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nvidia 480gtx or ati 5870

A £100 premium for 8% better performance? When the GTX480 & GTX470 came out I noted down all the results from Anandtech's review, complied them into Excel and done some number crunching. Here are the results. I've done the same from other sites as well and the results vary +/- 1%, in terms of bang for buck the HD5870 blows the GTX480 out the water but it can't be denied that the GTX480 is the faster of the two cards (but not by much).
 
Freddie1980 said:
A £100 premium for 8% better performance? When the GTX480 & GTX470 came out I noted down all the results from Anandtech's review, complied them into Excel and done some number crunching. Here are the results. I've done the same from other sites as well and the results vary +/- 1%, in terms of bang for buck the HD5870 blows the GTX480 out the water but it can't be denied that the GTX480 is the faster of the two cards (but not by much).
Click to expand...

This, the GTX480 is 8.4% faster on average, yet costs 90 quid more, burns more electricity and produces a lot of heat.

As for driver problems, most of them are unique to the person having them. I have had nothing but problems with the forceware drivers, yet found the Catalyst ones to be rock solid. Sometimes you're unlucky either way.

The GTX480 is a beast of a card, and if it was 340-250 quid I would recommend it, but at it's current price (min 390quid) I would avoid it and go for a 5870 or splash out the extra and get a 5970
 
If the guy prefers nVidia he is just as well going with a 480 which you can pick up for £380 which is not that much more expensive over a 5870, if there was no manufacturer preference involved I would say 5870 all the way, the performance is so close that you would not notice the difference in real world gaming, it runs a lot cooler and therefor quieter and uses significantly less power. This summer will be a testing time for 480 owners with stock cooling, even my 5870 is feeling the burn.

Regarding drivers, single card setups work flawlessly with the latest catalysts.
 
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get the 480, not as hot or loud as they are made out to be, i have an antec 1200 case and i cant hear it above my case fans,
 
now im really not sure, it seems that the following is correct if not please correct

nvidia: faster, hotter to run, more power required, better drivers, cost more
ati: slower, cooler to run, less power needed, worse drivers, costs less
 
Worse drivers is not correct for single card users, there are some problems currently with xfire setups and bad company 2 but that's about it, the 5870 is also cheaper and not much slower but in all honesty you will not notice the difference gaming.

Look, I think you are better off going Nvidia, if you are uncertain of change then don't, simple as.
 
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PAULRYAN52 said:
now im really not sure, it seems that the following is correct if not please correct

nvidia: faster, hotter to run, more power required, better drivers, cost more
ati: slower, cooler to run, less power needed, worse drivers, costs less
Click to expand...

Take out the worse drivers bit and then you have the correct points. There will be others on here that will tell you that ati drivers are better than nvidias. The drivers being worse on ati cards is mainly down to experiences as mojo stated in his post above about having endless problems with nv forceware drivers. There are also many people like myself who have had no real problems with either sides drivers.
 
I've used Nvidia cards for around 10 years then in Feb this year i got a 5870....not had any issues with ATI drivers and find them just as good.

Considering the 5870 plays any game with ease at 1920x1200, i do not find buying the GTX480 is worthhile unless you want PhysX and Cuda since you will not notice the performance difference really except maybe in Metro 2033 only.
 
RavenXXX2 said:
Worse drivers is not correct for single card users, there are some problems currently with xfire setups and bad company 2 but that's about it, the 5870 is also cheaper and not much slower but in all honesty you will not notice the difference gaming.

Look, I think you are better off going Nvidia, if you are uncertain of change then don't, simple as.
Click to expand...

hi im still not sure if it worth the extra and i want to make sure before i buy, im only going single card
 
Right you can pick up a 480 for £381 from a good etailer, IMO the £58 difference maybe worth it to you, you do get a lot more memory with a 480, 1500mb as opposed to 1GB on the 5870 and who knows how much vram future games will use when maxed out. Physx love it or hate it you will have the option to utilize it when a game supports it with nvidia, so that £58 does not look like a bad investment over a 5870.
 
RavenXXX2 said:
Right you can pick up a 480 for £381 from a good etailer, IMO the £58 difference maybe worth it to you, you do get a lot more memory with a 480, 1500mb as opposed to 1GB on the 5870 and who knows how much vram future games will use when maxed out. Physx love it or hate it you will have the option to utilize it when a game supports it with nvidia, so that £58 does not look like a bad investment over a 5870.
Click to expand...

thanks time to find the etailer, oh whos it made buy
 
re:

just make sure you dont mind the noise my friends just got one and it sounds like a hoover lol
Click to expand...

I don`t have noise issues at all and my fan speed always sticks around the 45% even while gaming... if your case cooling is not very good and you do hit the high 90c temps the fans will kick in and become very noisy.
If you keep it cool you will not notice any noise even while gaming.. I dont.
Cheers
mrix
 
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