Best Card for now

[tommybhoy]

6950 unlocked makes nigh on no difference and it is not even remotely as quick as a 580 even at stock...

I did say unlocked and @1GHz.

An unlocked Toxic@950MHz:

'Overclocked 1536 BIOS Performance Summary
Wow, what can you say? AMD's Radeon HD 6970 market ranges from $340 to $380. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 market ranges from $420 to $600. Our SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD6950 sells for $269.99. After overclocking the 1536 BIOS, it also out performed both of the price superior cards. A much cheaper price and comparable performance, very impressive!'

Regarding unlocking the shaders, admittedly it's 'not much', but sometimes the 570 outperforms the 6970 by 'not much' and vice versa, every little helps, especially when it's free.

A pair of 6950's is quicker than a 580 and still outperforms a 7970 in a lot of games.

And that's why I'm keeping my cards!

A pair of 6950's especially when unlocked to 6970's @ 1GHz go way, way past a 580:

From the ***Official Unigine Heaven 2.5 Benchmark Scores*** thread:


Fastest single(most likely oc'd and maybe under water) 580: No. 55 Jazzerman (GTX580) - 1609

My AC Extreme air cooled 6950>70's@1GHz: No. 22 tommybhoy (6950 Xfire) -2269 (which I think is the fastest air cooled 6950>70 results in the thread)

1 year ago these cards cost less including 1 cooler(as I already had one) than the cheapest 580 at the time.

 

[kissenger]

If you want best bang for buck the GTX 570 is the way to go. Outperforms the 6970 in BF3 and is about £50 cheaper. You will be able to run it at ultra but with MSAA turned down to 2x just fine.

If you want to max it at more than 60fps then the only card on the market that will do that is the 7970, but tbh I don't think it's worth it over a 1.5gb 580 because the 7970 will only get you about 5fps extra, and that extra 5fps will cost you probably £100.

 

[tommybhoy]

If you want best bang for buck the GTX 570 is the way to go. Outperforms the 6970 in BF3 and is about £50 cheaper. You will be able to run it at ultra but with MSAA turned down to 2x just fine.

You must be the only guy I know that bought his gpu just for BF3!

There are other games out that make it six and half a dozen on who's faster between the 570/6970!

570 utperforms a 6970 at full ultra, but not with custom settings.

Can you show me where you can buy a 570 for £199.95 as OCUk has 6970's for £249.95

The best bang for buck is a 2GB 560/6950 @£200, give them a good overclock and they will surpass stock 570/6970's, hell even a 580 if you look at the graphs above your post, that undoubtedly is BBFB!

If you want to max it at more than 60fps then the only card on the market that will do that is the 7970, but tbh I don't think it's worth it over a 1.5gb 580 because the 7970 will only get you about 5fps extra, and that extra 5fps will cost you probably £100.

If you oc both of them the 7970 absolutely nails the 580!

 

[kissenger]

You must be the only guy I know that bought his gpu just for BF3!

There are other games out that make it six and half a dozen on who's faster between the 570/6970!

570 utperforms a 6970 at full ultra, but not with custom settings.

Can you show me where you can buy a 570 for £199.95 as OCUk has 6970's for £249.95

The best bang for buck is a 2GB 560/6950 @£200, give them a good overclock and they will surpass stock 570/6970's, hell even a 580 if you look at the graphs above your post, that undoubtedly is BBFB!



If you oc both of them the 7970 absolutely nails the 580!

You're right. I'm not having a go Tommy. The 6970 and the 570 trade blows. I only bought my 570 because I knew I would be playing BF3 a lot and that's one of the games it outperforms the 6970 in.

Did OP say his limit is £200? I didn't see that but if so then his best bet would probably be the 6950.

 

[ManikMiner]

Basically what im getting from this is that the only way im gonna get a "noticeable" difference is if i get a 7970... and for that im shelling out 450.

AKA.......... wait for prices to go down


Edit for above post: I don't really have a limit, just want to be able to play BF on as high settings as possible for the cheapest price. Also heard SWTOR will be getting a new high quality texture pack for top end rigs.

 

[tommybhoy]

2x 2Gb 560/6950 for £400, will destroy the 7970 @ your res!

 

[RanxZy]

2x 2Gb 560/6950 for £400, will destroy the 7970 @ your res!

As he is not a dual GPU user at the moment he should think twice before introducing himself to the wonderful world of dual GPU gaming and all the problems that that can possibly bring.

This is especially the case when you can have the latest and greatest single GPU in the 7970 out there for about £50 more that will toast anything he needs at that res anyway especially when OC'd and when and if you xfire them...

 

[gurusan]

^he has a 5970 apparently

 

[RanxZy]

^he has a 5970 apparently

Well in that case it would be even more of an impressive upgrade. The best thing about going from a GTX 295 to a 580 for me was the amazement at the huge increase of performance with only one GPU.

 

[Marine-RX179]

To be honest, the OP with a 5970 won't get much real performance boost going to a single GPU card, except for the 7970 and overclock the hack out of it.

But the shuttering problem he's facing...I think he should give that latest MSI Afterburner Beta a go and use the feature of capping the max fps to 55...it just might remove, or at least reduce the shuttering problem he's having with the 5970 in BF3. Also, he should drop the MSAA to x2 or none. Here's a link for OP's reference for the frame rate capping with the latest MSI Afterburner Beta:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18360071&page=3

 

[ManikMiner]

thanks a lot Marine, i will have a look into this! Props!

 

[gurusan]

It won't be.

I score around the same, in fact slightly higher compared to stock 6950s in 3dmark11

 

[phil-k]

my GTX580 runs every recent game I have tried at max settings smoothly, including BF3, Crysis 2 with graphic upgrades etc