Upgrading from a 6870

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KillerFry

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
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Hello there;

Like the title says, I'm planning to upgrade from my 6870 1GB for my birthday.

I consider myself to be... not a fanboy, but a fan indeed of AMD; nevertheless I cannot deny I've been a little let down with Bulldozer and, now that the GTX 680 is out, also a little bummed by 7970 :(

So, I went to my friendly, close by Fry's and they do not have any of the GTX 680 on stock, which I was planning on buying. What I found that seemed interesting to me was a Zotac 580 with 3GB of VRAM for $460-ish; they have several of them in stock.

I know the 580 will be an upgrade from my current card, but I wonder if I should pull the trigger on it, or if I should wait for the 680 to be re-stocked?

I am in no rush, and for the moment I'm playing on a single 1080p monitor and that's not about to change for a while, heh.

What say you, oh mighty communal [H] knowledge!
 
Wait for the 680 or find a used 580. $460 is too much to pay for a card that's 20% slower than a $500 680.
 
Wait. The 680 will outperform a 580 regardless of improved cooling by 30% and use considerably less power.

I know you're itching to upgrade now, but 680s should be back in stock this week during which time I'm sure you can live with your 6870. And 2gb vs 3gb memory is not going to matter one bit at 1080p. Wait, no question.

Realistically, a 680 is severe overkill at 1080p, but I'm sure that won't stop you. If I was you, I'd be looking at a 7870, get a 6970,570,480 on discount or get another 6870 (which I can vouch is a killer solution for 1080p)
 
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The 6870 is still a great card. Consider Crossfiring it if you have good ventilation. The performance is around the 580+ range for just another 160 ish.
 
Everyone mostly bad mouths crossfire and driver support... is it worth the hassle?

If I go that route, I would also have to change my PSU... though that would be a good chance to get a modular one to help keep things tidy, heh.
 
KillerFry said:
Everyone mostly bad mouths crossfire and driver support... is it worth the hassle?

If I go that route, I would also have to change my PSU... though that would be a good chance to get a modular one to help keep things tidy, heh.
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I've never had much issues with either AMDs or Nvidia's drivers personally.
I'm debating between between Crossfiring or just a new card as well. I have a mATX case and mobo, so crossfiring would require me to change to a better case.

Radeon 7870:
Costs $360.

Radeon 6870+ Corsair 300r or 550D=
Costs $250-300 which might change with additional fans. Produces more heat and requires more power. But with 580+ performance.
 
Butter said:
I've never had much issues with either AMDs or Nvidia's drivers personally.
I'm debating between between Crossfiring or just a new card as well. I have a mATX case and mobo, so crossfiring would require me to change to a better case.

Radeon 7870:
Costs $360.

Radeon 6870+ Corsair 300r or 550D=
Costs $250-300 which might change with additional fans. Produces more heat and requires more power. But with 580+ performance.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't you deduct the resell value of the 6870 from that 7870? Lets say he gets $ 100 for it, the 7870 would cost him about 250.
 
Shago said:
Shouldn't you deduct the resell value of the 6870 from that 7870? Lets say he gets $ 100 for it, the 7870 would cost him about 250.
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sorry, i meant those were my personal choices. i would most likely give mine away to my friend
 
I had crossfire 6870s for over a year and never had a problem with them. I decided to try Nvidia and picked up a used GTX 580 matrix for a small form factor build and I love it. Performance wise I can't tell too much of a difference but its nice having only one card cause it's so quiet. I play at 1080p and the 580 has no problems at that resolution.

I do want to get another one for sli so I can get closer to 120 fps in some games cause i just picked up a 120hz montior. If you can get a gtx 680 though, I don't see why not when they're available again.
 
Butter said:
The 6870 is still a great card. Consider Crossfiring it if you have good ventilation. The performance is around the 580+ range for just another 160 ish.
Click to expand...

Here is a link comparing CF 6870s to a 580. As you can see, for another $160, crossfire 6870s cleans up across a range of games.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/301?vs=305

Regarding needing a new PSU, what are you currently using? A high quality 500w should be fine.
 
I've never gone dual GPUs, I've always perceived them as being too problematic. But I just might, just to give it a test ;)

My PSU is... damn, I don't remember. It is 550W, of that I'm sure; it's either an Antec or Corsair. I'm not at home so can't check right now. What I do remember is that it physically does not have enough GPU power plug thingies, just for one. I know I could use splitters or converters, but I've never trusted them much, heh.
 
If you really want to go with a 580 there usually are some in the fs forum.
 
In same situation as OP, leaning towards nvidia due to better drivers. But a 2nd 6870 would be cheaper and the performance gains are impressive. Concerned about noise levels and micro-stuttering. Have heard that the latter can mostly be eliminated by enabling vsync, though.
 
I was just in the same boat as you OP & I got a great deal on my 580 1536. I am a happy camper. I would say grab a 680 or find a great deal on a 580 like I did
 
I had hd 6870 crossfire and the driver is just meh

Not all games would scale well and the dips (min fps) is just annoying

Also with latest games consuming more and more vram(bf3, skyrim, gta 4, metro 2033, etc...) the extra performane you would get from CF would be negligable as you would lack the appropriate vram
 
VRAM was one of the reasons the Zotac 580 3GB looked good. Yet, I've found some reviews and benchmarks that show that the extra VRAM does not bring that much of an advantage and, in some cases, performance was actually a little worse. I guess if the GPU is looking for a resource outside the 1.5GB then it takes more cycles to fetch it... <shrugs />.

Since the attraction was the 3GB, then I guess there's no point in it, heh. I guess I'll wait for either a 7870 or the 680 to be in stock.
 
No. If you're looking in $500 range no question GTX 680. 580 sucks by comparison. Uses way more power is louder and is quite a bit slower. Extra $40 GTX 680 is a no brainer. And stay away from Zotac no matter what you get. Go over to their forums to get an idea of what you are buying with them.
 
Everyone mostly bad mouths crossfire and driver support... is it worth the hassle?

If I go that route, I would also have to change my PSU... though that would be a good chance to get a modular one to help keep things tidy, heh.
Click to expand...

It was my old setup and I am telling you 6870s in CF is great.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
It was my old setup and I am telling you 6870s in CF is great.
Click to expand...

Same setup here and for 1920x1080 performance is fantastic. Still running driver version 11.12 and will not update since it runs perfectly.
 
Butter said:
The 6870 is still a great card. Consider Crossfiring it if you have good ventilation. The performance is around the 580+ range for just another 160 ish.
Click to expand...

I did this and the performance is great in everything out right now (at 1080p.)
 
We're beating a horse here lol.

If you are okay changing your power supply, the costs of 6870 and a power supply will be more economical and performance will be great.

If you have the money for a 680, great choice as well.
 
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