GTX570 vs HD6970

[Keysplayr]

@Load81

But why are they disableing safety features? is it because they gain better overclocking results from it? most likely yes (why else would you do it).

Why do Nvidia even allow you to remove them then(that safety feature), if they know it ll result in people frying their cards? I mean there must be a reason why it has a stigma for cards frying with the 570s.... to many overclockers out there.

Probably the same reasoning that AMD allows unlocking of the 6950. YMMV and nobody should EVER disable safety features, but they do. Nobody should ever do a pencil mod, but they do. Nobody should ever hard mod their graphics cards by adding a resistor between two solder points, but they do.
Arkadrel, stop fishing for a reason to blame a company for end user hacking. No matter which side that is. If you bypass safety features or run any card out of spec, you run the risk, however small or large, of damaging your hardware. Everyone here knows that, it's just a matter of which topic is being discussed.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I had a gateway that I tried to make into a gamer once. I replaced the power supply and put a 8800gt in it. It was way too small with little to no airflow. I ended up selling everything but the CPU which was a Q6600 and took the power supply and 8800gt and built a new build with those parts. Your friend is better off selling the hp or at least taking the memory and CPU and building something new. No way you'd get sufficient airflow in a hp case for a gtx 570 or 6970. Forget putting the hp motherboard in a new case too. Hp has their own proprietary size motherboard that will only fit in their cases.

 

[Golgatha]

Not 100% true. its not that Nvidia's drivers are much better but there game support is excellent compared to AMD.

Both companies have there problems with scaling, blue screens and general "driver stopped working" errors, but with games out of the box, Nvidia and newer games will usually run better without 4 or 5 hot fixes.

Good example
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2147043

I think we can all agree on this.:thumbsup:

edit: unlocking a 6950 gives you a whole 2.7% more performance and is not worth the risk IMHO.

This is just one user's general opinion, but in my experience (previous owner of X1800XT, X1900XT, 3870 Crossfire, 4850 Crossfire, and HD5850 Crossfire) I have had many more problems with both getting ATI's drivers to install (to the point that I imaged my HDD before upgrading drivers as standard procedure) and with getting games to run properly (anymore I have very little time for games, and thus zero patience with troubleshooting crap which should just work). Also, I had several games such as Borderlands which wouldn't run more than 10min when running in Crossfire mode.

In the past I've also owned an 8800GTX, 8800GT SLI, GTX 275 SLI, single GTX 480, and currently a GTX 570 SSC. Plain and simply these pieces of hardware "just worked" with all the games I have on my system, and I have nearly 100 games installed on said system. Currently, unless there is a huge gap in price vs performance, I will always stick with nVidia from here on out.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'm married to nvidia. They sucked me in with the 3d vision kit. Sorry amd you were too late to the game.

Having said that I loved my brief stint with the 5850. It was absolutely one of the best cards I've ever owned. Small size, great performance, superb overclocking, low power usage, icy temps. Probably the single best card of last generation.

 

[Golgatha]

I'm married to nvidia. They sucked me in with the 3d vision kit. Sorry amd you were too late to the game.

Having said that I loved my brief stint with the 5850. It was absolutely one of the best cards I've ever owned. Small size, great performance, superb overclocking, low power usage, icy temps. Probably the single best card of last generation.

When they worked correctly, the HD 5850s I had in Crossfire were a force to be respected. Besides the stuff I already mentioned, the Folding@Home support nVidia provides is yet another deal clencher for me. I get some mad PPD on the GTX 570 SSC.

 

[Castiel]

Has anyone made a unlocking bios yet that just unlocks the shaders yet keeps the stock memory timings?

 

[RussianSensation]

Seems there are more accounts of artifacting 6950-70 flash victims. Russian can tell us if he is one of the lucky or unlucky ones.

Worst case scenario, I use the 4850 until Kepler arrives :sneaky:

Has anyone made a unlocking bios yet that just unlocks the shaders yet keeps the stock memory timings?

Maybe this one?

Im eagerly waiting for you impressions on the new card! my trigger finger is getting itchy.

I doubt there is going to be a huge difference in performance at 1080P in most games. My 470 ran at 760mhz GPU. But I primarily upgraded for better DC output, hopefully lower noise levels, and better performance in Crysis 1 and 2, and F1 2010/11. I have some benches saved from 470 in Dirt 2, Unigine, Crysis 1. I'll throw those up to compare.

 

[sticks435]

No one buys reference anyway. The Asus DirectCU II 570 is the only 570 you want and need. 1Ghz overclocks

Yea, I beg to differ. I'd rather save $80 or so bucks and get a reference card on special thanks.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Close as those two are, I'd just go with the cheaper card.

 

[RobertPters77]

I'm in the same boat. I lean towards nvidia because I love AA. But I heard amd's new AA modes are freaking killer. I'm still hesitant due to the nightmare I had with my 4850 and CCC.

 

[Castiel]

Yea, I beg to differ. I'd rather save $80 or so bucks and get a reference card on special thanks.

Your rocking a C2Q and a 260. Its obvious you have no clue about computers anyway. :whiste: :biggrin:

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm in the same boat. I lean towards nvidia because I love AA. But I heard amd's new AA modes are freaking killer. I'm still hesitant due to the nightmare I had with my 4850 and CCC.

Well Enhanced AA is just AMD's version of CSAA which NV had for a while. MLAA (Morphological AA) often produces a larger performance hit than standards MSAA OR has a tendency to blur textures. It works well in some games like Borderlands or Starcraft 2. AA alone isn't enough of a differentiator to make the switch as NV's AA is just as good imo.

 

[TeddyKitagawa]

Your rocking a C2Q and a 260. Its obvious you have no clue about computers anyway. :whiste: :biggrin:

If you think that's bad, I'm still on a dreaded 9600 Agena 4GB 667 DDR2 RAM and it's stock sadly. Then again, no point in trying to OC when the best I heard most getting was 2.5/2.6 from 2.3 no thanks.

So how badly is that thing; 9600 at stock, holding back a 4890? When I had the 470 before it blew out on me, fried capacitors, I got like 10-20 more frames in Bioshock, Crysis, etc.... Then again, I always play at native monitor resolution, in my case 1920x1200, maybe the CPU wasn't able to bottleneck it much.