GTX 580 or 7870?

[netarangi]

I've been offered a brand new 1.5GB GTX 580 for $375 NZD, was going to jump on this but found out 2GB 7870's are $380 NZD brand new too.

Can't decide which to get, I understand the 580 will use more power, but putting that aside which would be the better option?

I've currently got a 650ti & playing at 1920x1080

 

[VulgarDisplay]

The gtx580 and 7870 perform pretty similar at stock speeds. Once overclocked the 7870 will pull ahead.

I'd go for the 7870 in this situation.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I would go for the 7870 over the 580 if those were my only two choices.

Have you considered using the 7870 with your 650Ti so you could retain many of the benefits of having Nvidia hardware, such as PhysX?

 

[parvadomus]

7870 has more VRAM, and power consumption is half of 580. Performance wise are on par.

 

[netarangi]

Looks like I'm going with the 7870 then. Thanks all.

 

[3DVagabond]

You can find them for less than that, depending on stocks (that's always interesting here.). Check www.pricespy.co.nz Just stay clear of the cheap Powercolor, as it doesn't have the best cooler.

You can get the Sapphire 7870XT, which uses the Tahiti GPU. Same as the 7900, just with 1536sp, and 2gig of VRAM on a 256 bit bus. It uses more power than the 7870 Pitcairn based GPU, but still less than a 580, and has better performance capability. Especially once O/C'd, or if you are doing any compute tasks.