Vista - XFX GTX 260 Black-opinions please

Hi all.
I've been wanting a new GPU for a while now as, even with the great new drivers, I'm noticing the limitations of my current BFG 8800GTS OC 512MB card in some of the newer games I've got.
I thought I'd see what the new 55nm refresh on Nvidia cards would turn out like but early reports don't sound good at all.
Also every time I look on a retail site here in the UK I notice the prices are creeping up. This must be something to do with the crisis of capitalism, dollar/yen rate etc.
So I thought I'd buy a new card immediately and wait until the end of next year or 2010 for DX11 to come along at a reasonable price.
Sadly my price range won't run to a GTX 280 or 4870x2 ( I prefer Nvidia anyway) so I'm looking at the XFX GTX 260 Black Edition. This has got great reviews and would hopefully tide me over for a year.
I can get it for £225 + Farcry 2.
So I'm looking for opinions on my choice. Would I notice a big difference? Have any of you got one?
My "buy now" finger is twitching so any advice would be appreciated.
Best wishes for the new year to all of you, John

Hey, i just recently built a new computer with an xfx gtx260 BE. So far I am loving this card. The only thing i will say is it can run a little hot, but its not really a problem. I am running on a 22" lcd, and i play all games maxed out flawlessly. Crysis, with everything set to high I am in the high 30s, low 40s.

My specs are:
i7 920
3x 2gb g.skill
xfx gtx260 BE
Biostar TPowerx58
Corsair 750TX

Look at the 4850x2. Its better than a GTX280. I have seen the 4850x2 for $299-$329 at Newegg and Zipzoomfly.

Hi John, if I had my druthers I'd get GTX 280, I like Nvidea cards and the drivers are better supported. However, the 4870x2 is a more powerful card



Norm

The 4870 X2 is more powerful, but far less stable. Personaly I have seen multiple 4870 X2 failures and rediculous temps from the high end ATIs.

Nvidia is the only way to go anymore. AMD is about totaly shot as far as quality is concerned.

But also consider the 9000 series they out do most ATIs as well, at an even better price. If you just want to kill a year and replace the card for a DX11 card, why waste the extra yen on a 200 series. Their good! Just pricey.

Hi Folks, Happy 2009.

Norm- if I had just a slightly larger amount of druthers I'd go for the 280 but sadly I don't.
All the reviews of the XFX 260 Black put it up there doing well against the stock 280 and the 4870 1GB.

Joel406. I think that waiting would mean a long wait for DX11 and 40nm to come down to my price range. Do you not think I'd notice much improvement with the 260?

The 4850x2 is just about in reach but I'd much rather stick with Nvidia and seem to hear of a lot of issues around this card. It exhausts into the case for one thing.

Overall I'd sooner stick with an Nvidia single card solution. Don't think I can do SLI with this mobo anyway.

Thanks for your support guys, John

You are Welcome John

Happy New Year to you and your familly

Norm

Hi john.....

i own the card in question... & its brilliant!!, its the fastest ''stock clocked'' 260 out there, & outperforms the vanilla GTX280 in most benches, & annihilates the 1gb 4870 in ALL benches...(that i've seen)

coupled with the fact XFX give lifetime warranty, & out of all the GFX vendors out there this one will replace ANYTHING, they don't care if you roll a tank over it & then RMA , as long as you have your proof of purchase they will replace no questions asked...

here is my vantage score....... stock GTX260 & 3.5GHZ C2D


very respectable.... i could break 14k if i had a quad & OCed the card slightly, but it munches any game at max while stock anyway..

great card....



SK

High temperatures are because their chassis lack proper cooling. You also need to leave the slot next to these cards open to allow extra air flow. ATI has fixed their driver issues. Nvidia has more open issues on games. I don't perfer either. I do my research based on the truth. 4850x2 is a decent card compared to a 280 on most reviews. Find reviews based on your monitor settings. My Viewsonic is 1680 x 1050. So I find reviews that show results for my setting.

Hi.

Michael, check here:

AMD Game Forums - 4850x2 not installing drivers

It doesn't sound like ATI have got their driver problem resolved.
I take your point about screen resolution. My Dell runs at 1920x1200.
Reviews I've looked at show the XFX Black doing ok at this res against the stock 280 and the 4870 1GB. Both the latter cards are slightly better but not by much.

In the case of the 280 it costs quite a lot more. The 4870 costs about the same and the 4850x2 is slightly more expensive but not enough to matter.

Problem is I can't find many reviews of the 4850x2 yet and the ones I have found are cautious if not negative.

Skunk seems very happy with his XFX and a big hello to Ubertoast. That's quite a rig you've got there.

This is a tough choice. I never used ATI before so I suppose I'm a bit reluctant to go with them. Also some sights are full of negatives and others totally ATI positive.
I'm sure the manufacturers rig some sites or have tame posters.
Better decide soon before the pound collapses totally.

Thanks everyone, John
PS Nice new avatar Skunk, is this a more assertive you for 2009