GTX 480 or HD5870 for gaming?

Wilks · 5 Oct 2010 at 22:03

Mr. May said:
i ment hard to live with as the extra heat and noise

Can live with the heat. It isn't THAT noisey is it?

Cd0gz · 5 Oct 2010 at 22:06

The 6000 series is weeks away, wait.

arc@css · 5 Oct 2010 at 22:11

Wilks said:
What exactly is AA?

When's the 6000 series out, as I need a desktop powerhouse to replace my laptop for thenew COD?!

Anti Aliasing is where the jagged lines around edges are smoothed out. It looks nice but can, game and gpu dependent, result in a substantial fps hit. Most people tend to be happy with up to x4 AA, the difference between 4 and 8 AA is not so noticeable, though as with many a thing in life, it's all a bit subjective.

Nice rig you have linked to btw.

Can't really comment on the new COD, I don't keep up with the news as fast as quite a few of the folk around here.

Exsurgo · 6 Oct 2010 at 11:22

Not trying to overcomplicate things, but for the games you are playing a GTX480, heck a ATI 5850/GTX 460 would probably be overkill at that rez.

By getting the 5870 you could save ~ £80, enough to get a good SSD. Infact if you could drop down to the Corsair 650W PSU you could get the Intel X25-M SSD to greatly Increase general system responsiveness and boot times. You could get a second monitor for eyefinity for the price too, which from experiance is simply brilliant for general use.

Of coarse if you have enough money for all that anyway, then the GTX 480 is a great card, although the 6 series around the corner will probably complicate things somewhat.

My friend has a GTX 480 and while in some games it is a noticeable bit faster than my 5870, they are games I don't really play

. The noise is noticeably louder and hotter compared to my system, but thats subjective and you get used to it.

Wilks · 6 Oct 2010 at 17:27

Cd0gz said:
The 6000 series is weeks away, wait.

Thanks.

Wilks · 6 Oct 2010 at 17:28

arc@css said:
Anti Aliasing is where the jagged lines around edges are smoothed out. It looks nice but can, game and gpu dependent, result in a substantial fps hit. Most people tend to be happy with up to x4 AA, the difference between 4 and 8 AA is not so noticeable, though as with many a thing in life, it's all a bit subjective.

Nice rig you have linked to btw.

Can't really comment on the new COD, I don't keep up with the news as fast as quite a few of the folk around here.

Thanks mate. I have always turned AA off to get better frame rates online, so didn't exactly understand it's purpose

Hopefully my rig will be comparable or better than the one linked! Watch this space lol.

Wilks · 6 Oct 2010 at 17:32

Exsurgo said:
Not trying to overcomplicate things, but for the games you are playing a GTX480, heck a ATI 5850/GTX 460 would probably be overkill at that rez.

By getting the 5870 you could save ~ £80, enough to get a good SSD. Infact if you could drop down to the Corsair 650W PSU you could get the Intel X25-M SSD to greatly Increase general system responsiveness and boot times. You could get a second monitor for eyefinity for the price too, which from experiance is simply brilliant for general use.

Of coarse if you have enough money for all that anyway, then the GTX 480 is a great card, although the 6 series around the corner will probably complicate things somewhat.

My friend has a GTX 480 and while in some games it is a noticeable bit faster than my 5870, they are games I don't really play . The noise is noticeably louder and hotter compared to my system, but thats subjective and you get used to it.

Good suggestion mate.

Which games in particular is the GTX faster in? Are we talking FPS's?

I thought aboout a SSD - is it a case of installing your OS on there for speed, or do you have to install your games etc on there too?

arc@css · 6 Oct 2010 at 17:37

Wilks said:
Thanks mate. I have always turned AA off to get better frame rates online, so didn't exactly understand it's purpose

Hopefully my rig will be comparable or better than the one linked! Watch this space lol.

For online games I generally don't bother with it either, the action is too fast and furious for me to bother with noticing the jagged edges.

Wilks · 6 Oct 2010 at 17:40

arc@css said:
For online games I generally don't bother with it either, the action is too fast and furious for me to bother with noticing the jagged edges.

^^^^^This!

Glad you agree mate lol.

Bit disappointed that the other company didn' get back to me with a quote today - another day wasted as COD: Black Ops edges ever closer...... :eek:

Voltage · 13 Oct 2010 at 10:41

would a 650w corsair psu be enough for a 480?

opethdisciple · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:15

RavenXXX2 said:
480 is the faster card and will give smoother performance with higher IQ settings, I had a 5870 then went to a 480.

You should consider that AMD will have their new cards out next month, the 6970 should be a fair bit faster than a 480.

On a percentage scale, what would you guess is the performance difference you have seen between the 5870 and the 480?

I dont mean based on benchmarks, I mean in laymans terms.... ie your view.

RavenXXX2 · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:18

In games like Dirt 2 and crysis, about 30%, this with the 5870 at 1000 core and the 480 at 850 core, overall a much smoother experience, especially in the GFX intensive areas in demanding games.

opethdisciple · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:22

30% is phenomenal!

RavenXXX2 · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:27

Yeah I was disappointed with the gains had from overclocking the 5870, after 930 core gains went flat, the 480 just love to churn out amazing FPS the higher you go.

reiyushin · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:32

Voltage said:
would a 650w corsair psu be enough for a 480?

Yup, a 650 will handle a 5970 (not overclocked mind) in a high end OC Quad core system.

Your corsair (TX 650?) has 52 amps on the 12v rail, anything over 40 will see you through happily

Liampope · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:53

Voltage said:
would a 650w corsair psu be enough for a 480?

Yes

opethdisciple · 13 Oct 2010 at 11:57

The only thing the 5870 has over the 480, is slightly cheaper, cooler and quiter...

But the penalty for these things is it is slightly slower....

I would wait for the 6000 series from ATI, if nothing from the 6000 series meets yor needs hopefully current cards would go down in price.

At current prices however, if you dont care for noise, the the 480 is the card to get! Easily.

Well this 480, is a great offer: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-087-MS&tool=3

However if loudness is an issue for you, the reviews warn that the card gets loud!

AWPC · 13 Oct 2010 at 13:15

Order this as well then the GTX480 becomes silent & can still be overclocked.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Also to the OP not only is the GTX480 the best single GPU card available right now probably until Nvidia bring something faster out next year you also need to consider than 99.9% of PC games run much better on Nvidia gfx cards as the drivers are much better. This is because Nvidia invest a lot of money on this all year round & work closely with most PC game developers to ensure the latest games run stable & well on Nvidia hardware.

Sure ATI make some great gfx cards but the drivers have always been an issue as they just do not put much resource into them so typically the latest game will take longer to get a hotfix...........

Final8y · 13 Oct 2010 at 13:23

AWPC said:
Order this as well then the GTX480 becomes silent & can still be overclocked.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Also to the OP not only is the GTX480 the best single GPU card available right now probably until Nvidia bring something faster out next year you also need to consider than 99.9% of PC games run much better on Nvidia gfx cards as the drivers are much better. This is because Nvidia invest a lot of money on this all year round & work closely with most PC game developers to ensure the latest games run stable & well on Nvidia hardware.

Sure ATI make some great gfx cards but the drivers have always been an issue as they just do not put much resource into them so typically the latest game will take longer to get a hotfix...........

Give that Marketing line a rest please, it is really not needed & the reviews & users are enough to go by to what game runs best on any given card.
No matter what NV or ATi claim in spending & resources all that matters are the end results, i don't care how much each spent.

kylew · 13 Oct 2010 at 17:21

AWPC said:
Order this as well then the GTX480 becomes silent & can still be overclocked.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Also to the OP not only is the GTX480 the best single GPU card available right now probably until Nvidia bring something faster out next year you also need to consider than 99.9% of PC games run much better on Nvidia gfx cards as the drivers are much better. This is because Nvidia invest a lot of money on this all year round & work closely with most PC game developers to ensure the latest games run stable & well on Nvidia hardware.

Sure ATI make some great gfx cards but the drivers have always been an issue as they just do not put much resource into them so typically the latest game will take longer to get a hotfix...........

What a bunch of lies. :rolleyes: