Is it time to upgrade from a AMD 5970?

May 11, 2012 1:22:40 AM

Just built new system this past weekend

Ivy Bridge 3770K ( @4.5ghz)
Asus P8Z77V-Pro
8GB Crucial PC1600
Vertex 3 240GB (also have 1TB WD Black for storage)
1000w Cooler Master Gold PSU
(I kept my AMD 5970 for the GPU)

My question is -

Is it time to upgrade my 5970 or keep it little longer? I only game (besides standard apps). I play on a 30" HP screen at 2560x1600 and love to crank everything up ( as long as i'm at or above 60fps consistently). If so, what would you suggest? Would I get a noticeable improvement by going to an NVidia 670 or 680 or an AMD 7970? The new dual GPU card (GTX690) is way too much right now and no word on the 7990 yet, so i'm not considering those anytime soon. Should I wait things out a while longer or upgrade? Any advice is appreciated and thanks ahead.

More about : time upgrade amd 5970

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jdwii

May 11, 2012 1:32:51 AM

buffdaddysmurf said:

Just built new system this past weekend

Ivy Bridge 3770K ( @4.5ghz)
Asus P8Z77V-Pro
8GB Crucial PC1600
Vertex 3 240GB (also have 1TB WD Black for storage)
1000w Cooler Master Gold PSU
(I kept my AMD 5970 for the GPU)

My question is -

Is it time to upgrade my 5970 or keep it little longer? I only game (besides standard apps). I play on a 30" HP screen at 2560x1600 and love to crank everything up ( as long as i'm at or above 60fps consistently). If so, what would you suggest? Would I get a noticeable improvement by going to an NVidia 670 or 680 or an AMD 7970? The new dual GPU card (GTX690) is way too much right now and no word on the 7990 yet, so i'm not considering those anytime soon. Should I wait things out a while longer or upgrade? Any advice is appreciated and thanks ahead.

If your playing at that resolution you should probably upgrade to a 680 or a 690. The 5970 is probably just as good as the 7950-7970. But a lot of games don't have very good CF support so i would get a 690 or a 680(smaller upgrade but will be noticed on games that don't scale well with the 5970)

Plus it will use less power and have less heat.

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gregck

May 11, 2012 1:33:04 AM

that's one beast of a card, i'd wait until you cant max out your games anymore then swap. no need to change it now and spend a ton of cash.

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inzone

Graphics card Master

May 11, 2012 1:33:21 AM

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-car...

If you look at this chart you will see that the 5970 is very high on the chart and there are only a handful of cards that are better. So unless you are having issues I think you are in a position to wait and see what comes out and in the meantime saving more money and maybe going for the 690.

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johnners2981

May 11, 2012 1:38:19 AM

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/587?vs=555

Judging from this I'd say no unless you're having problems due to two gpus on the 5970

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buffdaddysmurf

May 11, 2012 1:46:39 AM

I haven't had any performance issues playing at 2560x1600/High settings (may except for Metro 2033 and Crysis 2). Everything else I have played so far (Skyrim, BF3, ME3,Witcher2, etc) ran great.

I guess I will wait out and see what the AMD Dual GPU (7990?) is like as well as if the 690 comes down in price later this year maybe.

Thanks for the quick responses

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lncpapa

May 11, 2012 1:49:36 AM

I just upgraded my wife's and my daughter's computers to 5970s (from my old quadfire rig) after I upgraded to a pair of 680s. They are still monster cards and doubt I'll be upgrading them again for at least a couple years. It really comes down to what games you play. If you're playing many of the more modern games you may need to upgrade - I'd go with a pair of 670s if I were you. If you're still doing fine with what you play I'd sit and wait. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the 690 to drop in price anytime soon - the performance is just too high.

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