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480 vs. 5870

Rroff said:
You don't have to be a fanboy to buy a GTX480 (tho it certainly helps) nVidia still provides the most mature, stable platform, with the most consistant baseline performance. Personally I'm quite happy to pay over the odds to get what I want i.e. less problematic 120Hz support, proper application/multiGPU profiles, no random bugs with rendering to a hardware surface with 2D clocks (which is a massive problem with ATI and still not entirely ironed out 10 years on) and theres plenty of people like me - not everyones strictly bang for buck orientated.
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No, but you say that like it's fact.

There are nVidia users who experience one or all of those issues you've just listed.

As for more consistent baseline performance, you know that's utter rubbish.

This is something commonly used by nVidia boys "more consistent frame rates, better minimums".

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a rumour spun by nVidia PR, and all the greenboys have adopted it as fact. :p
 
Still a good ATI driver isn't even in the same league as a good nVidia driver - even if some of nVidia's driver releases of late have been sub par and ATI has been chucking out some good drivers lately.
 
never mind


lol


you must be pretty silly to buy a GTX480 for gaming through Cuda won't do anything for you for gaming
 
Kylew, serious question - What would you do in my situation...

I've currently got a GTX 285, 120Hz monitor, and the Nvidia 3D Vision kit.

I'm finding that the 285 is starting to struggle slightly - especially with some of the latest games in 3D. I also want to experience a bit of DirectX11 eyecandy (although I'm not sure how much of a big deal this is).

What would you do?

  • Keep the 285, put up with decreasing performance/value and wait for the next gen until upgrading.
  • Sell the 285 whilst it is still worth something and buy a 480 to enjoy DirectX11 + better performance.
  • Sell all Nvidia products and buy ATI

Now, I know you will probably plump for the last option but imagine for a second that you are me and you enjoy 3D gaming "now" and doesn't want to wait for ATI to release their solution (is there any confirmed dates for this?)

I'm not trolling, I am genuinely interested to know what you would do?

p.s. Bang for buck isn't high on my list of priorities, and I have good/excellent cooling.
 
heres the fact and horror the GTX480 is not that much faster than the HD5870 if any at all so..


thats the thing
 
ejr22 said:
Kylew, serious question - What would you do in my situation...

I've currently got a GTX 285, 120Hz monitor, and the Nvidia 3D Vision kit.

I'm finding that the 285 is starting to struggle slightly - especially with some of the latest games in 3D. I also want to experience a bit of DirectX11 eyecandy (although I'm not sure how much of a big deal this is).

What would you do?

  • 1.Keep the 285, put up with decreasing performance/value and wait for the next gen until upgrading.
  • 2.Sell the 285 whilst it is still worth something and buy a 480 to enjoy DirectX11 + better performance.
  • 3.Sell all Nvidia products and buy ATI


Now, I know you will probably plump for the last option but imagine for a second that you are me and you enjoy 3D gaming "now" and doesn't want to wait for ATI to release their solution (is there any confirmed dates for this?)

I'm not trolling, I am genuinely interested to know what you would do?

p.s. Bang for buck isn't high on my list of priorities, and I have good/excellent cooling.
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Personally, I'd drop the 3D vision because in its current state, it'll always halve your PFS which is no wonder your 285 is struggling.

Think about it, the GTX480 is probably gonna be playing DX11 games at around 40FPS (just a guess, I can't remember what DX11 numbers it gets) so that'd obviously be 20 or possibly less FPS with 3D on.

Either way, there's gonna be quite a few games where you won't be able to use 3D due to poor performance.

Now assuming you were to drop the 3D vision, I'd say get a single, or even pair of 5850s and enjoy a huge amount of performance for less than a GTX480.

I'm not anti 3D by the way, I love the effect of it, I just don't think it's of importance currently considering how badly it cuts your FPS down.

I don't know what nVidia were playing at thinking 3D Vision Surround would work well either, imagine the performance hit that's gonna take. :eek:
 
I knew you wouldn't be able to avoid 3!!!

Hmmm, decisions. I think I'm going to stick with the 285 + 3D vision for now and see what the next refreshes throw out? Like I said, I might just skip this gen altogether.

Another reason for keeping the 3D is the hope that more video content starts to be churned out - it is slim pickings at the moment, to say the least.

Cheers for the serious reply, despite the ATi bias contained therein.

Until the next time.
 
How about a GTX295 if you really want 3D vision? From what i've read it's a decent step up.
 
n1ckkk please mate, read some before posting.

Wanted to call troll but not sure you are. You need to take a look at previous threads. This worsens the quality of the forums and your opinions are a joke.
 
ejr22 said:
I knew you wouldn't be able to avoid 3!!!

Hmmm, decisions. I think I'm going to stick with the 285 + 3D vision for now and see what the next refreshes throw out? Like I said, I might just skip this gen altogether.

Another reason for keeping the 3D is the hope that more video content starts to be churned out - it is slim pickings at the moment, to say the least.

Cheers for the serious reply, despite the ATi bias contained therein.

Until the next time.
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There wasn't much else to choose really.

As good as 3D vision is, I think the fact that it halves your performance is a huge downside which is why my suggestion would be to drop it.

Outside of that, any "bias" I might have to ATi is purely down to the fact that they consistently offer better value than nVidia cards do.

In my opinion, if you want DX11, then it's the 5 series to go for because Fermi is simply a flop.

It's very hard for me to understand why anyone would, for example, buy card B over card A when card B is 50% more expensive for the same performance as card A.

When you put it like that, you'll realise it's not really "ATi" that I'm biased to, but rather value for money, I just don't understand/like the thought of spending more money and getting what is arguable the same* product, just from a different brand.

*I think most people would find it hard, if not impossible to distinguish between a stock 5870 and stock GTX480 when it comes down to playing games, which as I said before is the main reason why I'm "biased".
 
Out of a M&S cake and say a Morrisons value cake which would you choice? (both the same cake) probley made in the same place also

its a bit like this really as they performance identically but one costs quite a bit more
 
How exactly is the £140 difference between a 5870 and a 480gtx, an $80 difference? At the moment thats around a $210 difference.

How exactly does the power requirement not matter, no one needs physx, the card draws way more power when its not using physx, very few games really require physx hardware, the majority offer software physx and no need to run it on the gpu at all.

Cuda, say what I want but its cool? Its software, Cuda apps can and have been ported to AMD hardware before, its software, nothing more, theres nothing cool about it, you can write an app to run in CUDA on your Nvidia core, that just constantly add's +1 to a number for a long time, or you could write an app that tries to predict the stock market, CUDA isn't cool.

Physx, raytracing? The 5870 can do raytracing, the 2900xt could do raytracing, it won't be in games for years to come, BC2 does half arsed ray tracing? you wnat? It uses havok, again proving advanced and overly accurate and power hungry calculations are not remotely required to add effective physics effects into a game. The game used Havok which has been used in most of the more destructable games of late and is used in a massively higher number of games than PHYSX is, an even higher ratio if you consider hardware requiring physx games.

I think its actually a little funny that some fairly big Nvidia titles have gone with Havok lately, it suggest to me that doing large scale destructable levels, when you've gone to accurate with far too much power cost, would simply be unplayable with physx adding needless complexity.

As physics effects are being more and more widely used, Havok is gaining more ground as Physx loses more and more, I think its limited itself out of the mass physics use market, by being too power hungry by trying to do far too much. Achieve 98% of the quality of effects with Havok at a significantly reduced cost due to lack of complexity.
 
wow drunkenmaster is back with long posts


and yes you are right just cause 2 would be one which is bombarded with Nvidia logos yet no phyX

Also don't forget games like just cause two red faction thier game play RELIES on physics...or whats the point, thats problem another reason why the devs had Havok instead of phyX knowing that some users will be left in the dark
 
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Tute said:
How about a GTX295 if you really want 3D vision? From what i've read it's a decent step up.
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I used to, when the 295 was released, have a Quad-Sli set-up! Oh how I wish I had that luxury now!

I bought them (coming from a Crossfire 4870X2 set-up) and quickly found out that I didn't need anywhere near the horsepower - should have learnt my lesson from the 4870X2s! Great cards (both the 4870X2 & GTX295) but really only ever needed one of either, especially gaming @ 1920*1080.

Anyway, ended up selling that rig last August, went 4 months without a PC (I still receiving counselling following this period), eventually bought a 2nd hand rig just before Christmas which had 2 x GTX285s, sold one of them in January in preparation for Fermi (with optimistic crossed fingers over performance), turns out Fermi is not what I was hoping for, so I am now left with a slightly underpowered rig (3D-wise) with no real sensible upgrade path - considering I want to keep the 3D Vision shenanigans - it's either stick with the 285 or buy a 480. Problem is, both options seem to have more negatives than positives.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard-place really and although I understand that it is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it's hopefully only a temporary aberration in my quest for the winningest PC.

Perhaps I should just buy an Xbox or PS3?
 
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