Which flavour gtx 480 or 6950

Lunch_box · 24 Feb 2011 at 13:21

Ok I have recently ordered the final bits of my i5 sandy build and the final piece of the puzzle is a gpu!

Are there any major differences between zotac, kfa2, gainward and asus 480's and which would be regarded as the best brand??

Or.....

Shall I go for the msi 6950 offer and pie of the 480's??

Stu_Allcott · 24 Feb 2011 at 13:46

id go for the 480, its the one i have just bought and dont want to be proven wrong just yet

~REALiTY · 24 Feb 2011 at 13:54

480 because i love mine!

Has no problems handling any of my games

Ezyryder · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:01

At current prices the 6950 for £198, unlock it and overclock it and be done with it!

Sleeve · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:02

Zotac cards with a 5 year warranty, which is a plus

Tythus · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:02

the difference in 480's are minimal its only cooling and warranty

Razor Time · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:08

Go for a 480. Its a cracking card.

Fire Wizard · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:41

If you're looking at purchasing the ATI 6950 to flash to a 6970, while the 6970 and Nvidia GTX 480 are fairly equal in some games, when the GTX 480 does perform better, it seems to do so by a slightly higher margin than when the 6970 performs better. However, when looking at purchasing a new graphics card and a potential contender is the Nvidia GTX 480, you have to factor in things like power consumption, heat and noise levels and how susceptible you're to those sorts of things. Also, as the prices currently stand, the Nvidia ASUS GTX 480 is roughly £10 more expensive than the ATI MSI 6970.

Here is a link to the Anandtech Bench with comparisons between an ATI 6970 and the Nvidia GTX 480.

In terms of the differences between brands, the actual graphics card unit will essentially be the same. The only differences between one brand to another is how the actual card will look i.e. the sticker, the accessories you get with it and the warranty length.

Davey_Pitch · 24 Feb 2011 at 14:59

I had the same choice to make, and ended up going for the GTX480, as from the benches it seems to perform better in the games I'd be more likely to play (such as Civ 5). As there is so little between the cards generally you should probably use something similar to help you make your own mind up.

Cleeecooo · 24 Feb 2011 at 15:31

I think he listed those brands specifically because he's getting them from competitor.

Tut tut tut

Lunch_box · 24 Feb 2011 at 15:53

Thanks for the advice guys, I think ill go 480 route. I quite fancy trying 3d vision as well.

Cleeecooo · 24 Feb 2011 at 15:57

Lunch_box said:
Thanks for the advice guys, I think ill go 480 route. I quite fancy trying 3d vision as well.

Which brand are you gttig?
Looking on the site i think you may have been looking at, they all have the same warranty

jigger · 24 Feb 2011 at 16:13

It would have to be a HD6950 unlocked to a HD6790. Nothing comes close.

brit~XR · 24 Feb 2011 at 16:26

The 480 is the best card if you want proformance rather then less fan noise. I remember saying when i sold my 6950 to get the asus 480 that i though the 6950 was the better card. But that was before i overclocked my 480.
Because to be honest i didnt think it would overclock so much because i though it would get to hot

You need to flash a 6950 to 6970 and have 880mhz core to get gtx 480 proformance. But then once i flashed mine i could only get it to 930mhz no matter how much power i gave it. Yet my gtx 480 can go from 700mhz stock to 860mhz on stock volts and no real increase in temps or noise. Also if you dont wanna overclock it then you can under volt it to 1000mV which i did on mine and it will run cooler and quieter and use less power.

Also this may sound odd but my 480 has less temps on games like bad company 2 then my 6950 did.
Around 82c with 55% auto fan speed
The auto fan on my 6950 would let my 6950 hit 86 to 90c

Guess i got a good card sence it does overclock quite nice on stock volts. Fan is louder then my 6950 but not noticable sence i use headphones. But then again the 6950 fan can be loud to over 60% speed imo. At 100% it sounds like its gonna take off

But i would say for the price the card sells for on ocuk and the fact its a great overclocker makes it a great card.

Andrei23 · 24 Feb 2011 at 16:59

brit~XR said:
The 480 is the best card if you want proformance rather then less fan noise. I remember saying when i sold my 6950 to get the asus 480 that i though the 6950 was the better card. But that was before i overclocked my 480.
Because to be honest i didnt think it would overclock so much because i though it would get to hot

You need to flash a 6950 to 6970 and have 880mhz core to get gtx 480 proformance. But then once i flashed mine i could only get it to 930mhz no matter how much power i gave it. Yet my gtx 480 can go from 700mhz stock to 860mhz on stock volts and no real increase in temps or noise. Also if you dont wanna overclock it then you can under volt it to 1000mV which i did on mine and it will run cooler and quieter and use less power.

Also this may sound odd but my 480 has less temps on games like bad company 2 then my 6950 did.
Around 82c with 55% auto fan speed
The auto fan on my 6950 would let my 6950 hit 86 to 90c

Guess i got a good card sence it does overclock quite nice on stock volts. Fan is louder then my 6950 but not noticable sence i use headphones. But then again the 6950 fan can be loud to over 60% speed imo. At 100% it sounds like its gonna take off
But i would say for the price the card sells for on ocuk and the fact its a great overclocker makes it a great card.

90C? wow you have terrible case cooling
mine peaks at 69C in BFBC2, FFXIV with the gpu running 99%, plus I unlocked mine

EDIT: my fan also never goes past 45% on a reference HIS 6950@70.
One more thing, notice how even overclocked, the clocks for the gtx 480 are below that of the stock 6970.

brit~XR · 24 Feb 2011 at 21:03

Andrei23 said:
90C? wow you have terrible case cooling
mine peaks at 69C in BFBC2, FFXIV with the gpu running 99%, plus I unlocked mine

EDIT: my fan also never goes past 45% on a reference HIS 6950@70.
One more thing, notice how even overclocked, the clocks for the gtx 480 are below that of the stock 6970.

A gtx 580 has clocks below a 6950 so i dunno what your point is. Even a gtx 460 has higher clock then a 480. I wouldnt say my case cooling is terrible considering my overclocked i7 cpu maxes out around 62c on prime 95.
Im also not the only one on the on this forum that had temps of around 86c on bad company 2

Maybe i had a bad card or somethink or the drivers got better sence last tested mine.

Lunch_box · 24 Feb 2011 at 22:14

Cleeecooo said:
Which brand are you gttig?
Looking on the site i think you may have been looking at, they all have the same warranty

Think I am going with a zotac but tempted with asus for 208 on this weeks deal

maj · 24 Feb 2011 at 22:19

My 470 is a Zotac and hadn't heard of them before I bought it from here. Not had any problems so far.

Jack Bauer · 24 Feb 2011 at 22:50

going to add my question here as Im considering the same cards.

asus GTX 480 £208 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

or

MSI HD 6950 £198 (which I will flash) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-248-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Now unless Im missing something or looking at old benchmarks, the GTX looks like the better option as it will perform at least as good as the 6950 even if I flash it and OC to 6970 speeds?

OCPete · 25 Feb 2011 at 09:28

Jack Bauer said:
going to add my question here as Im considering the same cards.

asus GTX 480 £208 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

or

MSI HD 6950 £198 (which I will flash) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-248-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Now unless Im missing something or looking at old benchmarks, the GTX looks like the better option as it will perform at least as good as the 6950 even if I flash it and OC to 6970 speeds?

I am in exacty the same scenario. Leaning towards the GTX480 due to not having to reflash (save time and hassle), and I have good case airflow so not worried about the heat.