Two BEASTS: MSI GTX580 vs MSI R6970 - Chip Hell Review

[DrBoss]

http://www.chiphell.com/en/graphics/msi-n580gtx-lightning-r6970-lightning-review/

as far as i can tell, these cards are not available stateside *yet. interested to see the pricing.

benchmarks

 

[happy medium]

gtx580 used 18 more watts and had 18% more performance.

That stood out for me.

 

[notty22]

It looks like Nvidia gtx 580 has picked up performance with the latest drivers. Thats impressive performance, at 830mhz.
edit: read o/c information wrong.

 

[DrBoss]

gtx580 used 18 more watts and had 18% more performance.

That stood out for me.

yea that 580 Lightning is ridiculous.

also interesting is the fact that the 580 Lightning uses only 3 more watts than a standard 580 yet yields a 6.24% performance gain.

 

[badb0y]

Impressive performance for the GTX 580.

 

[1h4x4s3x]

TPU
The 580 is now noticeably faster than a 5970 up until 2560x1600. Not too shabby

 

[DrBoss]

dig the crytek quote badb0y.

consider me in 100% agreement... as i wipe away my tears and shake my fist at crytek

 

[pcm81]

Good for 580L, I am glad to see this card in existence.

 

[Arkadrel]

TPU
The 580 is now noticeably faster than a 5970 up until 2560x1600. Not too shabby

MSI 580 Lightning is 2% faster than a 5970 on avg. at 1920x resoultion.
(noticeable? probably not in games, but on a chart showing fps avg's yes)
At 2560x resolution the 5970 is 4% faster than the MSI lightning card.

The MSI Lightning is a fab overclocked card (it has 832mhz core, 1050mhz memory).

 

[RussianSensation]

TPU
The 580 is now noticeably faster than a 5970 up until 2560x1600. Not too shabby

That's because in more modern games like Metro 2033, STALKER, the scaling with the 5970 is sub-optimal. Also, it seems the lack of Tessellation performance of HD5870 series is at least partially to blame. Also, keep in mind it's a bit unrealistic to start comparing a 1.5 year old HD5970 with inferior HD58xx CF scaling to the 580. If you were in a position to spend $500 on a graphics card setup today and were open to dual-GPUs, then the GTX580 should be compared to the most modern $500 setup - HD6950 2GB CF - since its priced comparatively. In that case, the 580 is a sore loser (that's not even considering unlocked 6950s). And once you get to 2560x1600 resolution, that ~20% performance advantage the 580 has over the 6970 is eroded to only 3%. That's pretty sad for a card that costs a whopping 58% more.

GTX580 vs. HD6970 is GTX285 vs. HD4890 all over again. You get the GTX580 now for $490 vs. HD6970 for $310 for that extra 20% performance increase up to 1920x1200. In late 2011/early 2012 when 28nm GPUs are available, the HD6970/GTX570 user can just sell his/her card and use that extra $180 "savings" towards a new GPU that will mop the floor with the 580. The 580 really is targeted at price inelastic consumers.

It's nice to see MSI push the engineering envelope with both cards though.

 

[tweakboy]

Well 580 is faster period. The benchies prove it.

 

[Arkadrel]

Well 580 is faster period. The benchies prove it.

If you play at 1920x resolution the MSI Lightning 580 OC card is faster than stock 5970. (+2&#37
If you play at 2560x resolution the MSI Lightning 580 OC card is slower than stock 5970. (-4%)

Depends on resolution you game at... anyways a 2% lead (1920x res), is probably not gonna be noticeable when gameing (outsides of running a benchmark).

50 fps vs 51 fps (2% lead)

Most people wont notice something that small (unless they use fraps and look at the fps counter).

 

[tviceman]

This review isn't using the 270 drivers either!

 

[cusideabelincoln]

gtx580 used 18 more watts

They used Furmark to test power (and heat). Not indicative of real-game loads.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Weaksauce. Still prefer the direct 2 cu 580 over this. I had my 580 at 1.15v and the core up to 950mhz with load temps at 63c with a little increase in fan speed. I know without a doubt I could get 1000mhz at 1.2v.

 

[DrBoss]

Weaksauce. Still prefer the direct 2 cu 580 over this. I had my 580 at 1.15v and the core up to 950mhz with load temps at 63c with a little increase in fan speed. I know without a doubt I could get 1000mhz at 1.2v.

i agree cooling is better on the Direct CU II cards... but they take up 3 slots. which more or less eliminates the ability to run SLI/Crossfire.

 

[1h4x4s3x]

Also, keep in mind it's a bit unrealistic to start comparing a 1.5 year old HD5970 with inferior HD58xx CF scaling to the 580.

Unrealistic? Not sure what you mean by that.
I found it an interesting observation and nothing else did I say or imply. :thumbsup:

 

[notty22]

Its only unrealistic in the sense that you can't buy a 5970 anymore, the stray Cypress chips are just being turned in to 5870, 5850's, but its relevant because it shows where we are at 40nm, Nvidia has taken big strides forward.

2560x1600

 

[badb0y]

This review isn't using the 270 drivers either!

Yep and they aren't using the Mjolnir I either.

 

[RussianSensation]

Unrealistic? Not sure what you mean by that.
I found it an interesting observation and nothing else did I say or imply. :thumbsup:

I am saying, what's the point of comparing an HD5970 to the GTX580? It's an irrelevant comparison because realistically no one is going to making a purchasing decision between these 2 videocards today. Would you compare how an HD6970 performs vs. a GTX295 in a modern review? Sure you can do so for scientific purposes, but the outcome is largely irrelevant (except for the GTX295 user to see how good a modern single GPU is). Just like comparing an HD5970 is pointless to the 580 today since you can buy an HD6950 CF setup for the same price which outperforms the 5970. Also, you can't buy a 5970 for $500 anymore, which makes the comparison even more pointless. I have a feeling reviewers shy away from comparing an HD6950 CF setup to the 580 because the 580 will get blown away by 40%+. So of course it's more "convenient" to compare it to the obsolete 5970.

 

[1h4x4s3x]

Well, it's worth mentioning that now, this generation's fastest GPU beats last generation's fastest graphics card.
I am not comparing the price, wattage, noise, scaling, heat, availability or anything else but what I mentioned above.
Honestly, I don't know what the problem is.

 

[Skurge]

Cant read the article as im using a phone, but i get the feeling the thread title is wrong as everyone here is arguing 580 vs 5970. By single digit percentages no less. Thats just dumb imo.

 

[notty22]

Cant read the article as im using a phone, but i get the feeling the thread title is wrong as everyone here is arguing 580 vs 5970. By single digit percentages no less. Thats just dumb imo.

The thread is titled correctly. Someone posted the gtx 580 Lightning was also review at TPU, Ark, chipped in some comment about the results. Heres my take on on the TPU results.
The gtx 580 lightning@ 830mhz is 17% faster than the reference 6970 at 2560x1600.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 580 is faster than the 6970. Did anyone here not already know this? Or, are the 2 cards now priced comparatively and I missed it? What I take from the review(s) is these are 2 really nice custom cards for enthusiasts and O/C'ers to choose from. Quieter, cooler running, and better built. Win/win for both designs.

 

[Silverforce11]

NV throttles furmark hardcore, its running at 50% load. Ridiculous to draw power use conclusions on that.