6870 vs 560 Ti (not overclocking)

[Simplexity88]

Hi all,

Considering the price, I'm trying to decide between a 6870 (I can get one for like 130/140) vs a 560 Ti (usually around 180-200). I'm not too comfortable with overclocking so I won't be doing any overclocking at all so consider that the 560 Ti will not be overclocked.

I've already bought an i5-3450 and a Gigabyte B75 Motherboard so those are set in stone.

Just some other general info if it helps - Budget is 650 not including peripherals or Windows. I've already spent 225 on the Motherboard and CPU so I have 425 left to spend on the GPU, RAM, Case, CD Driver and HDD. The purpose of this machine is gaming (D3, WoW, CoD), but also video recording and editing and streaming. I don't necessarily need the highest gaming settings but I do want good FPS.

Also, is there another midrange GPU around the 150-200 range that will come out in a month or two? I could hold off. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Simplexity88]

Quick bump, any response would be appreciated!

 

[wondermonkeys09]

Right of the bat, you WILL get better performance with the 560ti, especially since you have an intel processor. (Nvidia likes intel, AMD likes radeon.) Look it up online to see how much better it is, and then decide if it is worth the extra cash. As far as I know, there is no new graphics cards that are coming out any time soon that would fall into that price range.

 

[bctande1]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/547?vs=540

If you look at the benchmarks above, you can observe that the 560 doesn't yield much of a performance improvement over the 6870(with the exception of a few games like skyrim and starcraft, where you can see upwards to a 30-40% increase in performance)

And the games you'll be playing are not demanding at all (that's not saying they aren't beautiful looking games)

A 6870 will serve up all your needs.

So unless you are that adamant on getting that extra 3 or 4 fps, I'd say go with the 6870 -- OR --- even go a little bit less and grab a Sapphire 6850, it was my last card before I upgraded to a 7850 and it was great.

50-60 bucks cheaper with only about a 9% decrease in performance, which will be completely undetectable by the human eye on games like D3 and COD. I'd say use that extra money to get a Good quality HDD.

 

[Simplexity88]

Good feedback guys. Quick question - I've heard AMD drivers are really crappy (esp when it comes to 6xxx series support). Does anyone have experience/testimonial if this is true?

 

[akamrcrack]

Right of the bat, you WILL get better performance with the 560ti, especially since you have an intel processor. (Nvidia likes intel, AMD likes radeon.) Look it up online to see how much better it is, and then decide if it is worth the extra cash. As far as I know, there is no new graphics cards that are coming out any time soon that would fall into that price range.

So much fail in this quote.


AMD is out of the race performance PC wise, which is why no gaming rigs have any suggested unless you talk about a 955BE/965BE. Both would be noticeably slower than a Sandy Bridge processor. Meaning if you listen to this guy and pair AMD with AMD cards you are just screwing yourself out of performance you could have had.

Same goes with nvidia and intel. If intel is doing worse than AMD (which it hasn't for awhile) then you get AMD processors because you want the fastest cpu possible that doesn't create bottlenecks with graphics performance/daily usage.

Right now both Radeon and Nvidia cards are equal in performance. The only thing that matters is if you want to overclock and what your budget/case/power supply is.

For the processor, gaming wise I wouldn't buy anything less than a 2500K to keep up with the cpu intensive operations where a 955BE would lack.

So to sum up what the poster above me meant, "DERRRP"


6870 = best price/$
560ti = amazing overclocker

Get whatever fits your budget/whatever fits your case/whatever your psu can handle.

Don't go by brands alone or you will end up looking like the guy above me.

Good feedback guys. Quick question - I've heard AMD drivers are really crappy (esp when it comes to 6xxx series support). Does anyone have experience/testimonial if this is true?

I would say otherwise, the later drivers for the 6xxx series radeon cards is smooth and nearly doubles the performance of your gpu if you add a second one. The only real issues anyone has with drivers is micro stuttering which happens on nvidia as well.

Ive used both Radeon 6950s and Nvidia 670s with recent drivers and never had any issues. The only single thing you will have to do when you get your radeon card if you are gaming at 1080p or higher is go into your control panel (CCC) and find the "overscan" which you set to 0 to remove the black boarder around your monitor.

Right now both companies have well working drivers so the whole "I won't buy because driver is X" saying is out the window.

 

[Simplexity88]

Best answer selected by Simplexity88.

 

[Simplexity88]

Great, thanks for all that guys.