ATI and GeForce

Peter Tsang · 18 May 2011 at 16:55

For the new ATI cards, do they still have the heat dissipation problems?

Is nVidia a better alternative in terms of heat?

cmndr_andi · 18 May 2011 at 16:58

It really depends which cards you are talking about - pretty much all the current AMD/ATI cards have little issue with handling on-card heat (except perhaps the 6990).

mmj_uk · 18 May 2011 at 17:04

A 5870 with a non-reference heatsink is probably your best bet if you want a high-end cool/quiet running card.

I've not tried the new NVidia cards but I found the 6970 to be extremely hot until I put it under water.

opethdisciple · 18 May 2011 at 17:28

mmj_uk said:
A 5870 with a non-reference heatsink is probably your best bet if you want a high-end cool/quiet running card.

I've not tried the new NVidia cards but I found the 6970 to be extremely hot until I put it under water.

One of the ATI 5000 series strengths was it was cooler running.

As above, probably best bet for power and cool running is a 5870.

I have a 5870 and its a good card, and it runs cool too, which is why I choose it in the first place.

Peter Tsang · 20 May 2011 at 04:45

If I run DCS Shark or DCS A-10, nVidia is faster or ATi is faster?

cjgardens · 20 May 2011 at 06:27

Think you got that the wrong way round lol and im a nvidia guy.

Old Wino · 20 May 2011 at 07:03

Marine-RX179 · 20 May 2011 at 07:52

If you are not a fan of graphic card giving off too much heat but want to get a card of this gen that's still reasonly quick, then a GTX560Ti or 6950 1GB/2GB with a custom cooler is the way to go. They are both slightly faster than 5870 out of the box, but are much more overclockerable.

Peter Tsang · 20 May 2011 at 13:22

I want cooler, faster and less noise.

As you know, the Raedon is pretty hot as well as noisy.

I don;t mind to spend a bit more on an nVidia if it is quieter and cooler.

robgmun · 20 May 2011 at 13:46

I'm quite impressed with my 580 GTX,

cmndr_andi · 20 May 2011 at 13:51

Peter Tsang said:
If I run DCS Shark or DCS A-10, nVidia is faster or ATi is faster?

Supposedly with DCS the graphics card isn't usually the bottleneck (especially if you have a HD 4870) - the CPU is. Have you tried overclocking your Q6600? Your motherboard is great for overclocking and you seem to already have a half-decent aftermarket CPU cooler.

If you want to get a new GPU then I would go for the HD 6950 2GB, that game seems to make use of lots of VRAM - especially if you turn the settings up.

Buying an SSD is also an upgrade worth considering.

Peter Tsang · 20 May 2011 at 14:16

cmndr_andi said:
Supposedly with DCS the graphics card isn't usually the bottleneck (especially if you have a HD 4870) - the CPU is. Have you tried overclocking your Q6600? Your motherboard is great for overclocking and you seem to already have a half-decent aftermarket CPU cooler.

If you want to get a new GPU then I would go for the HD 6950 2GB, that game seems to make use of lots of VRAM - especially if you turn the settings up.

Buying an SSD is also an upgrade worth considering.

Is you i7 920 good enough for this game?

Peter Tsang · 20 May 2011 at 14:17

robgmun said:
I'm quite impressed with my 580 GTX,

580 GTX is it cooler than ATI of the same class?

cmndr_andi · 20 May 2011 at 14:22

Peter Tsang said:
Is you i7 920 good enough for this game?

I haven't played the game myself (though read quite a few things about it and may well pick it up in the future), but looking at posts by people who play DCS: A-10C Warthog, a CPU like an i7 920 (or one of the more modern sandy bridge CPUs) handles this game very well- mainly due to very good performance in lightly threaded apps.

Relentless81 · 20 May 2011 at 14:30

I cant hear my Gigabyte 560 over my Antec 902 case fans

Bodom · 20 May 2011 at 21:06

My Powecolor 6970 aint to bad never seems to go abouve about 70/75*c when gameing noise isant to bad either.

I would say louder than my old 5870 was before the fan started to die, but still quite abit quiter than my old GTX280.

Blue160 · 20 May 2011 at 21:20

Forget all the Nvidia vs ATI stuff. Decide on a budget then buy the best card at that price. Doesn't matter if it's red or green.

Randall8686 · 20 May 2011 at 21:25

Blue160 said:
Forget all the Nvidia vs ATI stuff. Decide on a budget then buy the best card at that price. Doesn't matter if it's red or green.

What he said, there are only a few programs that prefer red or green, i play fsx and that prefers nvidia by quite a bit so i am team green but equally if i did not play fsx i would be happy with a red card

FallshirmjAEger · 20 May 2011 at 21:35

robgmun said:
I'm quite impressed with my 580 GTX,

I'm quite impressed with my 570. 35 - 40c at idle, 70 - 75 c at load. Thats coming from a 470 which sat at 40 - 45 c idle and 85 - 90c load.

(Both 470 & 570 overclocked also)

All the new 5XX series cards from nvidia are great for their lower temps.

TheFool · 20 May 2011 at 21:40

FallshirmjAEger said:
I'm quite impressed with my 570. 35 - 40c at idle, 70 - 75 c at load. Thats coming from a 470 which sat at 40 - 45 c idle and 85 - 90c load.

(Both 470 & 570 overclocked also)

All the new 5XX series cards from nvidia are great for their lower temps.

Whats the noise like on the 570's? I hear the vapour chamber design is quite good.