ati vs nvidia for dell 30inch?

[gamefish]

Ok so I am putting together a dualboot win7/ hackintosh and I need some help.
I am going to run a 3 monitor setup PLP using the 3007 and two 2007's as bookends.
Recently I have found out that neither cards will support my display setup. Unless I use softh. I may use softth from time to time just to experience it. Hopfully sometime down the road either one will support PLP.
So if I can't game across all three, then I want to max out the capabilites of my 30 incher.
What do you guys advise for running games at 2560x1600?

I have spken to my builder and he has said the gtx cards are currently not supported with osx. He also said there is a software update comming soon that may fix this.
Up untill now I was set on two msi gtx 470 cards.
But with them not being supported and having to wait for this software fix. I'm starting to lean twd the ati cards. Problem is I have done so much reasearch on the gtx cards that I'm brainwashed by it.

Does the nvidia cards beat out the ati cards enough for me to wait for the gtx cards to be supported?

Running at 2560x1600 does this force me into ati cards due to the higher vraM?

Any advice would be great as my builder has all the rest of my parts ready and is jut waiting on my video card choice.
Sorry for the typos I'm sending this from my droid.

 

[strekship]

You could look into getting two 6870s. They would cost about the same as the 470s, and from what I understand Crossfire scaling in the HD6xxx cards is much better than it used to be.

 

[FinalJenemba]

Nvidia cards have always worked very well for me in osx setups. But the gtx cards not being supported would be a deal breaker if you want to game at native res. One thing I will say is get as much natively supported hardware as you can, the less kexts you have to add the better.

 

[samuelmorris]

At 2560x1600, get a 6950 if you can, the extra memory will help at that resolution.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I went with two 6950 2GB cards partly because of the memory size. Probably more than I need for a 30 inch monitor, but better to have too much than too little.

 

[gamefish]

Nvidia cards have always worked very well for me in osx setups. But the gtx cards not being supported would be a deal breaker if you want to game at native res. One thing I will say is get as much natively supported hardware as you can, the less kexts you have to add the better.

Yes I will be gaming with this machine as much as being productive with media projects. The mac side for work win side for fun. Your Telling me about a deal breaker. Lastnight when I got the news about the gtx cards. I felt like a lost little boy "crying out what do I do now"
I'm so stuck on the nvidia cards that I feel like if I switch to ati I'm going to always carry that with me and not feel like its built the way I wanted.

That's why I'm posting here. I'm looking to find out if there realy is a noticable diff between gtx and ati during gameplay. Plus I'm worried about this driver problem I've read about with the ati cards.
I've just started my researh on the ati cards so I'm not well versed in them. This is going to be my first real nice setup and I don't want to have regrets. Or be saying dam if I knew then what I know now.....you know the rest.

Does any one have the right answer for me? lol I know there never is a right answer. Its always trade offs with things like this.
Thanks for the responses

 

[tory]

Just my input with the Tonymacx86 way of making a Hackintosh there was an nvidia update that you load after you update to 10.6.5 that allows "Fermi" GPUs to become fully functional in OSX. As far as the 6970 or whatever you thought about getting i have no clue since i have GTX 460s in SLI and my hackintosh works Great. SLI is not recognized however but thats the Sideeffect of OSX.

just food for thought.

EDIT: I have tested a GTX 580 and GTX 460 with the "nvidia update" and they both worked perfectly.. Those are the only 2 GPUs i tested since my friend had a 580 that i borrowed not to long ago when he was out of town.

 

[risqu3]

PLP = supported by eyefinity using a single card
PLP is not supported if you extend PLP into a SINGLE display (eg 1200x1600+2560x1600+1200x1600) they all have to be either portrait or landscape for eyefinity to support that.

 

[strekship]

To be honest I think people over exaggerate driver issues. I have owned plenty of cards from both ATI/AMD and nVidia, and as far as driver issues go they were both about the same. If anything, I had more trouble with the drivers for my 8600GS than I did with my HD5750.

 

[thesixth]

Two 580s with the 3gigs of mem.

 

[gamefish]

Just my input with the Tonymacx86 way of making a Hackintosh there was an nvidia update that you load after you update to 10.6.5 that allows "Fermi" GPUs to become fully functional in OSX. As far as the 6970 or whatever you thought about getting i have no clue since i have GTX 460s in SLI and my hackintosh works Great. SLI is not recognized however but thats the Sideeffect of OSX.

just food for thought.

EDIT: I have tested a GTX 580 and GTX 460 with the "nvidia update" and they both worked perfectly.. Those are the only 2 GPUs i tested since my friend had a 580 that i borrowed not to long ago when he was out of town.

No no I want two gtx cards over two ati cards lol, so you are running two 460 cards and osx recognized them?
you can get it to display 2560x1600 with no hacking or programing?

Sli while booted in osx......don't care. As long as it works when booted in windows.

 

[gamefish]

PLP = supported by eyefinity using a single card
PLP is not supported if you extend PLP into a SINGLE display (eg 1200x1600+2560x1600+1200x1600) they all have to be either portrait or landscape for eyefinity to support that.

Right but I will be able to game on the 30 inch while having my desk top on the 20's correct?

I won't be able to game across all three unless I use softh correct?

Sorry guys I'm trying to understand all of this in a short period of time. Don't have any experience with 3 displays.

Thanks again

 

[risqu3]

I just broke my eyefinity group to show you what you can have. The far left is 1920x1200 Portrait. Middle is 1920x1200 Landscape. Far right is some weird resolution like 1000x1800.



On that you CANNOT extend it as a single display. To make it a single display would require the hacking of the monitors drivers to tell that the side monitors are actually landscape instead of portrait and even then the CCC wouldn't be able to make it because it requires all monitors to have the same resolution.


Sorry if some stuff doesn't make sense I think im still drunk.

 

[That's_Corporate]

I went with two 6950 2GB cards partly because of the memory size. Probably more than I need for a 30 inch monitor, but better to have too much than too little.

I saw an individual's review of their 3GB GTX 580 SLI setup, and even at three-monitor resolution levels I don't think many games hit 2GB of VRAM usage. The only exception was Metro 2033 I believe. Pretty interesting I thought!

So yea, 2GB should be MORE than enough.

 

[samuelmorris]

Yeah 2GB is enough for most things (well, everything where two 6970s are fast enough, as even three 580s were too slow for the game that used more than 2GB), but 1.5GB is not.

 

[Valset]

Yes I will be gaming with this machine as much as being productive with media projects. The mac side for work win side for fun. Your Telling me about a deal breaker. Lastnight when I got the news about the gtx cards. I felt like a lost little boy "crying out what do I do now"
I'm so stuck on the nvidia cards that I feel like if I switch to ati I'm going to always carry that with me and not feel like its built the way I wanted.

That's why I'm posting here. I'm looking to find out if there realy is a noticable diff between gtx and ati during gameplay. Plus I'm worried about this driver problem I've read about with the ati cards.
I've just started my researh on the ati cards so I'm not well versed in them. This is going to be my first real nice setup and I don't want to have regrets. Or be saying dam if I knew then what I know now.....you know the rest.

Does any one have the right answer for me? lol I know there never is a right answer. Its always trade offs with things like this.
Thanks for the responses

I am not going into the 3 screen issue but between the Nvidia vs AMD

Drivers, that is complete bullshit. there are plenty of fanbois on both sides that scream it. Nvidia killed cards with theirs, AMD crossfire broken, so on and so on. The truth is that both have had their issues and they both have their own strength and weaknesses. Lots of people have had bad experiences with both but what you HEAR about is usually when one worked for some one when the other didn't. In the end theses stories are about as useful and newegg reviews

if you like Nvidia cards that is fine. the 570GTX is not a bad card really. its currently overpriced but a HELL of a lot better deal then the 580GTX. the only thing your going to loose going with this is probably some AA here or there due to the AMD having more Vram. (and even that not often at 4mp) but the 6950 and the 570GTX run neck and neck as far as game play experience. your just going to have to pay a little more for the Nvidia card.

Avoid the 580GTX. it is a stupid buy right now and should not even be considered at the price its at. a 570GTX is 90% of a 580GTX but only about 60% of the cost. hell, you can LITERALLY get two 6950 for the same price as a 580GTX and they will slaughter it. (you can get them 260AR shipped vs 512 shipped for a 580GTX). There is always a premium in the top gpu but this is stupid here.

BTW keep in mind that if you only want one graphics card AMD is the only one that will run 3 monitors. this really isn't an issue as you can run the two smaller ones of a cheaper card.

 

[samuelmorris]

AMD drivers = bad, not intolerable
nvidia drivers = bad, not intolerable
GTX580 = Retarded outside SLI (especially since single geforces can't run multi-display)
GTX570 = Overpriced but acceptable
HD6970 = Overpriced but acceptable
HD6950 = Good value
GTX560Ti = Reasonable value, but weaker than comparatively-priced opposition
HD6870 = Great value
HD6850 = Great value
GTX460 = Reasonable value, but weaker than comparatively-priced opposition

 

[Mr. K6]

For 2560x1600 I'd stick with AMD, their cards are just generally faster than their NVIDIA counterparts at higher resolutions. The 6950 2GB is probably your best bet, especially if you unlock it.

 

[ravensteel]

Driver problems with ATI, really I've not had any serious or minor problems in years with drivers except for a certain game (yes I'm looking at you Splinter Cell: Conviction) other than that, no.. I don't know maybe I'm just lucky and everyone doesn't clean out their old drivers properly, wondering why their drivers are crapping out. I do know in certain games like HawX 2 Nvidia really benefits in performance, but majority of games are not so lop sided to one cards performance.

 

[gamefish]

I just broke my eyefinity group to show you what you can have. The far left is 1920x1200 Portrait. Middle is 1920x1200 Landscape. Far right is some weird resolution like 1000x1800.



On that you CANNOT extend it as a single display. To make it a single display would require the hacking of the monitors drivers to tell that the side monitors are actually landscape instead of portrait and even then the CCC wouldn't be able to make it because it requires all monitors to have the same resolution.


Sorry if some stuff doesn't make sense I think im still drunk.

i am trying to achieve the following.

while gaming in win 7 .......i want the 30 inch at 2560x1600 displaying the game. while the two 20 inchers run at 1200x1600 showing the windows 7 desk top/web browser.

while working in osx........all 3 MUST run at there native res and i need to be able to drag things from one display to the other.

are these scenarios in line with reality?
thank you

 

[gamefish]

For 2560x1600 I'd stick with AMD, their cards are just generally faster than their NVIDIA counterparts at higher resolutions. The 6950 2GB is probably your best bet, especially if you unlock it.

i keep seeing this reference to unlocking/hacking the 6950 to a 6970. something im going to research this afternoon. im not sure if this is something that is out of my ability yet.

i was wondering how the two cards compared at higher res. most benchmarks ive looked at are done at 1080.

 

[gamefish]

I am not going into the 3 screen issue but between the Nvidia vs AMD


BTW keep in mind that if you only want one graphics card AMD is the only one that will run 3 monitors. this really isn't an issue as you can run the two smaller ones of a cheaper card.

is running only one card an option for gaming at high rez? the way i was understanding it is i needed two of them to handle the work load of games at 2560x1600 with them maxed out?

 

[Valset]

is running only one card an option for gaming at high rez? the way i was understanding it is i needed two of them to handle the work load of games at 2560x1600 with them maxed out?

two is nice but hardly needed. you may not totally max out everything but your usually talking about 4xaa vs 8xaa in all but the newer games. if you really do want to max everything out then yeah, you do need two really. well take a look at what the single cards can do http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/12/14/amd_radeon_hd_6970_6950_video_card_review/

 

[samuelmorris]

I can't say anything about Mac OSX as I don't use it, but one card can work at 2560x1600, but you won't be able to max the details out in a game. In games like Bad company 2, AA has an enormous impact, so you will want to leave it off in the games it has big impacts with, to preserve performance.
Running 2560x1600 in BFBC2 on a single HD6970 nets you 17fps minimum and 42fps average with 4xAA, which is a bit unpleasant. Turning AA off however should see you up to 27fps minimum and 52fps average, which is a lot better.

 

[gamefish]

I can't say anything about Mac OSX as I don't use it, but one card can work at 2560x1600, but you won't be able to max the details out in a game. In games like Bad company 2, AA has an enormous impact, so you will want to leave it off in the games it has big impacts with, to preserve performance.
Running 2560x1600 in BFBC2 on a single HD6970 nets you 17fps minimum and 42fps average with 4xAA, which is a bit unpleasant. Turning AA off however should see you up to 27fps minimum and 52fps average, which is a lot better.

two 6970's will fix this? at this point im either going to go with two 6950's or two 6970's.

 

[samuelmorris]

I run a pair of 6970s at 2560x1600 and can use HBAO and 4xAA in Bad Company 2 smoothly in multiplayer. 8xAA is too much as it becomes noticeably jerky, around 45-50fps instead of 60-70 with 4xAA. Whether you'd get the same result with 4xAA on a pair of 6950s without unlocking them I couldn't say, you may be limited to 2x.

 

[suiken_2mieu]

I run a pair of 6970s at 2560x1600 and can use HBAO and 4xAA in Bad Company 2 smoothly in multiplayer. 8xAA is too much as it becomes noticeably jerky, around 45-50fps instead of 60-70 with 4xAA. Whether you'd get the same result with 4xAA on a pair of 6950s without unlocking them I couldn't say, you may be limited to 2x.

That's extremely doubtful that he'd be limited to 2x. That wouldn't only happen if he were cpu bottle necked.

 

[samuelmorris]

Depends on the frame rate. If two 6970s are limited to 4xAA for graphics processing power reasons, not memory reasons, it seems pretty reasonable that 6950s which are 10% slower may be limited to 2xAA.

No idea what you're getting at with the CPU bottleneck, when did CPUs have anything to do with AA?

 

[Postmodum]

Just get the 6950's with 2Gb and unlock them to 6970's Even if they're locked you'll be pretty happy.
At that resolution the 2Gb really shines.