Final thoughts and rating
As prices of mid-range cards continue to come down at a frenetic pace, the attractiveness of partner-overclocked cards begins to wane, but that doesn't mean there aren't a few decent packages out there.Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 Accelero XXX, likely to be priced at £210, performs the best in practically every area. It's the fastest, quietest, and best overclocker of the trio, and the package includes free games. We really like the Arctic Cooling Accelero XXX cooler, enabling whisper-quiet operation, and it's a well-thought-out package from start to finish. Unfortunately for UK buyers, stock availability is poor, and the sharp pricing of default-clocked GTX 260s means that it's not the bargain it may look on paper.
Moving on, XFX's Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1GB takes in the reference design with a modicum of overclocking. The larger-than-normal frame-buffer will begin to pay dividends if gaming at ultra-high resolutions and with everything turned on, especially as a greater number of texture-heavy titles are released in 2009, but the performance differences between this card and a Radeon HD 4870 512MB are minimal in our suite. Pricing is good, sure, but we'd be tempted to wait for the next iteration of ATI GPUs instead.
HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1GB's performance falls in line with the XFX card, and just shy of the Inno3D GeForce. We like the cooler, as it outperforms the reference by some margin, albeit not as quiet as the Inno3D, and overclocking is good. Much like the XFX, 512MB-equipped '4870s make this bundle, costing £205, seem expensive in comparison.
Given a straight choice out of the three with value taken into account, our nod would go towards the Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 Accelero XXX 896MB - it's the best hardware/software package.
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS.net scores products out of 100%, taking into account technology, implementation, stability, performance, value, customer care and desirability. A score for an average-rated product is a meaningful ‘50%’, and not ‘90%’, which is common practice for a great many other publications.
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
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Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 Accelero XXX 896MB
XFX Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1GB
HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1GB
HEXUS Awards
Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 Accelero XXX 896MB
HEXUS Where2Buy
Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 Accelero XXX 896MB pricing TBCThe XFX Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1GB is available, in stock, for £178.24 from ebuyer.co.uk.
The HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1GB is available, in stock, for £205.95 from ebuyer.co.uk.
HEXUS Right2Reply
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