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nvidia 480gtx or ati 5870

For those that are worried about power usage do you all play in the dark? Switching a light off could save you a good 100watts or more.

You could save even more power by turning all the eye candy off and running the game with no AA/AF on low settings, this will stress your gpu even less and therefore use even less power. Doing this could save you an extra 10p a month add this to playing in the dark and your on your way to having enough money to buy a bag of crisps every few months. ;)
 
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Personally for me I vote 480 GTX .. I had a 5770 for 6 months and had nothing but problems, system hangs etc

finally said enough is enough and got a 480GTX ... I have been very happy with it since, not a single glitch, I have most recent games .. no problems with adobe products as I had before .. I even got a decent overclock

results as thus

480GTX

Voltage 1125
Core 850Mhz
Shader Clock 1699Mhz
Memory Clock 2101 Mhz

Max temps 76 deg through out testing

Heaven 2.1

Settings

Render:direct3d11
Mode:1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Shaders:high
Textures:high
Filter: trilinear
Anisotropy: 16x
Occlusion: enabled
Refraction: enabled
Volumetric: enabled
Replication: disabled
Tessellation: extreme

Results

FPS: 24.3
Scores:612
Min FPS: 15.0
Max FPS: 60.0

3DMark Vantage

P25061

GPU Score - 20740
CPU Score - 66828

Crysis Benchmark

18/06/2010 00:59:40 - Vista 64
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1920x1080, AA=8x, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=1, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: VeryHigh
================================================== ============
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 59.55s, Average FPS: 33.58
Min FPS: 23.65 at frame 141, Max FPS: 41.02 at frame 877
Average Tri/Sec: -9678160, Tri/Frame: -288169
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -3.18
TimeDemo Play Ended, (1 Runs Performed)
================================================== ============

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

18/06/2010 00:59:40 - Vista 64

Run #1- DX10 1920x1080 AA=8x, 64 bit test, Quality: VeryHigh ~~ Last Average FPS: 33.58

so althought 5870 - 480 GTX is only 8% increase the 480GTX are generally hitting a 150Mhz core increase so add another 10% approx to that and the 480GTX is capable of approx 20% performance increase over 5870 in some games/benchmarks

I know the 5870 clocks as well but I don't know how well
 
Random-Rabbit said:
so althought 5870 - 480 GTX is only 8% increase the 480GTX are generally hitting a 150Mhz core increase so add another 10% approx to that and the 480GTX is capable of approx 20% performance increase over 5870 in some games/benchmarks

I know the 5870 clocks as well but I don't know how well
Click to expand...

5870's clock well but dont give as higher return on their overclock. If you overclock a fermi by 20% you will get near 20% returns in extra frames. The same doesnt not apply to a 5870, a 20% overclock wont give you any where near 20% return in extra frames.

The 480's strength lies in whacking up the AA. AA doesnt seem to hit the frames at all on the 480GTX. Allot of games will run at 32xAA with no problem.

That 8% gap is allot bigger on higher levels of AA, also add into the mix newer drivers which also seem to widen the gap.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/06/16/nvidia_forceware_25721_driver_performance

Lastly as well as having cuda, phsyx, 3D and being very good at handling tessellation. Fermi also has TR-SAA which is a new type of AA which is well suited to DX10/11, this is something the 5870 doesn't have.

:)
 
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If you like Nvidia you might as well stick with them. The price difference between the 5870 and the gtx 480 isn't as great as it used to be.

Think ATI driver problems are overplayed if you are just using a typical setup with a single monitor though. Also as the HAF is a pretty loud case anyway it might hide the noise from the 480 more ;)
 
bro306 said:
Go with the 480GTX i had both the drivers on the 5870 are rubbish! It worth the extra money!
Click to expand...

Not had any problems with Catalyst drivers. Upgraded 3 weeks ago. Decent card and a worthwhile upgrade from the 8800GTX i had :)

The 480, as said, is not worth the £100 or so for very minimal fps. In fact, according so some publications, the 5870 beats the fermi.

enjoy your new power bill :)

Also, I notice you have an E8600. There will be a ceiling before the card is bottlenecked. I have mine on a Q6600 OC to 3.55GHz. The frame rates in Crysis, Stalker, COD MW2 and Fallout 3 remain unchanged when playing with higher settings or overclock the 5870. However, if i beef the clock to 3.7GHz, this has the desired effect. Proof of the bottleneck. In this case, there will definitely be no difference in terms of performance between the two.
 
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i like the Fermi moaning power thing makes me laugh, then these people overclock . or will never upgrade to i7 or Gulftown 6 core or even Tri mem kits..

what is next 50p meters fitted to cases or solar powered Pc's. the wheel was invented for a reason to advance forward.
 
When a 480 consumes more power than a dual GPU 5970 then yeah it is worth taking into considering the power usage, because in all honesty it's ridiculous the amount of watts it sucks up to performance ratio.
 
in some games the 480 beats the 5970 maybe the reason the power usage , anyway it is just another ATI fanbase stab at Nvidia.
thing is no one has issue on i7/9 latest tech power usage but that is ok , if people are bothered about power , just buy your own Wind farm.
 
Below is a vid from one of youtubes best hardware reviewers, here is a comparison of a 480 v 5970 showing FPS and power usage in crysis benchmark, this should give you some idea of what kind of power it will use over a single 5870 which is basically one single GPU of the 5970 with an extra 125 on the core clock.

 
480 uses 79 more watts than a 5870 on load, and 15 wats on idle

It's heat that's the problem too. producing 21°C more than the 5870.
(source bit-tech)
 
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a GTX480 for 380 quid is a great deal, but the problem is is that shopping around you can find the same thing for a 5870. After a short look I found one for just under 290, which results in the GTX480 being 90 quid more expensive again.

I myself don't care about power consumption, heat or any proprietary software, I care about performance and price, and paying an extra 90 quid for 8% more performance isn't worth it. Can't really speak though, I got my 5870 for free =)
 
Power costs roughly work out to £1 per watt if the device is running 24/7, 365 days a year.

The 480 uses 79 watts more on load it will cost approx 0.9p per hour more than a 5870.

Which equals 1.8p per day if you game for 2 hours per day every day for the whole year. This works out to £6.57 per year based on 365 days of gaming for 2 hours a day (730 hours).
 
PAULRYAN52 said:
so the 480 won't cost that much more than a 5870
Click to expand...

Have you read any of the above posts :D

Whether you choose the 5870 or the 480 is irrelevant because you'll get almost identical results with that CPU. I'm not saying it won't perform well because they will, you'll just hit a ceiling.

So given they cost more, produce more heat and consume more power and thereby more pennies, it's a no-brainer choice.

Yes, the GTX 480 offers great performance in our test games, especially in Dirt 2 and Bad Company 2, but compared to the competition, it doesn't make a strong enough case for itself, especially when you consider that there are just so many caveats involved with buying this card. The higher price, the 100W of extra power consumption, scorchingly hot temperatures and a much noisier stock cooler are all extremely detrimental to its desirability. The HD 5870 remains a far better choice if you're a gamer; while we've yet to see how the GTX 480 performs with CUDA apps and Folding, at this stage Fermi looks like a flop.
Click to expand...
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Have you read any of the above posts :D

Whether you choose the 5870 or the 480 is irrelevant because you'll get almost identical results with that CPU. I'm not saying it won't perform well because they will, you'll just hit a ceiling.

So given they cost more, produce more heat and consume more power and thereby more pennies, it's a no-brainer choice.
Click to expand...

i won't be using my rig its going in my new i7 920 rig
 
Of course, sorry. I forgot about your opening post. At the end of the day, £300 + is a lot of money or any card. If its your preference and you get the enjoyment from it, then only you can say it's value for money.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Of course, sorry. I forgot about your opening post. At the end of the day, £300 + is a lot of money or any card. If its your preference and you get the enjoyment from it, then only you can say it's value for money.
Click to expand...

i want the 480 but it doesnt seem to justify the extra costs for little performance increase
 
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