Dissapointing DX9 performance with new gen cards (6970, GTX 580)

[alcoholbob]

Is just me or is the brute force ability to put out polygons just getting pathetic these days?

Give you an example, a DX9 game (a engine from 2002 no less...) that over-renders polygons, Aurora-engine based NWN2:

In the NWN2 tutorial facing the town fair, at 1080p will full in-game details I have:

EVGA GTX 285 SSC: 27 fps

XFX HD5870: 32 fps

XFX HD6970 stock: 26 fps

XFX HD6970 OC 950/1450: 28 fps

EVGA SC GTX580: 36 fps


System is i7 3.8GHz, 6GB DDR1600 RAM, OS and game are run off of seperate Intel SLC SDD drives, Corsair HX1000 PSU, nothing running in the background, and running Windows 7 Ultimate and all drivers are up to date.

I do play some older DX9 games and I was debating whether or not I should keep the GTX580 or the 6970...the GTX580 has some horrible problems of it's own running off of receivers/HDTVs so I'm 90% certain I'm gonna ditch this card.

But really one thing is certain going through several DX9 tests...the 6970 is absolutely pathetic. Should I just OC my 5870 and forget upgrading for a while? Or is the current trend just going to be really sad performance when it comes to churning out pure pixels/polys and just going DX11/shader heavy?

 

[Skurge]

Is just me or is the brute force ability to put out polygons just getting pathetic these days?

Give you an example, a DX9 game (a engine from 2002 no less...) that over-renders polygons, Aurora-engine based NWN2:

In the NWN2 tutorial facing the town fair, at 1080p will full in-game details I have:

EVGA GTX 285 SSC: 27 fps

XFX HD5870: 32 fps

XFX HD6970 stock: 26 fps

XFX HD6970 OC 950/1450: 28 fps

EVGA SC GTX580: 36 fps


System is i7 3.8GHz, 6GB DDR1600 RAM, OS and game are run off of seperate Intel SLC SDD drives, Corsair HX1000 PSU, nothing running in the background, and running Windows 7 Ultimate and all drivers are up to date.

I do play some older DX9 games and I was debating whether or not I should keep the GTX580 or the 6970...the GTX580 has some horrible problems of it's own running off of receivers/HDTVs so I'm 90% certain I'm gonna ditch this card.

But really one thing is certain going through several DX9 tests...the 6970 is absolutely pathetic. Should I just OC my 5870 and forget upgrading for a while? Or is the current trend just going to be really sad performance when it comes to churning out pure pixels/polys and just going DX11/shader heavy?

What other games have you tried?

If the 5870 performs the way you would like it to, go ahead and keep that I would say.

 

[happy medium]

Should I just OC my 5870 and forget upgrading for a while?

Yes

 

[3DVagabond]

If I had a 5870 I'd just hang onto it.

I don't think the state of the art is advancing so fast, right now, that it's justifiable to upgrade every Gen. Unless maybe you were increasing monitor size as well.

 

[palladium]

...or get another one and CF it.

 

[digitaldurandal]

nwn2 runs terribly, has always run terribly, will always run terribly. How about playing another game before making a judgment about such things.

 

[faxon]

yea this issue is specific to NWN2 and ES3: Morrowind because the engine they use doesnt have a cut off for how far out it renders. to answer your question about which card to keep if you have all 3, i think it was supposed to be whichever one has the most memory, but i could be mistaken. this is also btw why at launch some computers that could run both morrowind and oblivion had better performance when running oblivion than morrowind. i remember my 9800 PRO i had back then seemed better in oblivion for sure xD

 

[nemesismk2]

Keep the 5870

 

[ArchAngel777]

Please give us other examples... Right now it looks like you tested one game and are making a case for all DX9 titles, which isn't logical.

 

[SlowSpyder]

...or get another one and CF it.

This is what I did. I am quite happy with this set up so far. It was a bit of a pain to get working, but that may have been more from my 2 year old Windows install. With a fresh install of the OS Crossfire is running quite nicely. I'd recommend getting in on another 5870 when they are cheap if you want an upgrade.