keep my 5970 2gb BE or change to a GTX 580?

abs · 8 Jan 2011 at 01:52

i just thought i'd throw this out there as i am just contemplating whether there would be any benefit for me to jump ship and try the latest Nvidia card. it seems pretty well spec'd out. i have been very happy with my 5970 should i keep it or has the gtx got anything bettter to offer (other than 3d, phsyx cuda etc) i play on a 1080 bravia screen. thanks

Barzini · 8 Jan 2011 at 02:28

Well the 5970 still outperforms the GTX 580, and I assume you would have to take a hit selling on your used 5970 and then buying a new GTX 580, so I personally wouldn't bother. Just my opinion of course.

abs · 8 Jan 2011 at 02:55

thanks for the reply mate

Purgatory · 8 Jan 2011 at 08:11

keep the 5970 for now it's still the fastest single card available... (yes yes I know it has dual GPU)... I said single card not single GPU

before you all kick off the same argument here...

If you are having no problems with it I would keep it and wait and see what AMD/ATI bring out as the next dual GPU single card 6990 and wait for some benchmarks and see if its worth the upgrade or worth waiting till next years cards come out.

You have the upgrade itch too huhh ?

old gamer · 8 Jan 2011 at 08:37

I agree with keeping the 5970, i also suffer from upgrade addiction and know what its like to just want something new, but you will end up a few hundred quid out of pocket and no better off, ive been there more than once or twice myself

Marine-RX179 · 8 Jan 2011 at 09:03

Let me put it this way...

Does GTX580 and deliver better consistent in terms of frame rate, reliability and real-world smoothness in some demanding games than the 5970, and not have to worry about dual-GPU scaling/stuttering/driver support? Yes.

Is it worth paying extra £140 (assuming you can sell your 5970 for £260) and buy a GTX580 (at £400)? No (not unless you are having issue with your existing 5970).

abs · 8 Jan 2011 at 15:42

I was hoping to get close to £400 for my card making the move to the 580 less painful on the pocket. I put it on ebay and had offers around £300 got a few watchers.the only game the 5970 has had minor issues with is fsx where on the whole it is very smooth with good fps I still get the odd judder, I guess I'm just a perfectionist. If I do get close to my asking price then would you say it is worth me changing. Has anyone actually moved to a 580 from the 5970 and was it worth the move?

Gerard · 8 Jan 2011 at 15:50

abs said:
I was hoping to get close to £400 for my card making the move to the 580 less painful on the pocket. I put it on ebay and had offers around £300 got a few watchers.the only game the 5970 has had minor issues with is fsx where on the whole it is very smooth with good fps I still get the odd judder, I guess I'm just a perfectionist. If I do get close to my asking price then would you say it is worth me changing. Has anyone actually moved to a 580 from the 5970 and was it worth the move?

Not a chance of getting £400 for it, oe or two of these sold for £265 or so on the members market and that was before the 6970 release.

abs · 8 Jan 2011 at 16:54

Gerard said:
Not a chance of getting £400 for it, oe or two of these sold for £265 or so on the members market and that was before the 6970 release.

They go for a bit more on ebay. I'd take about £385 which I think I'll get our not far off. If I do would you say it'd be worth changing?

Dirkscooby · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:02

I sold my 5970 on the bay just before christmas and got £280 for it,(had 55 people watching it) so 380 is very hopeful. You never know with the bay though.

Gerard · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:08

abs said:
If I do would you say it'd be worth changing?

Personally id say no, the 580's main advantages are more vram and no need for crossfire profiles. Performance would most likely be very similar, but a bit in favour of the 5970. The negatives are realy just profile updates for the card but amd have that system of releasing updates to support new games.

Barzini · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:10

I agree that £400 is probably expecting too much, but then you never know with the bay. If Dirkscooby had 55 people watching his item, it implies he probably could have got more than £280. Perhaps aim for £350? Then its not much more to get a 580. I still think its not a worthwhile upgrade personally tho, but thats just my opinion.

geon106 · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:15

abs said:
i just thought i'd throw this out there as i am just contemplating whether there would be any benefit for me to jump ship and try the latest Nvidia card. it seems pretty well spec'd out. i have been very happy with my 5970 should i keep it or has the gtx got anything bettter to offer (other than 3d, phsyx cuda etc) i play on a 1080 bravia screen. thanks

if you do decide to sell the 5970, i'll buy it off you if you sell it cheap lol

Purgatory · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:20

abs said:
I was hoping to get close to £400 for my card making the move to the 580 less painful on the pocket. I put it on ebay and had offers around £300 got a few watchers.the only game the 5970 has had minor issues with is fsx where on the whole it is very smooth with good fps I still get the odd judder, I guess I'm just a perfectionist. If I do get close to my asking price then would you say it is worth me changing. Has anyone actually moved to a 580 from the 5970 and was it worth the move?

FSX is CPU limited not graphics card limited so to make FSX faster you need to buy a faster CPU... Also FSX on GTX 580 stutters like crazy on some machines because of some strange driver situation or it just does not like the 580. Check Youtube videos of FSX running on a GTX 580. (EDIT: seems they have managed to get rid of the stutter on the GTX 580 on FSX

, so was a driver in that case or some other issue they resolved, so the GTX 580 is looking like a good FSX card now

)

Also to add FSX can't use dual GPU cards, it will only access one GPU on a dual GPU card.

Regarding how FSX scales with CPU

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/05/19/real_world_gameplay_cpu_scaling/7

How to make FSX GPU limited is by using eyefinity and using very high resolutions like 5760 x 1200 (read this one too it's funny to see the 5970 actually doing really well considering FSX can only access one of it's GPUs.. Wonders if ATI/AMD added a profile to the drivers to shift some of the loads to the 2nd GPU on the 5970) Strange one...

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/01/05/amds_ati_radeon_eyefinity_performance_review/6

I'm guessing FSX will love Sandy Bridge systems with high overclocks.. One reason I would be looking to upgrade to Sandy Bridge is FSX and a lovely 4.6GHz will make it really fly.. Hopeing for some reviews with FSX and Sandy Bridge soon.. If anyone spots any please post them.

cammy5477 · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:43

id much rather have my 5970 till we see what the 6990/595 gtx has to offer

WingZero30 · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:55

OP keep the 5970. You already have an excellent card as afaik both the 5970 and 580 give out more or less similar performance with each one beating the other in their respective speciality such as tesselation for 580 and eyefinity for 5970

. Going by this article, on average 5970 2gb gives higher framerate but 580 gives more efficient performance in games

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/11/14/geforce_gtx_580_vs_radeon_hd_5970_2gb_performance/3

But in the end it's not worth spending the extra for something that gives 'on par' performance.

.

abs · 14 Jan 2011 at 16:20

Dirkscooby said:
I sold my 5970 on the bay just before christmas and got £280 for it,(had 55 people watching it) so 380 is very hopeful. You never know with the bay though.

managed to sell my 5970 on ebay for a respectable £390 (incl postage) so after fees about £380. gonna hold out now to see what the ati 6990 and gtx 595 will be like before my next big purchase.

kylew · 14 Jan 2011 at 16:47

abs said:
They go for a bit more on ebay. I'd take about £385 which I think I'll get our not far off. If I do would you say it'd be worth changing?

That's massively wishful thinking, it's barely below the RRP of them.

kylew · 14 Jan 2011 at 16:51

abs said:
managed to sell my 5970 on ebay for a respectable £390 (incl postage) so after fees about £380. gonna hold out now to see what the ati 6990 and gtx 595 will be like before my next big purchase.

After fees, you would have got nowhere near £380, you probably spent close to £10 on postage with high insurance for one, and secondly, with fees totalling up to around 15% when you add up the final sale fee, paypal's fee and insertion fee, you will have ended up paying around £60 in fees alone, meaning you got £320 for it yourself.

abs · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:50

kylew said:
After fees, you would have got nowhere near £380, you probably spent close to £10 on postage with high insurance for one, and secondly, with fees totalling up to around 15% when you add up the final sale fee, paypal's fee and insertion fee, you will have ended up paying around £60 in fees alone, meaning you got £320 for it yourself.

I've got £378 paid into my pay pal account after fees.
I think closer to £355 tbh after fees and postage. Gonna cost £10 to post via rmsd up to 2 kg insured and with ebay fee of £9.75 should leave me with roughly £355
which isn't too bad all things considered