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Some questions regarding the gtx590...

0cube

0cube

0cube

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Austria
After I decided to upgrade my graphics card and showing the result to a friend of mine, he also decided to upgrade his card. Only difference: Money is no problem for him (Well okay, the MARS II might not be for him, but everything under 1000€ is okay he said)

He is the kind of guy that just wants everything to work by itself and does not want to learn anything about the technical stuff which is why he asked me to help out.
Granted, im not the best to ask on this subject, but I am certainly one of the more knowledgeable among his friends regarding computers.

I looked up some versions of the GTX590 and am confused to some degree about it, which is why I want to ask you guys to help me out.
Lets cut to the chase and start:

Question #1:
Most shop sites I have looked up, the given Vram on a gtx590 is said to be 2x1.5GB. What does that mean?
As far as I know, 2 graphic cards in SLI with, lets say 1.5GB, vram each won't make my system suddenly have 3GB of vram. Is this also the case with the gtx590? Or is it actually capable of using the 3GB that are on it?

Question #2
He currently has a 750Watt PSU and an i5 quad core processor (dont know the exact model...). Without any overclocking done, will this be enough for the gtx590?

Question #3
From a Price/Performance view, which manufacturer of this card would you suggest? I have seen some nice "Point of View" Cards that actually hit the pricecap at around 950€, but seem a little too expensive for what they do in my opinion.

Any answers or suggestions would be nice; Thank you and have a nice day.
Andreas
 
#1 = 1.5GB of VRAM per GPU = 1.5GB of VRAM to play with.
#2 = Depends if it's a cheap and cheerful model or not?
#3 = I wouldn't bother with the 590, either wait for Kepler, get a AMD 7970 (or 2) or if you must stay with Nvidia GTX 580 3GB (or 2)
 
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Hi there,

I wouldn't suggest going for the GTX 590. It is a dual-GPU card, which means it has two high-end graphics chips sandwiched onto one card, underclocked and (hopefully) kept cool enough not to melt. However, there have been quite a few issues with this card where they actually do melt - so stay away. Also, with dual-GPU cards the graphics memory is not shared. Each card has access to 1.5GB of memory and due to the way SLI works this means it only functions as if it has a total of 1.5GB (not 3GB).

Instead, the card to go for is the AMD HD 7970 3GB (a brand new, top-end, single GPU graphics card) or wait for a month or so for the new Nvidia Kepler graphics cards (which use the same 28nm process as the AMD 7970) to arrive.
 
I agree with the other posters. Your choices (or his) are to buy a 7970 which if I am correct will clock very very nicely giving games the needed grunt or wait a couple of months and see what nvidia have brought to the table.
As far as future proofing goes 7970 is the card at the moment and will see him through for a couple of years of high fps gaming.
 
Alright, thanks for the advices!
I will either recommend him then the 7970 then or the newer nvidia model. You guys wouldn't be able to guess how much it will cost when it launches?

EDIT: Oh and, for the 7970, is a PCIe v3 necessary? Would he need to get a new motherboard that actually supports it for full performance?
 
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If it's top-end, about the same price that the 7970 cost now if not more, the 7970s price being slightly inflated because it's new and top-dog.
 
The 7970 would be a better option. Real-world performance won't be too far off a 590 or 6990, and will be more hassle-free. It's based on a newer technology, and will draw much less power than the dual-GPU options, so will suit his PSU better.

The new Nvidia cards should be very powerful, but you can expect to see them March - April time. If he's wanting to buy now, the 7970 is the way to go.
 
7970 vote here. There are better cards but if he wants the "just make it work" option a single card is the way to go. Many say that the AMD drivers are slower than Nvideas but that is only really an issue with duel card solutions where they mat take a month or two to optimize for new games etc
 
The pci-e 3 requires a sandy bridge E (available now) or ivy bridge (not available yet) processor. From reading other posts on pci 3 the difference is negligible. Maybe a future upgrade?
 
95% of systems wouldn't see the blindest bit of difference between 2x7970's and 2x6950's for under half the cost.

The question which I don't think anyone has asked is..... what system does he have.

Did someone, you build him a i5 based system, or did he buy a prebuilt which has a horrendously cack 750W psu, etc, etc.

What screen does he have. If he has a single 60hz 1080p monitor or less, most dual card setups would be an entire waste, 3gb memory is entirely not needed and he probably wouldn't see much of a difference between a 6950 and a 590gtx, more so if the only game he plays is CS:S, if he only plays BF3, you might want more power.

Just because he thinks he can spend up to £1000, doesn't mean he should, needs to or would see the result of most of the performance from such a setup.

What does he have now and what level of performance does he need.

If he's got a 6970 and doesn't like his performance, you want something more, if he's currently got a, I don't know, 4870, then a 6950 would be a HUGE upgrade, cost a fraction of the price and keep him very happy for a couple years when he can spend £200 again on another decent but not super top end card.
 
The system is made by a shop similar to OcUK, you can choose the parts you want in it and they build it. i havent looked into the system itself, but i am very sure that the psu is not a 'no-name' product.
When his graphics card broke i gave him my old gts 250 512mb, which is obviously not good for bf3.
I am not quite sure about the exact specs of the processor, but i will ask him as soon as i get to talk to him.
He's got 8GB ddr3 ram and uses a 3d capable (at least, i think it is...) 1080p monitor which would result in... 120Hz i believe?

Anyways, thanks for the help, I will recommend him the 6950 (which is flashable to a 6970, isnt it?) unless of course he wants to burn all his money
 
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