Best enthusiast card atm?

[jonnyrb]

So my 4870x2 just died, and I'm wondering what the best card is atm, To my knowledge it was the 5970.

Any input on cards?

Price range would be about $1000

I have a 775 socket with 1x pcie 2.0 slot... Which I plan to upgrade when Sandy bridge comes out to xfire capable board... I oc a q6700 cpu to 3.9 ghz to reduce bottlenecking.

 

[dalta centauri]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150500&Tpk=5970
Oops, over your budget.
Not about the speed, but the stupid looking gun that you can carry the gpu in...which I actually want.

 

[wa1]

HD6870 is a good choice if you ask me, no need to get HD5970.
Or, get a cheapest temporary card and wait until HD69xx series out...

 

[jyjjy]

Your choice at the moment is between the HD5970 and the GTX 580. They can both be had for about $500. The HD6970 is slightly faster on average(5-10%) but it is a dual gpu card so it will have issues in games that don't scale well(or at all) in crossfire. The GTX 580 also has significantly better performance in DX11 games/tessellation. More importantly is that you say you plan to add a second card when you upgrade the rest of the system. SLIed GTX 580 will scale MUCH better than crossfired HD5970s;
HD 5970s;

GTX 560s

The scaling at lower resolutions in the GTX 580 chart is CPU limited I believe, possibly even at 2560x1600.
What resolution do you plan on using? Unless your resolution is 2560x1600 or you plan on using a 3 monitor setup for gaming just one of either of these cards should be more than enough.
The other option is to wait for the HD6970 which should be out sometime next month and will likely beat the GTX 580. There's also the HD6990 which will be dual GPU like the HD5970 but you would have to wait until "early 2011" for that.

 

[Mousemonkey]

The other option is to wait for the HD6970 which should be out sometime next month and will likely beat the GTX 580. There's also the HD6990 which will be dual GPU like the HD5970 but you would have to wait until "early 2011" for that.

I saw a snippet the other day to the contrary of that. [:mousemonkey]

 

[jonnyrb]

Im now looking at the 5970 Ares by asus... it looks so beautiful... amgggg

any opinions?

 

[dalta centauri]

I saw a snippet the other day to the contrary of that. [:mousemonkey]

Snippets, you cutting articles out of our daily news?

Really though, I just see 1000$ and see, "I have enough for a new graphics card now, let's spend all my money!"

 

[Mousemonkey]

Snippets, you cutting articles out of our daily news?

Who would want to take any notice of a rumour that the 6970 won't be at the same price or more importantly, the performance level of the 580?

 

[dalta centauri]

Who would want to take any notice of a rumour that the 6970 won't be at the same price or more importantly, the performance level of the 580?

Of course, we could have the 6970 being an extremely hot card, same/slightly larger then a 5970, and run 5% better then a 580.
It's all a mystery until it happens.

 

[jyjjy]

Im now looking at the 5970 Ares by asus... it looks so beautiful... amgggg

any opinions?

It's about the worst value for the money you can find.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Of course, we could have the 6970 being an extremely hot card, same/slightly larger then a 5970, and run 5% better then a 580.
It's all a mystery until it happens.

The 6970 is set to replace the 5870 so I can't see it being any longer or larger.

 

[17seconds]

The GTX580 has PhysX and way better tesselation performance than the 5970.

 

[g00fysmiley]

ares is a very cool card but i'd probably get a placeholder card like a 460 and wait for the 6990 or at least 6970 to come out to see the benchmarks. 5970 shoudl have benches out soon release was supposedly slated for nov 22nd

 

[17seconds]

"The Bottom Line
The HD 5970 delivers faster gaming framerates compared to the GeForce GT 580. However, if you look at the actual usability of those frame the picture is a bit different. The GeForce GTX 580 allows a consistently higher level of the gameplay experience compared to the Radeon HD 5970. We were able to game at higher settings with the GTX 580 than we were with the Radeon HD 5970. The most important factor, beyond framerates, is the visual quality and experience returned by the product. The GeForce GTX 580 allows a more immersive, smoother, and consistent quality of gameplay."

"The largest issue we had was running into a video RAM wall with the Radeon HD 5970. There is 1GB of RAM available to each GPU on the Radeon HD 5970. This is simply not enough for the latest DX11 games."

"The Radeon HD 5970 runs into a wall at 8X MSAA at 2560x1600 with all the effects turned up. Performance becomes erratic, inconsistent, and downright unplayable. at 8X MSAA. However, on the GeForce GTX 580, which has more memory on board (1.5GB), performance is smooth, and most importantly playable at identical settings."

" If you already have a Radeon HD 5970, keep it, it is a great card and you already know that if you own one. If you are on a lesser generation, and looking to upgrade right now, no question, get the GeForce GTX 580 if you have the cash. The extra money spent will pay off with its higher VRAM capacity, and higher level of consistent gameplay experience. Plus, you can always hook up two GTX 580 cards in SLI that will surely blow the 5970 away, if you have happen to be independently wealthy."
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/11/14/geforce_gtx_580_vs_radeon_hd_5970_2gb_performance

 

[jyjjy]

^'immersive, smoother, and consistent quality of gameplay."

Can you explain me what do you mean by that?You are telling that 5970 cannot provide immersive, smoother, and consistent quality of gameplay inspite of higher framerate.
Are you some kind of crack?Or should i say blinded by fanboyism.Green Boy talking nonsense.

He isn't saying it, he is quoting an article. If you want to know what they meant you will have to read it.

 

[17seconds]

^'immersive, smoother, and consistent quality of gameplay."

Can you explain me what do you mean by that?You are telling that 5970 cannot provide immersive, smoother, and consistent quality of gameplay inspite of higher framerate.
Are you some kind of crack?Or should i say blinded by fanboyism.Green Boy talking nonsense.

The article is basically saying that the GTX580 can play at 8XMSAA, while the 5970 cannot.

And what is your deal anyway? If anyone is calling someone a fanboy, then you just called yourself out.

 

[17seconds]

Ok ok i missed that part.Matt you should have written Quote.I thought those were your thoughts.Sorry mate.

No problem. I understand. I know there is a "Quote" function somewhere, and I certainly like to use a lot of quotes, so I will look for it.

 

[g00fysmiley]

i didn't really like that article. it was definatly one way to interpret the results from benches but really it wan't even every game where the min frame rate of the 5970 was below the 580 .. also as the average was consistantly higher i can tell you which card i'd rather have would be the 5970... but i'm more in the 5770 or 460 budget area so my opinion doesn't count so much

 

[17seconds]

i didn't really like that article. it was definatly one way to interpret the results from benches but really it wan't even every game where the min frame rate of the 5970 was below the 580 .. also as the average was consistantly higher i can tell you which card i'd rather have would be the 5970... but i'm more in the 5770 or 460 budget area so my opinion doesn't count so much

Yeah, after seeing all the performance charts favoring the 5970, it was surprising to see the conclusions favoring the GTX580. Hardocp does their reviews a little differently, though, focusing on playable framerates and maximum playable settings. The bottom line, however, was merely the amount of on-board memory. Apparently, while the 5970 has 2gb, it's actually 1gb per chip, so overall only 1gb is the maximum. The 580 has 1.5 gb of memory, and that accounted for the discrepancy in very high resolution gaming. I'm sure the 4gb 5970 would pull ahead at high resolutions with 2gb per chip available.

 

[g00fysmiley]

yea. i understood the review, the 5970 basically had higher highs and lower lows in some cases. the gpu is definatly ram limited but its somethign i assume will be upped in the upcoming 6990, unless actual car dmanifactures want to staert making some memory upgrades now which would be pretty cool ... but unlikely given the time before the reeplacment card is released