Looking to upgrade from GTX 260 to ATI, which card?

[reverze]

Hello all,

I'm looking to make an upgrade to ATI here in the next few days, and I'm looking for some help on choosing a card.

I have my eyes on this particular card, but don't know which brand I should go for, model, etc.

I do some gaming and enjoy playing RIFT, and would like to max it out... But perhaps there is a card for a smaller price tag that will perform what I need.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127581&

Can anyone give me some input?

Thanks!

 

[cheesy999]

gtx 570 is cheaper and slightly faster if you want to stay on the green team

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II OC GeForce GTX 570 (Ferm...

 

[silkstone]

Both the 6950 and 6970 are excellent. Google the reviews of different manufacturers, but all should perform more or less the same when overclocked.

gtx 570 is cheaper and slightly faster if you want to stay on the green team

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II OC GeForce GTX 570 (Ferm...

Damn, the 570 is that much faster? i found a 2nd hand 570 for $20 more than my card a day after i bought it

 

[BarbaricSoul]

personally, I wouldn't buy a factory OC'ed card. Just buy a "regular" 6970(like this one for $309.99 after mail-in rebate- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-161-356&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1) and OC it with MSI Afterburner or some other GPU OC program for free.

 

[neatfeatguy]

gtx 570 is cheaper and slightly faster if you want to stay on the green team

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II OC GeForce GTX 570 (Ferm...

I hear the 6970 and GTX 570 trade blows - but I don't follow the benchmarks much so I could be wrong. Either would be a good upgrade from the GTX 260.

If you wand AMD, 6950 or 6970 or if you want Nvidia, GTX 570 or GTX 560Ti minimum for a decent upgrade in the GPU department

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I hear the 6970 and GTX 570 trade blows - but I don't follow the benchmarks much so I could be wrong. Either would be a good upgrade from the GTX 260.

If you wand AMD, 6950 or 6970 or if you want Nvidia, GTX 570 or GTX 560Ti minimum for a decent upgrade in the GPU department

actually, speaking from experience and the fact that the 6870 is very near to performance of the 5870(I went from a single GTX260 to a single GTX280, to two GTX280 in SLI, to a single 5870), a 6870 would be a nice upgrade to be honest.

 

[reverze]

What about flashing a 6850 to 6870?... Maybe a sapphire?

 

[Law-II]

Hi

You would be wise to avoid sapphire; the build quality is not as good as it was at one time

atb

Law-II

 

[reverze]

Anyone else agree with the above statement? Haven't purchased in a while.

 

[Volkszorn88]

I'm running 2x 6870s atm (going to see if prices drop around oct-nov for bf3 ^^) and couldn't be more happy. I ran a single 6870 vs my other 5870 in different games and for the most part, it did better in most games.

And two of them in crossfire out perform a gtx 570 and 580. Not to mention the 6870 now is 190 USD on newegg, amazing price for this card.

 

[Batou1986]

I shouldn't say anything because your a Pen's fan but I have heard the same thing about Sapphire.
Not that it applies to ATI cards because they don't make em but EVGA has been pushing some junk lately as well.

My XFX 6870 should be here tomorrow, 187$ US + free shipping + Total War Shogun 2 + $20 MIR = Awesome.
XFX does lifetime warranty that's why they where my choice
Plus 2 friends have bought cards from them very recently 5870, 6970 and they have been great.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

XFX has great warranty but always get a reference card from them there aftermarket cards are the cheapest in quality of all AMD gpu vendors

Sapphire is AMD's premiere partner much like EVGA is for Nvidia and im sorry to say to the above Law II Sapphire has been rock solid

ive had a 4870x2, 2x 5850s, 2x 6970s, 4x 4830s and all work fine only the 4870x2 died but that was from a power surge and im in an old house with old wiring.

but in general

if its a reference design all vendors are equal

if its aftermarket stick to MSI, Asus, Gigabyte.
namely Twin Frozr II or III, Direct CU II, Wind Force etc as there coolers are the best of the many vendors for aftermarket cards

6950 easily trades blows with a 570, and in many titles out there right now a 570 cant hold a candle to it due to lacking Vram, even a 560Ti can easily push past a 570 in some titles due to hitting a big ol vram wall as the 560ti 2gb is cheaper but in vram limited titles it performance better., granted the games that hit this wall are small right now in numbers but that is changing.

Shogun II can use up to 2gb of vram
Metro 2033 hits 1500mb
GTA IV needs about 1800mb to max it
and theres more if you look for them.

id take a 6950 Twin Frozr II or III, or Asus 6950 Direct CU II 2gb.

but yea if i had the choice now id take 2x 6950 Twin frozr III gpus instead of the 6970s as 20-25'c cooler at full load and being quiet = awesome,

also seems the Twin Frozr III power editions 6950 2gb is able to hit 1000 core and stay under 70c full load and still be quiet.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Yeah Sapphire is just fine.

 

[wiak]

Yeah Sapphire is just fine.

jup, i have had both Powercolor and Sapphire and they are both the same quality

 

[hat]

I'd recommend staying away from ATI if you like vsync. True, it does work in most games, but in my experience, even when I force it on in CCC, I still get no vsync in Stalker. I have to use a 3rd party program called RadeonPro to get vsync. Other than that, I love my 5870. The raw performance it offers is fantastic. Since the 5870 is one generation behind, you might want to try looking at getting a 6970.

 

[btarunr]

What about flashing a 6850 to 6870?... Maybe a sapphire?

Won't work.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

weird hat no vsync hmm any other games besides stalker do that to you? cause i have Call of Pripyt and Shadow Of Chernoble and vsync works fine in both.. im interested since im on 6970s if theres vsync issues in other games you have id like to take a look into it.

 

[DOM]

XFX has great warranty but always get a reference card from them there aftermarket cards are the cheapest in quality of all AMD gpu vendors

Sapphire is AMD's premiere partner much like EVGA is for Nvidia and im sorry to say to the above Law II Sapphire has been rock solid

ive had a 4870x2, 2x 5850s, 2x 6970s, 4x 4830s and all work fine only the 4870x2 died but that was from a power surge and im in an old house with old wiring.

but in general

if its a reference design all vendors are equal

if its aftermarket stick to MSI, Asus, Gigabyte.
namely Twin Frozr II or III, Direct CU II, Wind Force etc as there coolers are the best of the many vendors for aftermarket cards

6950 easily trades blows with a 570, and in many titles out there right now a 570 cant hold a candle to it due to lacking Vram, even a 560Ti can easily push past a 570 in some titles due to hitting a big ol vram wall as the 560ti 2gb is cheaper but in vram limited titles it performance better., granted the games that hit this wall are small right now in numbers but that is changing.

Shogun II can use up to 2gb of vram
Metro 2033 hits 1500mb
GTA IV needs about 1800mb to max it
and theres more if you look for them.

id take a 6950 Twin Frozr II or III, or Asus 6950 Direct CU II 2gb.

but yea if i had the choice now id take 2x 6950 Twin frozr III gpus instead of the 6970s as 20-25'c cooler at full load and being quiet = awesome,

also seems the Twin Frozr III power editions 6950 2gb is able to hit 1000 core and stay under 70c full load and still be quiet.

from wiz reviews it doesnt seem the vram matters much at higher res and higher settings it seems its gpu power, thats why i went with the MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC

only thing i dont like about ati/amd is there ccc app idk y i never liked it

 

[hat]

I haven't run into anything else that I don't get vsync in... other than OCCT, even with vsync forced on it flies way above 75FPS. I remember having to disable vsync to prevent it from capping at 75fps on my older nvidia cards.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

from wiz reviews it doesnt seem the vram matters much at higher res and higher settings it seems its gpu power, thats why i went with the MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC

only thing i dont like about ati/amd is there ccc app idk y i never liked it

again shogun II
metro 2033
GTA IV need more then around 1500-1800mb to max out, 570 just cant do that

in 99% of games yes the 570 tends to be slightly faster then the 6950 and the 6970 slightly faster then the 570 but right now W1zzard only tests Shogun II in DX9 mode which runs on anything lol.

and metro is tested with AA on but Depth of Field off so it dosent put a full vram load on the gpus, so yea right now a 570 is badass dont get me wrong just ive noticed in more then a few games that vram will become its limiting factor not so much on avg frame rate but the minimum is extremely noticeable, Shogun II especially, its vram depended and cpu depended for the minimum and id expect that Battlefield 3 will also use a good chunk of vram.

stolen from Xstremesystems

2007-11: Crysis / Warhead: No more lag while quickly rotating my camera. Confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory easily.
2008-12: GTA IV: Famous for requirement of over 1GB video memory to max out graphics settings. Confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory easily.
2009-06: ARMA II: Reported to hit 1.5GB at 1080p. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
2009-09: Unigine Heaven Benchmark: Terrible lag spikes on 1GB cards. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
2009-11: Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2: Did not notice lag with 5870 1GB, however confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory by screenshots from nVidia users.
2009-12: Colin McRae DiRT 2: Confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory by screenshots from nVidia users.
2010-02: Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Did not notice lag with 5870 1GB, however confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory by screenshots from nVidia users.
2010-02: Napoleon: Total War: 5870 1GB would lag as hell during Picture-in-picture scenes, such like troops taking over buldings. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
2010-02: STALKER Call of Pripyat with complete mod: Confirmed to hit 1.2GB according to screenshots from nVidia users.
2010-02: Aliens vs. Predator: Reported to hit 1GB on a GTX 460 at 1080p, however no lag spike noticed. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
2010-03: Metro 2033: MSAA 4X (not AAA): Confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory easily. Even 470/570 gets killed easily.
2010-07: Starcraft 2：Mothership cloaking *MANY* Carriers leads to 20 fps on 5870 1GB but over 30fps on 6950 2GB. Confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory by screenshots from nVidia users.
2010-09: Civilization V: Confirmed to use up all 1.5GB of GTX 480 by screenshots from nVidia users.
2010-10: Lost Planet 2: Confirmed to hit 1.2GB by screenshots from nVidia users.
2010-12: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm: Running two instances (logging in two characters) concurrently in DX11 mode would definitely eat more than 1GB video memory, and 5870 1GB struggles at 2-3 fps, while 6950 2GB has no problem at 30 fps. Each DX11 instance is confirmed to approach 1GB video memory usage by screenshots from nVidia users.
2011-02: Bulletstorm: Confirmed to hit 1GB at 1080p according to screenshots from nVidia users.
2011-03: Dragon Age 2: No more lag/unbearable min fps with 6950 2GB. Confirmed to exceed 1GB video memory by screenshots from nVidia users.
2011-03: Total War: Shogun 2: AA is not yet supported officially, however fps increased from 30 to 40 during my upgrade. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
2011-03: Homefront: Reported to exceed 1GB video memory. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
2011-03: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Confirmed to use 975MB at 2450x1440 4xAA. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users for worst case of 1200p.
2011-03: Crysis 2 DX9: Confirmed to use up all 1.5GB of GTX 480 by screenshots from nVidia users.
2011-04: Shift 2 Unleashed: Confirmed to hit 1.3GB by screenshots from nVidia users.
TBA: Crysis 2 DX11: Still no ETA. Both nVidia and wiki have removed the DX11 feature description stealthily.
TBA: Digital Combat Simulator: A-10C: Reported to use all 1.5GB of GTX 480. Waiting for confirmation from nVidia users.
TBA: The Witcher 2

 

[DOM]

lol i didnt even notice he runs them at dx9

but i dont even play those games but i know gta needs it but when playing on ati it didnt look as good as on nivida for me

but also op needs to say how much he wants to spend

is there bench apps of those games out ? ill try them when i get the card see how it does

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

shogun II if you buy it has

CPU bench for testing cpus and overclocks
DX9 bench
DX11 720p
DX11 1080p
and custom settings bench,

but yea with the Darth Mod shogun II with 10 unit army vs 10 unit army hits 1200-1300mb of vram at 4xAA DX11, full armies of 20 units vs 20units or 2armies vs 2armies aka 40 units vs 40 units vram usage skyrockets, Its something id expect in future titles, that said for most of us we will upgrade before that happens

but yea grand scheme of things it dosent matter much, but if you ever go multi gpu vram limitations can kick you square in the nuts which is what happened on my 5850 xfire setup in alot of games. i had the gpu muscle just not enough vram.

 

[timma]

Gigabyte 6970 OC2 better than msi TWIN FROZR III
because gigabyte use windforce 3x desigen,three fans on it.

 

[Law-II]

XFX has great warranty but always get a reference card from them there aftermarket cards are the cheapest in quality of all AMD gpu vendors

Sapphire is AMD's premiere partner much like EVGA is for Nvidia and im sorry to say to the above Law II Sapphire has been rock solid

ive had a 4870x2, 2x 5850s, 2x 6970s, 4x 4830s and all work fine only the 4870x2 died but that was from a power surge and im in an old house with old wiring.

but in general

if its a reference design all vendors are equal

if its aftermarket stick to MSI, Asus, Gigabyte.
namely Twin Frozr II or III, Direct CU II, Wind Force etc as there coolers are the best of the many vendors for aftermarket cards

6950 easily trades blows with a 570, and in many titles out there right now a 570 cant hold a candle to it due to lacking Vram, even a 560Ti can easily push past a 570 in some titles due to hitting a big ol vram wall as the 560ti 2gb is cheaper but in vram limited titles it performance better., granted the games that hit this wall are small right now in numbers but that is changing.

Shogun II can use up to 2gb of vram
Metro 2033 hits 1500mb
GTA IV needs about 1800mb to max it
and theres more if you look for them.

id take a 6950 Twin Frozr II or III, or Asus 6950 Direct CU II 2gb.

but yea if i had the choice now id take 2x 6950 Twin frozr III gpus instead of the 6970s as 20-25'c cooler at full load and being quiet = awesome,

also seems the Twin Frozr III power editions 6950 2gb is able to hit 1000 core and stay under 70c full load and still be quiet.

Hi

I am glad someones experience has been better than mine,

The HD5970 OC edition that I aquired came with big issues that were not resolved strait away and required a bios flash out of the box just to function properly "wtf" , then told by sapphiretech that the bios was a beta version and I would loose some functionality through the OC software that came with the card, some functionality "it did not work"...; remember when you get the cold bug and the card refuses to opperate below 34c and then they changed the drivers to a lower voltage and 2D would flake out and you would have to adjust the registry to get it stable let alone 3D when oc the mem would not go above 1100Mhz without artifacts; my apologies rant over.

nb: I read alot of your post's they are v-good

atb

Law-II

 

[wolf]

Gigabyte 6970 OC2 better than msi TWIN FROZR III
because gigabyte use windforce 3x desigen,three fans on it.

Im not certain if it is better, both are excellent thats for sure. but I can definitely vouch for the windforce 3x cooler working magic, its frikken awesome. if I were in the market for a 6970 I'd seriously consider Gigabytes with the windforce cooler.