GeForce GTX 460 SLI vs. Radeon HD 5970: Two Against One

[Skurge]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gtx460-sli_6.html#sect0

Its been up for 2 days, nobody posted this. :hmm:

Discuss.

 

[railven]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gtx460-sli_6.html#sect0

Its been up for 2 days, nobody posted this. :hmm:

Discuss.

I wish it had a 5870 Crossfire so we could see how Crossfire works against 5970 versus the others.

The BFBC2 numbers are interesting considering the other articles floating around of 460 SLI vs 5870 CF. I mean due to clock speeds I'd figure 5870 CF > 5970, correct?

Are these timed demos or FRAPs numbers? I guess now we'll see sides switch on which benchmark is better suited to represent the hardware huh? Haha.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Looking at those scores the Radeon 5970 seems to generally be faster than GTX460 in Sli, not surprising really.

In Final fantasy, one 5870 is beating slied 460 and 470s.

 

[railven]

Looking at those scores the Radeon 5970 seems to generally be faster than GTX460 in Sli, not surprising really.

In Final fantasy, one 5870 is beating slied 460 and 470s.

Woof FFXIV clearly doesn't like multi-GPU solutions or the drivers for both camps haven't optimized for that bench/game.

That same single 5870 is beating a 5970. And man the drop from 720p to 1080p is painful for the ATI camp.

Seems Nvidia takes the hit better, which makes me wonder...

I know FFXIV is again based on consoles as FFXI was, and I recall the PS3 version was the lead. Would lead me to believe nVidia hardware would fair better in the PC port due to the hardware in the PS3. Just my guess.

 

[tviceman]

I think this is kind of starting to beat a dead horse. The general consensus, from what I've gathered, is that a stock gtx460 in sli will be slightly slower than an hd5970, but any of the 775-800mhz factory overclocked gtx460's will generally be slightly faster than an hd5970. I think if you go for overvolting and max overclocks (which I haven't found a review that has done so) I'm guessing that overvolted 875-900mhz gtx460's will be faster than an overvolted/overclocked hd5970 simply due to the Fermi architecture scaling better with both SLI and overclocking. And when considering the pricing of both options, the gtx460 is the winner every time.

 

[Madcatatlas]

I think you are wrong.

Overclocked radeon 5970 on around 900 core and something memory should be able to handle gtx460 sli overclocked to 800

 

[tviceman]

I think you are wrong.

Overclocked radeon 5970 on around 900 core and something memory should be able to handle gtx460 sli overclocked to 800

I did not make that comparison. I said 900mhz gtx460's vs. overvolted hd5970.

There aren't any direct comparisons anywhere of overvolted gtx460's in SLI vs. an overvolted hd5970, but in this review here, http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3...b_overclocked_w_voltage_adjustment/index.html , a gtx460 @ 925mhz trades blows with a modest overclocked gtx470 (up by 50mhz).

And in Anand's review of the gtx470 in SLI here http://www.anandtech.com/show/3836/msis-geforce-n470gtx-gtx-470-sli/4 , the only game where the gtx470 SLI does not beat an hd5970 is in BFBC2. In most of the other benchmarks a gtx470 handily beats the hd5970 (~25% or more in Crysis Warhead, Battleforge, Dirt 2, Mass Effect 2...)

So, based on that, my educated guess is that a gtx460 @ 900mhz (which is generally slightly faster than a stock gtx470) in SLI would be generally faster than a overvolted/overclocked hd5970.

 

[MJinZ]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gtx460-sli_6.html#sect0

Its been up for 2 days, nobody posted this. :hmm:

Discuss.

Uh, if they were the same price, the 5970 is the better choice...

Not much to discuss yes? If you are not playing at 1920x1200 (at least), then you need to upgrade your monitor or why waste money on a GTX 460 SLI even.

 

[SlowSpyder]

It looks like the 5970 is plenty competitive in average minimum frame rates. Of course two GTX460's cost less. Nice review, both are good setups and depending on the game and resolution either can be the better solution.

 

[happy medium]

Are we still really comparing a gtx460 sli $460 solution to a $700 5970?
Game ,set ,match, over.




This is a threadcrap. Stick to the topic. if you can't, stay out.


esquared
Anandtech Administrator

 

[Madcatatlas]

yes happy medium, and you better get used to it. Seeing as we will get some bench scores from Keys and others aswell. Apparantly (for me) the single card 5970 performs better than two cards 2 x 460s in most tests.

 

[happy medium]

yes happy medium, and you better get used to it. Seeing as we will get some bench scores from Keys and others aswell. Apparantly (for me) the single card 5970 performs better than two cards 2 x 460s in most tests.

My point was ,why are we comparing gtx460's when 2 gtx 470s are more in the same price range?
2 gtx470's $560..... 5970 700$, well still 140$ more. 2 5870's are even worse.:\

It is nice to see you can get 5970 performance for $240 less with sli'd gtx460's.

 

[MJinZ]

My point was ,why are we comparing gtx460's when 2 gtx 470s are more in the same price range?
2 gtx470's $560..... 5970 700$, well still 140$ more. 2 5870's are even worse.:\

It is nice to see you can get 5970 performance for $240 less with sli'd gtx460's.

5970s are $600 now no? $650 cheapest one on Newegg, I'm sure you can find these for $600 without much trouble.

 

[Madcatatlas]

5970 beats 2x 470s in some tests aswell.

and newegg.com has it for 650$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-887-_-Product

 

[RussianSensation]

5970's intention was to have the single card performance crown, which it did for all of its span. Here is the thing, the only 1 time 5970 was recommended by me was when you could get it for $530-550 (this happened several times at NCIXUS.com). Since September of 2009, not a single time did 5970 make sense (unless the mobo didn't support CF) at $700 regardless of whether GTX460 was even available. GTX470 SLI and 5850 CF, especially, were always superior from a price/performance perspective.

The 5970 was arguably the worst priced videocard of this generation since its MSRP was supposed to be just $599. With 5850s now hovering at $250-270, GTX460s overclocked at $240, and GTX470 at $260-270, 5970 makes even less sense than ever. Regardless of how much faster 5970 is, its value is so horrendous, that discussing it is almost irrelevant.

Moreso, with HD6000 series some few months away, investing in a $700 graphics set up today is just a poor allocation of funds imo.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Agreed.

But lets not make that price advantage into a performance advantage for the GTX460 SLI.

 

[MJinZ]

Here is the thing, the only 1 time 5970 was recommended by me when you could get it for $530-550 (this happened a couple times at NCIXUS.com). Since September of 2009, not a single time did 5970 make sense (unless the mobo didn't support CF) at $700 regardless of whether GTX460 was even available. GTX470 SLI and 5850 CF, especially, were always superior from a price/performance perspective.

The 5970 is arguably the worst priced videocard of this generation since its MSRP was supposed to be just $599.

That's hilarious.

I paid $350 for my GTX 480 and I'm itchign to get another one :awe:

 

[Puffnstuff]

They should've included 480 sli in the results.

 

[Skurge]

That's hilarious.

I paid $350 for my GTX 480 and I'm itchign to get another one :awe:

What's hilarious?

 

[MJinZ]

What's hilarious?

The street price of 5970s.

 

[RussianSensation]

That's hilarious.

I paid $350 for my GTX 480 and I'm itchign to get another one :awe:

$350 is a sweet deal on the 480. Was it from TigerDirect.com ? You should have gotten 2 at $350 and sold the 2nd one for $100 profit!

 

[MJinZ]

$350 is a sweet deal on the 480. Was it from TigerDirect.com ? You should have gotten 2 at $350 and sold the 2nd one for $100 profit!

Dell. By the time I was going to buy the second one, they took down the deal.

 

[happy medium]

5970 beats 2x 470s in some tests aswell.

and newegg.com has it for 650$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-887-_-Product

SOme? more like barely one ,gtx 470's in sli beats the crap out a 5970 for $110 less, and compares better to $720 5870's in crossfire.
2 gtx 470 only cost $560

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3836/msis-geforce-n470gtx-gtx-470-sli/4

 

[waffleironhead]

Are we still really comparing a gtx460 sli $460 solution to a $700 5970?
Game ,set ,match, over.

Its not uncommon for the fastest single card to have a hefty price to it compared to much slower cards until there is something faster from nV there is no reason for the price on the 5970 to drop.

If you have a sli motherboard and the PSU to run it the 460's are a great deal imo.

 

[MJinZ]

Its not uncommon for the fastest single card to have a hefty price to it compared to much slower cards until there is something faster from nV there is no reason for the price on the 5970 to drop.

If you have a sli motherboard and the PSU to run it the 460's are a great deal imo.

Doesn't the 5970 use about the same power?

Also, the question of SLI vs 5970 is rather balanced, considering many cases out there won't even fit a 5970 no questions asked.