Guest Posted September 24, 2011 Posted September 24, 2011 Hey, I have just a general, random question here. I've always been perplexed at video cards. With all of the numbers and letters and stuff it's hard to distinguish which card or setup is better. To help me get an idea of this, I would like to know which of these three video card options is the best. They are: 1. Dual 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580- SLI Enabled 2. Dual 2GB ATI Radeon™ HD 6950 - ATI CrossFireX™ Enabled 3. Tri-CrossFireX 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6950 It would appear that option 2 is superior to option 1 because of the 2GB rather than 1.5GB. However, every site I've been to with these two options, the first (or a deviation of it) would be more expensive than the second option. Why so? Also, is the triple card option worth the loss of a PCIe slot that could be used for, say sound cards? Any help would be appreciated.
LilDevil Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Hmm, I believe the reason is there is something about how the NVIDIA cards render the game could influence the price. I would look at the precise specs of the cards to see how they handle AA and Anisotropic Filtering. Though my vote would be for ATI simply because 5 Nvidia cards have died on me and cooked my computer several times.
Guest Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Hmm' date=' I believe the reason is there is something about how the NVIDIA cards render the game could influence the price. I would look at the precise specs of the cards to see how they handle AA and Anisotropic Filtering. Though my vote would be for ATI simply because 5 Nvidia cards have died on me and cooked my computer several times. [/quote'] Hmm, I see. Thanks.
sora3 Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Dual GTX580s will kill anything that ATI can do really. Don't look at the size of the memory, that is useless in determining performance. Tri-anything isn't worth it as the CPU will barely keep up with graphics in getting the data to them. I do suggest just getting one GTX580. Why? Well, unless you're gaming on anything large than a 27" monitor, the GTX580 can pretty much do anything really. Heck, I'm using a Radeon HD 6850 and it keeps up with anything unless I really crank up the details.
Guest Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Dual GTX580s will kill anything that ATI can do really. Don't look at the size of the memory' date=' that is useless in determining performance. Tri-anything isn't worth it as the CPU will barely keep up with graphics in getting the data to them. I do suggest just getting one GTX580. Why? Well, unless you're gaming on anything large than a 27" monitor, the GTX580 can pretty much do anything really. Heck, I'm using a Radeon HD 6850 and it keeps up with anything unless I really crank up the details. [/quote'] I guess that's why the GTX costs more. Thanks.
beck11 Posted September 25, 2011 Posted September 25, 2011 Im getting a single 570 for my 23 inch monitor. Wanted to go 560ti SLI but realised that the investment in a new PSU plus a second card will put me well above what Im prepared to pay for. Going single GPU with a 570 OC will suit me better and allow me to hold out on Keplers. Honestly speaking, you can go crazy with your dual gpu setups but there are alot of factors to consider: 1. Budget-Most important. Even if you have no set budget, its still not a good idea to blow all your cash on cards that may be out classed in 2 years. Worse if you over compensate and end up with alot of wastage that your rig cant tap into. Or bottlenecking. 2. Your gaming setup(CPU, casing size, cooling, mobo, monitor/monitors) and what you wanna achieve-Wanna maintain 60fps on 2560x1600? Single or multiple monitor setup? 3. Micro stuttering-Does it seem like something that might bother you? Which company currently has the most problem with this issue? 4. Trying to future proof?- Dont bother, there is no such thing as future proofing. Sure your Dual 590s may look bitching now, but 2 years on with better PCIE3 bandwidth saturation, its gonna look like a coal guzzling dinosaur. 5. ATI or Nvidia drivers-Well this is unanimous/lolcontroversy Without those things its hard to recommend which to choose. Many times I see people overestimate for their rigs when they get a recommendation on building a new PC and then they realise they can save a ton of cash if they strike a sensible balance between performance and cost. Same goes for if you're trying to upgrade a current rig.
gregathit Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 I just upgraded from a GTX OC 295 1.8gig to an EVGA 1gig GTX 560Ti. I did this because: 1. The 560 has DDR5 memory (295 ddr3). 2. Direct x11 is unsupported by the 295 and dx10 was slow. Dx9 rocked on the 295 however. What I have noticed is quite a massive jump in performance thus far and of course will be ready for the dx11 games that will be rolling out in the future. I didn't want to shell out the 400 some odd dollars for a 580 as the 560 is not terribly far behind it at almost half the price. I didn't look at the 570's - what is the difference between them and the 560Ti?
beck11 Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 Overclocked 560ti can reach stock or reference model 570. 560ti are based on the fermi architecture so yes they were designed with dx11 in mind. Performance wise when put beside the 570 is what you'd usually expect 560ti<570<580<590 each with a 20% or more increase in performance and then another 10-15% increase in performance once various companies come up with their own non-reference models which is what your EVGA card is. Like you said, people have to match their budget with their CPU usage. 1920x1080 res a 560ti can handle no problem and even Crysis2 runs well on it. The average user only needs a 560ti or 570 on a single 24" monitor. Once you get to the enthusiast level with their 4 monitor setups on crazy resolutions then stuff like SLI and crossfire come into play. Currently the 560ti is the best bang for your buck GPU you can get on the market. Maybe a AMD HD6950 can challenge that but I prefer Nvidia so I would go with a 560ti.
gregathit Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 After I posted I went to Nvidia's site for the scoop on the 570's which is pretty well summarized by Beck11's post above. The 560ti is $100 plus cheaper than the 570 so it becomes more of a wallet issue than anything else - my wallet said 560ti!
gregathit Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 Well the 560ti I got was the dual fan version but there the similarities end!! I notice that they are starting to come out with cards that have built in liquid cooling (self contained). If that feature doesn't end up with leaks and other problems I may go that direction in a year or so when my 560 becomes a dinosaur.
beck11 Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 Built in Liquid cooling! Idk anything about that. The next gen cards are Keplars and Maxwell from Nvidia, Northern Island from AMD. They use PCIe3 connections and they claim.....to be 10-15x more powerful than current gen cards. Its bollocks obviously but you never know. As far as I know they are still air cooled.
gregathit Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/PNY+-+NVIDIA+GTX+580+1.5GB+GDDR5+PCI+Express+2.0+Graphics+Card/3026124.p?id=1218372340138&skuId=3026124 Yea I was surprised about closed loop liquid cooling myself. I thought it might be a mod but nope it is a stock thing that even best buy is carrying as you will see in the link above. As they appear to be fairly new, I am interested to see if there are any flaws. As to 10x more powerful, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Hell it really wasn't that long ago that RAM and hard drives were measured in megs not gigs!
sora3 Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 I'm using twin 6850s for my rig but that's only because I'm gaming on maximum detail so that's probably why.
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