ATI 5970 or 160GB Intel SSD

[Rubycon]

My case was next to my desk with no obstructions blocking exhaust. I live on the top floor of a 19th century house, though. It also might have just been the weather while I tested the 480. I think I'll probably give the 480 another try, since I don't really have enough proof that it was what caused my room to get toasty.

If you run furmark count on about 1000 btu/hr PER 480.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Just one card, one monitor, and only games

I wonder what the FPS loss is going from a 5970 to a 480, if any.

 

[Rubycon]

Just one card, one monitor, and only games

I wonder what the FPS loss is going from a 5970 to a 480, if any.

If you focus on numbers it may seem more than you like. However if you focus on gameplay the 480 just plays better. That was my experience.

Its like reading consumer reports to buy a stereo system without actually listening to it! You buy it and aren't actually wowed. Then you buy another system and cannot believe how much better it sounds yet CR ratings were lower. At least that was my experience.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Okay, thanks. I'll see about finding a good home for my Asus 5970. Hard to believe I used both cards at one point and never bothered to compare the two.

 

[HumblePie]

Meh, I have a similar setup to the OP although I just did a refresh of hardware.

I have now:

i7 930 (looking forward to OCing it to see what it can do)
6GB of Patriot Viper ELK
120GB OCZ Vertex
1TB Samsung F3
2x 5870 for CF

I originally had a i7 920 but this weekend bought a 930 in hopes it will clock slightly faster and be a little cooler. Also a few weeks ago I picked up a pair of 5870s for CF. The 5870 CF is faster than a 5970 for about the same cost. So I didn't think the 5970 was worth it. I also game a 19x12 so like you, I like to have my eye candy jacked up and still get great frame rates. The 4870x2 was just feeling a little bit slow in some games as you said, at least when turning up the eye candy.

As for the SSD, I'd wait. I was even contemplating upgrading my 120 to a 256 sandforce, but am holding off for now. Waiting for the next round of refresh on the drives to happen soon. I'll migrate my 120 SSD over to my HTPC and put whatever bigger and faster SSD that comes out into my main rig. I'd rather do this than try to RAID together a new SSD as you lose TRIM support with RAID on SSDs. That, and there is no discernible difference to the human eye between a couple SSDs in RAID or not. Just pure benchmark numbers to give you a nice big ego boost to your epeen.


So my recommedations if you can afford it is to get two 5870s or at the least the 5970. Sell off the 4870x2 while you can.

 

[Kamorithm]

Thanks for the all the replies guys.

I have just ordered an XFX 5970 which should be here by the end of the week.