Looking for equivalent to ATI 5870...maybe GTX 560 Ti?

[night_2004]

It's probably been asked before but I can't find a thread about it here (or anywhere else really) specifically comparing these two cards.

Thinking about pulling the 5870 from my gaming rig, and replacing it with an nVidia card. Not interested in triple monitor gaming, nor in SLI or Crossfire. Currently gaming at 1680x1050 but I might be moving to 1920x1080 in a month or two here if I get lucky.

Currently have an i7 2600K and a 750W Seasonic PSU to go with it, so I'm thinking that I should have plenty of juice available for the card.

From what I've read of various reviews, the GTX 560 Ti seems to trade blows with the 5870. For $250, not that bad of a deal...the GTX 570 would be nice but I'm not sure I want to drop $350 on a card (not after dropping $400 on the 5870 last year and then having to put up with a variety of driver problems).

Pretty much just interested in performance for ME, ME2, Crysis (original + Wars), Civ 5, the occasional Batman: AA, GTA IV, and Hot Pursuit.

Not sure when ME3 or Elder Scrolls 5 are coming out but I think by the time those come out I'll be in a better position to burn cash and get a more powerful GPU.

 

[samuelmorris]

Why not just fix the driver issues? Install catalyst 10.10e and then report back. You're going to lose at least some money by changing cards, you may as well at least try and fix the issues you have.

 

[night_2004]

Why not just fix the driver issues? Install catalyst 10.10e and then report back. You're going to lose at least some money by changing cards, you may as well at least try and fix the issues you have.

Yeah, that's what I've been trying to do but so far I haven't had any luck. Why 10.10e specifically, if you don't mind my asking? Screen flickers when the card changes clock speeds is a hardware issue (but one I'm okay with putting up with), but the driver crashes when I do remote desktop (actually caused a BSOD once) and the sleep issues really get to me. Didn't have those issues when I had my old GTX 275 SLI system a while back.

If the 5870 doesn't stay in this rig, it almost certainly will go into rig for OpenCL development so not all will be lost. I'm just...annoyed...with my particular set of issues and I get nice reminders of that every day.

 

[limitedaccess]

Unless you are planning on selling the 5870, I'd consider holding off a bit, since you seem to be in tighter money situation. I think the GTX 560s might drop a bit in price soon. At least from what I've noticed recently, there seems to be more sales on 560/570s when I was trying to pick a new card.

But the GTX 560 should handle those games no problem at 1920x1200. You'd actually get a slightly better experience in Batman: AA due to the PhysX, it really is the best PhysX showcase title from what I know.

It really depends on really how annoyed you are of the problems, and what lengths you will go to try to fix them. A new Nvidia card could also bring its own set of annoying issues, you never know.

ME 3 and Skyrim should be out roughly the same time as the next gen parts, which should have bigger improvements compared to this gen. ME 3 though I think is unlikely to need it, Skyrim maybe, especially if mods are factored in.

 

[night_2004]

Unless you are planning on selling the 5870, I'd consider holding off a bit, since you seem to be in tighter money situation. I think the GTX 560s might drop a bit in price soon. At least from what I've noticed recently, there seems to be more sales on 560/570s when I was trying to pick a new card.

It's more of a "I'm not sure if a single card is worth $350" kind of situation. At least not until I'm off the graduate student stipend and working a full time job . Buying a 5870 for $400 "back in the day" and then having to deal with months of driver issues was a big turn off to me for expensive cards from either side.

It really depends on really how annoyed you are of the problems, and what lengths you will go to try to fix them. A new Nvidia card could also bring its own set of annoying issues, you never know.

True. But my driver experiences with my old GTX 275s would lead me to think I'd be okay. At least I could RDP into my computer without it suffering some sort of crashing 70% of the time. All of that complements of the ATI driver.

ME 3 and Skyrim should be out roughly the same time as the next gen parts, which should have bigger improvements compared to this gen. ME 3 though I think is unlikely to need it, Skyrim maybe, especially if mods are factored in.

Which is part of the reason why I'm not sure if $350 now is a good idea. If I need a new card later, than I need a new card later and have to wait until I'm working a full time position (maybe just before the beginning of 2012) and I have the cash to blow on it. Let's get me through 2012 and I'll be happy .

Basically comes down to the 5870 drivers are starting to get in the way of my work, which I do not like . But at the same time I have to have some sort of ATI card lying around for OpenCL development. So I'm stuck with drivers that offer support for AMD Stream v2.3 (so 10.10 or 10.11 onwards) if I keep the card. I'd consider selling the card if I could get a 5550 or something to at least have something to develop on if I move to nVidia as a primary card. I might do that instead of keeping the 5870 as I'd like to maybe try to keep it all in one rig and not need another one.

IDK...I'm just in this weird situation where I'm not 100% sure what is going to fix my sadness.

 

[4LC4PON3]

GTX 560 Ti seems to trade blows with the 5870

Actually hardwareheaven did a review on the 560ti vs the 6950 & it ended up being = or above the 6950. Everyone keeps knocking the 560ti but its turning out to be a great for for users that are 1920x1200 & below. i was considering selling off my New 6950 2GB and going with the 560 ti myself

 

[samuelmorris]

10.10e specifically because it worked for me, and it's worked for most of the other people I've recommended it to. It's just one of AMD's better drivers, with fewer bugs than most of the others.
I use remote desktop every day on all-ATI PCs and have never had any issues at all.

4LC4PON3: That's because the HD6950 suffers performance loss at 1920x1080, the test resolution hardwareheaven use. The HD5870 does not suffer from this and thus, is faster than the HD6950, and therefore equal to or better than the GTX560Ti, at that resolution. The same goes for the HD6870 but since it's slower than the HD5870, it is also slower (albeit only slightly) than the GTX560Ti.

 

[night_2004]

10.10e specifically because it worked for me, and it's worked for most of the other people I've recommended it to. It's just one of AMD's better drivers, with fewer bugs than most of the others.
I use remote desktop every day on all-ATI PCs and have never had any issues at all.

4LC4PON3: That's because the HD6950 suffers performance loss at 1920x1080, the test resolution hardwareheaven use. The HD5870 does not suffer from this and thus, is faster than the HD6950, and therefore equal to or better than the GTX560Ti, at that resolution. The same goes for the HD6870 but since it's slower than the HD5870, it is also slower (albeit only slightly) than the GTX560Ti.

I'll have to try experimenting with this, but I don't see anything in the 10.10e notes confirming that OpenCL is supported.

EDIT/UPDATE: Just a quick note but they just released 11.2, and the release notes indicate that a few of those bugs that have been annoying me might be fixed now. Going to have to give those a shot too later this week when I have time.