AMD 6990 Slogan.

[bhavv]

If one card uses 180W and costs £300, and another card uses 300W, is £450, and only offers 10% more performance, the power/heat/noise/price just become unacceptable FOR THE LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE OFFERED.

This exactly.

If there were two cards, the first which consumed 200 watts of power and cost £200, and another which consumed 400 watts of power and cost £400, but was only 10% faster than the first, only Raven would buy it

The GTX 470 and 480 are such unappealing purchases compared to the GTX 460 or 560 which consume far less power, produce much less heat and noise, and for a mere 5% less performance. I'd rather have a quiet and cool setup, rather than a loud and hot one thats only 5% better.

 

[xsistor]

IMO, As for the doing 'right and wrong' stuff:

GTX 400 range = Fermi done terribly wrong
HD 5000 range = DX11 done brilliantly
GTX 460 / 500 range = Fermi done brilliantly
HD 6000 range = Disappointment, hardly any better than the cards it replaced.

How was 5000 DX11 brilliantly done when it sucked balls at tesselation

 

[Final8y]

How was 5000 DX11 brilliantly done when it sucked balls at tessellation

Because you don't have to be brilliant at everything in DX11.
AMD knew full well that tessellation would be the least thing used in the first few generations of DX11 cards, why waste resources on it when its there just to get the ball rolling.
When Console start using tessellation then it will be worthwhile as cross platform games can have tessellation from the ground up & not PC delaying tacked on after rubbish.

 

[jigger]

How was 5000 DX11 brilliantly done when it sucked balls at tesselation

Because tessellation = Pie in sky maybe ?

 

[bhavv]

How was 5000 DX11 brilliantly done when it sucked balls at tesselation

How many games use tessellation that a 5850 struggles to run?

Civ V is the most DX11 heavy game, and well, yea Nvidia wipes the floor with that game.

But it still runs with decent enough FPS on ATI cards.

Over the DX11 gen, the 5770, 5850, GTX 460 and GTX 560 were my favorite cards.

 

[jigger]

How about.

The new ATI HD6990. Because some fools will pay anything not to get burnt by Fermi

 

[TheRealDeal]

How many games use tessellation that a 5850 struggles to run?

Civ V is the most DX11 heavy game, and well, yea Nvidia wipes the floor with that game.

But it still runs with decent enough FPS on ATI cards.

Over the DX11 gen, the 5770, 5850, GTX 460 and GTX 560 were my favorite cards.

They are definately the best selling cards of the range. I would definately add in the 6950 as it gives more performance for the money than any of those cards did on launch especially when its unlocked.

 

[kylew]

You're right, if I gamed 24/7 then I maybe take power usage in to consideration, seeing as I game a few hours a day it makes little difference to me if I use 80 watts more power than the next card, at least it performs and that's what counts.

It mattered to you loads when you had a 5870...

 

[Redmint]

Over the DX11 gen, the 5770, 5850, GTX 460 and GTX 560 were my favorite cards.

The GTX 470 was a good card, it just needed better (stock) cooling to remove the noise/heat problems. I picked up one of the twin frozr cards when they were on offer and they're great value and nice overclockers.

 

[kylew]

How was 5000 DX11 brilliantly done when it sucked balls at tesselation

This is something people spout without any actual knowledge on the subject. The 5000s weren't terrible at tessellation at all, the nVidia cards just had a lot more scope to hope with very high levels of it, but by the time their "advantage" would come in to "play", the levels of tessellation were far beyond what would make any visible difference.

Think of it on a scale, 0 is no tessellation, 1 is "medium" and 2 is "high", beyond 2 you see no visual improvement. nVidia were pushing developers to "turn it up to 11" just because their cards coped with such high levels better than AMD's cards and made them look a huge amount faster, when they weren't. Now if you think, no visual difference after 2 onwards, yet nVidia are insisting that it's turned up to 11, it's obvious what's going on there.

On top of that, poorly implemented tessellation is also being used as well, at the moment it's just a check-box feature that brings very little in the way of improvements.

 

[kylew]

The GTX 470 was a good card, it just needed better (stock) cooling to remove the noise/heat problems. I picked up one of the twin frozr cards when they were on offer and they're great value and nice overclockers.

There was never anything majorly "wrong" with the GTX470s in their own regards, it's when you looked at their price to performance ratio where the problems came up. Barely any faster than a 5850, for a good 80% more money. At £140, they are good value, even if they are hot and draw a fair amount of power, but it's excusable when the price is more reasonable.

 

[Redmint]

The whole reason for going for the twin frozr is that they're fairly cool and quiet, hence saying the stock design should have had better cooling. I know I'm fairly picky about noise levels while gaming and I'm sure there are others like me who prefer quiet graphics cards.

 

[Firegod]

What I don't understand is why people are so concerned about power usage/heat with cards of this calibre. Surely you know these cards aren't going to run eco-friendly before buying it? Anyone care to shed some light on this, or am I wrong?

It's like buying a super car and then moaning about the MPG.

 

[TheRealDeal]

The whole reason for going for the twin frozr is that they're fairly cool and quiet, hence saying the stock design should have had better cooling. I know I'm fairly picky about noise levels while gaming and I'm sure there are others like me who prefer quiet graphics cards.

I think kyle meant at release when there was only the stock cooler. The gtx470 was over £300 and the 5850 was nearer £200. The gtx470 at this price was classed as a nothing card because it was hot, loud and well overpriced for what was on offer. When the price dropped to near the 5850 it started to become a real option even with the noisy cooler.

 

[kylew]

It's like buying a super car and then moaning about the MPG.

It's like buying a care that's a little bit better than the car you had, with half the MPG. You really can't compare the GTX 480 to a "super car" when it's about 10% faster than a 5870. Super cars are far far higher performance than a "standard" car.

 

[kylew]

I think kyle meant at release when there was only the stock cooler. The gtx470 was over £300 and the 5850 was nearer £200. The gtx470 at this price was classed as a nothing card because it was hot, loud and well overpriced for what was on offer. When the price dropped to near the 5850 it started to become a real option even with the noisy cooler.

That's exactly what I meant.