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Buy a 5970 or wait

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Ok my dilemma is probably similar to many people in these forums. I'm looking to build a pc and order the parts friday, early next week at the latest. I'm content with all my selections, and I was going to pick a 5970 for my gpu during those rare moments when they come in stock. However, even though the new tech is always around the corner and there's no point in waiting, fermi is probably a month away. I've been drooling over having the performance of the 5970; and have been reading constant benchmarks and reviews of the card in anticipation. This gpu will last me till whenever the new generation of consoles comes out, and even though I don't always need to have the best(having a family and bills) I really want to splurge and get the most value for my money. I realize that the 5970 is overkill for most games, however if in one month something better comes along at a reasonable price I feel it would be stupid to buy one now. I'm going to build everything from scratch, and currently only own a 7805u. I was looking to buy a 4890 to hold me over till fermi and then sell it on ebay when the new card comes out. What do you guys think? Or should I just find a way to hold off on everything till the new 460/480 cards arrive and then decide to make my build? Thanks

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Graphics card Authority

I think it is a safe bet that, unless Nvidia pulls a magic money-crapping rabbit out of their hat, the prices on the DX11 gaming cards will be high. Will the price match the performance? No way to know until it is released.

I would buy the 5970 now, as it handles every game out there pretty flawlessly, not counting Crysis w/ 8xaa @ 2560x1600. It will destroy most titles for some time to come (think of how well even an 8800gts runs todays games) probably right up to the next console generation, which is probably due in 3 years or so.

Just theory and opinion :D 

Thanks man I'm pretty much looking for a reason to not pick a 5970, which i will probably get. I'm not going to get into eyefinity now but may use it in the future and it looks like ati's implementation of the three monitor technology is superior to nvidia's, which also makes me think about getting a 5970.
Graphics card Authority

Apparently, more than 2 monitors on the new DX11 cards will require an SLI setup, maximum of 2 monitors per card. This is a plus for ATI, but only for those intent on 3-monitor usage.

Also, there hasn't been a peep about the new Nvidia cards having a 2xGPU sku in the lineup. If that is true, then the Fermi gaming cards would need to best the 5970 to claim single card power crown. It is generally believed that the nvidia dx11 cards should best the current single GPU ati cards, which should be expected considering the 6 extra months they had to work on it. No one here can honestly know how much better they will be, or what price we will pay for them.
Graphics card Master

G300 (under the name of GTX480 or whatever) are coming. I have no doubt that such a card will be faster than a single 5870, but I don't think it will be faster than a 5970. The G300 is expensive to make, has low yields, sucks up alot of power, and as a result probably won't have a dual GPU configuration like originally planned. That means the 5970 is very likely to remain the fastest single card there is for a while and it is unlikely nVidia will be able to sell their G300 based cards cheap enough to force much of a move on the 5970 as far as price goes.

If you want a 5970 then get one. You can wait for Femi, which will certainly lower the prices of the 58xx cards, but don't count on the 5970 moving too much.

Thanks I was thinking the same thing. That the fermi will beat the 5870(it does come out 6 months later) but won't overtake the 5970. And I have heard that it uses 280w, only 20 under the limit so a dual gpu wouldnt be possible but I just wanted an opinion because I can't believe Nvidia would let ati hav e the faster card for a year or so, and was curious if the gtx 480 would be faster in your opinion. And no real benchmarks dont help much thats all
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