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6970 vs Nvidia

A

adrift02

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 10, 2006
Messages
467
To begin, I'm not trying to start a fanboy war here so please read my question carefully.

I keep reading comparisons of Nvidia vs AMD cards and they all seem to pit the 6970 against the GTX 570, even stating that the GTX 570 is faster. While I've seen a couple benchies that show the GTX 570 beating the 6970, they seem few and far between (and is usually just an overall Nvidia dominated bench). Shouldn't the 6970 be compared the the GTX580 in most cases? In many benches (Battlefield 3 among them), the GTX 580 seems closer to the 6970 than the GTX 570 (though the 580 is usually faster).

I'm just wondering if I'm missing something here. I have a 6970 but only because I was able to pick it up for $270 after rebate. All things equal I lean towards Nvidia due to driver support. But in this case the average performance difference seems like it would justify the extra ~$30 between the GTX 570 and 6970, no?
 
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It should be the best single gpu from AMD vs. the best single gpu from Nvidia. So yes, gtx 580.
 
Depends on resolution. At 1920x1200 and below the GTX 570 will usually be just as good or better by a couple of FPS, unless a game somehow requires more than 1.28gb of memory. Above 1920x1200 the HD 6970 will pull ahead pretty quickly due to its memory and will start to compete with the GTX 580.
 
xIronCrossx said:
Depends on resolution. At 1920x1200 and below the GTX 570 will usually be just as good or better by a couple of FPS, unless a game somehow requires more than 1.28gb of memory. Above 1920x1200 the HD 6970 will pull ahead pretty quickly due to its memory and will start to compete with the GTX 580.
Click to expand...

There are gtx 570s with 2560 mb of VRAM.
 
As stated, at resolutios of 1920x1080 and below the gtx 570 is typically a very small amount faster that 6970. At 1920x1200 they are very close to a wash. Above that the 6970 starts to pull away, though it has nothing to do with the vram amount. For some reason 6970 just handles higher resolutions better. The extra vram doesn't matter until you get into multi monitor or perhaps in certain rare instances at crazy resolutions like 8xAA/16xAF at 2560x1600.
 
bryanw1995 said:
As stated, at resolutios of 1920x1080 and below the gtx 570 is typically a very small amount faster that 6970. At 1920x1200 they are very close to a wash. Above that the 6970 starts to pull away, though it has nothing to do with the vram amount. For some reason 6970 just handles higher resolutions better. The extra vram doesn't matter until you get into multi monitor or perhaps in certain rare instances at crazy resolutions like 8xAA/16xAF at 2560x1600.
Click to expand...

This 100%
 
bryanw1995 said:
As stated, at resolutios of 1920x1080 and below the gtx 570 is typically a very small amount faster that 6970. At 1920x1200 they are very close to a wash. Above that the 6970 starts to pull away, though it has nothing to do with the vram amount. For some reason 6970 just handles higher resolutions better. The extra vram doesn't matter until you get into multi monitor or perhaps in certain rare instances at crazy resolutions like 8xAA/16xAF at 2560x1600.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, the above statement is actually the reason for this post in the first place. I keep reading "the 570 is equal or faster for anything 1920x1080 and below" (and already have two posts stating that here), but I am just not seeing it. The majority of the benches I've looked at show the 6970 still coming out faster at 1920x1080 (that's what I play at). I'm not trying to argue, I'm just hoping you guys can give me a bit more on that statement (which seems to be the consensus), because I feel like I'm missing something.
 
it depends on the game. The reason for the HD6970 doing better beyond 1920x1200 is it handles large workloads well. In very demanding games, the HD6970 can already surpass the GTX570 at 1920x1200. In others, it's not usually the case.
 
On extremely demanding games that don't typically favor one camp or the other (extremely rare), the breakeven point for 6970 happens at lower resolutions. Also, it's entirely possible that many/most games that have come out since last December tend to favor the vli4w architecture in general or the 6970 in particular. Regardless, the two cards are so incredibly close in performance and value (gtx 570 is a bit cheaper but also a bit more cheaply made) that the particular games that you play now and plan to play in the future should be your primary focus when determining which one to buy.
 
One thing to keep in mind that I have noticed having owned a GTX 580 and a unlocked HD 6950, except in rare games that really favor one architecture over another, the HD 6950/70 and the GTX 580 often give just about the same exact gaming experience. Sure the 580 is generally faster, but the 10-20% advantage rarely give any sort of actual appreciable gaming advantage at the same high quality settings. One memorable exception was Witcher 2 which ran much better on the GTX 580.

Example: Dragon Age II @ 2560x1600 averages 32fps with 6950@6970 speeds and 35fps with GTX580. Faster sure, but experience is not improved.
 
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But the fact that I picked up two 6950's 2GB Unlocked 1536 shader for cheaper than a GTX580 instantly makes the GTX580 an obsolete piece of shit in my book :) Meep Meep
 
OK, thanks again for the info guys. Since I recently built a new PC for BF3 + upcoming games I've been trying to get back in the know. I appreciate the details.
 
I just bought a new MSI HD 6970 Lightning this month. I really like it. I was able and willing to buy just about any card but didn't want to get into the 590 or 6990. I decided the card I got offered the best value for what I wanted to do. I considered 560 ti SLI, 6950 SLI, GTX 570, GTX 580, HD 6970. I like the multi monitor support of AMD and disliked the 1GB-1.2GB memory of the 560 and 570 cards. That left me with the GTX 580 and HD 6970 cards. The MSI 6970 Lightning was $380, the MSI GTX 580 Lightning was $530 and the MSI GTX 580 Lightning XE 3GB was $600. I just couldn't justify paying that much extra and I game at 1920x1200 btw.

I'm in Canada and it is hard to find a GTX 580 under $480 without a mail in rebate or something to deal with. 25% extra cost didn't seem good for 10% better performance.
 
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