GTX 480 or ATI Radeon HD 5970

dannywaugh1 · 16 Apr 2010 at 15:59

Im building a new computer in a week or so and i have everything apart from gfx card decided on.

its between the GTX 480 or ATI Radeon HD 5970, i have been looking for 3days now on the internet at reviews, watching reviews on youtube on the manufactures site etc etc and i still cannot decide. i have atm a 8800gtx im very please with it but its time for a new machine.

please help, would be great to have some results about the cards also i need a case that can fit the card too, soo help with a case will be great also.!!

thanks!

mast3r · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:02

i would say.

Consider a pair of 5850's or 70s.

I think the 5970 is a little over priced, and to buy the GTX480 will be a little silly.

*This coming from an Nvidia fan boy

Marine-RX179 · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:03

For older to current games titles, 5970 would still be considerably faster (around 40-50% higher for average frame rate) than GTX480. If you can afford it, 5970 would be a better choice...but it would also depends on if you CPU can keep up with it and not bottlenecking it. What CPU and at what speed you got?

Locky · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:18

none of them, the 5850 is the only card worth buying

dannywaugh1 · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:20

Marine-RX179 said:
For older to current games titles, 5970 would still be considerably faster (around 40-50% higher for average frame rate) than GTX480. If you can afford it, 5970 would be a better choice...but it would also depends on if you CPU can keep up with it and not bottlenecking it. What CPU and at what speed you got?

cpu on my list is Intel Core i7 960 3.2GHz (Bloomfield) or is i can afford it Intel Core i7 980X 3.33GHz (Gulftown) Extreme Edition

thanks

uv · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:22

A single 5870 is a pretty major upgrade from an 8800GTX, and there aren't any games that require more - unless you want to play at Eyefinity resolutions with AA.

To buy a 480 would be foolish to be honest - the 5870 is colder, quieter and cheaper, and trades blows with it performance wise. a 5970 simply pwns the 480.

Marine-RX179 · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:41

dannywaugh1 said:
cpu on my list is Intel Core i7 960 3.2GHz (Bloomfield) or is i can afford it Intel Core i7 980X 3.33GHz (Gulftown) Extreme Edition

Forget the i7 960. It's the same CPU as i7 920/930 that's factory clocked higher, but cost more. You could just buy i7 920/930 and overclock it to 4.1GHz/4.3GHz. Or if you are not familiar with overclocking, you can consider overclocked bundle such as this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-044-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

The i7 980X is a nice CPU and with 6 cores instead of 4. But since games still don't support 5th and 6th core (and most likely won't be in the near future), it doesn't really provide higher gaming performance over the i7 930...in fact, in the review for the i7 980X in Custom PC magazine, it has shown that a 5870 with i7 930 and overclocked to 4.3GHz and i7 980X overclocked to 4.4GHz, the frame rate results are identical in both Crysis and X3: Terran Conflict.

FunnyKids · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:43

But what if he want to play Crysis high setting with 3D vision ^^.

jorzeh · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:46

i'd like to see how the nvidia performs when DX11 games use a lot more tessalation and also the drivers are muture.. but that's my opinion, shame you want to upgrade now and can't wait for things to Pan out more but i think 3 months from now we will see a 5890 which will be my Cue to get rid of my 4870x2

but who knows!.

harryohh · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:47

FunnyKids said:
But what if he want to play Crysis high setting with 3D vision ^^.

Well he'll just have to wait a few years.

stinkas · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:50

Probably would need GTX480 SLI and a new case + PSU

Marine-RX179 · 16 Apr 2010 at 16:50

FunnyKids said:
But what if he want to play Crysis high setting with 3D vision ^^.

I hope not, cause he would need Tri/Quad-SLI GTX480 'in a' skeleton 'case' with fans (not case fans...real fans) blowing toward it...and extra PSU(s) lol

stinkas said:
Probably would need GTX480 SLI and a new case + PSU

GTX480SLI won't be enough, as even HD5970 only provide min 23fps, average 42fps in Crysis 1920x1200, 4xAA, 16xAF...I doubt GTX480SLI would be much faster than that.

redknight333 · 16 Apr 2010 at 17:15

BTW there is a problem with the ati 5xxx series of cards what i've been reading of in many forums also in this one, people are getting grey screen GSOD unstable cards. I've been trying to put a build list together myself and was going for a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X and i don't think the latest ati drivers have fixed the problem, after reading about the fault the 5xxx series as i'm thinking i'll be getting a nvidia card next of some sort, best to keep this in mind when picking dannywaugh1.

kylew · 16 Apr 2010 at 18:19

redknight333 said:
BTW there is a problem with the ati 5xxx series of cards what i've been reading of in many forums also in this one, people are getting grey screen GSOD unstable cards. I've been trying to put a build list together myself and was going for a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X and i don't think the latest ati drivers have fixed the problem, after reading about the fault the 5xxx series as i'm thinking i'll be getting a nvidia card next of some sort, best to keep this in mind when picking dannywaugh1.

That's an issue that's affecting only a minority of people.

Tute · 16 Apr 2010 at 18:25

dannywaugh1 said:
Im building a new computer in a week or so and i have everything apart from gfx card decided on.

its between the GTX 480 or ATI Radeon HD 5970, i have been looking for 3days now on the internet at reviews, watching reviews on youtube on the manufactures site etc etc and i still cannot decide. i have atm a 8800gtx im very please with it but its time for a new machine.

please help, would be great to have some results about the cards also i need a case that can fit the card too, soo help with a case will be great also.!!

thanks!

What's your absolute maximum budget?

If you can afford it, get the HD5970 as it'll future proof you for a very long time. If not, the HD5870 and HD5850 are both fantastic cards - I would consider the HD5850 to be better value for money, but that doesn't mean that the HD5870 isn't worth a look at.

The GTX470 and GTX480 are still well overpriced given their performance, heat, and power, and i'd recommend you steer well clear until nVidia have a dose of reality and lower prices.

Fallen god · 16 Apr 2010 at 18:55

I would say get a 5850 OC it and get another some were down the line, if you building a complete rig this could save you money to spend on something like a SSD.

Combat Fighter · 16 Apr 2010 at 19:01

5970.

Marine-RX179 · 16 Apr 2010 at 19:02

Tute said:
What's your absolute maximum budget?

I don't think budget would be an issue for him, considering he's already mentioned thinking about HD5970, as well as i7 980X

The money he save by going i7 920/930 instead of i7 980X would be enough to even get a 2nd 5970 lol

dannywaugh1 · 16 Apr 2010 at 19:13

Marine-RX179 said:
I don't think budget would be an issue for him, considering he's already mentioned thinking about HD5970, as well as i7 980X
The money he save by going i7 920/930 instead of i7 980X would be enough to even get a 2nd 5970 lol

nope not a issue at all i like the sound of getting the cheaper cpu and overclocking it thats fine by me i didn't realize it was just overclocked

555BUK · 16 Apr 2010 at 19:22

Come on... In a straight choice between a GTX480 and S970 there is only one option - the 5970. You can only judge a card by the games available now.

But, as you are upgrading from an 8800GTX, both of the above options may be overkill. I game at 1920x1200 and for me a single 5850 offers more than enough power. It will be approximately 2-3x as fast as you 8800GTX and can easily be upgraded by adding a second 5850, 5870 or even a 5970 in the future.

Two 5850's will offer similar performance to a single 5970, but the 5850's will overclock better and produce less heat. You also have a spare card should one of your GPU's die

.