ATI 5970 or 5870?

[Steffwiz]

I'm a tech enthusiast and I like to stay top of the line. I own a GTX 295, and don't like it. It's really buggy and I'm looking for a new card.

I'm thouroughly convinced I want to switch to ATI. Nvidia is buggy, their cards use a lot more power and get really hot. You Nvidia fans might be able to convince me otherwise.

But, on to my real question. Should I buy a 5970 or should I buy two 5870s for CrossFire?

Only factors I care about are performance and ability to last. I don't want to buy two 5870s just to replace both of them in a month.

Any help would be appreciated, but I would prefer replies telling me about the pros and cons of both setups and not replies just telling me what I should get.

 

[treefrog07]

Get the HD5970, according to THG, August 2010, you'll spend ~$800 on two HD 5870s vs. ~$700 on one HD5970.

 

[Timop]

What Mobo do you have? I would say neither.

For you, dual 5850s are great for the money, OC it and you can easily surpass the 5970 performances.

Though as of right now, dual GTX460s are a nice option that matches dual 5850s performance wise for $100+ less, but you lose an upgrade path depending on your Mobo.

One last option is the GTX470 SLI, great value, but runs hot and sucks alots of power compared to the other 2.

 

[jay2tall]

ATI is buggy to. There last few drivers have caused some issues. But well come to highend graphics. haha.

The 5970 is a nice, card. I like mine and it runs pretty cool at idle and have only had issues when installing the latest drivers, so i rolled back. For a single card option the 5970 is your best bet. If you want to deal with the dual card fun, you can go for dual 5870's but you may as well just OC a 5970 to 5870 speed. OR do a dual GTX470 setup, which as mentioned above run HOT and sucks alot of juice.

 

[Maziar]

Between 5970 and 2 5870s i would recommend going with 1 5970,because it runs cooler,quieter,has less power consumption,requires one slot and also its only 10-20% slower than 2 5870s and its cheaper too.

 

[Steffwiz]

I have a EVGA X58 SLI Classified, so PCI-E ports aren't a problem. I should also note that money isn't a problem, I just don't want to waste it. I want the best performance, and I want it to last me a little while. I don't like the idea of dual cards, it just seems like it won't last long and then I have two of the card that I don't need.

I was thinking about the GTX 480 for a while, but benchmarks show that while it's quite nice, it takes double the energy and gets twice as hot. It also suffers under pressure to where the 5870 actually pushes ahead.

And after my GTX 295, I don't really like Nvidia. A lot of peope have told me I should switch to ATI. I think I'll be choosing the 5970 when I can afford it, but I'll still be monitoring this thread.

Which manufacterer would be the best for the 5970? I absolutely love EVGA (my system is built around them), but they don't make ATI cards! Unfortunetely. EDIT: Believe I heard XFX was the best for ATI cards, not too sure about that though. From reviews I've got it down to XFX, Gigabyte, Sapphire, or PowerCooler. The others have bad reviews for bad customer service, so forget those.

I guess I could add the main reason I disklike my GTX 295 is because the drivers (I would assume) are causing problems in some of my games, most notable World of Warcraft. I can run it at ultra without problem (WoW isn't very demanding), and still get around 100fps, but the game uses up it's 4GB of RAM and crashes, fairly quickly. I know it's not the games problem entirely (albeit some crappy coding), because this doesn't happen to other cards.

..and I guess I could also note that power isn't a problem. I have a 1250w PSU.

Thanks for all your help guys! I really love this place. <3

 

[jay2tall]

I have an Asus 5970 and have no issues. The voltages are unlocked and I've tinkered but really just left it stock because I get like 100FPS on everything. haah. Sapphire is the largest seller of ATI. Gigabyte is good, other people have their favs.

 

[Steffwiz]

I have an Asus 5970 and have no issues. The voltages are unlocked and I've tinkered but really just left it stock because I get like 100FPS on everything. haah. Sapphire is the largest seller of ATI. Gigabyte is good, other people have their favs.

I didn't even see Asus on Newegg..

 

[Steffwiz]

Best answer selected by Steffwiz.

 

[Steffwiz]

Thanks for the help everyone!