NEED HELP PURCHASING GFX CARD >> HELP

[vanbroeK]

Okay, a friend and I are undecided on what graphics card to get. We are building practically the same build and need help on choosing a decent graphics card for $150 downwards. Our main interests were in the Sapphire HD4850 512mb and the Inno3d 250GTS 512mb. It does not have to be a GTS or HD4850, we just want the best possible card available for $150 downwards.

Our Build specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD770/SB700 chipset/DDR3 1600
CPU: AMD Phenom II 550 DualCore 3.1GHz 7MB CACHE 80W BLACK ED (planning to unlock into a QUAD CORE)
RAM: I have 2GB of DDR3 while my friend has 4GB of DDR3.'
PSU not a problem

What we want to know is what is the best graphics card for us with reasonable explanation. (e.g performance in games) DOES ATI WORK BETTER WITH AMD?
Please we need help … really confused over the debate between HD4850 and GTS 250

NOTE: CURRENTLY IN AUSTRALIA SO WE ARE TALKING AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS (AUD)

 

[Yami]

I would say, go for the HD4850. The performance of the two cards is pretty much identical and the 4850 tends to be a bit cheaper.

 

[Hefemeister]

Right now ATI is going to be your best dollar per performance card.

Here is our gpu ranking threads.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/graphics-performance-list-212331/

The hd4850 will be the better performing card but you may have enough to pick up a 5750 which would be nice. They run $140ish in the states and it looks like 150AUD = $133USD but I am not sure of the price of cards in AUS.

 

[vanbroeK]

Oh ok we're leaning towards the 4850 atm, anything else I should know or consider?

 

[TheKaras]

The 4850 is a great choice. It performs admirably in a lot of games. The only drawback is that the 48xx series were notorious for generating a lot of heat and the stock heatsink/fan on the reference designs were quite loud.