You know when you're writing a question on a forum and by the end of it you've answered your own question? I think that's what I've done here!
I've just about finished the spec of my new Sandy Bridge build but the one thing that had me in a quandary is my choice of graphics card.
The graphics card will be coupled with an i7 2600k, Gigabyte P67-UD7 inside a Silverstone FT02B-W case. I've mentioned these because your bound to ask(!) and because it's relevant to aesthetics, cooling and noise levels. I'm only looking at a single GPU for the moment leaving some room to upgrade in the future should I want to.
I play an assortment of games, TDU2, L4D2, CoDMW2, I'm looking forward to playing Crysis 2, Portal 2, Half-Life 3 (if ever). I play at either 1900x1200 or 1900x1080 depending on if it's the monitor or big screen I'm playing on.
I'd narrowed it down to either the AMD 6970 2Gb or the Nvidia GTX570 1.28Gb. All the AMD 6970 cards are very much simillar with only brand, suplied extras and the (sometimes stupid) sticker on the card separating them out. There's no innovative aftermarket cooling that I've found so far. So it was the cheapest 6970 in the shortlist, £258 here at Overclockers.
In the other camp I shortlisted the Gainward GTX570 Phantom at £308 here again at Overclockers. I selected this one due to it having good reviews and that non-standard cooler looks the part as well as perform well. I think it'll perform even better in the FT02B case, look the part and better still, be quiet in operation. It's £50 more than the 6970 though...
From what I've read both the 6970 and 570 trade blows depending on the game, with the 6970 out in front slightly (Anandtech). The noise of an overclocked 6970 with stock cooler worries me a bit. I watercooled my existing 4870 because of it but I will not be watercooling the GPU this time round so the non-reference design of the Phantom isn't an issue.
At the end of writing this I'm leaning more towards the GTX570 Phantom despite the extra expense. What do you guys think?
I've just about finished the spec of my new Sandy Bridge build but the one thing that had me in a quandary is my choice of graphics card.
The graphics card will be coupled with an i7 2600k, Gigabyte P67-UD7 inside a Silverstone FT02B-W case. I've mentioned these because your bound to ask(!) and because it's relevant to aesthetics, cooling and noise levels. I'm only looking at a single GPU for the moment leaving some room to upgrade in the future should I want to.
I play an assortment of games, TDU2, L4D2, CoDMW2, I'm looking forward to playing Crysis 2, Portal 2, Half-Life 3 (if ever). I play at either 1900x1200 or 1900x1080 depending on if it's the monitor or big screen I'm playing on.
I'd narrowed it down to either the AMD 6970 2Gb or the Nvidia GTX570 1.28Gb. All the AMD 6970 cards are very much simillar with only brand, suplied extras and the (sometimes stupid) sticker on the card separating them out. There's no innovative aftermarket cooling that I've found so far. So it was the cheapest 6970 in the shortlist, £258 here at Overclockers.
In the other camp I shortlisted the Gainward GTX570 Phantom at £308 here again at Overclockers. I selected this one due to it having good reviews and that non-standard cooler looks the part as well as perform well. I think it'll perform even better in the FT02B case, look the part and better still, be quiet in operation. It's £50 more than the 6970 though...
From what I've read both the 6970 and 570 trade blows depending on the game, with the 6970 out in front slightly (Anandtech). The noise of an overclocked 6970 with stock cooler worries me a bit. I watercooled my existing 4870 because of it but I will not be watercooling the GPU this time round so the non-reference design of the Phantom isn't an issue.
At the end of writing this I'm leaning more towards the GTX570 Phantom despite the extra expense. What do you guys think?
