6870 or 470 buying today

[Rob43]

What res is the OP gaming at?

1920x1080


The 470 is in the basket just now,not pressed that buy button quite yet.

I'm hoping this card will do for a good while,it's replacing my trusty 2 year old 4870. So hoping to get a couple of years out of this purchase too.

Cheers guys

Rob

 

[opethdisciple]

Seems the prices have reduced in the last few hours on the 470's!

Down to £187!!

 

[DragonWoLf]

Great now reading this I'm stuck between 470's or 6870 :-/

 

[Biffa]

Seems the prices have reduced in the last few hours on the 470's!

Down to £187!!

Same price as the 6870 it seems.

 

[opethdisciple]

Great now reading this I'm stuck between 470's or 6870 :-/

Well I do not own either of those cards. But I do have a 5870. Itsa very good card. So based on my experiences the 6870 will also be very good.

Im not exactly sure which of the two cards is the more powerful. From benchmarks they look pretty similar. The 470 will perform better in some games and the 6870 in others.

However, the 470 as someone pointed out above is the more 'feature' rich of the two cards. On the other hand the 6870 will have eyefinity support, run cooler and be less noisey. The 470 also has a tiny bit more memory... and as Im finding out today,more vram is a good thing.

I dont think you can go wrong with either.

If I was to choose out of the two Id go with a 470.

But another factor you could use to make up your mind is does you mobo support crossfire or sli? Getting the right card for you mobo gives you a future upgrade path... if you so wished.

Look at some benchmarks. Especially see how each cards perform in the games you like to play....

 

[easyrider]

I would go for the 6870...Its fast cool has DP1.2 and uses a lot less power for the speed you get

 

[RavenXXX2]

If the power difference of a 90 watt light bulb concerns you then yeah go 6870, otherwise the 470 the OP is interested in comes with a custom cooler which runs cooler and quieter than the stock cooler. DP1.2, not a selling point IMO.

Here is more accurate review of power consumption with just the cards power draw taken.

Make that a 60 watt bulb.

 

[Freddie1980]

If the power difference of a 90 watt light bulb concerns you then yeah go 6870, otherwise the 470 the OP is interested in comes with a custom cooler which runs cooler and quieter than the stock cooler. DP1.2, not a selling point IMO.

Does it? Do you have a Gainwood GTX470? Or are you just assuming that just because it's using a non reference cooler it automatically has to be better then the stock solution?

It's not so much the power these cards draw (well unless you running a Folding rig 24/7) but what happens with the energy used. The more power a card uses the hotter a card becomes which in itself can cause system issues if you case isn't up to scratch but more importantly the heat causes your cool to work harder which means more noise.

 

[Phoenixdancer]

If the power difference of a 90 watt light bulb concerns you then yeah go 6870, otherwise the 470 the OP is interested in comes with a custom cooler which runs cooler and quieter than the stock cooler. DP1.2, not a selling point IMO.

DP 1.2 is a good selling point... 3 monitors off one port...
when a nvidia card can still only do 2 monitors... yet a 6870 can do over 6 + on one card

 

[easyrider]

If the power difference of a 90 watt light bulb concerns you then yeah go 6870, otherwise the 470 the OP is interested in comes with a custom cooler which runs cooler and quieter than the stock cooler. DP1.2, not a selling point IMO.

I think heat and noise and power are factors to consider as they are so very close to each other in performance.

It just shows how efficient the 6870 series is. Plus is can bitstream DTS HD master audio over HDMI and DP

 

[opethdisciple]

Yea but does the OP intend to use such a feature?

 

[easyrider]

DP 1.2 is a good selling point... 3 monitors off one port...
when a nvidia card can still only do 2 monitors... yet a 6870 can do over 6 + on one card

Indeed

 

[easyrider]

I still can't believe how cool the 6870 is when running in my system for the performance you get...Its not even hot to touch and its so quiet too.

 

[Zaim]

If you don't mind the extra power consumption then i'd take the 470,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-137-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

that looks good but for £199 you can get this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-067-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

what psu do you have? and motherboard

 

[RavenXXX2]

DP 1.2 is a good selling point... 3 monitors off one port...
when a nvidia card can still only do 2 monitors... yet a 6870 can do over 6 + on one card

Is the OP interested in running 6 monitors or anyone else for that matter? You also need to purchase extra gear to run that setup. Personally I would rather game on a big screen rather than having big black bezels going through my image, same goes for Nvidia surround.

 

[opethdisciple]

I still can't believe how cool the 6870 is when running in my system for the performance you get...Its not even hot to touch and its so quiet too.

I can concur. My 5870 is silent and cool.

My old 3870x2 was a vacuum cleaner and was hotter than a grill!

You wouldnt believe it, but my old 3870x2 consumed more power and made more noise than 470!! (according to websites)

 

[Freddie1980]

I think it would help when people post these threads they should rank in order what there looking for - value, quietness/noise, low power, GPGPU abilities, monitor support, output support, performance, overclockability etc, etc.

 

[marc1024]

obviously the 470 cause its nvidia.

 

[easyrider]

obviously the 470 cause its nvidia.

 

[opethdisciple]

I think it would help when people post these threads they should rank in order what there looking for - value, quietness/noise, low power, GPGPU abilities, monitor support, output support, performance, overclockability etc, etc.

Agreed!