Shogun 2 - 6990 v GTX580

[liamnic2]

hey guys

getting a gaming PC for Shogun 2 and older total war games, and Theatre of war, men of war etc...

I cant chose between the 580 and the 6990 since they are both the best cards for total war.

Here are 2 reviews on performance on the two cards, I dont get it how the 580 does a little better then it suddenly gets crap.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...cs-card-launch-review-total-war-shogun-2.html

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...-graphics-card-review-total-war-shogun-2.html


I can extend the budget to get 6990.

I also want to know if what card, YOU, think is better for older games and is the most, USER FRIENDLY.

Forgot to add, shogun 2 runs verrrrryyyy slow with SLI, I dont know if crossfire is the same, but is the 6990 a dual core GPU?
Because I dont know If older games, ie medieval , will run better with just a single core card.

Also, if anyone plays shogun 2 with the 6990, it would be nice to know its performance.

 

[JSG10]

Personally I'd go for the 580.
I run a 470 and it easily runs Shogun 2 on max settings
I also think the 580 is more user friendly and the control panel is easy to use. Not had much experience with CCC but from what I've heard it can be pain!

 

[BAD SANTA]

The 6990 will blow a 580 out of the water in regards to performance purely because it is a multi gpu, they will both run Showgun 2 fine but the 6990 will run other games better than the 580 due to it's xfire gpu's.

If you decide to go for the 580 then you could always get another one later on and then that would out perform the 6990 so basically the choice is yours but they are both great cards.

 

[LinearHD]

Or you could get two 6950's... cheaper than both the 6990 and GTX 580, and almost on par with the 6990, while also demolishing the performance of the 580

 

[liamnic2]

ok

I cant go SLI though becuase shogun 2 runs worser with it on

Can someone please tell me though how in the reviews above, the 580 actually does better than the 6990 but then drops in performance.

I noticed that the 580 performed better than the 6990 when anisotropic filtering was not on, I think, what is it, does it matter.

Also, JSG10, when you play in max settings can you tell, if you can, how many fps you get ?, and what unit sizes you play with ?, I want to play with large units, atleast high anyway.

Right now I think I am aiming more towards the 580.

I dont think future proofing is a massive objective to me when it comes to graphics, the next total war game, hopefully, shouldnt be a massive step from SH2. I just dont want to have any problems playing older games like MD2, battle for middle earth 2 etc..

 

[R0B_]

Having got a HD 6990 and using the free voucher that comes with the card to play Shogun 2, I can tell you it handles the game fine! I think that you'd get more power out of the 6990 than one 580, but the 590 is the best card out there at the moment (for power)... If you are playing on one screen that's 1080p, go with the cheaper 580 and it will be fine. If you are going to get higher resolution screen then get the 6990 or 590. (Before anyone moans at me, I use my 6990 for more than gaming and the stream processing power for non-graphical purposes is awesome! Hence why I'm getting a second 6990 on Wednesday!)

Also remember that the 6990 and 590 are both dual GPU cards and though very powerful, are very noisy... (I play with headphones on, so it's ok)...

 

[liamnic2]

Well I am only going for one screen. Im going to have a challenge when I get this PC, a HAF X case, monitor, keyboard, speakers, all on this tiny table. The fact that my house is hotter than the sun and my dog is casting does not help at all lol

 

[R0B_]

Go with a single GPU card... trust me... The 6990 is huge, hot, noisy, needs good cool air (my place is cold because of the sheer evil that is my life, lol)... The 6990 is only going to help if you are like me and want 3 x 27'' 1080p monitors at the same time.

I often get asked why I have 3 monitors set up and my answer is because I can't fit any more on my desk...

 

[JSG10]

Hey Liam.
Can't tell you what fps I get as I've never checked but I can say that no matter how many units are on the screen, no matter the zoom, it plays flawlessly on my 470 without any stutter at all and on max settings so a 580 should blow it away as it should to pretty much every game out there!
It really is a personal choice though.
If you're going for multiple monitors I'd go for a high end AMD Eyefinity setup
I like the Physx capabilities of the Nvidia cards and they're also great for 3D gaming if thats something that might interest you. Also they have CUDA cores which help greatly for various aspects of photo and video editing and encoding.

PS: Rob, could you please change your signature, this is a family forum after all and quite frankly I'm spending far too much time staring at it mesmorised! ;D

 

[R0B_]

Lol... No problems

 

[liamnic2]

Ok I think the 580 has won this one.

This should be what Im getting in a few months :

Case

COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU

Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard

ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM)

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

1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk

120GB OCZ VERTEX 3 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk

640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply

CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£170)
Processor Cooling

COOLIT ECO C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£99)
Thermal Paste

ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities

ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£19)
Keyboard & Mouse

LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£19)
Speakers

LOGITECH Z323 2.1 SPEAKERS - 30W RMS with 360 Degree Sound (£45)
Surge Protection

6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector + Auto Power Off Function (£19)
Warranty

3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Operating System

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

I am planning to put the cpu down to stock speed after a year and a half.

Gigidy Goo

 

[JSG10]

A few months? You'll be revising that spec again when that time comes then! They'll be newer, bigger and better components out by then, tis the way of the PC world :S
That spec looks brilliant though and at this present time pretty much everything I would want from a rig!

 

[R0B_]

Do you think you'd need more than 1200W for that?

 

[liamnic2]

This spec will play anygame I like on max, or atleast ultra. Plus it will be cheaper in a few months. The only parts I would revise is the cooling and cpu.

 

[jayjay]

in a few months that gpu will be a 680gtx and we will be all very jealous

 

[liamnic2]

Yes but it will probably dearer than the last card

Besides a 580 can play all the games I need on max

I will only turn to a 680 if the price is good and its not faulty on any of the games I play, ie GTX590 can only get 20fps on shogun 2