GTX570 or Ati 6950 ?

[XDanger]

same here, squeeze every penny!

[Moshing]

I go back and forth between Nvidia and ATI/AMD. I'd have to say you won't go wrong either way, it's a good time to get a video card since you won't get screwed on anything you get from the higher end stuff.

[DansFace]

AMDs new driver increases performance for the 6900 series...

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by Roadhog

EDIT: These pictures aren't of EyeFinity though......

http://www.iz3d.com/output_devices
Output
Example Devices
Anaglyph Any Anaglyph Glasses with any 2D Display
Interleaved
Zalman Trimon 3D Display Family, Hyundai 3D Display Family
120hz Shutter
MSI Wind Top AE2420 3D, Viewsonic 3D Display

Doesn't look like 24fps to me.

6950 also has 2gb of memory so it wont choke at high res.

6950 also scales MUCH better in crossfire than sli does.

6950 also uses less power than a 570.

On single card EyeFinity:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...0_sli_review/5

So there's BF Bad Company, running at a whole 47fps average with a 26fps minimum on TWO 6950s at 57 X 12 2x 16X. Now given that cards are getting 80-90+% scaling, that average is dropping to the 20s with one 6950.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...0_sli_review/6

How about Mafia2? Wowee! A whole 45fps average for two 6970s! Would be great to do some one 6970 EyeFinity in the low 20s.

Beyond the benchmarks above, I've been gaming on NVIDIA Surround with 480SLi and 570SLi for over half a year now, I can tell you I've never once wished I could do it on one. It takes a LOT of graphics power to game like most people are used to at 50X10 and up. ATi doesn't have any cards more powerful than 480s and 570s, so I think I can say with confidence most gamers would want a couple ATi cards as well. (or a dual GPU ATi card)

On the phantom ATi 3d you reference:
Please link us to a North American etailer or retailer selling a 1080P monitor that can be used with ATis 3d science project. I won't hold my breath because:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ts,2776-3.html

First, there are no dedicated 3D monitors in North America that employ the HDMI 1.4 standard—all of the available 3D monitors at the moment are Nvidia 3D Vision-exclusive, and will not work with the Radeon HD 6800-series cards.

What about the 24fps limit?

Because AMD utilizes the HDMI 1.4a specification, which boasts a maximum TMDS throughput of 10.2 Gb/s, you can either game in stereo at 720p maxing out at 60 frames per second per eye, or you can game at 1080p with up to 24 frames per second per eye.

Your post is very misleading and full of inaccuracy.

I hope no one bought an ATi card with 3d or EyeFinity in mind based on your fallacious post.

[Roadhog]

Lets see... 6970 crossfire.. $700, 580 sli, $1000. So how about we compare it to a card of the same price, which leaves the 570.

I can pick the lowest results too.

What is this? 5fps?!








Those all seem playable to me. You whine about 40fps in BC2 in eyefinity? Well, that 40fps is with 8xAA. It must be so hard to turn it down.

Also, why did you bring up eyefinity when you can't even compare apples to apples. I didn't mention anything about it, neither did the OP. tRollo fails at Trolling again.

I hope no one bought an nVidia card with surround gaming in their mind... O wait....

The GTX 580 price almost doesn’t seem worth it when you consider a pair of Radeon HD 6970 video cards will cost you $698, saving you a whopping $300. For that price savings you get more memory, which has the chance to allow higher playable settings, and performance that at times beats GTX 580 SLI and at other times cuts in under it, depending on the game.

The GeForce GTX 570 SLI is in an even worse position, its raw GPU performance is great, and it has good SLI scaling. However, it is severely held back by its memory capacity. We experienced many times that we could not use higher settings, or had to lower the resolution, because of that. The performance is there, but the ability to utilize that performance is not. Since a pair of GeForce GTX 570 video cards will run you $698, the same price as two Radeon HD 6970 video cards, it just isn’t worth it. For the same price as two GTX 570 cards you can get two Radeon HD 6970 video cards with a much higher memory capacity, and better performance.

It's ok tRollo, I understand you are a hardcore nVidia fanboy and will even try to sway the OP to buying and nVidia card when they aren't even the best bang for his buck. If the 570 was a better deal then the 6950 or 6970, I would easily recommend it to the OP. But the facts simply prove that the 570 is not as good of a deal. If he has 3d vision set in stone then I would have to say 570, but it doesn't seem that way.

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by Roadhog

You whine about 40fps in BC2 in eyefinity? Well, that 40fps is with 8xAA. It must be so hard to turn it down.

Also, why did you bring up eyefinity when you can't even compare apples to apples. I didn't mention anything about it, neither did the OP. tRollo fails at Trolling again.

No, I pretty much made my point and you didn't even realize you helped reinforce it. Did you even notice that "lowering the AA" (as you suggest) from 8X to 2X only raised the average fps from 40 to 47? And that this is still on TWO cards, and the point I was making is that EyeFinity on ONE card isn't much of an advantage for ATi?

What would you say the scaling on Battlefield is Roadhog? 90% or more? Yep, I'm "whining" about how one 6950 or 6970 isn't really suitable for 57X10 gaming, mostly because it isn't. Those "playable" fps you posted are all on two cards, cut them in half and you see why one card EyeFinity is a check box feature only for many games.

You wouldn't really know about this stuff rocking the single 27" panel though, so I don't blame you.

I notice you didn't bother replying to me proving you totally wrong about ATi 3d, another tech you have no experience with. I suppose it was pretty embarassing seeing your buying into ATi PR about their crappy science project 3d was ill advised.

Better luck next time chief.

[Q]

I started my gaming career on Voodoo. Then ATI with the badass 9700 Pro. 6800 Ultra. 8800 Ultra. And for a year on the 5850.

I built a machine for the inlaws this Christmas using an ATI 5450. I've also got a HTPC with a 4350. I installed the 10.12 drivers on each system. And because of this, I've had the worst PC month of my life. BSODs across all three systems. I sent the machine home with the parents before knowing this and they're on 22k dialup.

The BEST part is that the driver crashed so bad on my desktop and HTPC that Windows couldn't even load the kernel dump. The only way I could pinpoint the driver as the root cause was the fact that the kernel dump driver COULD load on the in-law's PCs.....and the fact that the driver was the only common thread between three very different systems.

10.12 was not beta. That was a consumer release. That caused random instability across three generations of cards. Completely unacceptable and a quick Google search shows I'm not the only one.

I will NEVER buy another AMD/ATI card as a result. Overall, I'll admit that the 5850 was a hell of a card at a hell of a price. I've had a handful of random bull**** with the drivers that I never had with my 8800. I remember BC2 being unplayable for the first month plus because of all the tearing and visual anomalies. (Was it BC2 or another big budget shooter? - I forget) I honestly can't believe I'm faulting the company's drivers in 2011. I really thought we got past this bull****.

I'm picking up a GTX570.

And selling the the 5850 under the guise "BEST CARD I'VE EVER OWNED" in the For Sale forum.

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by Rollo

First of all, the OP is about a 6950, not a 6970. XBit tested 14 games and the 6950 was only faster in 1. That pretty much rules out his supposition the 6950 might be faster.

Second, with cards this fast, who is at 75fps and who is 80fps starts to take a back seat in the buying criteria. As both 75 and 80fps are impossible to tell apart while gaming, you need to consider what else the card can do that the other can't.

570:
PhysX- every year more games come out with GPU accelerated physics effects that you can only see on NVIDIA cards. Adds to the level of immersion in the game, makes games more realistic.
CUDA-is the defacto standard for GPGPU computing, waaayyy ahead of ATi's "STREAM"
3d Vision- IMO, the most important factor in purchasing a card. I've purchased five 3d monitors myself I like it so much.
3d Vision Surround- the reason I purchased five 3d monitors. Nothing in gaming tops this, or even comes close.
Forced ambient occlusion- more realistic lighting = more realism

6950/6970:
Single card 3 panel surround- this is great, but a double edged sword. As a person with a 50 X 10 set of monitors and a 57 X 10 set of monitors, I can tell you that having two GPUs doing the work is preferable. Check out the benches of these cards at 25X16, then consider that even three 16X10 panels is 1m more pixels to push. These are super high res solutions, and the need for two gpus (esp at 1080p and up) largely negates this "advantage".

STREAM-Haven't seen much about this. Doesn't seem to be catching on with anyone.

"Open Platform 3d" - this is just weak. Limited to 24fps at 1080P resolution, no monitors for sale in North America, have to buy 3rd party IZ3d or DDD software and play it on tvs at 720p. This is more like a high school science project than a commercial product.

Open CL Physics games: NVIDIA could do this as well, if any existed or were in development. As it is, I think I have twelve games with PhysX, and more are on the way.

6+ panel Eyefinity- go to a trade show and play with this, I guarantee looking through the grate of bezels at the games won't make you want to pony up the dough for an elaborate monitor rack, dual dvi extender cables, or 6+ panels. It is a monstrosity. 3 panels work, and work well because no bezels split the main action and they're easy to ignore in your peripheral vision. With 6+, bezels split everything. If you make two or three hundred thousand a year and can afford a bank of the new ultra thin bezel panels, this would be very cool.

What about the annoying capacitor whine in the 570 cards?

I guess that's a freebie given by substandard quality

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by Sazar

What about the annoying capacitor whine in the 570 cards?

I guess that's a freebie given by substandard quality

Like 99.9999% of GTX570 owners, I haven't noticed any capacitor whine with mine.

[Roadhog]

Originally Posted by Rollo

No, I pretty much made my point and you didn't even realize you helped reinforce it. Did you even notice that "lowering the AA" (as you suggest) from 8X to 2X only raised the average fps from 40 to 47? And that this is still on TWO cards, and the point I was making is that EyeFinity on ONE card isn't much of an advantage for ATi?

What would you say the scaling on Battlefield is Roadhog? 90% or more? Yep, I'm "whining" about how one 6950 or 6970 isn't really suitable for 57X10 gaming, mostly because it isn't. Those "playable" fps you posted are all on two cards, cut them in half and you see why one card EyeFinity is a check box feature only for many games.

Still, 2x AA maxxed graphics is pretty high. Would it hurt so much to drop the quality a bit? I sold my two other monitors because I didn't need them and didn't like the bezels.

Originally Posted by Rollo

I notice you didn't bother replying to me proving you totally wrong about ATi 3d, another tech you have no experience with. I suppose it was pretty embarassing seeing your buying into ATi PR about their crappy science project 3d was ill advised.

Better luck next time chief.

Nah not buying into anything. If I was buying into it I would own it, but I don't. All they have to do is update to DP.

[Roadhog]

Originally Posted by Rollo

Like 99.9999% of GTX570 owners, I haven't noticed any capacitor whine with mine.

It's actually common issue.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gtx+570+whine

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by Rollo

Like 99.9999% of GTX570 owners, I haven't noticed any capacitor whine with mine.

You OWN 99.9999% of the GTX 570's on the market

I have had 2 so far, exact same issue with both. Also, this is, as Roadie pointed out, a bigger issue than you let on, unless you think the 570 is such an amazing seller that 0.0001% of owners account for a rather large sample size. Must be the best selling card in history