• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

GTX 470 or HD 5870?

groch-one

groch-one

groch-one

Associate
Joined
13 Jan 2009
Posts
30
which one do u reckon is the better purchase?

i play a lot of games, own a gtx 280 that could barely run Metro 2033 in DX10 which annoyed the **** out of me...
 
yeah reviews arent really conclusive, some say GTX 470 others hd 5870, pretty every review/benchmarking site has different results for both cards...
 
liquidex said:
The general consensus is the 5870 is quicker. Its closer to the gtx480 than the 470.
Click to expand...

Looking at the latest Trubritar vids, the 5870 is faster than the 480 GTX.

480 GTX wins on tessalation, it seems nearly twice as fast as the 5870.
 
groch-one said:
thing is a lot of new games will be DX11, like Metro 2033 so if gtx 470 is winning in that benchmark maybe its more future proof than ati?
Click to expand...

This is very true. Its one reason why I am going for a 480 amongst other reasons like physx, TRSAA (a new and better form of AA).


List of reasons why I want a 480 over a 5800 series card listed here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=16347415&postcount=53


There is no real right or wrong as all the new top end cards are good, it just depends on what you as a user wants out of a card and what your budget is.
 
Had the 470 been at it's originally intended prices I'd suggest the 470 (should have been around £250 - 5850 money). However, considering you can get a 5870 for less, which is better, a 5870! =)
 
groch-one said:
yeah reviews arent really conclusive, some say GTX 470 others hd 5870, pretty every review/benchmarking site has different results for both cards...
Click to expand...

Hmm .. the one I read seemed to show the 470 was somewere near the 5870 in demanding games, it does appear to have heavier power draw and generate more heat, but it may (or may not) be less problematic than it appears the 5xxx series can be for some.

Then again, its heat and power consumption may not be as good as the competition, but I wonder how it compares to something like my ultra ....

The 5850 seems to be the sweet spot, if you get a good one.
 
Razor Time said:
The 5850 and GTX 470 are about the same price in the US.
Click to expand...

Last time I checked this was a UK forum.

5870 although the general concensous is that the 5850 is the sweet spot espiecally seeing as unless you're unlucky you should be able to clock it to 5870 speeds.

The fermi cards do seem more future proof but by the time things like tesselation are used a lot and to their full extent you can just upgrade. The 2 purchases combined would probably end up costing less than buying a fermi now, espiecally if you then sold your 5870.

Plus you've got the hurdle of actually getting your hands on a fermi card. You'd probably have more luck hunting for leprechauns and then you could use the gold on a 5970!
 
470 if you want the whole package, ie cuda, physX, 3D, TWIMTBP, and it does seem as though the 4** series does tesselation considerably better than ATis offerings.

5870 if all you care about is frames per second in the current crop of games, along with lower power consumption and less heat. :)
 
Last edited:
groch-one said:
i've seen that benchmark, makes u think...

what about tesselation, is that important? it gives more details don' it
Click to expand...

Keeping in mind the absolute performance hit for, some rounder cuffs on shirts and jumpers, no, tesselation in Metro 2033 is completely pointless, you do not stop mid fight and check someones sleeve, infact you rarely stop, take a screenshot, alt-tab out and zoom in on someones sleeve to see the difference.

Its a "launch" title for Nvidia, its got Nvidia plastered all over it, it takes a mighty performance hit for tesselation, more than other games that use tesselation more.......... some people might say its programmed more to hurt performance on AMD cards, than to actually give an IQ improvement worth having, some might say on a launch title its more important it benches well than looks as good as it should, or is a good game.

DOF should be disabled on both cards, and that hurts performance the most, its just a bad effect thats not realistic and blurs up the screen , even at times like pulling up your objectives, it blurs the edge of the screen so you can't read it, its a joke effect. Tesselation on gives playable performance on both the 5870/480gtx in that game at 1920x1200, DOF on doesn't for either cards, tesselation off for both cards gives good performance.

Tesselation has yet to be seen in a game that uses it properly that gives Nvidia an advantage, one benchmark, one big Nvidia title that its not noticeable in. Frankly we're 1-2 generations away from having tesselation be in every game in every scene and noticeable, due to the power requirements needed to do so, its a nice step and a good start, tesselation won't win, or lose this generation, nor be important for another year, minimum.


The 5850 is every bit as good as a 5870, though finding easily overclockable ones is harder, but still possible.

The single best value/performance combo, that will only be 5% behind a 5870 fully overclocked, and ahead of 480/470gtx, is a 5850, find a reference version that overclocks better, and you'll be laughing, the other 3 cards are horrible in terms of value compared to it, for next to no real performance once you overclock them all.

I'd also say that if you don't have a 470gtx pre-ordered already, chances of getting one in the next 2 months are slim at best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom