Why is the 6970 so much better value than the 580

[Jacky60]

I have a tri-fire 5970/5870 overclocked system and will upgrade to Ivybridge/Bulldozer later this year. Money is not a problem but I'm asking should I go 580 tri-fire or 6990/6970 trifire or 6990 Quad or even Hexfire? I play Arma 2 -much more demanding than Crysis when view range etc increased. 580 seems better at lower resolutions BUT at 2560/1600 or higher 6970 seems to pwn it. I will go 5760/1200 (3 x 1920/1200's in Eyefinity) All the benchmarks I've seen suggest the 580 can't compete at the really high end enthusiast resolutions but is there any evidence to the contrary? At the moment I'm a bit CPU limited but more video memory will mean better frames and a prettier picture.


Parody threads are not allowed. Closing thread. If you wish to debate 580 vs 6970 value then do it in the thread that already exists.

Idontcare
Super Mod

 

[RussianSensation]

For Arma2, the GTX580 is still slightly faster but not worth the price difference imo.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/04/05/amd-radeon-hd-6790-1gb-review/5

AMD has higher texture fill-rate which comes into play at 2560x1600. I think that's one factor as to why the performance narrows with higher resolutions. Not sure if 2GBs of vRAM benefits in Arma 2 at 2560x1600, but if you were to go Tri-Fire HD6950s unlocked into HD6970s, then once you crank 8AA at 2560x1600, it just might come in handy.

With more recent drivers, the GTX580 still maintains about an 11% lead on average at 2560x1600 4AA.

That's the way premium cards work though. You have to pay exponentially more for a small gain in performance after a certain price point. NV knows their card is the fastest. From that perspective, if you want to get 2 of the fastest single GPU cards, you'd go with GTX580s. They are capitalizing on these customers and making a nice profit margin.

IMO, I would look forward to 28nm GPUs with your setup. Although, you can still try unloading the 5870 and 5970 and grabbing 3x 6950s in the mean-time. That's probably the best "bang-for-the buck" for you.

 

[bryanW1995]

if money is not a problem then 2 x 6990 (preferably with water blocks) is the way to go. sli/xfire don't scale above 4 gpus.

 

[happy medium]

Money is not a problem

There are more versions of the gtx580 3gb comming out from Zotac, and EVGA. I would go that route overclocked in tri sli and add a forth later.

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-amp2-geforce-gtx-580-zt-50104-10p.html

I'm sure there will be some super non reference versions of the gtx590 also. They will be the fastest factory overclocked quad upgrade. Mabe you should just wait a bit.

 

[superccs]

if money is not a problem then 2 x 6990 (preferably with water blocks) is the way to go. sli/xfire don't scale above 4 gpus.

This. Waterblocked 6990's ftw. http://www.guru3d.com/news/koolance-waterblock-for-radeon-hd-6990-/

 

[Dark Shroud]

I have a tri-fire 5970/5870 overclocked system and will upgrade to Ivybridge/Bulldozer later this year. Money is not a problem but I'm asking should I go 580 tri-fire or 6990/6970 trifire or 6990 Quad or even Hexfire? I play Arma 2 -much more demanding than Crysis when view range etc increased. 580 seems better at lower resolutions BUT at 2560/1600 or higher 6970 seems to pwn it. I will go 5760/1200 (3 x 1920/1200's in Eyefinity) All the benchmarks I've seen suggest the 580 can't compete at the really high end enthusiast resolutions but is there any evidence to the contrary? At the moment I'm a bit CPU limited but more video memory will mean better frames and a prettier picture.

Why don't you just save your money until the end of the year when the 28nm cards come out. AMD's full new architecture will be released then as well.

Otherwise just get do a 6990 & 6970 tri-fire rig or duel HD 6990s. Right now crossfire scales better than SLI.

 

[wahdangun]

if money is not your problem then go DUAL HD 6990 its the fastest GPU config available for ultra insane resolution

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Same reason people buy Lamborghini's. Sure a ZO6 corvette is much cheaper and almost as fast but it's just not on the same level. The lambo will get you vip parking anywhere. The ZO6 is the mid 50 year old going through a mid-life crisis looking through the restaurant window he couldn't get into. All the while the man driving the lambo dines with his smokin hot girlfriend while the man in the corvette wishes he could be in there. The 580 is the Lamborghini and the 6970 is a corvette.
Nvidia charges a little more but like the Lambo you get the extra perks. The better drivers, the ultra smooth 3d experience, and more.

 

[n0x1ous]

I have a tri-fire 5970/5870 overclocked system and will upgrade to Ivybridge/Bulldozer later this year. Money is not a problem but I'm asking should I go 580 tri-fire or 6990/6970 trifire or 6990 Quad or even Hexfire? I play Arma 2 -much more demanding than Crysis when view range etc increased. 580 seems better at lower resolutions BUT at 2560/1600 or higher 6970 seems to pwn it. I will go 5760/1200 (3 x 1920/1200's in Eyefinity) All the benchmarks I've seen suggest the 580 can't compete at the really high end enthusiast resolutions but is there any evidence to the contrary? At the moment I'm a bit CPU limited but more video memory will mean better frames and a prettier picture.

there's a thread on hardforum and overclock.net by a guy named vega who has 4 3gb 580s in 4 way sli with a 990x @ 5 ghz. he runs 3 x 30 inch monitors in surround. he previously had 4 6970 but he found that the crossfire bridges didn't have enough bandwidth (apparently an AMD rep said they were only designed for up to 1 30 inch Rez screen because they work in a serial fashion where not eery card can talk directly to every other card like nviia 3 way 4 way Ali bridge). he also found that 2gb VRAM is not enough at his rez (4800 x 2560). he said crisis used 2.7th of VRAM at his Rez with 2xaa.

so I think the 580s (ref 1.5gb) lose ground to 69xx at high rez because of lack of VRAM. with the 3gb palit or gainward they destroyed the 6970s

I'll try and find the link

 

[n0x1ous]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1588587

 

[badb0y]

Same reason people buy Lamborghini's. Sure a ZO6 corvette is much cheaper and almost as fast but it's just not on the same level. The lambo will get you vip parking anywhere. The ZO6 is the mid 50 year old going through a mid-life crisis looking through the restaurant window he couldn't get into. All the while the man driving the lambo dines with his smokin hot girlfriend while the man in the corvette wishes he could be in there. The 580 is the Lamborghini and the 6970 is a corvette.
Nvidia charges a little more but like the Lambo you get the extra perks. The better drivers, the ultra smooth 3d experience, and more.

Is this a joke? lol

 

[Skurge]

Why don't you just save your money until the end of the year when the 28nm cards come out. AMD's full new architecture will be released then as well.

They will likely be much more efficient and faster to boot. Not to mention what AMD or nvidia might add to the feature set. AMD already claimed they had to leave some stuff out of Cayman for 40nm.

 

[NIGELG]

Same reason people buy Lamborghini's. Sure a ZO6 corvette is much cheaper and almost as fast but it's just not on the same level. The lambo will get you vip parking anywhere. The ZO6 is the mid 50 year old going through a mid-life crisis looking through the restaurant window he couldn't get into. All the while the man driving the lambo dines with his smokin hot girlfriend while the man in the corvette wishes he could be in there. The 580 is the Lamborghini and the 6970 is a corvette.
Nvidia charges a little more but like the Lambo you get the extra perks. The better drivers, the ultra smooth 3d experience, and more.

One of the most useless posts I've ever seen.


Anyhow the 6970 is the way to go if you insist on ATi.If you like nVidia then go with a 570 but if money is no object then get the 580 .

 

[Grooveriding]

Same reason people buy Lamborghini's. Sure a ZO6 corvette is much cheaper and almost as fast but it's just not on the same level. The lambo will get you vip parking anywhere. The ZO6 is the mid 50 year old going through a mid-life crisis looking through the restaurant window he couldn't get into. All the while the man driving the lambo dines with his smokin hot girlfriend while the man in the corvette wishes he could be in there. The 580 is the Lamborghini and the 6970 is a corvette.
Nvidia charges a little more but like the Lambo you get the extra perks. The better drivers, the ultra smooth 3d experience, and more.

The Corvette is $75 grand, the Lamborghini is $350 to as much as $500 grand. This comparison is flawed. Anyone can scrap together a lousy $100 more to get a 580 over a 6970.

The pedigree of a car like a Lamborghini is something to swoon over. The 15% more fps you see in a 580 over a 6970 is just that, 15% more fps.

Few can come up with $350-$500 grand for a car rather than leasing/financing their way through $75,000.

Flawed car analogy is flawed.

 

[Elfear]

Same reason people buy Lamborghini's. Sure a ZO6 corvette is much cheaper and almost as fast but it's just not on the same level. The lambo will get you vip parking anywhere. The ZO6 is the mid 50 year old going through a mid-life crisis looking through the restaurant window he couldn't get into. All the while the man driving the lambo dines with his smokin hot girlfriend while the man in the corvette wishes he could be in there. The 580 is the Lamborghini and the 6970 is a corvette.
Nvidia charges a little more but like the Lambo you get the extra perks. The better drivers, the ultra smooth 3d experience, and more.

I'm all for a good car analogy but yours isn't even close. Do you think 10% more performance is really going to make for an "ultra smooth 3D experience" vs what, a dumpy 3D experience? The "more" you alluded to is basically like a seat massager in your Lambo. Sure it can be useful in certain situations but, all else being equal, it wouldn't make the car worth 55% more money.

The 580 is a great card but it is really overpriced.

 

[blastingcap]

The Corvette is $75 grand, the Lamborghini is $350 to as much as $500 grand. This comparison is flawed. Anyone can scrap together a lousy $100 more to get a 580 over a 6970.

The pedigree of a car like a Lamborghini is something to swoon over. The 15% more fps you see in a 580 over a 6970 is just that, 15% more fps.

Few can come up with $350-$500 grand for a car rather than leasing/financing their way through $75,000.

Flawed car analogy is flawed.

I think he was trying to be funny. God, I hope so. If he was serious... well... you're paying for valet parking no matter what you drive. And a car isn't going to get you lots of hot chicks, maybe an average-looking gold-digger, though. Tom Brady didn't land Gisele because of his *car* unless "car" is slang for "body built like a Greek God and NFL salary and endorsements."

By the way, the average Lambo buyer is in his 40s: http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/19/cx_dl_0719feat.ls.html The averages are even higher for other brands (Ferrari, Mercedes, Lexus... 50s... Lexus at one point said that 40% of their sales go to those over 60).

In any case, Lambo buyers are pikers. If you aren't driving a $1.7MM Bugatti Veyron, you're just a pretender.

P.S. I was going to lay into his last sentence but others have already done so. But at least he didn't bring up PhysX/CUDA. LOL.

 

[Makaveli]

Same reason people buy Lamborghini's. Sure a ZO6 corvette is much cheaper and almost as fast but it's just not on the same level. The lambo will get you vip parking anywhere. The ZO6 is the mid 50 year old going through a mid-life crisis looking through the restaurant window he couldn't get into. All the while the man driving the lambo dines with his smokin hot girlfriend while the man in the corvette wishes he could be in there. The 580 is the Lamborghini and the 6970 is a corvette.
Nvidia charges a little more but like the Lambo you get the extra perks. The better drivers, the ultra smooth 3d experience, and more.

I found this post funny flaws and all until the last sentence which just has personal bias attached to a foolish statement.

 

[Idontcare]

Parody threads are not allowed. Closing thread. If you wish to debate 580 vs 6970 value then do it in the thread that already exists.

Idontcare
Super Mod