later the X1800XT had issues to, due to not quite fully supporting Shader Model 3 (a lack of Vertex Texture Fetching). I just dont want to end up getting a card which lacks dev support or something...

4)Heat and Noise, lets face it the X2900XT cards were blimin hot and noisy.

Although that sounded pretty much like my Green Side talking, the ATi cards do have a lot of positives.

1) DirectX 10.1. Yes it is not a big deal now...but it will be....soon?

2) If rumours are correct, design should be more elegant and less power consumption.

3) Crossfire.. Yes I know Crossfire is pretty much the Devil's poison but my Intel X38 Chipset supports Crossfire...and it means I might be able to buy another card further down the line to enjoy this (Thanks to the evil Green Team locking their SLi in a cupboard marked nForce only).

4) Image Quality, Traditionally speaking ATi have always had better quality for Videos and FSAA and Texture Filtering...the G92 did kind of perhaps level this however I am sure that ATi with their double precision will regain the Image Quality Crown.


At the moment I am close to ordering a GTX280, (Zotac AMP), however this shameless nVidia Fanboy may change back to the red team....and is eagerly awaiting the reviews for the HD4870 1GB (DDR5)

Speaking of which....when are the reviewers allowed to remove their gags and give us something to read and salivate over?

Here endeth my mindless waffling

John