means that devs who use Havok can integrate gameplay changing effects without worry that somebody can't play it; on the other hand Physics effects will be bound to being *bling* as using it for gameplay would make the game not playable on all configs;)

Most games are nVidia "the way it's meant to be played", nowadays, no? |D (sorry, spending more time watching animes than playing myself :-p )

that program gives devs access to the hardware and direct link with NVIDIA techs to make sure the game works/looks/plays as intended on their hardware. However it doesn't necessarily mean that the game features PhyicsX;)

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338

For starters, the Radeon HD 4850 looks to be the best buy at $199, even better than NVIDIA's price-dropped GeForce 9800 GTX. What's also unbelievable is that compared to the 4850, our beloved GeForce 8800 GT seems downright slow in a number of benchmarks - and the 8800 GT is only 8 months old. It's also very refreshing to see this sort of competitive pressure at such a reasonable price point, while it's fun to write about 1.4 billion transistor GPUs it's a dream come true to be able to write about this type of performance at under $200.

Take two 4850s, put them together and now you've got something even faster than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 in most cases. It shouldn't be too surprising since 8800 GT SLI and 9800 GX2 both outperform the GTX 280 as well.

OCZ Powerstream 1000W PSU is not enough to run their HD4850 in CF :/

And my Ultra 1kW? :D

On another note, don't need crossfire, still using an aging 19" LCD. :D

MSI unveils the MSI R4850-T2D512 and soon the MSI R4870-T2D512 will also be launched. The graphics cards are based on the ATI R4870 and R4850 55nm GPU’s and support the DirectX 10.1 framework of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Both graphic cards are equipped with 800 stream processors which achieve the unprecedented level teraflop (1000Gflops) computing capability. This is 10 times higher than any high-end CPU. The MSI R4870-T2D512 is the first graphic card equipped with GDDR5, also both cards support UVD 2.0 video decode, ATI PowerPlay power-saving technology and CrossFireX™ technology.

http://www.msi.eu/news/press/2008/PR.../PR_R4800.html

Both sides are going to have improved drivers as time goes on. ;)

Secondly, AA is not an issue anymore if you look at the results.

Third, the 4850 is as good as the 9800GTX+. It compares very favorably, winning as many as it loses. Two 9800GTX cards will outperform the GTX 280, therefore two 4870 cards should do so quite easily. 4850 Crossfire already bests the GTX 260 in some games.

What I don't understand is why people are saying 4850 consumes less power... it consumes MORE power than a single GTX 280 while offering less performance! http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=5

you made a typo

4850 Crossfire already bests the GTX 280 in some games.



close call in Crysis:



GTX 260 is not interesting product at current price, at €250-300 it will be an option... maybe. as 9800GX2 is not far off in price.


come again?


http://techreport.com/articles.x/14967/10

First time I've seen it beat a GTX 280. Just one game by itself isn't enough, usually GTX 280 has enough of a lead in other games with the exception of Crysis.

I posted the link already, look at 4850 CF power draw. Exceeds that of the GTX 280, and GTX 280 does perform significantly better in most games. According to your graph even the 3870 X2 has a higher power draw than the GTX 280 lol.