Need Information on HD 6970OC vs. GTX 570OC

[kero1990]

Greetings,

I'm currently looking for a new graphics card, and my two current options are the:

Gigabyte 6970OC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125371

Or, the Gigabyte GTX 570 OC (Not super version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125384

Price wise, there is $4 difference in it (Australia).

I can't seem to find any decent reviews on either products, and I'm looking for help.

My current setup ready to go is, Antec 750W TruePower, GB Z68A-D3H-B3, i5-2500k (slightly OC'd), 4GB G-Skill CL8.

Plan on playing BF3, MW3, DiRT3, Need For Speed at 1080p.

Plans to dual card will be at least another 6 months away (I am aware of the possible PSU limitation).

[Noise] Major factors is if I OC either card, will the sound be irritating? Which will probably be quieter with scaling?

Gaming performance?

Power consumption and termperatures?

And, known drivers and support issues pertaining?

Thanks.

 

[Silverforce11]

As long as its not a reference 570, go for it. They are both good options.

B4 some random NV fan comes in here and claim how NV is soo much better in BF3 because it only takes a 20% perf hit compared to AMD's 30% with 4x MSAA..

Just know that MSAA is pointless in BF3, it does a bad job of removing jagged edges and thus, is barely functional. I have screenshots to prove it and did some in the other post, i also have more but cannot be arsed to upload them all. Without MSAA, AMD cards tend to be faster (except for hardwarecannuck's weird bench).

MW3, doesn't matter, that game is a console port and will run at too high a fps that you won't even notice. Dirt 3 both are about the same, NFS is on Frostbite 2, and should have similar characteristics as BF3.

Edit: Both of those cards use the same fan. Thermal/noise should be identical, if not you can use MSI afterburner and set the fan yourself, its a non-factor. Gaming performance, overall in general it depends on the games you play but they are very similar. One obviously has 2GB vram so in the future, if you want to CF/SLI, there's an advantage for games down the road. Read the newegg reviews.

 

[RussianSensation]

A stock 570 is already slightly faster than an HD6970 at 1080P. With overclocking, the 570 gets you GTX580 level of performance. HD6970 is a better card for 2560x1600, or if you like to use 8xMSAA at 1080P.

GTX570 also does better in BF3 with MSAA (if you care for that setting in that game) but worse without MSAA. A single HD6970/GTX570 isn't fast enough to run this game at 60 fps with 4xMSAA though.

Dirt 3 and MW3 are not very demanding for either card. HD6970 will be faster in Dirt 3, but you are talking way in excess of 55 fps already for either card.

Power consumption is about the same when discussing these dual card setups.

If you plan to keep these for longer than 2 years, then I'd choose the 6970 instead since 2GB of VRAM for each card might come into play in the next 2 years. If you plan to upgrade within 2 years, then I'd go for the GTX570s since once you overclock them, you'll pretty much have 2x GTX580s @ 1080P.

Can't really go wrong with either option.

Welcome to AnandTech kero1990!

 

[Silverforce11]

Personally i recommend neither of these cards.

Go for the much cheaper 6950 2gb and manually OC it to 900mhz and you have a 6970 2gb for cheap. You could squeeze extra with more vcore, but not really required.

If you are from Australia, something like this: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=18719
Is too good of a bargain.

 

[RussianSensation]

Personally i recommend neither of these cards.

Go for the much cheaper 6950 2gb and manually OC it to 900mhz and you have a 6970 2gb for cheap. You could squeeze extra with more vcore, but not really required.

If you are from Australia, something like this: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=18719
Is too good of a bargain.

Oh wow, nice find. Ya, at $400 AU, the HD6970 2GB is way too expensive. It's barely 15% faster than the HD6950 2GB. HD6950 can be overclocked to 880mhz coming within 3% of the performance of the HD6970 without the shaders unlocked.

The Sapphire HD6950 2GB has a chance of unlocking and is quiet.

 

[kero1990]

Thanks for the fast responses guys!

It does seem the future proof VRAM is a strong factor.
Next obvious question with regards to the 6950 Unlockable.
I'm buying from Umart Online:

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_lis...0&bid=2&id2=82

Sapphire ATI HD6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E

Is it still unlockable, fine to OC? If not could someone politely recommend which one I should get?

Thanks, again.

 

[Silverforce11]

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_lis...id=2&sid=81753

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_lis...id=2&sid=70521

really identical. you can manually overclock these with MSI afterburner, don't bother unlocking the extra shaders, not worth the effort. definitely OC it though. pick whichever.

Edit: Customer review for the Sapphire 2gb:

Review By: 2pha on 2011-10-31 This user purchased this item at 2011-10-31
no bios flash necessary
Pros: dual bios, unlocked shaders
Other Thoughts: This card has dual bios. There is no need to flash. 1 bios has standard 6950 clock and shaders. Second bios has 6950 clocks but has 6970 shaders unlocked. So just click on second bios and overclock with Saphhire TRIXX if you want 6970 clocks. The bios switch is very small and near the crossfire connection.

 

[kero1990]

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_lis...id=2&sid=81753

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_lis...id=2&sid=70521

really identical. you can manually overclock these with MSI afterburner, don't bother unlocking the extra shaders, not worth the effort. definitely OC it though. pick whichever.

Edit: Customer review for the Sapphire 2gb:

Review By: 2pha on 2011-10-31 This user purchased this item at 2011-10-31
no bios flash necessary
Pros: dual bios, unlocked shaders
Other Thoughts: This card has dual bios. There is no need to flash. 1 bios has standard 6950 clock and shaders. Second bios has 6950 clocks but has 6970 shaders unlocked. So just click on second bios and overclock with Saphhire TRIXX if you want 6970 clocks. The bios switch is very small and near the crossfire connection.

Champion effort.

Thanks Silverforce11.

 

[Silverforce11]

AMD shot themselves in the foot with the 6950. It makes the 6970 redundant and expensive. Good for consumers, terrible for their margins.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Personally i recommend neither of these cards.

Go for the much cheaper 6950 2gb and manually OC it to 900mhz and you have a 6970 2gb for cheap. You could squeeze extra with more vcore, but not really required.

If you are from Australia, something like this: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=18719
Is too good of a bargain.

You can never guarantee overclocking.

 

[happy medium]

Personally i recommend neither of these cards.

Go for the much cheaper 6950 2gb and manually OC it to 900mhz and you have a 6970 2gb for cheap. You could squeeze extra with more vcore, but not really required.

If you are from Australia, something like this: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=18719
Is too good of a bargain.

Personally I say buy a 200$ gtx560ti and overclock over 1000 core and save yourself 40$ over a 6950 and 100$ over both a gtx570 and 6970. At 1000 core its as fast or faster than both the gtx570 and 6970, and with a small voltage bump I garuantee 975 core.

 

[Silverforce11]

He's from Australia, there's no such thing as a $200 gtx560ti. Outside of the US of A, rebates and such are almost non-existant.

A cheap 560 ti is $260 already and its 1gb vram.