[H]AMD 6970/6950 CFX and NVIDIA 580/570 SLI Review - Eyefinity vs Surround

[GaiaHunter]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/11/amd_69706950_cfx_nvidia_580570_sli_review

The Bottom Line

It all comes down to pricing, and a pair of GeForce GTX 580 cards is going to cost you over $1000 right now. That is a lot of money. It is a significant cost for gaming performance for most people. While it seems that speaking in GPU performance dual-GTX 580 GPUs are faster than dual-Radeon HD 6970 GPUs, the fact is they do have less memory capacity. For a higher price, you are getting less of a chance to actually use those higher settings. For all that performance the GTX 580 has, it could be held back in a multi-GPU configuration because of its memory capacity. And one thing all us multi-display gamers know is that AA becomes a lot more valuable as you scale resolutions to larger amounts of pixel real estate.

The GTX 580 price almost doesn’t seem worth it when you consider a pair of Radeon HD 6970 video cards will cost you $698, saving you a whopping $300. For that price savings you get more memory, which has the chance to allow higher playable settings, and performance that at times beats GTX 580 SLI and at other times cuts in under it, depending on the game.

The GeForce GTX 570 SLI is in an even worse position, its raw GPU performance is great, and it has good SLI scaling. However, it is severely held back by its memory capacity. We experienced many times that we could not use higher settings, or had to lower the resolution, because of that. The performance is there, but the ability to utilize that performance is not. Since a pair of GeForce GTX 570 video cards will run you $698, the same price as two Radeon HD 6970 video cards, it just isn’t worth it. For the same price as two GTX 570 cards you can get two Radeon HD 6970 video cards with a much higher memory capacity, and better performance. Even a pair of Radeon HD 6950 video cards becomes appealing when you look at its low price of $598 (or $558 after rebate) for two cards, which will save you another $100+ and still provide more memory and a good gameplay experience in AMD Eyefinity.

You just can’t beat the low prices AMD has set on the Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970. Where the last generation of AMD GPU was neutered when it came to CrossFireX scaling, the 6970 and 6950 are "fixed" in that regard.

When running a multi-GPU configuration, memory capacity does matter at Eyefinity resolutions, and these video cards can be had cheaper than the competition. If you flat out want the highest raw performance, we have to say that is the GeForce GTX 580 SLI, depending on the game, but its memory capacity may hold you back if you are running NV Surround. For the best value, it is clearly the Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX setups. That is quite a change from the song we sang a few short months ago when the 5870 CrossFireX was destroyed by GTX 480 SLI.

 

[Gloomy]

Nvidia get in here

(But in all seriousness, I think this should have been posted in Happy's thread)

 

[Aristotelian]

It's interesting that, a number of times in that conclusion alone, they refer to the increased memory on the 6970/6950. Bang for the buck multi gpu setup currently goes to AMD.

 

[notty22]

VR-zone has a new article up also- how 2-3 way Cayman ,gtx 580 scale using o/c Sandy Bridge.
This article sticks to single monitor resolutions vs 5760x used at hocp :
http://vr-zone.com/articles/2-way-a...ng-on-intel-sandy-bridge/10585.html?doc=10585

 

[SirPauly]

I suppose if x8 AA is important to someone at 5760 x 1200 but there are the CSAA options that offer improved IQ with a smaller memory footprint. And doubt very much anyone could tell the difference at the extremer resolutions.

His data samplings are so small anyway and with most of his findings, except for the example of x8 AA in F1, the GTX 570 easily competes with the HD 6970.

 

[Skurge]

VR-zone has a new article up also- how 2-3 way Cayman ,gtx 580 scale using o/c Sandy Bridge.
This article sticks to single monitor resolutions vs 5760x used at hocp :
http://vr-zone.com/articles/2-way-a...ng-on-intel-sandy-bridge/10585.html?doc=10585

Can you put up the graphs. I can't access the site.

 

[notty22]

Can you put up the graphs. I can't access the site.

 

[badb0y]

All goes back to what I was saying in the other thread. The 69xx series was geared for eyefinity that's why it came equipped with 2 GB of VRAM. If your not using Eyefinity the 2 GB Ram isn't useful and that's probably why AMD wants 1GB variants of the 69xx series which people can
a.) probably buy at a cheaper price
b.) compete with the GTX 560

 

[digitaldurandal]

I do have one bone to pick with that [H] review. I do not have a problem playing mafia II 5760x1200 AA 16xAF High Physx with 570 SLI.

 

[Grooveriding]

I do have one bone to pick with that [H] review. I do not have a problem playing mafia II 5760x1200 AA 16xAF High Physx with 570 SLI.

Funny because at 2560x1600 with High Physx Mafia 2 is at times quite poor on my 480 SLI setup, which I run at 850/2000 and is faster than your 570SLI.
Physx is pretty notorious for being poorly coded and a huge resource hog for minimal visual output. Turning it off gave me a solid experience.

I haven't tried it with the third card now added, but that is a play once and put away game.

Away from that, the above posted graphs are quite interesting. 3-way 6970CF is usually a good deal faster than 2-way 580 SLI and costs about the same.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Funny because at 2560x1600 with High Physx Mafia 2 is at times quite poor on my 480 SLI setup, which I run at 850/2000 and is faster than your 570SLI.
Physx is pretty notorious for being poorly coded and a huge resource hog for minimal visual output. Turning it off gave me a solid experience.

I haven't tried it with the third card now added, but that is a play once and put away game.

Away from that, the above posted graphs are quite interesting. 3-way 6970CF is usually a good deal faster than 2-way 580 SLI and costs about the same.

Sorry for your loss, I have no issues with the game at those settings. They get like 40/140/59 fps on medium Physx settings.

Maybe something is bad with one of your cards or your install.

 

[Skurge]

I can't see those either. Maybe someone could upload them to somewhere else for me?

 

[notty22]

Can you use a proxy server like Ultrasurf ?
I can access that site through them, not sure where your firewall blocks.
http://www.ultrareach.com/

 

[Grooveriding]

Sorry for your loss, I have no issues with the game at those settings. They get like 40/140/59 fps on medium Physx settings.

Maybe something is bad with one of your cards or your install.

Well now you are changing your statement...

I do have one bone to pick with that [H] review. I do not have a problem playing mafia II 5760x1200 AA 16xAF High Physx with 570 SLI.

...from high physx to medium. There is nothing wrong with my setup.

So which is it, high or medium ? Also [H] does not usually and is not using the in game benchmark, rather they use actual gameplay. My system does well on the benchmark, but once you put physx and all other settings on high and play through the game, there are many areas where the minimum frames are unacceptable with physx on high.

 

[SirPauly]

Funny because at 2560x1600 with High Physx Mafia 2 is at times quite poor on my 480 SLI setup, which I run at 850/2000 and is faster than your 570SLI.
Physx is pretty notorious for being poorly coded and a huge resource hog for minimal visual output. Turning it off gave me a solid experience.

I haven't tried it with the third card now added, but that is a play once and put away game.

Away from that, the above posted graphs are quite interesting. 3-way 6970CF is usually a good deal faster than 2-way 580 SLI and costs about the same.

I don't understand! If the 6970 is some sort of extreme value to you, then why wouldn't you include the 3 way 570 Sli, too, considering it offered more tri performance in those examples, more quiet and cooler.

 

[Skurge]

Can you use a proxy server like Ultrasurf ?
I can access that site through them, not sure where your firewall blocks.
http://www.ultrareach.com/

Thanks, that worked.

 

[MentalIlness]

I don't understand! If the 6970 is some sort of extreme value to you, then why wouldn't you include the 3 way 570 Sli, too, considering it offered more tri performance in those examples, more quiet and cooler.

Price ?

 

[SirPauly]

The GTX 570 has a cheaper MSRP. I do agree with more memory is always welcomed, but really, x8 AA at 5760 x 1200? I suppose, there will be some, where this is monumental. If value is paramount with a multi-monitor platform, the 6950 seems to be the key, unlock them, have 2 gigs of ram, and over-clock them a bit, imho.

 

[Castiel]

Said it many times already. 580/570 should have 2GB of memory. 560 should have 1.5gb

 

[digitaldurandal]

Well now you are changing your statement...




...from high physx to medium. There is nothing wrong with my setup.

So which is it, high or medium ? Also [H] does not usually and is not using the in game benchmark, rather they use actual gameplay. My system does well on the benchmark, but once you put physx and all other settings on high and play through the game, there are many areas where the minimum frames are unacceptable with physx on high.

I NEVER changed my statement. Perhaps your reading comprehension is poor.

I play using HIGH Physx but the only review I can point out at that resolution happens to be the one from [H] in which they played at medium - and their frames were more than ample (ie I think they had room to turn it up to high.)

I am about four or five hours into the game and I have not had to turn any settings down.

 

[SirPauly]

That's why subjective evaluations are tough at times. You some-how conclude that 42.1 average and a minimum of 31 is playable with Mafia 2 with AMD, but also conclude that 58.9 average and a minimum of 40 is playable with nVidia. It drives ya bonkers, what was the performance with GTX 570 with high physX?

I'm all for subjective evaluations and testing titles is good but without more foundations for the subjective evaluations to stand upon, it's very difficult.

 

[Attic]

I NEVER changed my statement. Perhaps your reading comprehension is poor.

I play using HIGH Physx but the only review I can point out at that resolution happens to be the one from [H] in which they played at medium - and their frames were more than ample (ie I think they had room to turn it up to high.)

I am about four or five hours into the game and I have not had to turn any settings down.

From your posts its easy to see how grooves interpretation is made. I wouldn't call it poor tbh.

I think that groove just sets his bar a bit higher than you for what he likes from his framerate. For a lot of gamers it depends on the game, I know for me I generally need 50+ or i'm distracted. Though crysis I was fine at much lower fps and i'd imagine mafia II is runing ~30-40 and i'm not distacted there. Darksiders at less than 60 was annoying though.

Great game though, Mafia II, i'm just in the early stages, but having a good time@1080P with physx at medium. I like the style a lot.

 

[Dkcode]

VR-zone has a new article up also- how 2-3 way Cayman ,gtx 580 scale using o/c Sandy Bridge.
This article sticks to single monitor resolutions vs 5760x used at hocp :
http://vr-zone.com/articles/2-way-a...ng-on-intel-sandy-bridge/10585.html?doc=10585

Thanks for posting that - I have been looking for a site that compares multi GPU setup for both cards.

Shame they did not test more games!