upgrade from a 470

[we1shcake]

i could sell my 470 and pick up a used 6870 for about £30 less than i would make, would this be quieter and cooler than my 470 aswell as similar to better performance

 

[toyota]

has everyone forgotten how to use google? http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=6870+review


and right from the site you are on. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/amds-radeon-6870-6850-renewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market

 

[FalseChristian]

If you overclocked yer GTX 470 you'd have a card that'll compete with the HD 6950!

 

[toyota]

yeah but its noise and heat that he seems to be considered about.

 

[we1shcake]

yes toyota, the performance is fine for what i have and the cpu is the bottleneck in my system (only got a phenom x2) but the temps are a bit stupid when overclocked, and the noise is ridiculous. i know the performance is similar, i was just looking for opinions as to whether this would be a good move, although now i think about it i might just wait for the 7870 and try and save up for that

 

[toyota]

yes at this point just wait. that way you can get a nice performance jump and lower power consumption.

 

[RavenSEAL]

wait

 

[we1shcake]

ok thanks for the advice everyone

 

[RussianSensation]

If all you have is a dual core Phenom X2, HD6870 is a perfect match (in fact overkill in some games). It's not really worth it to get a faster GPU than 6870/470 for you. Not only do you have 2 cores, but Phenom X2 is also slow per clock cycle. HD7870 is rumored to launch in Feb-March (since 7900 is supposed to come first). Also, initially 7870 will probably cost much more than the 6870.

 

[toyota]

oops did not even notice he had just a Phenom X2. yeah its time for a cpu upgrade for sure if you want a better gpu.

 

[RussianSensation]

toyota, time to push that 2500k. Don't be lazy like me!

 

[toyota]

toyota, time to push that 2500k. Don't be lazy like me!

its at 4.2 which is probably about as high as I will go for now. maybe when I get a faster gpu, I will go a little higher.

btw can a video card driver cause a blue screen? I have had two this week out of the blue while just sitting on the desktop. no problems in stress tests or games though.

 

[-Slacker-]

The gtx 470 and hd 6870 are about the same speed ... the best, and pretty much only video card that could be considered a real upgrade, costs $450 and is roughly 45% faster (I'm talking about the gtx 580).

If I were you, I'd wait for the HD 7000 series, since you already have a decent video card.

 

[Arkadrel]

i could sell my 470 and pick up a used 6870 for about £30 less than i would make, would this be quieter and cooler than my 470 aswell as similar to better performance

Performance would be the same (faster in some, slower in some).
Powerdraw would drop: on avg 40 watts, on load ~63 watts.
Noise would drop: 470 ref ~47 dB -> 6870 ref ~42 dB (5 dB less Noisy)


Max Load (heavly taxed GPU):

Avg load (not to demanding game ei.):

we1shcake

I think you should take the deal, get a more effecient card, thats less noisy, and pocket that 30£.
I think at stock speeds, the 6870 is a tiny bit faster overall than the 470.

However the 470 can overclock better than the 6870 can, if you take max overclock 470, then its faster than max overclocked 6870. The noise the 470 will make at those levels will be madning though.

 

[we1shcake]

thanks for the advice everyone, i am getting a new proc but im waiting for ivy bridge now. also my x2 is oc'ed to 4.1ghz but that seems to be its stable limit