Raedon 4870 => GTX 560 Ti

[Tk1]

Folks,

What would be the reasons for me to replace my aging 4870 to GTX 560 Ti?

Thanks for the advice in advance

 

[stahlhart]

DX11 support?

 

[stahlhart]

Welcome to the forums, BTW.

 

[MBentz]

It's a great upgrade. I just put together a new PC, and went from a 4870 512MB to a 560 GTX vanilla. At 1920x1080 it is well worth it.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Folks,

What would be the reasons for me to replace my aging 4870 to GTX 560 Ti?

Thanks for the advice in advance

Well, it's much faster, it has DX 11 support, it runs cooler and quieter, etc.

If you're thinking of buying it, though, unless you fold or need CUDA, I recommend the Radeon HD 6870 instead. It's only 5% slower, consumes less power, and costs around $40 less.

 

[Crap Daddy]

Well I assume you know better than us what you wanna do with your money. Why not upgrade to GTX570? It will be twice as fast as your current card. And DX11.

 

[Smartazz]

The 560ti is much faster than your current card. Other cards to consider would be the AMD Radeon HD6870, HD6950 and the Nvidia GTX 570.

 

[postmortemIA]

I am perfectly happy with my 4870 on 1920x1200. Then I don't play most recent games ... so it depends what is he playing.

 

[Spjut]

I'd await the new GPU series before I upgraded...It may lack DX11, but the HD4870 is still a decent card

 

[toyota]

if you have to ask then you probably do not need to upgrade. games you play along with settings and resolution will determine how viable your card still is. also the rest of your system plays a role in just how much of an upgrade, if any, is worth it.

 

[Tk1]

Folks,

What happened was that I find the 4870 being too slow in some of the flight simulation games like DCS Black Shark, Rise of Flight Iron Cross edition and Strike Fighter series.

I read a few reviews and know that this card is fast. But these reviews don't compare to 4870 and I have no idea whether it worths the money.

So is this card only runs fast when playing DX11 games? How about games which uses DX9 or DX10 libraries? If I run DX9 games only would 4870 suffice the need?

Also, I am using an old Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU @ 2.4GHz, does it affect HD 6000 series or GTX 500 series of cards performance? I mean do you have to match the gfx card with the correct CPU?

 

[badb0y]

Folks,

What happened was that I find the 4870 being too slow in some of the flight simulation games like DCS Black Shark, Rise of Flight Iron Cross edition and Strike Fighter series.

I read a few reviews and know that this card is fast. But these reviews don't compare to 4870 and I have no idea whether it worths the money.

So is this card only runs fast when playing DX11 games? How about games which uses DX9 or DX10 libraries? If I run DX9 games only would 4870 suffice the need?

Also, I am using an old Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU @ 2.4GHz, does it affect HD 6000 series or GTX 500 series of cards performance? I mean do you have to match the gfx card with the correct CPU?

GTX 560 Ti craps all over the HD 4870 regardless of anything.

EDIT:

Your card's performance is around the HD 5770.

 

[Tk1]

Thank you for the chart. I notice that the GTX 570 is 10% faster, should I get it rather than the 560 Ti? Also, is this chart referring the 560 Ti to its overclocked version?

Yesterday, I actually went to my neighbour who has another machine having similar spec as mine:
CPU=Q6600 @2.4GHz
Gfx=Inno3D GTX 560 Ti OC 880/1025X4
Mem=4GB
OS=Windows Vista 32 bit SP2
Mobo=ASUS P5Q Deluxe

I ran the same games like Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead instead of the flight simulation games I used to play just to check out the card's performance on FPS titles.

FC2 at max'd out setting 1680*1050 is around 38~40FPS which is not much difference from that running on my system (difference is the gfx card being 4870)
Crysis Warhead is like 34~40 at Optimal settings @1680*1050 also is pretty much the same as that performed by 4870.

Is that a visual mistake I made?! My impression is that the 560 Ti o/c is same as 4870 if not all, more or less!???

 

[jvroig]

It seems to be bottlenecked by a stock clocked Q6600.

If so, and that is your exact same CPU and configuration, you may need to look at giving it an appreciable overclock, or getting a faster one.

 

[EnzoLT]

Yeah, get that q6600 to at least 3.3ghz. That clock speed is severely bottlenecking the video card.

 

[Tk1]

It certainly can be done, I mean overclocking the CPU. I actually did,even though it never goes beyond 3.1GHz, I suppose luckier folks actually can get it to run at 3.6GHz.

All games also show increase in FPS, including the flight simulations. Most obvious is that 30% increase from 2.4GHz to 3.1GHz gives me almost 30% increase in Frame Rates. 1 game called Strike Fighter Project 1 actually jumps from 18 to 21 fps.

But that also gave me an impression that it is CPU bounded not GPU bounded.

As I heard from some other forums that game like Crysis Warhead is actually GPU bounded but I do not get benefit out of running 560 Ti 880/1025. WHY????!

 

[jvroig]

Whether you are GPU bound or CPU bound depends on your components.

If you have a much weaker CPU than GPU, then you will most likely be CPU bound. This is because your CPU limits how fast your game can run, and this also means your GPU is not being utilized to its full potential. Therefore, whether it is a 4870, 6870, 560 Ti, or even tri-sli GTX580, you will still not see any difference, since they all will be twiddling their thumbs, waiting on the CPU.

If you then upgrade your CPU enough, you may find yourself GPU bound, because the CPU can run the game enough such that the GPU becomes the main limiting factor in performance.

 

[Tk1]

Whether you are GPU bound or CPU bound depends on your components.

If you have a much weaker CPU than GPU, then you will most likely be CPU bound. This is because your CPU limits how fast your game can run, and this also means your GPU is not being utilized to its full potential. Therefore, whether it is a 4870, 6870, 560 Ti, or even tri-sli GTX580, you will still not see any difference, since they all will be twiddling their thumbs, waiting on the CPU.

If you then upgrade your CPU enough, you may find yourself GPU bound, because the CPU can run the game enough such that the GPU becomes the main limiting factor in performance.

So my question should now be: what is the best CPU match to the 560 Ti then?

 

[toyota]

So my question should now be: what is the best CPU match to the 560 Ti then?

the best would be a 2500k but your Q6600 oced to 3.0 is pretty decent.

 

[EnzoLT]

the best would be a 2500k but your Q6600 oced to 3.0 is pretty decent.

This, Q6600 overclocked should hold you over until the next Intel cpu release.

You should just overclock it. That processor still has a lot of potential.

 

[Tk1]

the best would be a 2500k but your Q6600 oced to 3.0 is pretty decent.

Are you saying that the Q6600 when at 3.0GHz is the same horsepower as the i5 2500K at 3.3GHz stock speed?

If so, which model higher than 2500K has faster speed?

How much roughly is an i5 2500K?

 

[EnzoLT]

Are you saying that the Q6600 when at 3.0GHz is the same horsepower as the i5 2500K at 3.3GHz stock speed?

If so, which model higher than 2500K has faster speed?

How much roughly is an i5 2500K?

Thats not what he's saying at all. I believe what he meant is the clock speed of the q6600 to not bottleneck the gpu.

Those two processors are worlds different with the 2500k as the obvious clear winner clock for clock compared to the q6600.

 

[Tk1]

This, Q6600 overclocked should hold you over until the next Intel cpu release.

You should just overclock it. That processor still has a lot of potential.

I am sure about that and well aware of it. Actually from day 1 I go onto forums, people keep telling me that. Even though it is not 3.6GHz overclockable, I can still manage to make it going at 3.0GHz, but at idle, its temperature already shoots up to as high as 55 Celsius. After running any games, it could go as high as 76 Celsius. I know for a fact that will shorten the life span of the CPU. Actually, this Q6600 die was first deployed on another machine and I migrated it to the current rig I have 2 years ago. So it is already some 3 years in service from day 0.

And it is still doing well is because I never overclock it.

Put it this way, if i5 2500K @ 3.3 is the same as Q6600 @3.0 (overclocked), I would rather get a i5 2500K to have it running quiet and cooler. The only question now I have is that: Is the performance of the i5 2500K @ 3.3 (stock speed) the same as Q6600 @ 3.0 (overclocked)? If so, I would very much likely switch to the i5 2500K, then I will keep the Q6600 as a collection in my home museum

 

[EnzoLT]

Well its obvious that the i5 will perform better, not doubt about that. Its really up to your budget to decide whether to spend the extra cash for the i5 or stick with the q6600.

I already answered your question anyways..

Those two processors are worlds different with the 2500k as the obvious clear winner clock for clock compared to the q6600.

What kind of cooling are you using for the q6600 because stock isnt going to cut it for overclocking.

Those temperatures are awfully high which leads me to believe that your system isnt getting adequate cooling.

 

[Tk1]

Well its obvious that the i5 will perform better, not doubt about that. Its really up to your budget to decide whether to spend the extra cash for the i5 or stick with the q6600.

I already answered your question anyways..

What kind of cooling are you using for the q6600 because stock isnt going to cut it for overclocking.

Those temperatures are awfully high which leads me to believe that your system isnt getting adequate cooling.

Okay, so let me get this right.
The i5 2500K, despite being the lowest model in i5 series, it beats the Q6600@3.0GHz(o/c) out of the water. That's good to know coz I can make a decision.

I won't stick with the Q6600 all that because of the GTX 560 Ti I have bought out of curiosity!! Everyone is saying that the Q6600 is bottle necking the new Gfx card. That's why I want to upgrade the CPU!

Well...it's a ASUS 3rd party cooling solution I know it's not brilliant...I also shut down the rear fans because they are really noisy.

Well...it's good that I am using the GTX 560 Ti instead of the 4870 because it is hotter than the nVidia card.
I also hope THAT I5 2500k WILL BE cooler.