GTX 570 or 6950(70?) HD 2GB

[grasu]

Hello everybody! As the title suggests I'm having trouble deciding between those two cards. I tried asking this question on another forum but it seems I rather started an ATI vs. Nvidia war without getting much info. So can someone please help me out here?

Here's my question:

"Long story short: I'm looking to build a gaming computer after an 8 year hiatus. I've ordered everything for the computer except the monitor and the videocard and I'm having difficulties in figuring out which is the best card for the money.

The GTX is $320 at Newegg and the HD 6950 with a custom cooling solution is about $270-280. However, if I pay the premium for the GTX what exactly am I getting? Can someone please update me on the whole ATI vs. Nvidia stuff? Radeon beats the GTX family in just about every benchmark I've seen but Nividia boasts Physix and "The Way It's Meant to be Played!".

So can someone please tell me if I plan on doing both DX10/9 (Crysis, Empire: Total War, Medieval 2: Total War) and DX 11 (Civilization V - huge reason for buying a new PC, Shougn 2, Dragon Age, Wticher 2, etc.) gaming which card gives me the BEST OVERALL performance in the MOST games at 1080p? Or, if someone knows of another form of "comparing" these two cards I would gladly appreciate the help!

PS: If there's another SINGLE card solution for below ~$320 I'll take any recommendations "

 

[buzznut]

Hi Grasu, welcome.
The HD 6850 is a very long video card that does not fit in many midtowers, you didn't give specifics abou the case.
The general opinion is that the GTX560Ti is equal to or better in some games than the 6950. It is shorter, and costs a bit less. The GTX 570 should give a good boost above the HD 6950.

I would take a look at budget, case size, and power needs before purchasing a graphics card. I'm sure the GTX 570 would be a great card, but I don't know the particulars of power requirements and size.

 

[buzznut]

Oh yeah, the HD 6950's that are capable of unlocking are reference cards that are not guaranteed to unlock. They are also selling out quickly, and I hear the reference fans are a little weak and loud.

 

[bystander]

The gtx 570 is more expensive and faster out of the box, than a 6950, which are the prices you mentioned. A 6970 is about the same performance as a gtx 570. Some reviews show one or the other faster, which really is determined by which games they test. The 6970 is about the same cost as a 570.

The 570 has phyx, which is only used if you are playing a game that has GPU Accelerated PhysX support, there are about 20 of those, and most are older games. If you play games with the support, then you may like that feature, although not all games with GPU accelerated PhysX effects look great, but it is personal opinion.

The 6950(70) has morphological AA (MLAA), which can be handy when playing a game without AA support, which seem to be more and more common with the console ports.

The wild card is that 97% of 6950's can have their shaders unlocked so they have the same as a 6970, then you can overclock it to 6970 levels and beyond. This essentially gives you 6970/570 performance at a much cheaper cost. However, it's a 97% chance, not 100% chance.

This is THG's best GPU's for the money article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-game-performance-radeon-hd-6670,2935-4.html