Why is it more expensive?

[bluepurple]

So I'm on the verge of building my first PC, I was looking at the following HD 6870 and GTX 560Ti. The GTX 560Ti is more expensive, at £160 where the HD 6870 is £140, but when I looked at the specs I saw that the HD 6870 has:

Core Clock of 900MHz vs 822MHz on the 560Ti
Effective Memory Clock of 4.2 GHz vs 2.004 GHz on the 560Ti

So which one is better?

I don't know much about GPU specs so I thought I'd ask you guys before I buy one.
Here they are:
6870 - http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphire-technology-ati-radeon-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-pci-express-dvi-hdmi---2-x-mdp-7G0M.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product+search&utm_content=Q200
560Ti - http://www.dabs.com/products/gainward-geforce-gtx-560ti-822mhz-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-7BFX.html?refs=465340000&src=3

 

[antonisrsx]

560Ti>6870

 

[jsc]

anton is correct:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

You cannot use specs to make meaningful comparisons between GPU's with different architectures.

 

[bluepurple]

Ok thanks guys, so with Graphics Cards the specs don't really matter, but rather the model?

 

[unksol]

its not so much even the model that matters as they jump around and you can't assume a an AMD 5000 series card has lower performance than the same model model in the 6000 series. Nvidia does this nonsense too. The hierarchy chart is good but you really need to look st benchmarks for the cards. Toms has tools to compare them. Also for buying advice check this toms article.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-4.html

 

[bluepurple]

I did do some research, it is just that other 560Ti's have higher specs so I thought this 560Ti was inferior. It is hard to find reviews for this specific card as there is the more popular Gainward "Golden Sample"

 

[unlaughable]

a gtx 560 ti is a very nice card id buy it over a 6870.

 

[jessterman21]

It's always been this way when comparing chips; GPUs and CPUs. It's just like how a Sempron 145 2.8Ghz is better than a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, or how a Core i5-2400 3.1Ghz is better than a Phenom II X4 970 3.5Ghz. Better architecture trumps all.

Tom's GPU Hierarchy Chart is the Bible for comparing cards. Otherwise you can check benchmarks for your games on here or Techspot to compare how different GPUs perform in the game at different settings and resolutions.

 

[bluepurple]

Ok thanks, just so I'm clear, benchmarks for any 560Ti 1GB would be accurate for this version of it, even if the specs are slightly different?

 

[unlaughable]

buy it.
play some games.
if you dont like it return it

 

[Onus]

More or less. Most cards can be overclocked to at least some degree. It is often not worth the money to buy a factory overclocked card when you can do it yourself, although results vary. A high factory overclock will also be under the factory card's warranty, but likely not covered by the warranty of the one you overclocked yourself.

Edit: typo

 

[simon12]

The 6870 should be around same price performance as the 560 while the 560Ti is closer to the 6950 1Gb. I can find you a better price on the AMSD cards but can't find the 560Ti close to the £160 you saw.

6870 £128 http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-mini-displayport-hdmi-hd-687a-zhfc
6950 £160 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/ATI/ATI+6900+Series/XFX+Radeon+HD+6950+1024MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=45245

 

[bluepurple]

Ok thanks.

So this product for example http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/atihd6800series/nov-6850.html

Although it doesn't specify a manufacturer, at its core it will still be a HD 6850, as good as any other?

 

[jessterman21]

Yes, at its core. The deciding factor for most people is the cooler/warranty.

 

[bluepurple]

Do you think a 1 year warranty is sufficient? Surely after a years use the only way it would break is if the user broke it some how?