MSI 6970 Lightning or MSI GTX 570 plz help

Seb5009 · 4 Jan 2012 at 20:51

Hello all.

I am looking at getting a new graphics card and wanted some help. I am new to this and only had my friends old cards. I will be playing at 1080p. I will be playing games like (skyrim/BF3/SWTOR) and my new rig is.

i5 2500k
Kingston hyperx Genesis 8 gb
win 7

Here is the links to the cards I am looking at
570
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-129-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010
6970
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-141-MS

Thank you for any help

p.s. I will not have the money for the new ati cards 7900 series

ALXAndy · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:06

6970. VRAM is more important that raw GPU speed now.

Also, that lightning card is more up the backside of a stock 580. So unless you overclock the 570 the Lightning is faster all day long.

chaotic_uk · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:06

i would say the 6970 you have in the list is the better choice tbh

JustBen · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:10

i got a 6970 twin frozr III (lightening board) yesterday and to be honest with all the troubles im having with the drivers and keeping it cool if i had the choice again i'd got gtx570.

MichaelM · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:17

If you are going for single card and actually playing BF3 then 570.
If you are only playing games "like" BF3 without the supposed DCL which gives Nvidia the performance advantage in that title then the 2GB 6970 will be better in the long run.

mickyflinn · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:17

There really is not much between the 2 cards so it boils down to what games you play and at what resolouition.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/292?vs=306

chaotic_uk · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:19

mickyflinn said:
There really is not much between the 2 cards so it boils down to what games you play and at what resolouition.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/292?vs=306

none of the above cards that was listed are stock cards so that chart does not count for much tbh

Seb5009 · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:20

I have never had an ati card before, and the drivers is one of the things putting me off. But that is only after reading some of the posts on this forum.

mickyflinn · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:23

chaotic_uk said:
none of the above cards that was listed are stock cards so that chart does not count for much tbh

Its an aproxx not an exact, so as the reast of the quote says it depends on resoloution., where vram is important.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-5.html

TheMorningStar · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:31

6970 Lightning without a doubt. Especially with them at £50 off Today Only.

Surveyor · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:31

always4lora said:
i got a 6970 twin frozr III (lightening board) yesterday and to be honest with all the troubles im having with the drivers and keeping it cool if i had the choice again i'd got gtx570.

If it's reaching high temperatures, and you have decent airflow in your case, the card is likely faulty.

Several people have reported similar problems.

Working properly temperatures go up to ~70 degrees, the faulty ones get much nearer 100 degrees.

Seb5009 · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:33

Thank you all for the help, I will put my order in before it goes off sale

DarkHorizon472 · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:40

Surveyor said:
If it's reaching high temperatures, and you have decent airflow in your case, the card is likely faulty.

Several people have reported similar problems.

Working properly temperatures go up to ~70 degrees, the faulty ones get much nearer 100 degrees.

Very true, I have the 6950 version and maxed out playing bf3 in a warm room it never goes above 60c with case fans running as well.

Guru · 4 Jan 2012 at 21:45

I was in the same boat and chose the EVGA 2560mb 570 elsewhere for under £300 mainly because of the extra ram and the 10 year warranty. Also cause I fancy some SLI.

Out of those two defo the 6970 though.

ALXAndy · 4 Jan 2012 at 22:11

Seb5009 said:
I have never had an ati card before, and the drivers is one of the things putting me off. But that is only after reading some of the posts on this forum.

On a single card they're perfectly fine mate. Absolutely nothing to worry about there.

Any driver issues are usually ones brought upon oneself.

kissenger · 5 Jan 2012 at 00:09

I would go for the cheaper one because they both have their advantages. The 570 beats the 6970 in BF3 and many other games, the 6970 beats the 570 in many games.

Don't worry about vram at that resolution because despite what some people say it's not an issue. SuperHD res and in SLI situations, yes, but otherwise you're spending extra for nothing.

TheYoungster · 5 Jan 2012 at 00:16

6970 could not have been easier, installed card, ati website, auto detect, download restart job done!

ALXAndy · 5 Jan 2012 at 00:35

kissenger said:
I would go for the cheaper one because they both have their advantages. The 570 beats the 6970 in BF3 and many other games, the 6970 beats the 570 in many games.

Don't worry about vram at that resolution because despite what some people say it's not an issue. SuperHD res and in SLI situations, yes, but otherwise you're spending extra for nothing.

Erm it is an issue.

Trust me, coming from some one who was forced to sell his GTX 470 1.3gb because it was stuttering like crap and going over VRAM and paging it is definitely an issue.

kissenger · 5 Jan 2012 at 01:01

ALXAndy said:
Erm it is an issue.

Trust me, coming from some one who was forced to sell his GTX 470 1.3gb because it was stuttering like crap and going over VRAM and paging it is definitely an issue.

I don't think "trust me" is enough proof mate. I'm sure you're a trustworthy guy and that you do believe that to be the case, but just going by the facts (e.g. every major benchmark website), there is no evidence that going from 1.3gb vram to 2gb vram has any noticable effect at 1080p, unless we're talking about limit cases in which the extra vram seems to be able to fetch some extra FPS, but not enough to make a game playable.

Basically what I'm saying is that raw GPU power is more important at 1080p and you will not be able to find any evidence whatsoever of a 2gb (or more) version of a GPU being able to run a game at playable FPS (i.e. around 50FPS average) that a 1-1.5gb version of the same card can't.

ALXAndy · 5 Jan 2012 at 01:07

kissenger said:
I don't think "trust me" is enough proof mate. I'm sure you're a trustworthy guy and that you do believe that to be the case, but just going by the facts (e.g. every major benchmark website), there is no evidence that going from 1.3gb vram to 2gb vram has any noticable effect at 1080p, unless we're talking about limit cases in which the extra vram seems to be able to fetch some extra FPS, but not enough to make a game playable.

Basically what I'm saying is that raw GPU power is more important at 1080p and you will not be able to find any evidence whatsoever of a 2gb (or more) version of a GPU being able to run a game at playable FPS (i.e. around 50FPS average) that a 1-1.5gb version of the same card can't.

There was no other reason at all to replace my 470.

I don't upgrade unless I feel I have no other choice, and this

Straight after I had installed the 6970 says it all. That's VRAM usage in single player. It goes a lot higher in MP I hear. Infact I've seen reports of it using 1.6gb on these forums when played in MP.