Need help choosing GPU setup!

[random]

Hi,

there are many threads about this, but currently I'm stuck, I have a large amount of money to blow on video cards and I don't want to make the wrong choice.


His 5970:
Currently $759 AUD best value for my money atm and should hit maximum perf at 1080p.

GTX 480 2-way SLI:
Scales well, performs like a magical beast from myths and has 3D vision. It'll cost a $1178 AUD, not exactly the best value for money and there's the heat vacuum problem.

GTX 470 2-way SLI:
This will cost me $858 AUD like the gtx480 it scales well. There are reference coolers out for this card so heat is not an issue. It supports 3D Vision as well.

5970+5870 Trifire:
Unsure about the benefits of this setup

5870 Crossfire:
Unsure about the benefits of this setup



Waiting for the 5xxx revision to come out on October is not an option. I can't wait and can always re-sell or do a swap back if it comes to that.

[Faith[ROG].Anarchy]

Ah those are all tough ones, specially you're having a lot of money for GPU scaling system.
Probably I'll go with 2 x GTX 470. But can we possible do a Triple CrossFire HD5970 + HD5870?? Not sure

[random]

Originally Posted by Faith[ROG].Anarchy

Ah those are all tough ones, specially you're having a lot of money for GPU scaling system.
Probably I'll go with 2 x GTX 470. But can we possible do a Triple CrossFire HD5970 + HD5870?? Not sure

from what I've read the 5970+5870 scales very well also.

[Faith[ROG].Anarchy]

Ok I see. So my choice is 2 x GTX 470. Having 3 monitors and try doing NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround. That's rock

[fullinfusion]

go Ati, green is behind the 8 ball my friend.... two 5870's will clock higher then the 5970 unless you up the voltage.... either way Ati is a win win situation.

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by Faith[ROG].Anarchy

Ok I see. So my choice is 2 x GTX 470. Having 3 monitors and try doing NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround. That's rock

thats funny, can green scale multiple monitors as well as ati?

maybe, but not as smooth... thats mo man...

get what you feel like, either way your going to be happy with green or red

[Faith[ROG].Anarchy]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

thats funny, can green scale multiple monitors as well as ati?

maybe, but not as smooth... thats mo man...

get what you feel like, either way your going to be happy with green or red

Ok, I'm not a fanboy both red or green. Just try to figure out the best config wish you understand

[random]

3D Vision surround sounds sweet, 3D vision alone makes dual 470 SLI seem much more future proof especially with the 5xxx revision coming out in October.

Heat and noise ain't an issue for the 470 SLI
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14821

[Faith[ROG].Anarchy]

Originally Posted by randomflip

3D Vision surround sounds sweet, 3D vision alone makes dual 470 SLI seem much more future proof especially with the 5xxx revision coming out in October.

Heat and noise ain't an issue for the 470 SLI
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14821

Thumbs up. Nice comment

[1nf3rn0x]

What do you want, best bang for buck? Or absolute performance?

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by Faith[ROG].Anarchy

Ok, I'm not a fanboy both red or green. Just try to figure out the best config wish you understand

Then get 2-3 5850's..... problem solved, and cheap to boot!

[random]

Originally Posted by 1nf3rn0x

What do you want, best bang for buck? Or absolute performance?

two words "The Best"


That's considering every single fact for the setups I've posted, not just price and performance. I've noticed the 5870 Crossfire to stutter alot in Metro 2033 DX 11 so I'm straying away from ATI for now unless I were to for the 5970 or someone can prove me wrong lol.

I have no problem with the price, but not going to go overkill and buy two 5970's if you know what I mean.

[1nf3rn0x]

Well in my opinion two GTX 480's are nice and you can always add more. Or two GTX 470's or two GTX 460's. They are all great, ATi 5850 crossfire, 5870 crossfire, one 5970. But in the long run the Nvidia cards will perform better as they have better scaling. Two GTX 480's munch a single 5970, imagine 3 or 4 GTX 480's! You'll be set for the next 2-3 years with 3 GTX 480's. Im pretty sure 3 GTX 480's out perform two 5970's. IF you want have a look at this review, Tri SLi performs extremely well. http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...y-sli-review/6

[random]

Originally Posted by 1nf3rn0x

Well in my opinion two GTX 480's are nice and you can always add more. Or two GTX 470's or two GTX 460's. They are all great, ATi 5850 crossfire, 5870 crossfire, one 5970. But in the long run the Nvidia cards will perform better as they have better scaling. Two GTX 480's munch a single 5970, imagine 3 or 4 GTX 480's! You'll be set for the next 2-3 years with 3 GTX 480's. Im pretty sure 3 GTX 480's out perform two 5970's.

Yeah but when summer hits I'd be inviting people over for a sausage sizzle on my GTX 480 SLI setup.

The 470's seem like a great choice at the moment though and my board gives the potential to add a third......

please help me choose

[1nf3rn0x]

Well, think about it....If they die from heat, they'll be covered with warranty, you have AC? I'm pretty sure you well if you have that much money to buy gpu's, add some spot fans, you case has very good airflow, they are made to handle the heat and who doesn't like sausage sizzles?

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by 1nf3rn0x

Well in my opinion two GTX 480's are nice and you can always add more. Or two GTX 470's or two GTX 460's. They are all great, ATi 5850 crossfire, 5870 crossfire, one 5970. But in the long run the Nvidia cards will perform better as they have better scaling. Two GTX 480's munch a single 5970, imagine 3 or 4 GTX 480's! You'll be set for the next 2-3 years with 3 GTX 480's. Im pretty sure 3 GTX 480's out perform two 5970's. IF you want have a look at this review, Tri SLi performs extremely well. http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...y-sli-review/6

You said it, 2-3 480's will be set for the next 2-3 years lol

It took them about that long to come up with a DX 11 gpu hey

ati= best bang for the buck..... + low current draw+ silent...

green = power suckers + loud as hell!

[1nf3rn0x]

My case is louder than my gpu fans. I always run my case fans at max, Antec Tri-Cool FTW. And under load his speakers will be up because he's playing a game.

[random]

Originally Posted by 1nf3rn0x

Well, think about it....If they die from heat, they'll be covered with warranty, you have AC? I'm pretty sure you well if you have that much money to buy gpu's, add some spot fans, you case has very good airflow, they are made to handle the heat and who doesn't like sausage sizzles?

You make a good point lol, I may go gtx 480 2-way SLI and add a 3rd one in later

[1nf3rn0x]

It's up to you, its your money, anyway hope I helped

[Hayder_Master]

my friend you are put duplicate chooses, i just need to know what are your chose depend on (money-performance-extreme), sure best chose will be 2x480 as an extreme chose but it's lot of money.

[Zubasa]

Practically I will just get a pair of 5850 and OC them, since most games are crappy console ports anyways.
A pair of 5850 OCed = cheap 5870 CF performance.

[crazyeyesreaper]

be aware a 5970 + 5870 can be safely run on a 850w psu but 2 overclocked 470s can hit 1000w peak draw 480s can touch 1100watts or more think of it this way 2 480s use 320w each at max load so 640w draw but its not 100 620 watts is closer to the actually gpu only load where as 3 5870s or a 5970 + 5870 will hit the same power draw roughly

cant find it right now but bodar did a review on crossfire from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 gpus using 5870s

found it

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBodar.../0/lCj4r2Gskqw

intresting look is Far Cry 2

1 gpu = 65
2 gpus = 129
3 gpus = 214
4 gpus = 236

where as the gtx 480 seems to be

1 gpu = 84
2 gpu = 151
3 gpus = 174 ( most likely cpu bottleneck here

in crysis 3 5870s get around 70fps

3 480s hit 87 and 2 hit 83

from the looks 3 5870s use less power and are faster then 2 480s but ymmv

for the most part tho 2 gtx 460s or 2 5850s max everything

and as far as the Metro 2033 thing ALL gpus struggle with that game i dont care if its nvidia or ati turn on the DOF settings and the game chugs on stock 5850s i average 50 fps at 1920x1200 with DOF off but DX11 very high with tesselation on

altho if you have the PCIE slots i suggest 3 5850s due to there overclocking and the fact that the tesselator in the 5850s is the same as the 5870 means as DX11 grows the gap between both will diminish and an overclocked 5850 is 3% slower on average roughly 1 fps in crysis etc if you get reference models they max out same as the 5870 and some have had luck flashing the 5850 with 5870 bios giving higher voltages allowing easy reach of higher clocks among other things just food for thought


again no matter what setup you pick your gonna have insane performance

[random]

A single 5970 seems to be the sweet spot judging from the responses I've received so far. In terms of power, performance and price.

[1nf3rn0x]

A 5970 is good, but 3 GTX 480's outperform 2 5970's if you wanna add another card down the line. You'd be better off with Nvidia. Reviews on Guru3d experienced bottleneck with 3 GTX 480's with an i7 930 At 4ghz, so there's still power left in 3 GTX 480's, it's basically unknown unless you have a 980x.

[Lionheart]

Originally Posted by randomflip

A single 5970 seems to be the sweet spot judging from the responses I've received so far. In terms of power, performance and price.

+1 too that bro, can you buy me one too