5870 1gb vs 2gb

[Dropmachine]

SO I am going to upgrade from an EVGA 250, but the reviews show little difference performance wise. I am planning on running 3x24" monitors at 1920x1200 each though, so will the 2gb make a difference?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

At that resolution you might see a difference. The big question is if you will be able to play games at high enough settings with just a single card to max out the 1GB. Unless you plan on going crossfire I would just buy the 1GB card and put the extra money towards and SSD or more ram in the future.

 

[Skurge]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/04/12/ati_radeon_hd_5870_eyefinity_6_performance_review/2

Seems like the only benefit is with crossfire, but its still hard to determine whether the increased performance is cause of the 2GB frambuffer or the higher clocks of the 5870 crossfire vs the 5970

 

[Grooveriding]

From my personal experience gaming at 2560x1600, there are situations at this resolution where 1GB is not enough vram. I would assume running your three 24" in eyefinity you would see the same.

It is highly game dependent and always becomes apparent only when trying to use AA. Crysis/Warhead and Metro 2033 are two games where I found myself vram limited with 1gb.

 

[RussianSensation]

I dont think a single 5870 can handle 3 x 1920x1200 monitors. I would consider GTX460s overclocked or GTX470s in SLI or 5850s / 5870s in CF instead of spending $500 on a single 5870 2GB. GTX460 1GB SLI is faster than both GTX480 and 5870 btw. Overclocked, it will likely surpass a 5970: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_460_SLI/25.html

 

[Dark Shroud]

5870 2GB. GTX460 1GB SLI is faster than both GTX480 and 5870 btw. Overclocked, it will likely surpass a 5970: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_460_SLI/25.html

Don't get too far ahead of yourself there, the 5970 has very high overclocking room. The 4GB 5970s are complete monsters.

 

[RussianSensation]

Don't get too far ahead of yourself there, the 5970 has very high overclocking room. The 4GB 5970s are complete monsters.

For $1000-1100? http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10012726

I think from a price/performance point of view, it's very hard to justify 2GB 5970 for $700 when you can get dual 5850s for $600 ($100 less), GTX470s for $560 ($140 less) and GTX460s 1GB @ 800mhz for $500 ($200 less). Performance will be very similar: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx470-sli_6.html#sect1

 

[solofly]

so will the 2gb make a difference?

Yes!

This is the only reason I'm not running triple screens. I don't like turning any settings down...(next time/round)

 

[Dark Shroud]

For $1000-1100? http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10012726

I think from a price/performance point of view, it's very hard to justify 2GB 5970 for $700 when you can get dual 5850s for $600 ($100 less), GTX470s for $560 ($140 less) and GTX460s 1GB @ 800mhz for $500 ($200 less). Performance will be very similar: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx470-sli_6.html#sect1

There are a few items here, The 5970 was made to be over clocked kick it up to 850-900+mhz and it becomes very good. Add in an after market cooler and it gets solid performance The main problem is that it's currently selling well over $200 of the original MSRP. If the prices come down now it will be the deal it was. The 5800 series cards need a price deflation now as well.

 

[TheUnk]

There are a few items here, The 5970 was made to be over clocked kick it up to 850-900+mhz and it becomes very good. Add in an after market cooler and it gets solid performance The main problem is that it's currently selling well over $200 of the original MSRP. If the prices come down now it will be the deal it was. The 5800 series cards need a price deflation now as well.

Yeah, the benchmarks they run for the 2GB 5870s vs. the 5970 are flawed. They attribute the FPS increase to the additional RAM when inface it's the fact that the 5970 comes stock underclocked.

They really should have compared 1GBs to 2GBs 5870s.