GTX 470 or HD 5870?

[Toss3]

Just get a reference 5850 and overclock it to 1Ghz. The GTX 470 is too expensive and uses too much power(means no SLI unless you have a powerful PSU).

[ATOJAR]

I can get a XFX HD 5870 1GB DDR5 for like £314 here.

For the past 8 years ive always bought nvidia cards but by the looks of this thread ATI is the way to go.

[kaptkarl]

Get a 5870. I went from a GTX260 216 core OC'd edition to a 5870 and it is amazing. Really, really fast card and runs very cool. No need to OC as it runs everything maxed out @ 1920x1200, ie Crysis, warhead, BFBC2, MW2.

Kapt

[Ancient76]

470 like i said. Better drivers, better DX11 performance, better AA support, better min. fps...

[kaptkarl]

Originally Posted by Ancient76

470 like i said. Better drivers, better DX11 performance, better AA support, better min. fps...

uh....er.....wrong. Both the 470 and the 5870 are fine cards, but let's not stretch the truth here ok? Not starting a flame war here 'cus this is an NVidia based site, but most here will disagree with your post.

Now the 480 IS about 10% faster than the 5870, but not the 470. As for drivers, I'm hearing some here are having issues w/ the fermi cards.....typical for just released cards. As for ATI no major driver issues w/ the 5800 series as thye've been out awhile now. ATI's DX11 performance is awesome, so is the AA and AF performance. I'm speaking from experience as my 5870 flies through every game maxed out @ 1920x1200. AND much, much cooler to boot.

Either card you choose will serve you well. PC gaming is awesome right now w/ the current hardware.

Just saying....

Kapt

[Madpistol]

I agreed kaptkarl.

@Ancient76, The bit about better min. FPS is correct. The 470 does have a higher minimum FPS in nearly all of its examples. However, ATI's drivers are very mature, whereas nvidia's are still new. There are people all over the internet complaining about compatibility issues with the GTX 4xx series. Also, the GTX 470 does NOT have better DX11 performance except for a select couple of games that have been optimized to run on nvidia hardware. Better AA support is subjective. It's able to reach higher levels of AA than the 5870, but the performance hit from that AA is still very real and significant.

Keep it real bud.

[Ancient76]

Originally Posted by Madpistol

I agreed kaptkarl.

@Ancient76, The bit about better min. FPS is correct. The 470 does have a higher minimum FPS in nearly all of its examples. However, ATI's drivers are very mature, whereas nvidia's are still new. There are people all over the internet complaining about compatibility issues with the GTX 4xx series. Also, the GTX 470 does NOT have better DX11 performance except for a select couple of games that have been optimized to run on nvidia hardware. Better AA support is subjective. It's able to reach higher levels of AA than the 5870, but the performance hit from that AA is still very real and significant.

Keep it real bud.

Talking about driver issues - http://www.rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=59

Are you sure that those games are optimized for Nvidia If they are, that's one more reason to buy 470.

Now the 480 IS about 10% faster than the 5870, but not the 470. As for drivers, I'm hearing some here are having issues w/ the fermi cards.....typical for just released cards. As for ATI no major driver issues w/ the 5800 series as thye've been out awhile now. ATI's DX11 performance is awesome, so is the AA and AF performance. I'm speaking from experience as my 5870 flies through every game maxed out @ 1920x1200. AND much, much cooler to boot.

And i'm living on Tibet

[Maverick123w]

I'd say 470. Min fps owns all. If you overclock it, the card beats out the 5870 by a healthy margin.

I'd actually get the 5850 over the 5870 if you decide to go ati. Don't think the 5870 is worth the premium.

[Xion X2]

Both are good cards. I'd suggest the 5870 for the more casual user and the 470 for the enthusiast crowd due to its higher mins, better drivers, better feature set and Nvidia's customer support.

My next purchase, given that Nvidia and ATI offer similar performance and features, will be Nvidia. ATI's customer support is nonexistent which makes one feel a little insecure after buying one of their products. They do not know how to relate well to the public and act as if they are alien beings that are just hell-bent on pissing them off. Beware if you try to ask questions of their limited support group that exists over on Rage3D, or you're likely to get a response from some immature, irritated individuals who will even cuss you out on occasion. It's a very unprofessional and frustrating atmosphere that ATI is fostering and will ultimately be their downfall if they don't correct it.

Today's market is based largely on customer experience, and, to be quite frank, ATI absolutely sucks at it.

[mailman2]

Originally Posted by Ancient76

470 like i said. Better drivers, better DX11 performance, better AA support, better min. fps...

Right now the drivers are the WORST thing about my GTX 480. ATis drivers are matured and ran everything great, I just came from a 5870 to GTX 480 so I'm speaking from experience. Definitely dont get Nvidia for the drivers right now.

[snowmanwithahat]

Originally Posted by Xion X2

Both are good cards. I'd suggest the 5870 for the more casual user and the 470 for the enthusiast crowd due to its higher mins, better drivers, better feature set and Nvidia's customer support.

Agreed.... As much of an nvidia fanboy that I am I can't recommend anything but a 5870 to an average gamer who doesn't use CUDA / physx.

I do love nvidia cards though....

[Xion X2]

Originally Posted by mailman2

Right now the drivers are the WORST thing about my GTX 480. ATis drivers are matured and ran everything great, I just came from a 5870 to GTX 480 so I'm speaking from experience. Definitely dont get Nvidia for the drivers right now.

They're more mature, but it won't be long before Nvidia catches up and passes them. Nvidia apparently has a lot more resources for driver bugs/fixes and seems to care a lot more about the customer.

As an example, there's a group of 10-15 5970 CFX owners over on Rage3D right now, myself included, who are being left out in the cold by ATI and its driver teams / customer support. Eyefinity is broken on CFX, and there's not a peep from anyone about what the problem is or if/when it will ever be fixed. There has never been any kind of public announcement about this while the driver release a while back claimed to "fix Crossfire support for Eyefinity on the 5870 and 5970 graphics cards."

5870s drivers may be more mature now, but where I'd worry is if any future issues pop up in a new game. Takes ATI longer to fix, and in the cases of 5970 CFX above, some never get fixed.

Yeah, I'm rambling a bit because I'm *&*#@^ off. 1400$ for GPUs and 600$ for LCDs that were never needed. Money down the drain tends to do that to you.