5870 replacement help

[Kouzidan]

Recently I had to RMA my 5870 which had been performing amazingly until some fan troubles kicked in last month. Recieved a email today that I am being refunded $340.00 for the card since they have no replacement for it. As I've not spent much time researching cards since I picked up the 5870 at the end of 09, I've been trying to grasp at what reviews are around that have compared the gtx 560 ti and 570 against the HD 6950 and 6970.

Several of the reviews showed overclocked cards going head to head with the 570 and 6970 trading off with one another while some have stated the GTX hard is superior due to a higher overclocking percent than the lower cap on the AMD cards.

Price wise the 570 and 6970 seem to be tied on newegg atm, and I've seen no recent reviews with updated drivers. After calling up 4 local Best Buys, and none of them have either card in stock, online ordering is pretty much my best bet.

It should also be noted that I'm only using a single 24 inch monitor so eyefinity doesn't come across as a huge selling point to me. I'm also not looking to do crossfire at any point with my system, so it more or less boils down to single card performance. Several reviews stated the 570 has better performance at and below 1920x1080 while the extra ram on the AMD card helps it beyond. My understanding of physx and cuda is limited at best so I don't know how big of a difference they will actually be for me.

Anyone offer any suggestion one way or the other since I'm not a fanboy of either company. (Killed that part of myself years ago with intel vs. amd)

 

[GaiaHunter]

It is a matter of what games you play.

I think the 6970 is somewhat superior overall though - it is also a tad more expensive.

PhysX gaming value is atm questionable and CUDA for gaming seems to be limited to some water effects in just cause 2 or something.

 

[3DVagabond]

The short answer is get a 6950 and unlock it.

The longer answer is, what's the rest of your system specs, what games do you play, do you want to add more money to what you have, what other activities and programs do you use your computer for?

 

[Kouzidan]

I'm willing to shoot upgrade of high 300's in term of price. Most of my gaming is fps in the form of ranging from AvP, BFBC2, the upcoming Natural Selection 2 and BF3, all the valve titles with a few RTS titles thrown in there.

My current system is a i7 920, orion 900w PSU, 6 gigs of ddr3 1600 ocz platinum, Asus P6T motherboard, 2x500 GB western digital HD, creative labs titanium fatality sound card, vigor monsoon III LT dual 120mm fan cpu cooler socket inside an Antec 900 tower running windows 7 64 bit. I'm using a Asus 24 inch monitor with 5.1 surround sound system set up around my desk.

Several articles mentioned the unlocking of the 6950 but my concern was flashing causing warrenty problems. While you could flash it back to stock if something were to occur, I prefer to avoid problems where possible.

 

[badb0y]

Buy a HD 6950 or a GTX 560 Ti and stash the rest of the money for the next generation of GPUs on 28 nm, should be like 80% faster than what we havE now.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I'm willing to shoot upgrade of high 300's in term of price. Most of my gaming is fps in the form of ranging from AvP, BFBC2, the upcoming Natural Selection 2 and BF3, all the valve titles with a few RTS titles thrown in there.

My current system is a i7 920, orion 900w PSU, 6 gigs of ddr3 1600 ocz platinum, Asus P6T motherboard, 2x500 GB western digital HD, creative labs titanium fatality sound card, vigor monsoon III LT dual 120mm fan cpu cooler socket inside an Antec 900 tower running windows 7 64 bit. I'm using a Asus 24 inch monitor with 5.1 surround sound system set up around my desk.

Several articles mentioned the unlocking of the 6950 but my concern was flashing causing warrenty problems. While you could flash it back to stock if something were to occur, I prefer to avoid problems where possible.

AvP favors 6970 last I checked. BFBC2 is close but the 6970 also seems to be on top. The valve titles should run fine in any of the setups and have no idea about NS2.

RTS titles.

Starcraft 2 is close as well. The AMD cards seems to have problems with 8xAA but not 4xAA or no AA.

Shogun 2, although not a pure RTS seems to favor the AMD cards.

Going for 6950 or GTX560 Ti is also an idea with merit.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you are going for value, HD6950 is the way to go (unlocked into a 6970). If you are going for top performance with overclocking, I'd consider a GTX570. Still, I'd probably grab a 6950 for now and save the rest of the funds towards a 28nm GPU upgrade. $245 HD6950 unlocked into a 6970 will perform as fast as a GTX570.

Review
GTX570 vs. HD6970

Honestly, I don't think spending an extra $50 isn't worth it for the GTX570, even if you consider overclocking. Generally speaking, if you were happy with the 5870, 6950 should hold you over until 28nm GPUs.

 

[3DVagabond]

The rest of your system is definitely "up to snuff". Nothing to create any bottlenecks. The gtx570 or HD6970 are the two fastest cards within your budget. Since you don't want to go the flashed 6950 route, we'll eliminate it as an option.

My choice would be the 6970 Lightning.
http://208.43.3.154/reviews/MSI/HD_6970_Lightning/


You could also just get the re-released Sapphire 5850 extreme for $150 and save the rest to go towards a future upgrade. It would be a step down in performance for you though.
http://208.100.30.144/article/sapphire_radeon_hd_5850_xtreme_1gb_review/

 

[Jacky60]

I'd go for a 2Gb card if you're looking forward to BF3. The maps are going to be the niggest Dice hacve ever made, the environment is destructible and there is 64 player multiplayer (where BF series always shines) all of which are likely to require plenty of memory. Unlocked 6950 is best value and performance right now.

 

[Silverforce11]

If you can grab new 5850s for $150, nothing beats its in value. Its a beastly overclocker as well.

Heck, you can grab 2 for $300 and CF it for a future proof setup for 1080p gaming. You can even skip 28nm GPUs if you intend to stay with a single monitor.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Shogun 2, although not a pure RTS seems to favor the AMD cards.

Though I must interject that Shogun is a AMD Evolved title, so it would explain better performance.

I would go with a 6950 like someone said, unlock it and save your cash for the 28 nm process.

 

[timma]

buy 6950 2GB and unlock it.:biggrin:

 

[Madcatatlas]

The rest of your system is definitely "up to snuff". Nothing to create any bottlenecks. The gtx570 or HD6970 are the two fastest cards within your budget. Since you don't want to go the flashed 6950 route, we'll eliminate it as an option.

My choice would be the 6970 Lightning.
http://208.43.3.154/reviews/MSI/HD_6970_Lightning/


You could also just get the re-released Sapphire 5850 extreme for $150 and save the rest to go towards a future upgrade. It would be a step down in performance for you though.
http://208.100.30.144/article/sapphire_radeon_hd_5850_xtreme_1gb_review/

That MSI Lightning card is just pure win. Beats the 580 in several games for 100$ or so less spent.

 

[happy medium]

Several reviews stated the 570 has better performance at and below 1920x1080 while the extra ram on the AMD card helps it beyond

For 280$ AR the gtx570 is unbeatable, you are absolutely right. If you overclock it the 6950 can not touch it even overclocked and unlocked @1080p.

Buy a evga gtx570 and you can overclock without worrying about warranty issues.

395$ for a 6970 lightning? thats a waste of money when you can buy a gtx 570 for much much less overclock it and have = performance for 100$ less.

 

[Kouzidan]

For 280$ AR the gtx570 is unbeatable, you are absolutely right. If you overclock it the 6950 can not touch it even overclocked and unlocked @1080p.

Where are you seeing a gtx 570 that low? It seems like the only card below/around 300 are the 6950s or grabbing two 5850s.

 

[3DVagabond]

For 280$ AR the gtx570 is unbeatable, you are absolutely right. If you overclock it the 6950 can not touch it even overclocked and unlocked @1080p.

Buy a evga gtx570 and you can overclock without worrying about warranty issues.

395$ for a 6970 lightning? thats a waste of money when you can buy a gtx 570 for much much less overclock it and have = performance for 100$ less.

Buying something simply because it's cheaper will never get you the best of anything. That's why I suggested the Lightning. There are cheaper 6970's as well. The 6970 and 570 are roughly the same performance (So is an unlocked 6950 as everyone else has said). As long as you don't need more than 1280MB of RAM, that is. Then the 570 crashes and burns. None of the games the OP currently plays are going to do that. Maybe not so 6mos. from now though. You just don't know?

 

[notty22]

For 280$ AR the gtx570 is unbeatable, you are absolutely right. If you overclock it the 6950 can not touch it even overclocked and unlocked @1080p.

Buy a evga gtx570 and you can overclock without worrying about warranty issues.

395$ for a 6970 lightning? thats a waste of money when you can buy a gtx 570 for much much less overclock it and have = performance for 100$ less.

The conclusion for the 6970 lightning review reads like that :

In terms of performance, MSI is using increased clocks of 940 MHz core and 1375 MHz memory which are among the highest available on any HD 6970 version. As a result the card gains about 7% in performance when compared to the unoverclocked reference design. However, this is not enough to surpass NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 570 which is a few percent faster and less expensive.

 

[1h4x4s3x]

If we take a straight average at 1920x1200 and 2560x1600, its performance is more or less equal to the GeForce GTX 570. In practice this means that NVIDIA wins a third of our games, AMD wins a third of our games, and they effectively tie on the rest, so the position of the 6970 relative to the GTX 570 is heavily dependent on just what games out of our benchmark suite you favor. All we can say for sure is that on average the two cards are comparable.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/25

That's what a proper reviewer would tell you and 3DVagabond pretty much nailed it in his first post. :thumbsup:

 

[3DVagabond]

The conclusion for the 6970 lightning review reads like that :

That's because the 570 is faster at 1024*768, 1280*1024, and 1680*1050. By ever decreasing amounts, I might add. At 1920*1200 and 2560*1600 the Lightning is faster. It's at the higher resolutions where improved performance matters. Who cares if the 570 offers 150fps, but the 6970 only offers 145fps?

Besides, it's not just the numbers that matter. The card costs what it does because it's better built. Stronger PWM and quieter more efficient cooling also add to the cost. This isn't even taking into account their claimed military spec components. Which I have no problem dismissing as marketing hype. It might be true, but it might not be worth any more than the words themselves.

I've seen too many articles and reviews that have shown the error of too minimal a power stage. The gtx590 is just the latest. I've seen articles on the reference 5970, 460, and 570 as well. Plus the recent article on the 6850 that I started a thread on. If I were buying a high end card I would want one of the premium built models. It's worth the extra 10% cost, IMO.

 

[SlowSpyder]

If you were happy with the 5870 you could always buy another and save a lot of money. The cheapest is $190 AR on Newegg. Otherwise for 1080P I say get a 6950 and overclock it. Then you can pocket the extra cash.

 

[sandorski]

I'm surprised they didn't just send you a 6970, given the size of the Cash they sent.

 

[Kouzidan]

If you were happy with the 5870 you could always buy another and save a lot of money. The cheapest is $190 AR on Newegg. Otherwise for 1080P I say get a 6950 and overclock it.

Refering to this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-316-_-Product

I considered it but was scratching my head at the reviews reporting issues related to the bios.

I'm surprised they didn't just send you a 6970, given the size of the Cash they sent.

That was what struck me as odd when they offered me as much as they did for the card when the message stated they had nothing of equal performance in stock. It was a moment of 'Really? The cost of the 6970 is literally the same as what you are offering me on Newegg.'

You've all been very helpful with making this decision. While I might not do the flash to 6970 bios immediately, the 6950 looks to be what I'm in the market for now unless some magical sale occurs between now and when my paycheck or rma refund hit, whichever gets here first.

 

[bryanW1995]

The short answer is get a 6950 and unlock it.

The longer answer is, what's the rest of your system specs, what games do you play, do you want to add more money to what you have, what other activities and programs do you use your computer for?

this is a good option.

An even better option is to grab a new 5870 for ~ $180 AR and pocket the extra $$ for a big upgrade when 28nm comes out.

 

[nyker96]

ok, I think to make a choice here, you should look at a few factors:
1. what resolution you play at, 1080p, so I think either card is decent at that resolution.
2. future proofing, from most reviews the AMD 69xx is said to have a architecture geared toward future games and NV 5xx slightly build for current games.
3. overclocking, I'd say probably 560Ti is slightly better here.

I personally like to OC so probably would get the 560Ti just for the tweak-ability factor. and if you run stock, I think the amd line won't disappoint you here. I heard the HD7xxx will be here in Q3, so I'd say just buy enough video card for now, save the rest for a upgrade later to a 28nm.

 

[Will Robinson]

If you are being refunded $340 for that card I would say "thanks very much" for such a decent refund and go buy another AMD card as a response.
Sounds like you had a good card and got a damn good response to your replacement request.