Get 2x 6870 or 570?

[total newb]

Hello,
im tending towards nvdia because they have better support (and the bad driver rep of amd), but the price of 2 6870 is actually cheaper and they run a lot faster. can someone tell me how noisy 2 6870 are on idle? and how hot do they get?

also how does 2 regular 560 compare against 2 6870?

 

[exeedorbit]

There are three things you need to take into consideration when going SLI/CF

Price of two cards: AMD is cheaper
Performance Scaling: Nvidia tends to have better drivers, faster.
Temperature: It's been shown that most (non reference) AMD 6870s run hotter at IDLE, but cooler under load than 560s.

A fourth might be important to some:

TDP: How much energy the cards use under load. The 6870s are actually more energy efficient compared to 560s.

 

[total newb]

i dont mind it getting hot at idle just as long as it doesnt melt under full load, but the noise at idle is REALLY important because i need to read alot of stuff on my comp and my psu is already like a leaf blower. and i dont mind energy cost as long as 650 watt is sufficient.

 

[inzone]

I would go with the 570 since the noise level will be lower and the single card will not have the micro stuttering that dual cards have. The 650w will be fine for the 570 and will be close on the two 6870's. While it is true that the two cards will give better performance than the 570 the difference is close enough that it's not that noticable. You would have to have 20fps and up for there to be a real noticable difference in performance. The other thing that is a possability is that later on you could add another 570 and have a real gameing powerhouse.

 

[DM186]

^+1
inzone is right the 570 would be less of a problem than having two cards. The only thing I would check is your PSU. A 600w PSU is required to run a 570. And yours is a 650 but depending on the brand and how many amps are on the 12v rail could mean problems or not. You might want to check your PSU and repost that info so we can make sure that it is good enough.

 

[total newb]

corsair tx650 V2. about the 12v rail thing, my mb is asrock extreme 3 gen3 and the 8pin connector on my psu didnt fit the 8 pin socket on the mb, but 4pins of the 8pins on my psu fits and there seems to be no power problems.

i know 2 cards will be a lot of trouble but ppl keep seeing 2 6870 is ALOT faster than 1 570 and 2 6870 is also slightly cheaper, so do u guys know if its worth the trouble? idle noise is critical, the gigabyte 570 is really quiet at idle and i dont know about any brand of 6870.

 

[inzone]

Sometimes the 4+4 type power connector is hard to use as you have to make sure that it is put together right , it usually snaps together. You can get away with the 4 pins as long as you are not overclocking.
Like I said the two cards will be faster but there is micro stuttering with two cards in crossfire and more noise so it will be a personal decision as to what you want to get.

 

[Gordon Freeman]

2x 6870 CF is allot faster than a GTX 580 just so you understand the performance you are looking at.

 

[Gordon Freeman]

Nvidia guys will say is has micro stuttering and AMD guys will say it has great performance and the answer is both are right but the real thing that makes 6870 CF a top setup is because the price/performance ratio is the best you can get bar none.

 

[inzone]

I don't believe in price/performance ratio because it keeps you from having a top preforming setup. I don't let price get in the way of having a top performing setup.

 

[DM186]

corsair tx650 V2. about the 12v rail thing, my mb is asrock extreme 3 gen3 and the 8pin connector on my psu didnt fit the 8 pin socket on the mb, but 4pins of the 8pins on my psu fits and there seems to be no power problems.

i know 2 cards will be a lot of trouble but ppl keep seeing 2 6870 is ALOT faster than 1 570 and 2 6870 is also slightly cheaper, so do u guys know if its worth the trouble? idle noise is critical, the gigabyte 570 is really quiet at idle and i dont know about any brand of 6870.

The answer to your question is your PSU is in the tier 2 spot which you don't have to worry. And the other things to look at is Nvidia does not have very much issues when it comes to drivers where AMD does.

If you are wanting a quite card 570 is it. If you want speed with noise but not a whole lot of noise just fan noise chopping the air type. Either way you choose you can't loose.

Me I want the 560 Ti's 448 cores and I prefer Nvidia cards on the high end were as the AMD cards I like on the low end. But it is up to you and I think you have a good clear picture of both sides and I want to wish you good luck on this.

 

[unlaughable]

buy a gtx 570 and you dont have to worry about alot of stuff.
no micro stuttering.
easy to use and setup.
physx is a plus.
what more do you need?

either get a gtx 570 or buy a brand new card.
7970 for example. or 7950 when it comes out.

 

[xerxces]

Two 6870's out perfrom one 570. Also, Crossfire has shown to scale better than SLI. I recently went through the same thing as you are and I ended up getting two 6870's. Only problem I have had is when playing very demaning games like BF3 I have to manually set the fans to about 80 persent. They are loud at that speed but with my head phones on I do not even notice. When it comes to SLI/CF, there are going to be some heat issues as the bottom card only gets a few cm to breathe.