Gtx 480 or 6950 1GB

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

He's also talking 5850. A 6950 or 480 will be bottle-necked more, all else being equal. Of course, all of this is academic as the OP owns all of this equipment and is just going to drop one of these cards in.

After reading more of this thread I'm wondering if the best thing to do in his current situation is to just sell whichever card he can get the most for? There's a lot of "upgrading" the OP needs to do for either of these cards to run up to potential.

As long as he stays with a single graphics card he should be fine for the most part. Like I said also, his CPU should be around 40% faster than the E6400 at 3.2GHz, which helps lessen the issue.

 

[peonyu]

I swapped in the Gtx 480 and it was well worth it, from the games I tested the FPS is higher by about 10% out of the box. I havn't overclocked this card yet either and im kind of hesitant to until I see how hot it runs. But so far so good, I can get $150 at the least for the 6950 so good trade nontheless.

On another note, even though Ive been a ATI guy since the 9700 Pro came out [this 480 is my first Nvidia card since the Geforce 6800 GT] Im impressed by the stock heatsink on this card...The Diamond 6950 I have is flimsy compared to this card and weighs about 1/4th as much since its heatsink is just barely adequate.

 

[Grooveriding]

I swapped in the Gtx 480 and it was well worth it, from the games I tested the FPS is higher by about 10% out of the box. I havn't overclocked this card yet either and im kind of hesitant to until I see how hot it runs. But so far so good, I can get $150 at the least for the 6950 so good trade nontheless.

On another note, even though Ive been a ATI guy since the 9700 Pro came out [this 480 is my first Nvidia card since the Geforce 6800 GT] Im impressed by the stock heatsink on this card...The Diamond 6950 I have is flimsy compared to this card and weighs about 1/4th as much since its heatsink is just barely adequate.

Yes, by far the coolest stock heatsink ever. Looks nice in a case. But there is a good reason for the beefy cooler

 

[peonyu]

Yes, by far the coolest stock heatsink ever. Looks nice in a case. But there is a good reason for the beefy cooler

Yes there is, I ran Furmark and it stopped at 100c. Im used to high temps though and it didn't crash so its not a bother. But heavy overclock is out of the window it looks like [only have it at 800mhz now from 700 stock].

 

[notty22]

Its not recommended to run/pass furmark with video cards. From lessons learned from the gtx 480. The gtx 580 is engineered with both hardware and software to limit furmark's, burning ability. With 3 billion transistors, unreal loads can be placed on these chips and produce more heat than ever possible in gaming or any productive gpu application.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_580/3.html

NVIDIA has added a power draw limitation system to their card. When either Furmark or OCCT are detected running by the driver, three Texas Instruments INA219 sensors measure the inrush current and voltage on all 12 V lines (PCI-E slot, 6-pin, 8-pin) to calculate power. As soon as the power draw exceeds a predefined limit, the card will automatically clock down and restore clocks as soon as the overcurrent situation has gone away. NVIDIA emphasizes this is to avoid damage to cards or motherboards from these stress testing applications and claims that in normal games and applications such an overload will not happen. At this time the limiter is only engaged when the driver detects Furmark / OCCT, it is not enabled during normal gaming. NVIDIA also explained that this is just a work in progress with more changes to come. From my own testing I can confirm that the limiter only engaged in Furmark and OCCT and not in other games I tested.

 

[3DVagabond]

Yes there is, I ran Furmark and it stopped at 100c. Im used to high temps though and it didn't crash so its not a bother. But heavy overclock is out of the window it looks like [only have it at 800mhz now from 700 stock].

What are you running at your res that O/C'ing will improve upon? Aren't you just creating more heat and power draw for no real world improvement?

 

[peonyu]

What are you running at your res that O/C'ing will improve upon? Aren't you just creating more heat and power draw for no real world improvement?

Right now when I play games its mostly emulated PS2 games that I never played when they came out, some of those games chew through cards on that emulator and the stronger the card the better. I get 55 fps with the 6950 on Draqon Quest 8 at 2000x2000 internal resolution, while the 480 does 80fps at the same res. Im getting a new monitor next week to play Deus ex on [a real modern game for once] so its not entirely wasted. Heatwise both cards ran hot, maybe it was just the Diamond 6950 I bought, but it was never a cool card to begin with.

 

[3DVagabond]

Right now when I play games its mostly emulated PS2 games that I never played when they came out, some of those games chew through cards on that emulator and the stronger the card the better. I get 55 fps with the 6950 on Draqon Quest 8 at 2000x2000 internal resolution, while the 480 does 80fps at the same res. Im getting a new monitor next week to play Deus ex on [a real modern game for once] so its not entirely wasted. Heatwise both cards ran hot, maybe it was just the Diamond 6950 I bought, but it was never a cool card to begin with.

Ah, I wasn't thinking about using an emulator. Fair enough, if they chew through the GPU power. I'm not familiar, myself.

Don't confuse GPU temp with Heat. While there's often a correlation between the 2 they aren't the same thing. The 480 uses a lot more power than a 6950. Therefore it generates more heat. That's regardless of GPU temp. An O/C'd 480 will draw a ton of power (even not O/C'd they draw a ton of power). From the sounds of things, your case, or setup, doesn't have the best airflow. I certainly wouldn't O/C unnecessarily.

Notice that the 480 uses 125W more than the 6950. That's 125W more heat before any O/C'ing, which will increase power usage dramatically.

 

[happy medium]

Hey guys, I currently have a 6950 1gb [not unlockable] and I also have a Gtx 480 card that I received from a friend. I want to keep one card and sell the one I dont keep, my question is which card overall is better. Right now Im leaning towards the 480 since from what I have seen its overall a faster card, and it has more memory on it [1536MB].

Yes, keep the gtx480 and sell the 6950. You will not get much more for a gtx480 selling it than you would for the 6950 at this point.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2186973

I would keep the faster card with more memory and sell the 6950 and buy a nice 23/24 inch monitor.

 

[WMD]

At 1280x1024 even a Radeon HD 6850 is mostly overkill. Anything more than a 6870 is simply nonsensical. Stay with the Radeon HD 6950.

6850 at 1280x1024 is overkill? A 6850 can't even hit 60fps avg in Avp, stalker cs and crysis at that resolution with only 2xaa. Those games are 2 years old or more. In Bfbc2 and f12010 a 6850 can only hit above 60fps at 1280x1024 and below. How is it that overkill? Newer games like metro and crysis 2 are worse.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6950/7.html

 

[happy medium]

6850 at 1280x1024 is overkill? A 6850 can't even hit 60fps avg in Avp, stalker cs and crysis at that resolution with only 2xaa. Those games are 2 years old or more. In Bfbc2 and f12010 a 6850 can only hit above 60fps at 1280x1024 and below. How is it that overkill? Newer games like metro and crysis 2 are worse.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6950/7.html

He said MOSTLY overkill and he is correct. I have a gtx460 (=to 6850) and I can play all those games just fine @ 1280x1024 without overclocking.

 

[peonyu]

Ah, I wasn't thinking about using an emulator. Fair enough, if they chew through the GPU power. I'm not familiar, myself.

Don't confuse GPU temp with Heat. While there's often a correlation between the 2 they aren't the same thing. The 480 uses a lot more power than a 6950. Therefore it generates more heat. That's regardless of GPU temp. An O/C'd 480 will draw a ton of power (even not O/C'd they draw a ton of power). From the sounds of things, your case, or setup, doesn't have the best airflow. I certainly wouldn't O/C unnecessarily.

Notice that the 480 uses 125W more than the 6950. That's 125W more heat before any O/C'ing, which will increase power usage dramatically.

My setup does have poor airflow. I keep the tower in a cabinet which makes it hotter by a decent amount than it normally would be, but I have 2 side intake fans drilled into the side of the case that mitigates that for the most part, but not fully. And there are also 2 holes cut out of the side of the cabinet so it can pull in cool air...I should take some pics of how I have my cooling sometime, im sure it could be improved. The tower itself is a no-name white steel generic case that I bought for $20.00 when the AMD Athlon T-breds came out [yes its that old], so im sure the case itself sucks by today's standards. My bet is if anything, its the old case that is causing the trouble. Im not sure how much cooler a name brand newer case would be though [ambient temp is 50c for cpu/gpu, house is 21c/71f].

 

[bryanW1995]

The 480 is still boxed, and not opened yet. It was a RMA and my friend went with 2x 6970s and gave me the old one [he RMAd a "dying" 295 I believe and got a 480], If I open it its value is less.

As far as the monitor goes I can afford a 1080p one, im more concerned with how much extra $ a month/year a 480 will cost me with its power intake [if anyone wants to take a guess at how much, be my guest].

A few guesses are in order, but I'll take a stab at it.

I used Anandtech's 6950 launch review for much of this info. The reviewed a 2gb rather than 1gb 6950, but the numbers should be close.

gtx 480 uses 28w more power at idle and 129 more w at load than 6950. assuming that you game for a few hours per day, we'll use 35w more average consumption.

35w x 24h = .84 kw per day. A decent guess at your local power rate is 12 cents/kwh, so 12 x .84 = ~ 10 cents per day extra for the gtx 480.

10 cents/day x 365 days = $36.50 per year, or about $3 per month extra for the gtx 480.

As far as cost goes, if you're in the US the GTX 480 should cost around $40 more a year than a Radeon HD 6950 to run if you're gaming around 8 hours a day.

It's not that much of a difference; I think GTX 480 + new 1920x1080 monitor is the best choice.

I like your method better!


edit@OP: ok, I see that you kept the 480. With your claim of poor case airflow, I'd try to keep the oc on the card to a minimum. Also, 55-80 fps is a huge jump, but without a 120 hz monitor you probably won't notice much/any difference as it will only display 60 fps, anyway.

 

[peonyu]

I bought a core I5 cpu, a ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68, 8gb ddr 1600 ram and a Noctua cooler earlier today off of Newegg. So i dont think the gpu will be held back anymore [and might SLI it down the road hah].

I figured why not upgrade, since I noticed the 6MB cache core 2 Duo's and the high end Quads are selling for way more than they should be...I bought my E8500 a few years back for $110 and it now sells for $200-220. So i can re sale it for more than I bought it for. Once mobo and ram/cooler are sold I might be paying $200 tops [bought the I5 setup for $500 total].

Anyways I have a question, what is a good [and affordable] monitor to buy for under $150 that will run a resolution of 2560x1600 ?

 

[happy medium]

what is a good [and affordable] monitor to buy for under $150 that will run a resolution of 2560x1600 ?

Add about 900$ to that and you might find one.