GPU HELP! AMD or NVIDIA?

[Skippy1207]

Having a new pc built and was hoping for some help with my GPU decision. I am ordering a 750W PSU so I can add an extra GPU in the future if needed. Will be using computer for gaming. My choices (the first of which I was originally going to order) are:

1) 1GB AMD RADEON HD6870 PCI EXPRRESS-DirectX 11, Eyefinity 4 capable (costs and extra £17 than number 3, not bothered about the extra few quid)

2) 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS-DirectX 11 (an extra £3 more than number 3)

3) 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX465 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS-DirectX11

What is the difference? Which is better? AMD or NVIDIA and what does eyefinity 4 mean?

Not sure if makes a difference but will be using a 23" LED monitor and can post other PC specs if makes a difference to GPU purchase.

Any help would be appreciated because it all seems a bit confusing.

 

[Agonul]

AMD for value and Nvidia for slighty better quality but a lot more.

 

[Skippy1207]

So even though the AMD is the most expensive, the NVIDIA is the better GPU? If so, then is it better to get the 1GB GTX465 over the 2GB GTX460 then?

 

[Sleinous]

So, with regards to the 2GB GTX 460, only useful if you want to hook up 2 monitors to one GPU AND at a very high res (i.e. near 2560x1600 on both monitors) as this is basically what Video memory is used for. The 2GB GTX 460 runs on a mild mild overclock compared to the 1GB GTX 460

Now onto the GTX 465.... performs just as well in games BUT it has the added advantage of about 10-15 extra CUDA cores / stream processors which are ideal for Badaboom media conversion, and photoshop rendering plugin, CAD CAM, design work etc.

Nvidia GPUs ALSO have Physx that ATI lacks. Every Nvid GPU from 8000 series up has some CUDA cores.

 

[Skippy1207]

Right, well I don't really know what CUDA is even though I seen it mentioned in a few other threads but you really got me thinking now. I thought the AMD RADEON 6870 would have been the better but now questioning it. Can you have a look at my original build and see what you think. Have now made a second one though because I have put my limit at £1000 (started off at £600, 2 many choices, LOL) but in the second build I have used an AMD processor (didn't think as good as Intel?) to save cost and upgrade the GPU to an NVIDIA GTX470 (special offer). What do you think? Thanks for you help!


Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost

Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD 6870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

RAID
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£88)

Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

TV Card
NONE

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
NONE

Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Price (excluding VAT)


£853.62

Price


£1,003.00

Order Quantity


1

Bulk Discount


£0.00

Total Order price (Ex VAT)


£853.62

Total Order Price


£988.00

PC number two!!!


Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T (3.20GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/) - (Special Offer)

Motherboard
ASUS® M4A89TD PRO/USB3 : DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (4 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11 (Special Offer)

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

RAID
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£88)

Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

TV Card
NONE

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
NONE

Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Miscellaneous
FREE STORMRISE Game (RRP: £29.99) with any AMD® Phenom™ II X6 Processor!

Price (excluding VAT)


£830.64

Price


£976.00

Order Quantity


1

Bulk Discount


£0.00

Total Order price (Ex VAT)


£830.64

Total Order Price


£976.00

Or would I be better changing the GPU on the intel machine and keeping that 1?

 

[Sleinous]

Both CPUs are a bit ott imo, how about this?

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 970 (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4N98TD EVO: DDR3, 2-Way SLI, SATA 3.0GB/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11 (Special Offer)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£169)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,002.00 including VAT and delivery.

For this price you get: an AMD quad core, 970, an SLI board (2x Nvidia GTX 470s in this spec)

1x GTX 470 (add another 470 in a year or so's time when you want to get that little bit extra performance

an HX1000W PSU to power 2x GTX 470s in the future.

oh and a better case.

 

[Skippy1207]

OK, I quite like where this is going but for the sake of an extra £27, isn't it worth getting the 6 core AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T (3.20GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/)-special offer, (Especially with you getting the free stormrise game with it worth £30)? Also is the CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£169) worth paying an extra £60 for instead of the 1010W quiet 80 plus quad rail PSU + 120mm case fan (£109).

 

[Skippy1207]

Sorry to be a pain, but also does it matter that the GTX470 only has mini HDMI (I presume that's the best connection) with the monitor only having standard HDMI?

Also, a long way off but i seen people connecting 3 monitors up at once. How would you go about doing that? Do you then need 3 GPU's? Future reference only cos I just think it would take gaming to the next level. Can't do 3D cos am blind in one eye!

 

[Phoenix]

It would be worth getting the 1090t if it's within your budget to future proof the system, the Corsair HX1000 is a better quality power supply but it's not essential that you get one. Just to clear up the debate from earlier the HD6870 is better than both the GTX465 and GTX460 in gaming and performs similiarly to the GTX470 without making so much heat and noise (lol).

 

[Len]

what do you think about the 5870 phoenix

 

[Skippy1207]

Is that the 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable? Is that a lot better again because it is about £70 more than the HD6870? I could manage that if I stick with the 1090T and keep the 1010W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£109) instead of the Corsair HX1000 and that would bring the price to £1007 which i can manage

 

[Phoenix]

It's a good graphics card, just a shame it doesn't support Morphological anti-aliasing like the 6000 series :/
It's better than the GTX470 and HD6870 though (yes the 1GB version).

 

[Skippy1207]

ok then, what about this spec:

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T (3.20GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/) - (Special Offer)

Motherboard
ASUS® M4A89TD PRO/USB3 : DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)

Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
1010W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£109)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Miscellaneous
FREE STORMRISE Game (RRP: £29.99) with any AMD® Phenom™ II X6 Processor!

Price

£1,007.00

 

[Skippy1207]

Or the other choice I have, only cos I thought intel was a better processor but would be sacrificing the graphics card but still comes into budget is:

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost

Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD 6870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
1010W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£109)

Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Price

£987.00

 

[Len]

Phoenix what does that mean?

 

[Phoenix]

The 1st build will perform better and Len it's an alternative to anti-aliasing in game. When AA (x8 etc) is applied you lost quite a significant amount of frames per second but with this new form of it you only lose a few.

 

[Len]

so the 5870 will perform better but lose more frames then the 6870?

 

[Skippy1207]

So taking that into account then, is the 5870 worth the extra money than the 6870 and would you still choose the 5870 as the best option? And thanks Phoenix for your advice on which pc build!

 

[Phoenix]

The HD5870 will perform better but when comparing the amount of frames per second lost when activating high multipliers of anti-aliasing on the HD5870 against the amount of frames per second lost when activating the same multiplier levels of morphological anti-aliasing on the HD6870 more will be lost. You don't need to use x8 to play games though, it's just a nice extra.

 

[Skippy1207]

1. I don't mean to sound stupid but in an easier way, if I'm playin the latest pc game then I'm better sticking with the 5870?

2. Just to put a spanner in the works, for future reference, could I run 3 monitors simultaneously with that GPU or would you need 3 GPU's for that. Like the look of the surround thing. Not into 3D at all cos can't use it!