Gtx 580 sli vs hd6970 crossfire for 2560x1600

[prolymphocyte]

Kinda funny how the testosterone kicks in before anybody ask's what his system spec's are....Isn't it!



Then you should be fine with your choice of the 69xx's unless you go overclock crazy with them.

Whenever a person is looking for advice on gpu's I'd suggest they take everybodies opinions with a grain of salt as some seem to have loyalties to one side or the other.

Seems like one of Happy's postings is of some help in these situations

http://forums.anandtech.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=1567

Ha ha that`s kinda funny and I know that some people prefer one brand over another but in my case i really dont pledge allegiance to either as I am looking for the best performance I can get and whoever gives it to me gets the molah. Competition is always good for the consumer

 

[exar333]

I would also suggest the 6970CF solution unless you found a great deal on a 570 or 480SLI combination. Either the 570 or 480 will provide close to the same performance, and some 480s can be had for great prices.

To be honest, the 6950CF solution is probably the best bang for the buck; you can OC these very close to the 6970.

 

[toyota]

I would also suggest the 6970CF solution unless you found a great deal on a 570 or 480SLI combination. Either the 570 or 480 will provide close to the same performance, and some 480s can be had for great prices.

To be honest, the 6950CF solution is probably the best bang for the buck; you can OC these very close to the 6970.

480 sli is out too because it consumes the same amount of power as 580 sli.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I would also suggest the 6970CF solution unless you found a great deal on a 570 or 480SLI combination. Either the 570 or 480 will provide close to the same performance, and some 480s can be had for great prices.

To be honest, the 6950CF solution is probably the best bang for the buck; you can OC these very close to the 6970.

I agree. The 6950CF is very close to the 6970CF. For $600.00 it's a damn nice setup, and you'd have more RAM than a 570SLI setup.. AND it'd be $100 cheaper than a 570SLI setup.

The excellent CF scaling of the 6xxx series is making me hopeful for the 6990. :sneaky:

 

[prolymphocyte]

Awesome stuff guys very helpful! you sure make my decision much easier considering there are so many options to consider Now as far as the hd6970 goes any brand you would choose in particular(his,xfx, saphire etc) do you base that on which gives you better warranty or what?

 

[exar333]

480 sli is out too because it consumes the same amount of power as 580 sli.

True, I didn't initially see the 850w PSU. This would make me more inclined to suggest the 6950CF setup then. Good power usage and awesome performance for the $$$.

 

[Kenmitch]

Awesome stuff guys very helpful! you sure make my decision much easier considering there are so many options to consider Now as far as the hd6970 goes any brand you would choose in particular(his,xfx, saphire etc) do you base that on which gives you better warranty or what?

They are all the same cards at this point as they are all ref design as far as I can tell.

Options for purchasing

• Warrranty
• Brand Loyalty
• Pretty sticker you don't see

 

[n0x1ous]

Awesome stuff guys very helpful! you sure make my decision much easier considering there are so many options to consider Now as far as the hd6970 goes any brand you would choose in particular(his,xfx, saphire etc) do you base that on which gives you better warranty or what?

I think XFX is the brand to go with for AMD cards now. They seem to be about 10 bux more than others on the reference designed cards, but I believe they are the only AMD partner that offers a lifetime warranty, and its actually double lifetime in that its transferrable to a second owner. Sapphire I think is just a two year warranty.

I have owned two XFX ATI 4770's and I currently have an XFX 4670 in one of my PC's right now and have nothing but positive things to say about the cards and XFX. No issues with them and it was easy to register on the their site. Make sure you register within 30 days of purchase to get the lifetime warranty.

I think for the small price premium, its worth it and is certainly a factor in potential resale value vs. other AMD AIB's

 

[adairusmc]

I have two 6970 cards showing up Monday-ish to be used with my 2560x1600 monitor, I should know how well they work sometime that evening. I was all dead set on a GTX580 single card until reading some of the reviews for the 6900 cards.

 

[Arkaign]

It it just me, or does the 570 SLI seem to deliver better minimums than anything but the 580 SLI? All of the maximums are well above playable framerate, but there is a fairly large delta in minimums.

I don't have the bank to have to make this kind of decision, but if I did, I'd take better minimums vs better maximums.

I'd recommend either 6950 CF + OC or 570 SLI + OC. Make sure you have a power supply handed down from God though.

 

[happy medium]

It it just me, or does the 570 SLI seem to deliver better minimums than anything but the 580 SLI? All of the maximums are well above playable framerate, but there is a fairly large delta in minimums.

I don't have the bank to have to make this kind of decision, but if I did, I'd take better minimums vs better maximums.

I'd recommend either 6950 CF + OC or 570 SLI + OC. Make sure you have a power supply handed down from God though.

Thats why I chose the gtx570 sli and OC option. good minimums.
6950's seems good as well

 

[ArchAngel777]

Ha ha that`s kinda funny and I know that some people prefer one brand over another but in my case i really dont pledge allegiance to either as I am looking for the best performance I can get and whoever gives it to me gets the molah. Competition is always good for the consumer

Yeah that ArchAngel777 guy voted for them all! He wants everyone to be a winner.

 

[manimal]

The real question is what games are playable at your resolutions in one setup that are not in another?


Too often we look at the difference of 140fps vs 120 vs 90....so what.....

I turn on Vsync and only look at minimums...some here waste so much time arguing over useless frames...

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Notice how the gtx 580 card catches up in Metro.

There is no way in hell 2 6950's beat 2 gtx580's in Far Cry 2.
Same game same 1900x1080 res. with 8x aa. The 6950's lose big.
Use the op's res. 2500x1600 the gap would widen.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...firex-review/6


Eddit;
Metro 2033 gtx580 sli scaling is over 97% @ 2500x1600

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...0-sli-review/9

with far cry 2 its cpu limited
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...0-sli-review/8

Even Crysis warhead is cpu limited @1900x1080 with gtx580's in sli.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...-sli-review/11

Uh, you have no data supporting your Far Cry 2 statements. Besides does the game even matter? It's the only one to use its engine and both setups are getting over 100 fps.

Metro is not CPU limited, even at 1080.

And did you even look at the Crysis page? He's testing with Gamer settings and 2xAA. That's ridiculous! GTX580s will not be CPU-limited when Warhead is run on Enthusiast settings and AA.

 

[CommanderJ12]

Hey guys I have sort of a similar problem as the OP, but at a lower resolution. I'm running a 24" screen at 1920 by 1200, and I'm not going to be using any higher resolutions than that.

What I want is to be able to run all eyecandy on maximum, preferably being able to force higher AA through drivers if the game doesn't support it. And again, I'd think higher minimum FPS is better than a few higher max FPS.

Right now I can get HD6970 and GTX570 for the exact same price in my country. So the question is which to go for in CF/SLI. It seems CF scaling has to improved to levels of SLI in most games...but one would have to hope that this hold true for most games in the future as well.

Obviously the 6970 is a more powerful card, so in theory at the same price there should be no question about which to pick up.

But there's not many gtx570 sli reviews around, and I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out what would be best for maxing out everything at 1920x1200. And then there's physx and all that... Also will be 2GB help me with max eyecandy, or does more ram matter more for the extreeme resolutions? Any tips?

 

[thilanliyan]

If the 6970 is the same price as the 570 then definitely the 6970. More ram helps with higher resolution AND more eye candy.

 

[flopper]

using 2x6950.
now its a waiting game for,
1, overclocking tools.
2. watercooling blocks.
3. refined drivers.

early adopters but it beats price/performance of pretty much everything especially for me gaming at 5760x1080.

 

[Skurge]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20126

Best Xfire/SLI review IMO. All games maxed out, showing minimums too.

Also reinforces just how much value 6950Xfire is.

 

[Triggaaar]

Too often we look at the difference of 140fps vs 120 vs 90....so what.....

I turn on Vsync and only look at minimums...some here waste so much time arguing over useless frames...

Which reviews give you that information?

 

[Maxily]

True, I didn't initially see the 850w PSU. This would make me more inclined to suggest the 6950CF setup then. Good power usage and awesome performance for the $$$.

My Corsair HX750W has at most had to deliver 600W of power. My System consists of an i7 950 @ 3.85GHz, 2 GTX 580's, a 8400 gs, 4 HDD's, lots of fans etc.

I've been measuring the power usage of my system and the highest peak has been 600W, it usually is lower (50-100W). I've been running benchmarks / games in surround mode a lot so its not like I'm not stressing my system.

 

[toyota]

My Corsair HX750W has at most had to deliver 600W of power. My System consists of an i7 950 @ 3.85GHz, 2 GTX 580's, a 8400 gs, 4 HDD's, lots of fans etc.

I've been measuring the power usage of my system and the highest peak has been 600W, it usually is lower (50-100W). I've been running benchmarks / games in surround mode a lot so its not like I'm not stressing my system.

sorry but I think that running your system with a 750 watt psu is foolish. those gpus alone could easily pull over 500 watts under full load. throw in your cpu and other stuff and 700 watts could easily be surpassed putting your psu at the limit. if you were to oc those gtx580 cards then you would absolutely surpass what your psu can handle. a high quality 1000 watt psu is what is needed to reliably run a very high end system with overclocked gtx580 sli.

 

[Maxily]

750W might not leave a lot of room for OC'ing, although my PSU is supposed to have a "sustainable peak output of 887w" (Overclock 3D review). But as I've mentioned the most power my system has ever used so far has been around 600W. I can't see that number increase much without doing stuff that has no purpose except raising power usage (like running IntelBurnTest together with a game).

Based on your system and your advice I wonder if you just prefer to have a PSU which can deliver a lot more power then you would ever need. 1200W PSU's are used to test quad SLI 580's systems which make me think that 1000W is seriously overkill for my system with just 2 of those cards.

 

[Teizo]

Don't waste your money on two 6970's. Buy two reference 6950's and flash them with the 6970 bios. CF with two reference 6950's is good enough though.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

I agree with everyone who recommended 6950s... There should have been a wider performance gap from 6950 > 6970 to warrant the price difference, sort of like 570 > 580 (almost 20%...)

And also about minimum frames... People have gone over this lots of times already

Unless its a site that has time charts like HardOCP, minimum fps tells us nothing, since there is almost always bound to be a loading zone or whatever where the fps drops drastically