New card dilemma

[IzodMalachi]

The VRAM on my old 4870 X2 tanked.
I need to chose between the ASUS Direct CUII 570
ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (F...

Direct CUII 6970,

and the MSI 6970 Lightning.

I only have a single monitor, with 1900X1200 res, so eyefinity is unnecessary. I am also not looking to crossfire or SLI any cards.
My system specs:

ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard

Manufacturer:
Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
Memory:
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive)
Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported
Monitor:
Acer P243WAid Black-Silver 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 400 cd/m2 3000:1 ACM
Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Operating System:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Motherboard:
ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard
Computer Case:
Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case


Post Update: Here are some examples of recent and currently released games that I play: Deus EX 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2, ARMA 2, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Unreal Tournament 3, World In Conflict, Company Of Heroes, Wolfenstein, Shogun II: Total War.

Upcoming games: Battlefield 3, ARMA 3, Diablo III, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

By the way; yes, Direct X11 is an absolute must. factory overclocked with increased airflow and extended lifespan preferred.

 

[JrRacinFan]

What games do you play or plan on playing that is upcoming? Going to go out and say a 6950 2GB (pick your poison on brand).

 

[blu3flannel]

What games do you play or plan on playing that is upcoming? Going to go out and say a 6950 2GB (pick your poison on brand).

I second this. If you buy a reference card, you'll be able to unlock the shaders and you'll essentially have a 6970. If you buy a non-reference card, unlocking will be less certain.

 

[IzodMalachi]

True, but where am I going to find a 2gb 6950 reference card these days? It is also extremely difficult to tell where one is being sold, or if it is a more recent update that is perma-locked.

That being said, out of the factory overclocked and custom coolant models I listed; which one is best all around for framerate, temperature, power usage, lifespan, and warranty?

 

[fireblade77]

well if it was me i would have this card
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (...
ive just gone from a sapphire 5870 VaporX to the MSI GTX580 of the above card with same cooler and the build quality is by far the best ive ever seen on all the high end cards ive ever had and im not one of these people who say ati is best or nvidia is best ive always gone for which is best for the games im playing at the time.
now here is the thing .....
when i was playing battlefield bad company 2 on my 5870 online every now and then i would get what looks like really bad lag and for a couple of seconds now and then (not that often) it would look like a slide show and i have 2 friends with ati cards and have the same problem.
and in all call of duty games im getting very high fps but it doesnt play smooth with ati cards i used to get a strange stuttering now and then but not like a slide show like the other problem it just wasnt smooth all the time.
now i have this MSI GTX580 and all problems gone and games just run so much better and i know it gets me more fps but i was already getting plenty of fps with my old ati card.
only other bad thing about ati cards is when u have a 2nd monitor and i dont mean to use as part of the game just to use so u can see when ur friends are coming online or ur temps as u play, when u watch a video clip or i think if a web page has flash on it u will get this bad flicker on the bottom half of ur monitor for a second and its been like this for years with all ati cards ive had.
i would still buy another ati card if it was better than nvidia for the games i play but right now for call of duty and battlefield nvidia and MSI build quality has it for me.
hope this helps.

 

[entropy13]

It's a toss-up really between the GTX 570 or the HD 6970, so it really depends on the games you'll play. If you check each gaming results for both cards, you'll know which one has a slight advantage where.

That said, MSI has Twin Frozr versions of both, so it would really depend on the games you'll play which to choose. I guess Asus and its DirectCU are available for both as well.

 

[IzodMalachi]

I decided on the 570 DCII, for price and Physx reasons. I do not really need the extra VRAM as much as I need the higher buffer speed and overclocking capabilities. Unfortunately, while they went out of stock yesterday, it said they had more in stock today. I tried to add mine to cart, but when I tried to view my cart to purchase I received this message:


"ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1 has been removed from shopping cart due to quantity limitation/insufficient stock. Some combo items might be affected by this.


Your shopping cart is empty.

If you think this is an error, please click this link for suggestions." Either they are low and accidentally changed it back, or they screwed up the cart feature for this item. I already emailed them about it and am waiting on a response. This is frustrating, as I want one before they sell out again. Any suggestions?


ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (F...

 

[wolf]

consider the Gigabyte GTX570 too, I have one and easily stand by it's excellent build quality (non reference like the MSI and Asus ones) it's fantastic cooler and overclocking capabilities.

mine runs near on silent at 900 core 4400 memory and is blazing fast at that speed. however it does seem the Asus and MSI cards OC higher on average, due to not only using better components, but a beefier arrangement of them too. however giga do make a "super overclock" variant that should work out as good, maybe better, the components used are superb. the one last advantage over the Asus card is, like the MSI one, it uses only 2 slots not 3.

GIGABYTE GV-N570OC-13I Rev2.0 GeForce GTX 570 (Fer...

GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N570SO-13I GeFo...

 

[entropy13]

Directron has the DCII:
http://www.directron.com/gtx570dc1280d5.html

Here are your alternative choices from Newegg:
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (...
GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N570SO-13I GeFo...
GIGABYTE GV-N570OC-13I Rev2.0 GeForce GTX 570 (Fer...

Here are Amazon links:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056GJLA8/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052XXC14/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XVMAKU/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[LordJummy]

Dude if you are willing to spend the money, GET THE LIGHTNING. You won't regret it.

Oh, also - think about getting the msi gtx 480 lightning. Good price, amazing card, beats the 570 with better memory bandwidth, and just plain awesome.

 

[ERazer]

if you have no plans for xfire/sli why dont you grab the fastest single card (580), just my 2 cent

 

[entropy13]

if you have no plans for xfire/sli why dont you grab the fastest single card (580), just my 2 cent

Nah, I'd rather the price difference between the 570 and 580 be used in a budget to upgrade his mobo/RAM/CPU in the future.