ATI or Nvidia?

Apem · 15 Sep 2011 at 15:52

About to order a new gpu this week and I can not make my mind up on either the 6950 or the 560Ti card.

What ever card I will be going for it will either be the MSI FrozR or the Asus Direct CU II.

Im looking for your guys opinions on the 6950 or 560Ti route pls.

Emphacy · 15 Sep 2011 at 15:54

Depends entirely on what games (if any) you play. As far as I know, AMD are still having some minor driver problems, but you do get a little more performance for the price.

Apem · 15 Sep 2011 at 15:55

will be mostly BF2/3 and some mmos

Marine-RX179 · 15 Sep 2011 at 15:58

If your Q6600 is on stock speed, I wouldn't upgrade from the GTX280 until the CPU is overclocked to decent speed...

Apem · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:01

Its not for this mobo and cpu its for a MSI 990FX GD80 and a Hex core cpu

tommybhoy · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:03

Cue fanboi fanfares! :eek:

If you like red, get red.
If you like green, get green.

Not much between the two apart from double the memory on the 6950 some argue that it's beneficial, some say it's not(although the fact remains that should it need the extra vram, it's there).

Both cards overclock well.

iostream · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:04

What resolution is your monitor? I would suggest the 6950 if you play at a high res..

Marine-RX179 · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:09

Apem said:
Its not for this mobo and cpu its for a MSI 990FX GD80 and a Hex core cpu

You mean you already got that AM3+ motherboard and PhenomII Hex core? Who on earth advised you to go AMD over SandyBridge...especially for CPU intensive games such as mmos?

Apem · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:11

Got the board but ordering the cpu and the gpu this week

And my monitor is a 1920 x 1080 using the monitor in my sig

Marine-RX179 · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:20

Apem said:
Got the board but ordering the cpu and the gpu this week

No chance you return the board and get a refund? Building a new build on AMD platform and throwing nearly £150 on a Phenom II Hex core is quite poor value considering you can build a much faster SandyBridge i5 for the same cost.

In mmos that use less than 4 cores, the Phenom II Hex core (even if overclocked) would deliver much worse frame rate than even the SandyBridge i3 2100 due to CPU bottlenecking the graphic card.

Apem · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:26

No chance of returning it as I want to use AMD this time around.

So anyway 6950 or 560Ti?

tommybhoy · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:31

Amd + 6950= higher performance than a Amd + 560ti, the Nvidia requires more cpu grunt to get the best from it.

If you still have your current build, then why don't you wait for(probably) 2-3 weeks for bulldozer, you will probably kick yourself if you don't!

Marine-RX179 · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:35

Apem said:
No chance of returning it as I want to use AMD this time around.

So anyway 6950 or 560Ti?

If you can still get a refund for board, it's still not too late to stop yourself from jumping off a bridge. Just look at these frame rate comparsion between CPUs for WOW:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62

As for graphic card, clock for clock both card are roughly on par with each other, however I would say it'd be better to go 6950 2GB, since they have more VRAM and now that they have dropped from £220 price range down to £180 price bracket.

Edited: If you MUST go AMD, wait for Bulldozer. Paying £150 for a Phenom II Hex core now is poor performance to cost.

tommybhoy said:
Amd + 6950= higher performance than a Amd + 560ti, the Nvidia requires more cpu grunt to get the best from it.

I would love to have a read where you get this idea from...got any link to any article?

tommybhoy · 15 Sep 2011 at 16:58

Marine-RX179 said:
I would love to have a read where you get this idea from...got any link to any article?

Pcformat article on gpu usage between Amd/Intel cpus using Amd/Nvidia gpu's a couple of months back.

They gave performance comparisons between older/newer cards and told you if it was pointless getting say a 580 for a Q6600 as it was cpu bottlenecked as you wouldn't get any more fps over a lesser card.

It makes sense really as AMD will optimise their own hardware to work better with each other.

Marine-RX179 · 15 Sep 2011 at 17:04

tommybhoy said:
Pcformat article on gpu usage between Amd/Intel cpus using Amd/Nvidia gpu's a couple of months back.

Have you got the issue number? I might have a look for it at my local library to see if they got it.

Apem · 15 Sep 2011 at 17:06

Found a review of the mobo I have the GD80 and in that they compaired ATI and Nvidia performace and ATI was way out on top, they did say as the drivers for nvidia are new and that in future updates they expect the performace to improve.

Marine-RX179 · 15 Sep 2011 at 17:08

Apem said:
Found a review of the mobo I have the GD80 and in that they compaired ATI and Nvidia performace and ATI was way out on top, they did say as the drivers for nvidia are new and that in future updates they expect the performace to improve.

Either way, wait for Bulldozer if you MUST go AMD (as they should be out VERY soon). Say NO to Phenom II!

tommybhoy · 15 Sep 2011 at 17:44

Marine-RX179 said:
Either way, wait for Bulldozer if you MUST go AMD (as they should be out VERY soon). Say NO to Phenom II!

+1

It's the july issue of Pcformat btw, 'Essential Upgrades'.

Akagi · 15 Sep 2011 at 21:12

its GREAT to see that somebody can start a thread like this on this forum without a fanboy bloodbath.

Personally i have no preference, i only have a gtx480 because it was ridiculously cheap and i could not pass up the offer.

I think that nvidia's technology is probably more advanced and intuitive, but amd seems to be better value for money (in most cases) NOT WITH CPU'S THOUGH.

FragnaticDeath · 16 Sep 2011 at 08:14

acme15 said:
its GREAT to see that somebody can start a thread like this on this forum without a fanboy bloodbath.

Personally i have no preference, i only have a gtx480 because it was ridiculously cheap and i could not pass up the offer.

I think that nvidia's technology is probably more advanced and intuitive, but amd seems to be better value for money (in most cases) NOT WITH CPU'S THOUGH.

+1 to this. I have both Ati and Nvidia, Ati for bang for the buck and nvidia a bit extra for its drivers.