5970 pros and cons?

[Pot Of Jam]

I'm looking to replace a 4870 x2 (as I have moved it to a diff pc) and was looking at the 5970.

I can see that it's a powerful card but how noisy is it at idle?

I'm planing to do a water-cooling loop and was tempted by the water-cooled version on OCUK, but am worried that I will always need to have a water-cooled pc, and if in the future I wanted to move it to my SG07 I wouldn't be able to.

My 4870x2 was never water-cooled as the first time I put the block on the card it fried it. Only in games like crysis and borderlands did the card get noisy and even then it was bareable.

So does anyone have a 5970 that they can give me. Few pros and cons?

Thanks.

 

[geoirv23]

Take a look at this http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/174?vs=165

 

[geoirv23]

The idle noise is about the same.

 

[MonkeykingZX]

When i used to have one it was blisteringly fast until it came to minimum framerates in a lot of games, i'm having a much better gaming experience in most games with my single 460 tbh (except bc2 lol)

It wasn't unbearably noisy but not quiet either and i originally had a lot of issues getting it working properly but combined with eyefinity once i got it working properly it was a beast

Saying that i'd never buy anything similar again way too much hassle

 

[Ghengis]

........... I ended up selling mine - wasn't the noise but the heat it generated that was the final straw. I found it a little fiddly - things that are simple to set up with 2 cards, are more difficult in my experience with the 5970 - I prefer my dual 5870 setup (and of course, two cards would have to fail for me to be unable to use my PC)

 

[Freddie1980]

It would be a big upgrade but you might want to hold out for the Radeon 6970 'Antilles' which may be out sometime in December.

 

[Phoenixdancer]

........... I ended up selling mine - wasn't the noise but the heat it generated that was the final straw. I found it a little fiddly - things that are simple to set up with 2 cards, are more difficult in my experience with the 5970 - I prefer my dual 5870 setup (and of course, two cards would have to fail for me to be unable to use my PC)

huh... It doesnt out out as much heat as a 480GTX for example.

and its a single card = less to worry about lol

 

[Pot Of Jam]

It would be a big upgrade but you might want to hold out for the Radeon 6970 'Antilles' which may be out sometime in December.

I would like to but I'm running a true 24" monitor on a 4870 512 mb. Games are struggling a bit.

I was thinking of 2 x 5870's but had so many problems with SLi (I know that is nvidia but the principle is the same) it put me off dual card setups. Also 2 cards = twice the noise.

 

[Liampope]

At the price you'd be crazy when you could get 2x new 6870 for much less with better performance (reviews show 6870 x-fire to beat 5870 x-fire). Or wait for 69xx series. 5970 is dual GPU on one card, so normal x-fire/sli problems apply.

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Well my 4870x2 was more reliable then my 2x8800gt's.

The card was rock solid in every game I played (at maximum detail too in 1920x1200)

Hence why I'm concerned.

As for two 6870's I havent seen any CF benchmarks yet.

 

[jorzeh]

To be fair 6870 CF is much better they actally have some thing like 85-100% scaling performance which is insane.

 

[RavenXXX2]

From the reviews I have seen 6870 xfire is about on par with 5870 scaling..

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/...renewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market/9

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Would an 850w psu handle two?

 

[Liampope]

With ease. New 68xx series are also very efficient power-wise. Again, check out the review thead for lots of test results.

 

[Pot Of Jam]

Well I have ordered 2 6870's.

Won't say who from as this is a stores forum, but they cost £176 each Inc VAT.

 

[Liampope]

Jolly good! In stock or pre-order?

 

[kedge]

the 5970.I can see that it's a powerful card but how noisy is it at idle?.

I use a 5970 at idle/desktop/internet usage it runs at 157/300 and the second gpu is disabled automaticaly. At full load it can get noisy and hot, but which dual stock graphics card wouldn't. My stock asus 5970's idle temps in a 18C room is 48C and full load (gaming) is 80C+. You might be better of with two 5850's?.