GTX 480, Saphire 2Gb 5850x2 or a single 5970?

[BoroRob_UK]

Hi All,

Ive been waiting for the new nvidia cards to come out for quite some time now.. After looking at the benchmarks vs ati cards they are still a bit outperformed. Unless you are running at Dx11 max settings as far as i can see?

I am an online gamer. I will be running my games to get the best performance available / highest fps?

Now, sapphire has not long ago release a 2gb 5850. Which may be better than a single 5970?

What would be better for my needs, which is highest fps for online play! One GTX 480? 2x 2Gb 5850's or one 5970?

I am running an i7 920 at stock, 6gb dominator Gt 1600Mhz and an Asus P6td deluxe

Would a gtx 480 not be more future proof??!?!



Thanks

Rob

 

[555BUK]

2x 5850's will provide the best performance and should overclock really wel. I would not bother with the 2GB versions because they add more price, but little real performance.

A GTX480 will add no extra future proofing, although it is without doubt the fastest single GPU card currently available.

 

[Phoenixdancer]

if you want to play games at a resolution of 1920x1200 pick the 5970, if you want one with Physx but slower then the 5970 (a lot slower) then the 480Gtx

or if you want to play games in Eyefinity at resolutions above 5000x1000 then 2x 2GB 5850's as you will need the more Vram on the cards.

 

[Phoenixdancer]

2x 5850's will provide the best performance and should overclock really wel. I would not bother with the 2GB versions because they add more price, but little real performance.

A GTX480 will add no extra future proofing, although it is without doubt the fastest single GPU card currently available.

And the price is not worth that... considering a 5970 is £450 on some retail sortes

 

[Firenze]

I'd say look at a 5970, or the regular 5850x2 the 480 doesn't seem to be worth the money if you ask me...

 

[Ritsugamesh]

I'd pretty much agree with everything being said here. A single 5970 should fit your needs perfectly, whilst still providing you with solid 60+ fps and eye candy up high for a good while yet.

 

[BoroRob_UK]

2x 5850's will provide the best performance and should overclock really wel. I would not bother with the 2GB versions because they add more price, but little real performance.

A GTX480 will add no extra future proofing, although it is without doubt the fastest single GPU card currently available.

Take a look at this.. http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=24061&page=1
Edit: search google for Gtx 480 vs Ati and click the first link

The GTX 480 puts out a lower FPS in most modern games than 2x 5850's or one 5970 ?

So how is it better? Its not at all if its giving you a lower FPS ?

 

[Phoenixdancer]

go for the 5970 mate if you have the money.

if you dont want to spend to much then get the 5870

 

[harryohh]

I'll agree with the people saying 5970.

Best card there is.it also clocks well and takes up one slot instead of the 2 the 5850CF would take up.Less cabling, less heat and great performance.

 

[jorzeh]

5970 runs hotter so it's life will be lesss..
having said that u got the option to add another 5970 if needed in the future

 

[Stanners]

Take a look at this.. http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=24061&page=1
Edit: search google for Gtx 480 vs Ati and click the first link

The GTX 480 puts out a lower FPS in most modern games than 2x 5850's or one 5970 ?

So how is it better? Its not at all if its giving you a lower FPS ?

He said single GPU card, 5970 is 2 GPU's as obviously is two 5850's

Thats how i took it anyway

 

[rounddodger]

Take a look at this.. http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=24061&page=1
Edit: search google for Gtx 480 vs Ati and click the first link

The GTX 480 puts out a lower FPS in most modern games than 2x 5850's or one 5970 ?

So how is it better? Its not at all if its giving you a lower FPS ?

Fastest SINGLE GPU card available, he said.

Clearly a 5970 and Crossfired 5850's are not, although they are clearly a better 'bang for buck' over the 480.


Edit- missed reply above from Stanners! Doh.

 

[AWPC]

If your a serious PC gamer who wants the maximum image quality as well as plenty of AA to remove the jaggies & you game @ 1680x1050 or higher then GTX480 is your best option as Nvidia also have a team of 250 software engineers who work closely with most major PC developers on ensuring the latest games take advantage of Nvidia hardware as much as possible. ATI make great hardware but traditionally they do not put anywhere near the level of resource into their driver development or relationships with the games developers to ensure that the game will work smoothly & be optimised for the PC as much as possible. This has not changed much in the last 8 years so its unlikely ATI are suddenly going to fund the $10M+ PA it cost Nvidia for its 250 strong software engineer TWIMTBP program

Try comparing benchmarks with ATI cards vs GTX480 with x4AA levels or higher & maximum image quality then see the difference plus Nvidia cards always tend to offer a more consistent gameplay experience with higher FPS this is not always obvious in synthetic benchmarks but in realworld gameplay which actually means something to you it becomes evident that the GTX480 is able to offer a very smooth gaming experience.

ATI do make some great hardware but the only card they have which is faster than the GTX480 is the 5970 but as thats 2 GPUS on a single PCB its not like for like at all.

Right now GTX480 is up to 20% faster than a std 5870 when you use proper settings for max image quality like AA, Max texture & AF as well as Ambient Occlusion. Then Nvidia have PhysX & 3D vision as well as strong DX11 performance & once the drivers mature a little more the FPS gains will be better still.

 

[BoroRob_UK]

If your a serious PC gamer who wants the maximum image quality as well as plenty of AA to remove the jaggies & you game @ 1680x1050 or higher then GTX480 is your best option as Nvidia also have a team of 250 software engineers who work closely with most major PC developers on ensuring the latest games take advantage of Nvidia hardware as much as possible. ATI make great hardware but traditionally they do not put anywhere near the level of resource into their driver development or relationships with the games developers to ensure that the game will work smoothly & be optimised for the PC as much as possible. This has not changed much in the last 8 years so its unlikely ATI are suddenly going to fund the $10M+ PA it cost Nvidia for its 250 strong software engineer TWIMTBP program

Try comparing benchmarks with ATI cards vs GTX480 with x4AA levels or higher & maximum image quality then see the difference plus Nvidia cards always tend to offer a more consistent gameplay experience with higher FPS this is not always obvious in synthetic benchmarks but in realworld gameplay which actually means something to you it becomes evident that the GTX480 is able to offer a very smooth gaming experience.

ATI do make some great hardware but the only card they have which is faster than the GTX480 is the 5970 but as thats 2 GPUS on a single PCB its not like for like at all.

Right now GTX480 is up to 20% faster than a std 5870 when you use proper settings for max image quality like AA, Max texture & AF as well as Ambient Occlusion. Then Nvidia have PhysX & 3D vision as well as strong DX11 performance & once the drivers mature a little more the FPS gains will be better still.

Yeh the graphics may be better, But its FPS most people are bothered about. Who is going to pay £450 pound for a graphics card when they can get one for £250 that will give faster FPS ?

Example: I just paid £450 for the the new nvidia card.. someone comes on mw2 with a 5870 and pik, pang, p0wns me.. Im not going to be happy, am I ?

 

[AWPC]

Yeh the graphics may be better, But its FPS most people are bothered about. Who is going to pay £450 pound for a graphics card when they can get one for £250 that will give faster FPS ?

Example: I just paid £450 for the the new nvidia card.. someone comes on mw2 with a 5870 and pik, pang, p0wns me.. Im not going to be happy, am I ?

Mate if your only worried about FPS its utterly pointless for you to spend any more than £100-150 on a card just play with low detail to get your FPS.

GTX480 is for someone who wants the top end experience & also wants a decent image quality. TBH most recent PC FPS's are riddled with aimbots & other unethical hacks so you may as well buy a console as less likely to be an uneven playing field as there are plenty of sharks out there with money to burn & uber highend rigs with SLI GTX480 or 5970 XFire + even more players on PC who use undetectable hacks which are custom written for them to avoid detection (did you not ever wonder why some players are either too good to be true or have suspect stats??).

Just buy a cheap card disable vsync & most of the detail options but its all a bit pointless as no-one on earth has the reaction times once you get to a certain FPS level its all academic really.......

 

[Greyze]

Yeh the graphics may be better, But its FPS most people are bothered about. Who is going to pay £450 pound for a graphics card when they can get one for £250 that will give faster FPS ?

lulwtf?

Example: I just paid £450 for the the new nvidia card.. someone comes on mw2 with a 5870 and pik, pang, p0wns me.. Im not going to be happy, am I ?

Firstly, that example is just LOL. The NVidia card demolishes the ATI card you are talking about in MW2 (evidence here) so yeah, if you get pwned its clearly because the other guy was better.

Now to the point your trying to make.. lets just pretend that if the £250 ati card magically provides better FPS than a GTX480, its NOT all about FPS.
Almost all decent/high quality monitors push out 60Hz, this translates to roughly 60FPS in a game. If your graphics card pushes out a wayy much higher FPS, that will basically do almost nothing because the monitor cannot show more than 60 frames = just a waste of power.

You buy a graphics card to play games at a better quality than before, that doesnt "just" mean FPS, a good point on getting an Nvidia card is simply for PhysX, theres also 3D vision / Surround and even CUDA if your into that stuff.

 

[RavenXXX2]

5970, fastest card on the planet and at £499 it's a good deal.

 

[BoroRob_UK]

lulwtf?



Firstly, that example is just LOL. The NVidia card demolishes the ATI card you are talking about in MW2 (evidence here) so yeah, if you get pwned its clearly because the other guy was better.

Now to the point your trying to make.. lets just pretend that if the £250 ati card magically provides better FPS than a GTX480, its NOT all about FPS.
Almost all decent/high quality monitors push out 60Hz, this translates to roughly 60FPS in a game. If your graphics card pushes out a wayy much higher FPS, that will basically do almost nothing because the monitor cannot show more than 60 frames = just a waste of power.

You buy a graphics card to play games at a better quality than before, that doesnt "just" mean FPS, a good point on getting an Nvidia card is simply for PhysX, theres also 3D vision / Surround and even CUDA if your into that stuff.

You are obviously a fan of Nvidia, and totally never read that article you just posted. Cos the evidence shows that the 5970 out performs the gtx 480 in mw2. Also its the 4xAA you want to be looking at.. Its only at 1680x1050 the gtx 480 scores fractionally better..

And judging from experience.. the more FPS you have the faster your model is able to move.

 

[Final8y]

Good Golly Miss Molly.

If you want the fastest non OC Single GPU then buy a 480.
If you want the fastest GPU card on the block then buy a 5970.

 

[Phoenixdancer]

The above is utter balls.

if you want the FASTest then ye its the 480Gtx.

if you want the Best possible card without dishing out the type of cash for a 5970 then i suggest the 5870.

If you want to spend £450+ then its the 5970.... You eather wana save money and go for the 5870 or spend abit more then the 480gx costs and get the 5970.

the 480GTX is not in a good price point atm