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Palit 470 vs 6870?

Z

Zake202

Gawd
Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
559
I noticed Microcenter has the Palit 470 that comes down to $230 with rebate.

I live near one of these and was wondering if I should jump on that or grab a 6870?

I know the 470 Oc's better but I'm not sure I'd OC either.
 
What res do you game at?
What games do you intend to play?
Do you plan to go CF/sli?
Power supply adequate for 470 or 470 sli?

Details, man, details...

Performance wise the cards are evenly matched.
 
Mainly play at 1900x1200.

Mmorpg's, bfbc2, mwf2, black ops when its out, d3 when its out.

Nothing real heavy on graphics.

System is
Q6600@3.4
4gb g.skill
P5q pro
Ati 4850 512mb
Corsair 650tx

No plans to crossfire/sli
 
6870 is less power-hungry and will handle everything you want to play just fine.
 
The benchmarks I've seen have the 6870 edging out the 470. That along with the lower power usage and the 6870 would be my choice.
 
At stock settings the 6870 edges out, on OC settings the 470 wins by a quite a margin. If power/heat is not an issue I will pick the 470.
 
Just picked up the Palit 470 from microcenter. If it wasn't CUDA capable, I would have probably went with the 6870. This thing is LOUD at load!
 
Saw somewhere that 470 and 460 beat the 68xx counterparts in WOW. Not sure if that is the MMORPG you were talking about OP?
 
Is your case well ventilated? I have 2 480 in Sli and they idle at 42 to 44 and don't even hear them. In gaming they are usually at 66 to 68 but sometimes they peak at 72. I have the NZXT white phantom case with 5 fans total. I play on just a 2.1 surround system and I don't hear the fans over the regular volume I have setup for the games. If I mute the volume I do hear the fans from the video cards.
 
I have the cm690 with 6 main fans.

I think my msi 4850 idles around 38-40. Same with the first 2 cores on my cpu, 36-38.

Seems to be cooled fine.

Atm WOW is my main mmorpg but I tend to switch around when I get bored.
 
Cali3350 said:
Starcraft 2 runs the WOW engine and according to ANAND the 68XX destroy the GTX 4XX series.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/...enewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market/10
Click to expand...

HMM when you say DESTROY the 4XX series you might want to add the graph only shows the 460 1 gb at reference clock.

Now lets look at some results with a standard overclock;

Crysis
http://lab501.ro/placi-video/asus-radeon-hd-6870-si-hd-6850/16

The 6870 only edges the 460 1gb by 3 fps at 4x, at 8x the 460 1gb beats the 6870
 
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Interesting bench marks.

I do like my video card to run cool etc, but if they are lagging behind a 470 and I can find a 470 for the same price it makes me wonder.
 
Why would would you buy a 6870 or 470 based on how it plays in WoW? Seems like overkill, particularly since both cards get excellent FPS. Both cards get almost/over a 100 FPS in WoW at the 1920x res, so it really doesn't matter which one you get.
 
martinje said:
HMM when you say DESTROY the 4XX series you might want to add the graph only shows the 460 1 gb at reference clock.
Now lets look at some results with a standard overclock;
Crysis
http://lab501.ro/placi-video/asus-radeon-hd-6870-si-hd-6850/16
The 6870 only edges the 460 1gb by 3 fps at 4x, at 8x the 460 1gb beats the 6870
Click to expand...
why is anyone still playing Crysis??
I'll bench my 4870x2 on Crysis and probably get better frames than both, and you can pick one of my cards up for $200 or less!
(but still that's a good review because you can see what OC's do for each card typically)
 
heflys20 said:
Why would would you buy a 6870 or 470 based on how it plays in WoW? Seems like overkill, particularly since both cards get excellent FPS. Both cards get almost/over a 100 FPS in WoW at thr 1920x res, so it really doesn't matter which one you get.
Click to expand...

It's for other games also, I run WOW fine as is. Mainly want it for BC2 and newer FPS, but I tend to play Fps/MMorpg about 50/50.

I've never really OC'd a video card, is it simple or is it trial and error like a cpu? Assuming you'd have to run tests etc.
 
Well....In BC 2, the cards are about even. I don't imagine either having much difficulty with MW 2 or BO's. I can't predict how Diablo 3 will perform. Also, OC shouldn't be too hard, and there should be plenty of guides on here explaining the process in detail.

If the 470 looks good, go for it. Regardless of what Nvidia's saying, I don't expect them to maintain its current price, particularly with rebates. Also, keep in mind that the 68xx was just released, and (as drivers mature) it will likely get better. Who knows.
 
I do dislike that the 470 runs hot.

I think the particular Palit model would run ok but still think it would run in the 70's under a game that actually puts it to work.

Hard decision, the palit rebate ends soon.
 
Anyone else have an opinion?

Not sure why it's a hard decision for me. 470 still comes to $260+tax then waiting on a rebate vs $240 + tax, no rebate.

Similar performance, the 470 being ahead but taking more power and producing more heat.

Then again, no idea where the 6870 will end up with future drivers

Gah
 
Zake202 said:
Anyone else have an opinion?
Not sure why it's a hard decision for me. 470 still comes to $260+tax then waiting on a rebate vs $240 + tax, no rebate.
Similar performance, the 470 being ahead but taking more power and producing more heat.
Then again, no idea where the 6870 will end up with future drivers
Gah
Click to expand...

what are you running now??
 
iviyth0s said:
what are you running now??
Click to expand...

ati 4850, 512mb version.

Runs everything ok except a few games, which I bumped the resolution down to.

basically just don't want to worry about newer games and playing at 1920x1200...
 
Zake202 said:
ati 4850, 512mb version.

Runs everything ok except a few games, which I bumped the resolution down to.

basically just don't want to worry about newer games and playing at 1920x1200...
Click to expand...

Hmm, darn I was gonna say you could pop in a second but the framebuffer would kill ya....

what motherboard do you have and what games are giving you trouble??
 
Asus p5q Pro.

No games besides BC2, but as I said, this will be the only upgrade I really do to this build.

In a year or two it will probably go to my girlfriend and I'll upgrade.

Closer to a year I'm thinking, next years taxes or something.

My build is on the first page btw.
 
Zake202 said:
Anyone else have an opinion?

Not sure why it's a hard decision for me. 470 still comes to $260+tax then waiting on a rebate vs $240 + tax, no rebate.

Similar performance, the 470 being ahead but taking more power and producing more heat.

Then again, no idea where the 6870 will end up with future drivers

Gah
Click to expand...

it shouldn't be. if your not big on OCing and don't need the Nvidia 3d or physx (neither are much to most people but some like them). Now if your big on OCing and don't mind the extra heat and noise the 470 then go with the 470. Bench marks go back and forth depending on who does them and how they do it. For instances some sites show the 470 beating the 6870 at 1920 by 1200 8x AA but loosing to it when you go to 2560 by 1600. usually the difference is small and doesn't produce a real world result. from what I have seen both are going to give you pretty good results. this is a good avg (canned benchmarks) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/29.html shows the 470 slightly ahead at 1920p and slightly behind at 1600p. neither is really going to make a difference.

For my own personal opinion I think the 470/480GTX sound way to much like a leaf blower. Now Kyle has shown that a good case makes a big difference but if you don't have such a case make sure the noise is not troublesome to you. I would not buy one, esp not with the equivalent card that is quieter and draws much less power. But there is probably more OCing head room on a 470GTX, and a highly OCed one probably does have some real world advantages. (better playability rather then benchmarks, we are still waiting on the H review of the 470 vs the 6870) This would be a deal maker for some while the heat (and remember in the summer your going to have to cool whatever room you have your PC in) and noise would be a deal breaker for others (me).

The only other things are the feature. Nvidia has Physx (for couple of games that it matters in) and 3D (this important to more people then I thought, you need the supported monitor though). AMD has tri monitor on a single card (with caveats) and several distinct AA modes, CFAA and MLAA with the last being new and pretty damn awesome so far.

Oh, and as you have a crossfire only board your upgrade path is limited if you don't get an AMD card. and your board will crossfire fine, H has shown that x8 by x8 is as good as anything http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/ or even 4x by 4x http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/ and this is a good (canned benchmarks) idea of 6870 crossfire performance http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_6870_CrossFire/2.html and 6850 http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_6850_CrossFire/23.html

so take your pick
 
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