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GTX570 SLI vs HD6970 CF @ 1920x1200

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CommanderJ12

Junior Member
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 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.

It looks like 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? I would love any tips or suggestions from you guys.

Obviously the cards are faster in different games, but I like playing a lot of different games, so there's no easy way to pick. Everything from FPS to RTS to RPG. I haven't owned an nvidia since they got physx, so I'll need you guys to tell me wether that's actually something worth having. What I'd like to be able to do however is max out games like Metro 2033, and force massive AA in games like ARMAII for instance, as I like things to look pretty. Console level graphics isn't for me 🙂


(Yes i've posted this before, but I'm making a thread per a recommendation, I'm sure there are others out there having trouble deciding which pair to pick up as well)

My specs:

Antec 1200 Case
ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 X58
Intel i7-920 @ 3.8Ghz
12GB DDR3@1524Mhz
Corsair HX1000W PSU
 
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In CFX, the 6970 is better than GTX 570 but the difference isn't that much at that resolution. Check the price of the 6950s and if they are cheaper grab those instead.
 
For the same price, I'd go with the HD6970 CF. It'll generally be faster (especially after a few driver updates), and the extra VRAM is always helpful. A couple of things to consider:

- If you're dropping this kind of coin on video cards, why not upgrade your monitor? I imagine I'll eventually sound like a broken record here, but a 27" or 30" high resolution monitor or an Eyefinity/Surround setup will do a lot more for the gaming experience than any video card upgrade.

- How much is the GTX 580 in comparison?
 
24" is pretty much the size I can have in my gaming room. Also - I don't buy any old monitor, I buy Eizo monitors or monitors with equivalent color correctness. Getting that in 27-30" is...stupendously expensive. Considering eyefinity with monitors of that quality is also out of the questions.

The GTX580 won't give me the power of 2x 570 or 6970s, and two 580s cost significantly more.

But yeah I get the feeling 2 6970s would generally be faster in most games. (but also louder and hotter). Is physx a big deal anyway? In the games that have it, is it a notable difference?


MrK6 said:
For the same price, I'd go with the HD6970 CF. It'll generally be faster (especially after a few driver updates), and the extra VRAM is always helpful. A couple of things to consider:

- If you're dropping this kind of coin on video cards, why not upgrade your monitor? I imagine I'll eventually sound like a broken record here, but a 27" or 30" high resolution monitor or an Eyefinity/Surround setup will do a lot more for the gaming experience than any video card upgrade.

- How much is the GTX 580 in comparison?
Click to expand...
 
The 6950s are definately cheaper, but they won't stand up to a pair of 570s or 6970s, definately not with the 570s OCed.


badb0y said:
In CFX, the 6970 is better than GTX 570 but the difference isn't that much at that resolution. Check the price of the 6950s and if they are cheaper grab those instead.
Click to expand...
 
I'd go 6970 in this instance. Same price is a bonus, CF scaling seems a little better than SLI this round, and with the 6xxx series being newer (and bizzarely slow in some cases) there's more chance of improved performance from new drivers.
 
CommanderJ12 said:
I buy Eizo monitors or monitors with equivalent color correctness. Getting that in 27-30" is...stupendously expensive. Considering eyefinity with monitors of that quality is also out of the questions.
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I'm using an Eizo Coloredge, but you can go eyefinity with different brands either side of it.
 
CommanderJ12 said:
The 6950s are definately cheaper, but they won't stand up to a pair of 570s or 6970s, definately not with the 570s OCed.
Click to expand...
Overclock the 6950's yourself and save the cash. The 6950's @ 6970 clock speeds are almost identical (the extra shaders aren't worth much).
 
Yes...but then again if you OC the 570s they perform pretty much like 580s. And yeah I meant OCing myself, not buying factory overclocked ones.

MrK6 said:
Overclock the 6950's yourself and save the cash. The 6950's @ 6970 clock speeds are almost identical (the extra shaders aren't worth much).
Click to expand...
 
Been looking at various reviews of these cards, both solo and CF/SLI, and I think there's not a huge difference between them. Both cards are good, so to speak. 6970 have more vram, but 570 have more power in other areas. It's definately a tough one to choose. Maybe I should just pick one or the other, and be happy because neither choice is 'wrong'.
 
I would go with GTX570s in SLi. The Radeons offer absolutely nothing over the GeForce cards. And you get the option to see some unique technology if you go with the nVidia cards.

Triggaaar said:
I'd go 6970 in this instance. Same price is a bonus, CF scaling seems a little better than SLI this round, and with the 6xxx series being newer (and bizzarely slow in some cases) there's more chance of improved performance from new drivers.
Click to expand...

So the OP should drop $700 on two cards with a chance that they *might* work fine with a future driver release instead of two cards that work fine under any scenario? D:
 
I'm a bit interested in what offers the best minimums. I've seen someone post that the 570 and 580s get better minimums than the 6970s, but I haven't really seen any reviews where this shows clearly. Do you know?


Qbah said:
I would go with GTX570s in SLi. The Radeons offer absolutely nothing over the GeForce cards. And you get the option to see some unique technology if you go with the nVidia cards.
Click to expand...
 
CommanderJ12 said:
I'm a bit interested in what offers the best minimums. I've seen someone post that the 570 and 580s get better minimums than the 6970s, but I haven't really seen any reviews where this shows clearly. Do you know?
Click to expand...


A great article showing single, two and tri-card configurations. Minimum frames + graphs in every test:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...n-6950-graphics-card-review-introduction.html

Personally I'm also waiting for a CF and SLi review by Xbitlabs.
 
Qbah said:
So the OP should drop $700 on two cards with a chance that they *might* work fine with a future driver release instead of two cards that work fine under any scenario? D:
Click to expand...
No, that's not what I said at all. I said that there's more chance of the 6970 performance (speed) improving with new drivers, simply because it's a bigger change from the 5xxx series. As things stand now dual 6970 already beats dual 570.
 
Another vote for dual 6950's. Overclocked, there really won't be a big gap between a pair of oced 570's or 6970's. It will be PLENTY for 1900x1200.
 
Here's how I look at your situation. At 1920x1200, SLI or CF are about dead even. So there is not sense losing sleep here.

Now, I'm going dual card, then I will want Physx because now dual card will allow power for Physx and rest assure there will be games with Physx as long as TWIMTBP program is alive. And I'll bet a couple of the up coming games will have some serious tessellation, meaning you're gonna want NV here too.

Also, if i'm planning on using video/DVD apps that use CUDA, then I'm also considering NV cards.

If cost are exactly the same, I would go 570 SLI'ed and get all the added feature of NV cards. The only REAL reason that I would even make me think slightly going for 6970 CF is that it may be potentially be faster as drivers from AMD mature, but any improvement would be only a few percentage gain, meaning it'll be hardly noticed in real world gaming unless your system is teeter-totting on the verge of playable framerate (in which case a few percentage increase may make a difference). But your gaming resolution is 1920x1200, meaning either 570 SLI or 6970 CF will be overkill anyway.

So, I rather go with NV for the added features and stability then for a litlte future performance gain. Bottom line is NV products have more values added to them. that's just me
 
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Get the 570's. It's not just PhysX but CUDA, Ambient occlusion, Transparency Antialiasing, custom profiles for SLI, etc.
 
Elfear said:
Pshh. More importantly, Ruby is a lot hotter than Nalu. :wub: Better to stick with AMD.
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Yeah, I'll give you that. Nalu looks like a gold digger 😛 Nvidia should ask Jessica Biel if they could do a scan of her and make her their new cyber chick.

/I can't believe I actually just said that...
 
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CommanderJ12 said:
hehe true of course, but eyefinity just isn't my thing. I don't really have the room for it, and I'm quite happy with just the one 24".
Click to expand...

I would like to know...what is the purpose of this thread anyway ? Because most of your posts seems like your mind is already made up.

/thread
 
CommanderJ12 said:
I'm running a 24" screen at 1920 by 1200, and I'm not going to be using any higher resolutions than that.

Obviously the cards are faster in different games, but I like playing a lot of different games, so there's no easy way to pick. Everything from FPS to RTS to RPG. I haven't owned an nvidia since they got physx, so I'll need you guys to tell me wether that's actually something worth having. What I'd like to be able to do however is max out games like Metro 2033, and force massive AA in games like ARMAII for instance, as I like things to look pretty. Console level graphics isn't for me 🙂

The Radeon cards generally do better in Arma2 than Nvidia cards and the extra memory should be useful in that game at 1920/1200.

I'd get the 6970's
Click to expand...
 
I don't see how any of my posts makes it looks like my mind is made up? Unless that I'm not interested in Eyefinite rules out AMD because you think thats all they have to offer or something?

Anyway I'd like to thank everyone for good tips and help, and some good links.

MentalIlness said:
I would like to know...what is the purpose of this thread anyway ? Because most of your posts seems like your mind is already made up.

/thread
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