5870 vs 470 for an EVGA Fanboy

[MrSpandex]

I have been waiting it out for Fermi, but I'm not really impressed with Nvidia's offering here. I'm considering switching to ATI, but I've only had one bad experience with a laptop card.

So, as I see it, I have two options:

5870:

• Quieter
• Cooler
• Generally better performance

470:

• EVGA/Nvidia product
• Cheaper

I have dual DVI monitors. I've heard the 480 has idle problems with dual monitors - does this affect the 470? I also heard there is a dual monitor flicker issue with the 5870 - any truth to this?

Also, any suggestions on a particular brand of ATI card? Who's the EVGA of ATI?

 

[Dark Shroud]

Who's the EVGA of ATI?

That would probably be Sapphire.

 

[Attic]

I'm not sure about the idle temp and power draw of the GTX470 when using Dual LCD's. The issue with the GTX480 was touted as more as a feature from some stuff I read about nVidia's response. Basically clocks stay high in 2D mode when running dual screens to avoid flicker, but this results in 90W more power draw at idle than when using just one screen and Legionhardware I believe was reporting 90C idle temps running 2 screens. The reason for the high temps was because the fan profile was set to not make to much fuss over cooling until higher temps, I don't have a problem with that personally, i'll take quiet and sacrifice temps anyday (to reasonable extent) The cards can run hot and be fine IMO.

A 5870 vs GTX470 can be pretty even at 1680x1050, but 1920x1080 and higher is where the 5870 is going to be the hands down faster card. Evga has always been great, always used them when I had nVidia cards. For ATI eqivalant, I can't help, I always buy whats cheapest, usually sapphire, had no problems, but never had an RMA experience.

The dual screen flicker issue with the 58xx series I can't comment on, but have heard it discussed so it's something to look into. I think bumping idle clocks fixes it, if new drivers haven't already.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

XFX, Sapphire, ASUS, and MSI are all pretty good. I would probably go with Sapphire or ASUS, XFX seems to be slipping a bit as of late.

A 5870 vs GTX470 can be pretty even at 1680x1050, but 1920x1080 and higher is where the 5870 is going to be the hands down faster card. Evga has always been great, always used them when I had nVidia cards. For ATI eqivalant, I can't help, I always buy whats cheapest, usually sapphire, had no problems, but never had an RMA experience.

I noticed in the benchmarks that the Fermi cards dropped in performance a lot more than the Cypress ones. I heard that was because the pixel shaders were bottlenecking the card? Is that true?

 

[badb0y]

The GTX 470 is a worthless card, if I was in the market today I would buy a 5850 and call it a day.

 

[Tempered81]

Sapphire, ASUS, XFX (get a reference designed PCB)

 

[Attic]

I noticed in the benchmarks that the Fermi cards dropped in performance a lot more than the Cypress ones. I heard that was because the pixel shaders were bottlenecking the card? Is that true?

I've heard various rationale for the behavior as resolutions go up, some say driver issue that will be worked out, i've heard memory controller inefficiences may be to blame, could be pixel shaders too.

 

[OCGuy]

Can never go wrong with EVGA.

BTW, you could put up "Would you rather sleep with your mother, or get a 270?" on these forums, and the polls would look about the same

I would just do the research, decide what is best for you, and pick that one.

 

[Red Storm]

The 470 and the 5870 are priced fairly competitively with each other, however the 470 manages to consume more power and run hotter despite having lower performance.

Honestly I'd forget both of them and grab a 5850. Cheaper than both, and a lot of people have been getting pretty good overclocks out of it if you're into that (YMMV of course).

 

[ZimZum]

470 is worse than the 5870 at pretty much everything.

 

[cbn]

It is hard to fault HD5870 (especially if you plan on playing a good amount of BFBC2)

However, I still think 470 GTX will be quite interesting for a lot of reasons.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

BTW, you could put up "Would you rather sleep with your mother, or get a 270?" on these forums, and the polls would look about the same

It's not that we're ATI fanbois, it's just, with the current numbers, most of us realize Fermi (especially the 470) isn't really the best buy.

P.S. I would rather get a 470.

 

[MrSpandex]

Honestly the only game that pushes the limits of my current card (GTS 250) is Battlefield, but any of these cards would be sufficient for that. I'd like to play more Empire/Napoleon: TW (which my current card can't handle), but I'm looking for the card to last a year or two anyway.

I am tempted by the 5850 - It would actually fit in my case without taking out half the hard drive bays, and the price is pretty good. But when I look at that, I think back to the 470 - which should have overall better performance. My real worry with the 470 is heat and noise. The 5870 is better in that area and would be a bit better performer, but it is a $70 price premium (today, anyway).

So I guess it all comes down to whether or not I'm willing to pay $70 for a better performing, cooler, and quieter card from a manufacturer I don't trust quite as much.

 

[cbn]

Another thing to consider here is overclocking limits.

We already know 480 GTX will go to 800 Mhz despite high core temps.

Could 470 GTX go to 800 Mhz also ( a substantial 33.3% Overclock)? How about 470 GTX on water? Or will the dual 6 pin power connectors be the limiting factor?

 

[MagickMan]

Agree with most here, get a reference 5850 and OC the shit out of it.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Can never go wrong with EVGA.

BTW, you could put up "Would you rather sleep with your mother, or get a 270?" on these forums, and the polls would look about the same

I would just do the research, decide what is best for you, and pick that one.

An arguement could certainly be made for the 480, it does offer the absolute fastest performance out of any single GPU, if that's what you want than the 480 is worth considering.

On the other hand the 470 just doesn't make much sense to me. 5% more performance than the 5850, certainly slower than the 5870 but with more heat/power use. Also, 5850's overclock to the moon. Unless you really want an Nvidia-specific feature, the 470 is just not that great of a buy in my opinion.

 

[badb0y]

Can never go wrong with EVGA.

BTW, you could put up "Would you rather sleep with your mother, or get a 270?" on these forums, and the polls would look about the same

I would just do the research, decide what is best for you, and pick that one.

I am sorry to use common sense and logic to give purchasing advice, I will never question the power of nVidia again.

It is hard to fault HD5870 (especially if you plan on playing a good amount of BFBC2)

However, I still think 470 GTX will be quite interesting for a lot of reasons.

Lol? What reasons? You said nothing at all in that post.

A lot of people are selling these cards at $400~, it has about 5% increase in performance over a 5850 while the 5850 hovers around $300 and the 5870 is better than 470 selling at about $400~. The rest is up to you, we can only recommend but the final call is yours.

 

[BenSkywalker]

The 470 runs about 5 degrees hotter then a 8800GT(2 degrees cooler then a 8800GT running Furmark).

Under load, the 470 is just over 2db louder then a 5870(7db louder then a 8800GT).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/19

Since you brought those points up as concerns, just putting some numbers on how big of factors they are.

 

[Lonyo]

There are some important considerations here:
What's your CPU?
What resolution are you playing at?
How long do you hope to keep the card?
Do you have a Crossfire/SLI motherboard (and would you want to use Crossfire/SLI)?

Sure, the HD5870 is faster when the resolution gets higher and you are running a 4GHz Core i7. But are you playing games at 1920x1080/2560x1600 with a Core i7?
If not, then a GTX470 might give you pretty much equal performance in 95% of the games you play and the settings you play at, and be cheaper.
Equally stepping further down might not hinder performance that much, but then it depends on how long you want to keep the card.


For example, you could get a single GTX470 now to save a bit of money over an HD5870, then in a year get a second for SLI (if you have an SLI motherboard) and use it for a planned 3 years.
Or you could get a single HD5870 and plan to keep it for 2 years at 1920x1200.
Or you could get an HD5850 if you have a 1680x1050 monitor with a Core 2 Duo and then upgrade your entire system in 12 months.

So it all depends on what your situation is.

 

[MrK6]

Can never go wrong with EVGA.

BTW, you could put up "Would you rather sleep with your mother, or get a 270?" on these forums, and the polls would look about the same

I would just do the research, decide what is best for you, and pick that one.

Yeah, you aren't butthurt or anything...

470 is worse than the 5870 at pretty much everything.

Pretty much, and to save $50 it doesn't seem worth it. I've kind of gone back and forth on this issue while waiting for retail GTX470's to come out, and now that they have, it really is an unimpressive part. What sealed this conclusion for me is that it is an average overclocker. Considering you can get the 5850 for up to $100 less, which will be much faster when both are overclocked, or the 5870 for $50 more, which will be much faster, especially once overclocked.

All that said, there really isn't much of a reason to get the new GTX4x0 parts besides being a fanboy, as there isn't one compelling argument. All that said, only you can decide how much the "fanboy" factor means to you. Personally, I'd say drop it and just get the best part for your money, you'll be much happier. I've owned several EVGA parts in the past and they are a fantastic company to deal with. Unfortunately, the products they are currently producing just aren't that appealing or competitive.

 

[RussianSensation]

I would take a 5850 at $290-300 over GTX470 and overclock it. But between GTX470 and 5870 wins in just about everything (other than Far Cry 2), unless you want to run Linux.

 

[Capt Caveman]

It is hard to fault HD5870 (especially if you plan on playing a good amount of BFBC2)

Wut? My 8800GT SSC plays BFBC2 fine. And I believe all ATI cards have a driver issue that cause a delay in entering a match allowing Nvidia card owners to be on the map much sooner.

 

[InfoTiger]

Wut? My 8800GT SSC plays BFBC2 fine. And I believe all ATI cards have a driver issue that cause a delay in entering a match allowing Nvidia card owners to be on the map much sooner.

Maybe you are playing at 1024x768

 

[Capt Caveman]

Maybe you are playing at 1024x768

Nope. 1920x1200 w/ Medium Setting, DX=9. 50-60 fps

 

[*kjm]

I also heard there is a dual monitor flicker issue with the 5870 - any truth to this?

They used to have a problem a long time ago.... I had it. They fixed it with Cat 10.1 if I remember right... been some time.