6970 vs GTX 570 (Photoshop CS5 + 11.4)

[nib95]

Hi there, basically I own both a 6970 and a GTX 570, and am not sure which to keep. Originally I was dead set on the GTX 570 as I required Premiere Pro CUDA performance, but as it turns out, I now no longer will be requiring such a thing till several months from now. So the only important aspects are gaming performance and Photoshop CS5 acceleration.

I also read just today that new AMD drivers have improved performance, and that Nvidia drivers are causing weak performance in DA2 which has swayed me over to ATI a bit.

For use with the following games...and Photoshop CS5, which is the better choice?

Metro 2033
Mafia II
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
F1 2010
Shogun 2: Total War
Starcraft
COD Black Ops
Dragon Age II

Future games

Battlefield 3 (one I'll be playing most)
Dirt 3
Shift 2
Crysis 2
RAGE
Witcher 2
Portal 2
Deus Ex HR

Currently gaming on a 24" 1920x1200 HP LP2475w monitor with a C300 SSD and a i7 920@3.9ghz.

 

[Arkadrel]

Metro 2033 (a wash, both run so close its less than 1fps differnce at 1920x res)
Mafia II (physx on, the 570 card is probably faster)
Crysis (the 6970)
Crysis warhead (the 6970)
Shogun 2: total war (no idea)
Starcraft 2 (the 6970, also has MLAA which works wonders for it)
COD black OPs (no idea)
Dragon Age II (the 6970, runs much faster than nvidia in directx 11)


future games:
RAGE (is openGL I heard, and supposedly nvidia cards are (much) slower at this)
Crysis 2 (its only Directx 9 atm,... the 6970 runs it abit faster than the 570 I believe)



*if* you really love photoshop, and need cuda, the 570 is the better choice.
So if your like semi proffessional photoshop user, that does x hours a day, the 570 is a no brainer.


the 570 and the 6970 are usually closer, or with the 570 slightly faster, depending on which titles you use to benchmark and compair. The games you play seem to be the ones that favor the 6970 though.

 

[nib95]

Metro 2033 (a wash, both run so close its less than 1fps differnce at 1920x res)
Mafia II (physx on, the 570 card is probably faster)
Crysis (the 6970)
Crysis warhead (the 6970)
Shogun 2: total war (no idea)
Starcraft 2 (the 6970, also has MLAA which works wonders for it)
COD black OPs (no idea)
Dragon Age II (the 6970, runs much faster than nvidia in directx 11)


future games:
RAGE (is openGL I heard, and supposedly nvidia cards are (much) slower at this)
Crysis 2 (its only Directx 9 atm,... the 6970 runs it abit faster than the 570 I believe)



*if* you really love photoshop, and need cuda, the 570 is the better choice.
So if your like semi proffessional photoshop user, that does x hours a day, the 570 is a no brainer.

So does the GTX 570 have better Photoshop CS5 acceleration than the 6970 then? I wasn't sure if it was limited to just Premiere Pro or Photoshop too. I use Photoshop daily as part of my work, so it's very important.

Based on your post though, gaming wise it seems like the 6970 might be the better choice.

 

[Arkadrel]

Honestly I dont know that much about it.... I believe when it comes to the OpenGL stuff, the AMD/Nvidia cards probably arnt much differnt in acceleration for photoshop CS4/CS5.

However there are some plugins (such as Digital Anarchy’s Beauty Box Photo plug-in), where the only option is CUDA... if you use alot of those, the 570 will be ALOT faster than the 6970.

We re talking about 14mins (no Cuda, cpu instead) vs 3.5mins (cuda, gpu).

So it ll make a huge differnce (when useing plugins like that).

*IF* you dont use any of those plugins, I dont see any real advantage to the 570, so it depends on what you use in photoshop. Still.... the safest bet is the 570, cant miss what you have (cuda).

 

[nib95]

Honestly I dont know that much about it.... I believe when it comes to the OpenGL stuff, the AMD/Nvidia cards probably arnt much differnt in acceleration for photoshop CS4/CS5.

However there are some plugins (such as Digital Anarchy’s Beauty Box Photo plug-in), where the only option is CUDA... if you use alot of those, the 570 will be ALOT faster than the 6970.

We re talking about 14mins (no Cuda, cpu instead) vs 3.5mins (cuda, gpu).

So it ll make a huge differnce (when useing plugins like that).

*IF* you dont use any of those plugins, I dont see any real advantage to the 570, so it depends on what you use in photoshop. Still.... the safest bet is the 570, cant miss what you have (cuda).

I currently use Portrairture to smoothen skin with my photography work, so not sure I'd ever use Beauty Box. The video version does look good though, but again, I doubt I'd be doing much video editing for at least another 7-8 months by which time I'll probably buy a new card.

 

[Arkadrel]

Since you have both, I think you should do a test with Portrairture.
(I believe it to be a OpenGL plugin, so both should be able to run it same)

Put in the 570, load a pic and try adding the filters, see how long it takes.
put in the 6970, load a pic and try adding the filters, see how long it takes.
(use same pic, and alterations, check times it takes)

Get out that stop watch, and spend 1hour (change cards, run driver sweeper,install latest drivers, before both runs) or so testing it and come back here tell us the results.

 

[nib95]

Any more posts on the subject?

 

[Skurge]

For the games you listed the 6970 is faster, I know nothing about photoshop so. Thats all I can really tell you.

 

[SolMiester]

Any more posts on the subject?

OP, I doubt either of the posters has both cards as you do, so I would say check the benchies yourself. This forum is full of green and red fanboys who post there own preference.
I know with DA2, there is issues with NV cards, however believe this is to be rectified with a driver release this week.
With the rest of the games, there is never really that much is in between the cards that you would notice.
Really at the end of the day, I think the call needs to be if you want acceleration on your photoshop, as both cards will run the listed games fine.
Personally, I think the AMD card with the greater RAM for future titles, however think the 570 extra features better for now!

 

[Arkadrel]

Do what Solmiester said, but ignore his advice about testing games. You can look up benches for that sort here on Anantech or otherplaces.

What matters to you is Photoshop (which is what you should test), and as far as I know, unless your useing a plugin that needs Cuda to be GPU accelerated, then both the amd/nvidia cards are useing OpenGL.

Run the "Portrairture" (that most likely isnt CUDA, from what I found on google),

*IF*the 6970 is faster than the 570 in this, and thats all you use photoshop for, then just sell the 570.

 

[nib95]

I would love to run benches with both cards, only problem is, if I do that I'd have to break the seal on either and lose out on the opportunity to return for a full refund. So I sort of have no choice, otherwise I really would have just tested myself

 

[SolMiester]

I would love to run benches with both cards, only problem is, if I do that I'd have to break the seal on either and lose out on the opportunity to return for a full refund. So I sort of have no choice, otherwise I really would have just tested myself

Sorry, missed the part where they were both new and sealed!...11.4 is new, will require careful searching for benchies, however as stated, i dont think there is much between these cards that you will notice!...

 

[nib95]

I think I'm probably going to stick with the GTX 570 SuperClocked. If only because I bought it for £284, and the price now seems to be £300 to £320. Based on the reviews it seems to perform nearly as well as the GTX 580, and I generally prefer pre-overclocked cards.