GTX 570 or HD 5970

[sheeplolz]

Alright so I'm in a bit of a pickle here, i can either buy a EVGA GTX 570 (350$) or a HD 5970 from ATi for the same price but slightly used, from what i can see in the benchmarks the 5970 outperforms the 570 in most benchmarks even the 580 (sometimes) now i know that the 5970 is over 2 years old and the 570 is still fresh form last year.

I plan to play BF3 @ 1920x1080p High/Ultra and most high end games (crysis 2, Metro 2033, Skyrim)

what are your suggestions?

Computer:
Processor: AMD 965 @ 3.8 ghzx4
RAM: 4 GIGS @ 1600 MHZ DD3
PSU: 750 Watts

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'd suggest twin 560 Ti's for just $80 more ..... In Guru3D's game test suite .....

$ 430.00 Two 560 Ti (900 Mhz) in SLI - 862 fps @ $ 0.50 per frame
$ 350.00 570 - 524 fps @ $ 0.67 per frame

40% more frames at 23% more cost

 

[sheeplolz]

I'd suggest twin 560 Ti's for just $80 more ..... In Guru3D's game test suite .....

$ 430.00 Two 560 Ti (900 Mhz) in SLI - 862 fps @ $ 0.50 per frame
$ 350.00 570 - 524 fps @ $ 0.67 per frame

40% more frames at 23% more cost

Thanks for that well constructed and very helpful response, but unfortunately i cannot do any Crossfire or SLI , i should have added that in the OP sorry

 

[ross_mitchell]

Considering the games you want to play i would say get the 570. I am not a fanboy as I currently use 2 5850s in crossfire.

 

[Gothams Finest]

GTX 570, my opinion..

+1

 

[ilysaml]

Well As long as the HD 5970 is only compared with GTX 580, you can't put it in comparison with GTX 570.
HD 5970 > GTX 570. Argument is done here.
Regarding the 2 GTX 560 TI in SLI, yes they perform pretty good but you might also consider HD 6950s in CF, AMD HD 6K series scales better than nVidia GTX 5K series.

 

[ilysaml]

And I'm still recommending the best no matter what you prefer

 

[ilysaml]

@ mal, that wouldn't deny the fact that
1- HD 5970 is better than GTX 570
2- HD 5970 is doing better than GTX 570 in demanding games...Metro 2033/Crysis2

 

[ilysaml]

@ 384 bit, that depends on your definition of CPU bottleneck.
In most cases, a CPU bottleneck occurs in case of the CPU is not handling the game or you have excess of GPU power.
If i7 2600K is achieving higher FPS than 955BE...this is another thing to discuss.

taking mal recommendation "more FPS doesn't mean the best card" i agree with this 100% unless OP has a 3D monitor

 

[yummerzzz]

A bottleneck will limit the amount a card can do, not lower it.

get the HD 5970, your processor will hardly bottleneck it at 3.8Ghz, and if you ever want to upgrade to Eyefinity you will have the GPU and CPU power to do so.

Also, which 750W PSU do you have exactly?

 

[liquidchild]

the 5970 is used...Its way better but its not new...570 IMHO

 

[yummerzzz]

A single GTX 480?

You must have been doing something wrong.

 

[yummerzzz]

More likely you had a defective chip than a bottleneck, your in a very low percentage of people where a Phenom II 955 @4Ghz blocks any single card, let alone dual card.

@ OP : Here's some benches http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/297?vs=306

The HD 5970 only draws ~20 more watts, but shoots out massive performance increases in demanding games at high resolutions.

EDIT : If a new processor gets you an %100 increase, it's obvious something was wrong with the Phenom.

 

[gnomio]

It will bottleneck it.....
My 480 was bottlenecked by a 4.0ghz 955.....
Proof is in another thread.

it won't bottleneck with a 5970. Your basing it all on GTA Iv. Which nvidia cards had a problem with period

 

[gnomio]

Black ops is not GTA IV pal

so your basing that all on one game which needs about 10 patches to run smoothly? We all know Black ops is a A bad port.

 

[yummerzzz]

Anyway, in that one game that somehow got you a %100 increase, and you are in the 3 people who have done this and proved it.

What has this got to do with what GPU OP needs to buy, CPU bottleneck isn't a reason, what if he wants to upgrade his CPU later on, he'll be wishing he kept the HD 5970.

 

[yummerzzz]

It doesn't handle it inefficiently, it handles it slightly worse, and I still see the HD 5970 scoring 48fps where the GTX 570 scores 36 in Metro, which is the most demanding DX11 game apart from Crysis 2...
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/297?vs=306

Also gets a 48 fps vs the 42fps of the GTX 580
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/297?vs=305

So no, the GTX 570 does not "Pwns HD 5970 in tessellation".

 

[ilysaml]

Bottleneck......
Test systems with a 5970 are overclocked core i7's or higher.

Let me tell you that a 980 BE is doing better than the I7 in the test suites.
And as i told you achieving higher FPS ccan be gained from several ways, an i7 CPU with HD 5970 achieving 100 FPS and X6 with 5970 achieving 90 FPS can't be included under the term "Bottleneck" at all.

 

[yummerzzz]

@ Mal. He has neither.

@ 384-Bit. It is at DX11 very high Quality.
I still stand by my recommendation of the HD 5970.

 

[ilysaml]

I agree with you that AMD CPUs is doing worse than Intel in CF/SLI but you can't say the a 955 BE will bottleneck HD 5970 because you had a bad experience with a CF setup.

 

[yummerzzz]

That wasn't your point.
Your point was the "Bottleneck".

Your starting to pull arguments out of air.

EDIT : The post I made was about 384-Bit btw...

 

[Gothams Finest]

So you rolled back your original opinion....

He does that a lot mate.

 

[ilysaml]

and the current cost of the HD 5970 is still outrageous...
does not warrant the purchase if you can't get it for less than half original retail price..

It's a used card, and talking about prices is out of track.

 

[ilysaml]

@ gothems finest, believe me your level of knowledge and experience prevents me from replying you.

And the reason i didn't answer him is that i'm doing other business than keeping an eye on the thread.

 

[yummerzzz]

My last OT post.
5970 is a dual gpu card yes.
The game i tested with my 480 was black ops which was awful with the amd cpu.
So if my findings were bad with a high calibre single gpu, what is a 5970 going to do?
This was my point but i gather you missed it.

It's a single, console ported, horribly buggy game that had to get multiple performance patches.
I thought about it, but deemed it unworthy as it hardly made sense to use this as a basis for your point.