GTX 570 or Radeon HD 6970?

[Maelstrom]

I have wanted to upgrade my 5850 for a while now, but I wanted to wait and see how the 6970 did. Now, having seen W1z's review, I am unsure of which card I should get, the 570 or 6970. So I have come to ask for your recommendations. Which would you get and why?

I was thinking of getting either:
1) SAPPHIRE 100311SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5...
2) EVGA 012-P3-1570-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB...
If you know of any better deals, link 'em to me!

 

[overclocker]

I would get the 6970 because it will only get better with drivers + it has 2GB of ram, that will help future proof your machine.

 

[EarthDog]

570 would be my choice. but I F@H and it has better tesselation it seems (still).

2GB of ram wont be used for a looooooooong time, unless you plan on rocking gobs of AA in an eefinity setup. Both will get better with new driver releases.

Honestly, cant go wrong with either...

 

[Wyverex]

Personally, I'd take HD 6970, but as EarthDog said - you pretty much can't go wrong with any of the two.

I'd say, go with the one that's better for the game(s) you play often (if there is such a game) and/or chose based on feature set you like the most (eyefinity vs physix or some such)

 

[Maelstrom]

I'm leaning more toward the 570, simply 'cuse I haven't had a nvidia card for awhile, but I'll await more opinions. I also was thinking about starting to fold, so that would be a plus. Thanks to those who have replied.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Hmm, I would suggest the 6970 for the use of MLAA and EQAA. In particular 2xEQ for a bump in frame rate with similar 4xAA quality or 4xEQ which could offer slight higher IQ then 4xAA.

 

[wolf]

I'd pick the GTX570, it's a tad cheaper, and theyre known and shown to overclock like beasts, GTX580 performance should be a shoe-in.

having said that the 6970 isn't a bad choice at all, theres new AA modes, 2gb of fast GDDR5, eyefinity on a single card, and immature performance at this stage, it could end up being GTX580 performance in time.

 

[the54thvoid]

Win win with either choice. Buy the cheaper one.

 

[Maelstrom]

The new types of AA for the 6970 is interesting, and that powertune option is cool as well. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

570

Better drivers, less power consumption, cooler temperatures, CUDA, Physx and better folding. and overall better raw GPU power.

I'd pick the GTX570, it's a tad cheaper, and theyre known and shown to overclock like beasts, GTX580 performance should be a shoe-in.

having said that the 6970 isn't a bad choice at all, theres new AA modes, 2gb of fast GDDR5, eyefinity on a single card, and immature performance at this stage, it could end up being GTX580 performance in time.

Assuming ati can get their act together with drivers.

Now im not being all Bias towards ati because of as you can see my username is nvidiaintelftw. I had a HD5870 before my 470 and it was terrible. all drivers caused microstuttering with ONE card and the 2d clocks were always messed up with ever driver update. Now im on this 470 and its amazing! nvidia for now on


I see the 6970 as being a fail of a card right now. cant even beat a GTX480 in 70% of games and AMD has 2 generation chances to beat it. and basically they havent yet. (single GPu cards. not the 5970. thats a different level in my book) The true winner out of AMD new releases in the 6950. no one should buy the 6970. theres no point wasting that $80 for 5% or lower increase. the HD6950 is faster clock for clock and faster per dollar you spend

 

[the54thvoid]

570

Better drivers, less power consumption, cooler temperatures, CUDA, Physx and better folding. and overall better raw GPU power.



Assuming ati can get their act together with drivers.

Now im not being all Bias towards ati because of as you can see my username is nvidiaintelftw. I had a HD5870 before my 470 and it was terrible. all drivers caused microstuttering with ONE card and the 2d clocks were always messed up with ever driver update.

I've just ordered a GTX 580 so i'm defo not biased but you're so anti ATI it hurts. One bad experience does not make ATI suk. I had a GTX 295 and it had issues with drivers too. I went ATI for the 5 series and now I've gone back to Green for the single card solution. Stop going on about how shit ATI are - both companies do shit drivers on occasion and your PC's incompatibility issues aren't solely ATI's fault. I never had micro stutter on dual 5850's , i just want a change and certainty of smooth framerates (i.e. if a game doesnt support crossfire it kinda sux.)

Look at the scaling of the 6series from W1zzards reviews - it's freaking awesome. So stop ............ (i edit myself)

 

[Volkszorn88]

Oh remember the early days of when the GTX480 was released? How everyone bitched and moaned.
Not to mention, the countless Hitler videos on youtube bashing the 480.

Both companies are great and each bring something unique.

 

[Nirutbs]

y don't u get 5850 to cf..it's good.

 

[Over_Lord]

^^ good option, I dont see "THAT" much performance improvement of a HD6970 over a HD5870 and there aren't many DX11 full blown tess using games yet(not until next gen consoles, another 2 years SIGH!!)

an OCed HD5850 matching HD5870 performance would also do fine. Btw, ur dual core CPU bottlenecks more in newer games.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Have you thought about the 6950? The specs are practically identical with only a 100 some shader dif. The only thing holding it back is voltage, once afterburner adds volt support it's going to be the card to get.

 

[Melvis]

Id go with the 5850

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

I've just ordered a GTX 580 so i'm defo not biased but you're so anti ATI it hurts. One bad experience does not make ATI suk. I had a GTX 295 and it had issues with drivers too. I went ATI for the 5 series and now I've gone back to Green for the single card solution. Stop going on about how shit ATI are - both companies do shit drivers on occasion and your PC's incompatibility issues aren't solely ATI's fault. I never had micro stutter on dual 5850's , i just want a change and certainty of smooth framerates (i.e. if a game doesnt support crossfire it kinda sux.)

haha, give it some time, Im sure he'll calm down being a rabid ati hater , just like anybody else on the net. Semiaccurate should fill up the ati hating vent needs that with their register-less comment posting section

In anycase, yeah.. @Op, go for the cheaper one in your country. That will be the thing to decide on

 

[Thatguy]

570

Better drivers, less power consumption, cooler temperatures, CUDA, Physx and better folding. and overall better raw GPU power.



Assuming ati can get their act together with drivers.

Now im not being all Bias towards ati because of as you can see my username is nvidiaintelftw. I had a HD5870 before my 470 and it was terrible. all drivers caused microstuttering with ONE card and the 2d clocks were always messed up with ever driver update. Now im on this 470 and its amazing! nvidia for now on


I see the 6970 as being a fail of a card right now. cant even beat a GTX480 in 70% of games and AMD has 2 generation chances to beat it. and basically they havent yet. (single GPu cards. not the 5970. thats a different level in my book) The true winner out of AMD new releases in the 6950. no one should buy the 6970. theres no point wasting that $80 for 5% or lower increase. the HD6950 is faster clock for clock and faster per dollar you spend

stop running a broke ass install of windows.

 

[Montreal]

i vote for GTX 570, iam using msi gtx 580 and i think the between 570 and 580 performance is not too far

 

[ShiBDiB]

threads like this r pointless... all it does is bring out the fanboys

 

[Thatguy]

threads like this r pointless... all it does is bring out the fanboys

at this point with these 2 cards its a bit like comparing a corvette grand sport with a corvette base model. both basically identical with a few differences in trim level here and there and performance can go either way.

I say list out pros/con and price point and make the decision to buy what appeals to you the most and what you feel gives you the best value for your money.

it doesn't have to big a big gay fanboi circle jerk, people choose to behave that way.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I would get the 6970 because it will only get better with drivers + it has 2GB of ram, that will help future proof your machine.

Its almost impossible to future proof a PC. your GPU or whatever part becomes obsolete no matter what 6 months later.

 

[erocker]

I have wanted to upgrade my 5850 for a while now, but I wanted to wait and see how the 6970 did. Now, having seen W1z's review, I am unsure of which card I should get, the 570 or 6970. So I have come to ask for your recommendations. Which would you get and why?

I was thinking of getting either:
1) SAPPHIRE 100311SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5...
2) EVGA 012-P3-1570-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB...
If you know of any better deals, link 'em to me!

It's probablly best appropriate to answer the question yourself by answering these questions.

1. What will you use the card for?

2. What games do you play most often?

3. After answering question one and two, which card gives you the best performance for what you want to do with it and for what games you play?

 

[MxPhenom 216]

stop running a broke ass install of windows.

to bad. i reinstalled it about 3 times when i had my 5870. so obviously its not a broken install

the 570 is an overall FASTER more POWERFUL GPU in itself. The only thing you get with a 6970 is fast GGDR5 2GB of ram.

And people got to stop with the drivers will only make it better. we that it would with the 5xxx series. and the 2nd driver release for the cards after the cards were released were the only good ones that made a difference. then it went down hill from there.

DRIVERS WONT FIX EVERYTHING. THEY CAN ONLY IMPROVE SO MUCH

 

[Thatguy]

so got that genuine install disk from MS do ya ?I have had cards from nvidia and ATI never a problem. Never a single driver issue ever. running a real Install disk from Ms seems to help in that regard.Most driver problems at BIOS setup or corrupted files in the OS themselves. sometimes its just crappy game code, but more likely fualty OS, biso settings, bad clocks, crappy power supply.

I'd honestly venture maybe 1-10,000 user has a legitimate drive issue when they are complaining about driver issues, I bet the other 9,999 people just have no idea how to properly configure a system.


I have 50,000 hours on my primary winxp install, how about you ?

I actually need to replace this drive soon and I'll just do a straight copy, plug it in and it will fire up like nothing happened.

I also don't run any antivirus software, no firewall and no other BS.

learn how to keep your system clean and secure and it'll never be a problem.

to bad. i reinstalled it about 3 times when i had my 5870. so obviously its not a broken install

the 570 is an overall FASTER more POWERFUL GPU in itself. The only thing you get with a 6970 is fast GGDR5 2GB of ram.

And people got to stop with the drivers will only make it better. we that it would with the 5xxx series. and the 2nd driver release for the cards after the cards were released were the only good ones that made a difference. then it went down hill from there.

DRIVERS WONT FIX EVERYTHING. THEY CAN ONLY IMPROVE SO MUCH