Radeon 7870 Ghz Edition & starcraft 2 AA

[huitlacoche]

I've been doing a lot of research trying to figure out which card would be best for SC2 (and Diablo3).
My current system:
i7-920 Overclocked to 3.7ghz
6gb DDR3-1600
GTS 250

I'm trying to decide between a radeon 7870 ghz edition (GIGABYTE GV-R787OC-2GD) or a nvidia gtx 570.
I've read that the 7870 suffers with AA on but otherwise pushes a similar framerate to the 570. Can anyone with
a 7870 (ghz ed or not) give me some insight as to the performance of the card.

Thanks!
-- Mark

 

[rocknrollz]

The 7870 is a much better card, it is so good you can actually compare it to the 580 on some games. IMO, it is better than the 570 and only a little less powerful than the 580.

 

[farrengottu]

there are reviews that give you the info you want. for example
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/amd-radeon-hd-7870-ghz-edition-radeon-hd-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/12

 

[ricardois]

actually starcraf isn't a much GPU dependant game, neither will be diablo 3, they will rely much more on CPU, i personally would go with a 570 but the 7870 is already great.

 

[redeemer]

When you overclock the 7870 is can even perform close the stock 7950

 

[huitlacoche]

Thanks guys. Sometimes it's hard to understand the context of benchmarks.
I had compared the anandtech benchmarks and I found this one as well:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/radeon-hd-7870-ghz-edition-hd-7850_6.html#sect3

This one had the 570 holding out pretty well even with AA & AF turned on. Those claims actually made my gts 250 look better
(i get around 30-40fps on ultra and AAx4 and AFx8) than the 7870. This ran counter to anandtechs claims.
Nothings tested in a vacuum so its hard to know.

 

[bystander]

One problem with Starcraft II benchmarks is that AA is not available in game and when it was released, forcing AA on in the drivers caused major slow downs on AMD systems. About a month after release, the drivers were improved to perform pretty well with AA turned on.

 

[huitlacoche]

Best answer selected by huitlacoche.