5870 2GB vs. 6970 2GB

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Spare-Flair

Supreme [H]ardness
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What differences are there between the two cards? The 5870 2GB models seem to be much cheaper than retail 6970s at the moment and I thought that their speeds were relatively comparable.

Is there something new in the architecture or new features in the 6xxx series that the 5xxx series does not have?
 
The AF isn't broken on the 6970, better tesselation, new CFAA modes, overall a 10-50% performance improvement, depending on game. Lots of other little improvements here and there.
 
Spare-Flair said:
What differences are there between the two cards? The 5870 2GB models seem to be much cheaper than retail 6970s at the moment and I thought that their speeds were relatively comparable.

Is there something new in the architecture or new features in the 6xxx series that the 5xxx series does not have?
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The difference is the 6970 is about 10% faster (average) and crossfire scaling is about 6% better when using 2 cards.

Thats it! Don't believe the hype!

More proof..6970 vs 6950 vs gtx570 vs 5870 all overclocked.
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...70-all-overclocked-review-crysis-warhead.html

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Seems the biggest deal is the CF scaling being significantly improved. It looks like the FPS in single card situations is mostly within 10% except for heavy tesselation games.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Seems the biggest deal is the CF scaling being significantly improved. It looks like the FPS in single card situations is mostly within 10% except for heavy tesselation games.
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I would not call it significantly. :) It has also improved with the 5xxx since last year.
I would say the 5870 is probrobly on par with the 6950. 120fps 5870 vs the 6970 127 fps in BC2.

The biggest change is @ 2500x1600+ res., but only 2% of the population uses that.
The 2gb of memory probrobly will help the 5870 in crossfire situations anyway.
 
The 6970 is only about 10% on average faster than the 5870 in non tessellated games. Some of that gain is attributed to the faster core and memory speed. In tessellation benchmarks the gap widens somewhat due to better tessellation hardware on the 6900. But Crysis 2 apparently does not take advantage of this.

Better CF scaling is mostly just a result of optimized drivers. There is nothing in particular about the 6900 or 6800 Architecture that improves CF scaling. Otherwise AMD would be all over it in their presentation bulletpoints.
 
Yeah, not really feeling the urge to upgrade from my 5870. Hoping the 7970 shows much better performance improvements than the 6970 did.
 
happymedium said:
I would not call it significantly. :) It has also improved with the 5xxx since last year.
I would say the 5870 is probrobly on par with the 6950. 120fps 5870 vs the 6970 127 fps in BC2.

The biggest change is @ 2500x1600+ res., but only 2% of the population uses that.
The 2gb of memory probrobly will help the 5870 in crossfire situations anyway.
Click to expand...

Oh I think it has improved significantly, maybe not in performance wise, but in the fact that it just works. The 5850 and the 5870 were very buggy when it came to crossfire. Yeah for some people it worked fine, but for others it was so frustrating and never functioned no matter what drivers were used.
 
The 5xxx series has stutter issues in CF Eyefinity that are not present in the 6xxx series. Other than that the difference in minor.

Judging by your sig: 2x XFX HD 5870 (Ref.) | 3x ASUS EAH5870 | 3x ASUS ROG 5870 Matrix Platinum 2GB | 5x Gigabyte HD 5870 | 2x Sapphire 6950 2GB |

You should invest in some monitors and test it out :D
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
The 5xxx series has stutter issues in CF Eyefinity that are not present in the 6xxx series. Other than that the difference in minor.

Judging by your sig: 2x XFX HD 5870 (Ref.) | 3x ASUS EAH5870 | 3x ASUS ROG 5870 Matrix Platinum 2GB | 5x Gigabyte HD 5870 | 2x Sapphire 6950 2GB |

You should invest in some monitors and test it out :D
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Who told you that?
Both series use the same AFR crossfire rendering method and the same drivers.
If the stuttering was improved with the 6xxx series drivers , what makes you think it was not improved with the 5xxx series drivers? Its the same driver.
 
It can't possibly be the same driver, can it? Given the big changes going from VLIW5 to VLIW4? Do the 6970/50 cards still work if you install the 5870 driver?
 
The 5870 is an awesome card that still holds it's own against the top video cards. I was lucky enough to pick one up for just over $200 before the bit coin mining phenomena reared it's ugly head. Now it's nearly impossible to find another one for CF at a decent price and the used ones also run the risk of being bit coined to death and on their last leg.
 
Harry1969 said:
The 5870 is an awesome card that still holds it's own against the top video cards. I was lucky enough to pick one up for just over $200 before the bit coin mining phenomena reared it's ugly head. Now it's nearly impossible to find another one for CF at a decent price and the used ones also run the risk of being bit coined to death and on their last leg.
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Very true, but this is the case with alot of the 5800 cards, I see bitcoin dying honestly. I managed to get one a few days ago on ebay for $85 true story lol. It was labeled "Parts not working". Popped in my rig and it worked just fine.
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
The 5xxx series has stutter issues in CF Eyefinity that are not present in the 6xxx series. Other than that the difference in minor.

Judging by your sig: 2x XFX HD 5870 (Ref.) | 3x ASUS EAH5870 | 3x ASUS ROG 5870 Matrix Platinum 2GB | 5x Gigabyte HD 5870 | 2x Sapphire 6950 2GB |

You should invest in some monitors and test it out :D
Click to expand...

:)

I game regularly with the ASUS ROG 2GB 5870s and I have seen no micro stutter at all. Tried the same monitor with the CF Sapphire 6950s and it was about the same but the 5870s edged it out in performance probably due to the ROG overclock. My Eyefinity setup is dead however due to bad monitors. Will be investing in some new ones soon.
 
qbanb8582 said:
Very true, but this is the case with alot of the 5800 cards, I see bitcoin dying honestly. I managed to get one a few days ago on ebay for $85 true story lol. It was labeled "Parts not working". Popped in my rig and it worked just fine.
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That was brave of you to invest $85 into a parts not working card. Why did you do it?
 
Spare-Flair said:
That was brave of you to invest $85 into a parts not working card. Why did you do it?
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I do it alot not just video cards. I work on electronics so alot of the things I can fix many things for myself. I have pretty good luck though when it comes to things like that.

Most of the time it works just fine and it just wasn't checked properly. I've bought a two WoW headsets that were "Broke" one had a bad USB cable worked just fine. The other just needed to be charged and synced properly.
 
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