So how fareth the battle between ATI and nVidia these days?

G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
A few years back when I used to PC game (and AGP slot GFX cards still existed), nVidia was the daddy of GFX card makers. Nowadays from what I've gathered times have changed, and nVidia and ATI seem closer then ever.

So which company, in the opinion of the good people of PCS forums, is making the better cards today? I know at this exact current moment nVidia has their latest cards (the 570 and 580) out, with the ATI ones due to be released on December 13th (the 6950 and 6970).

I know it's hard to answer this question properly until the 13th, but which company do you guys think is the best? Keeping in mind most recent and older cards.
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
a lot of it is down to personal preference.

Its no secret i prefer Nvidia, better quality hardware and software.

The budget option is still AMD.
 
G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
How are the 570 and 580 performing at the minute? Have they improved on nVidia's old "flaws" (power consumption, excess heat & noise)?

I'm really curious to see how the 6970 will perform. Apparently it's rumoured to have the same capabilities of the 5970, but works more efficiently & will be cheaper (which I'm not gonna lie, sounds great).
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
Goosey_J said:
How are the 570 and 580 performing at the minute? Have they improved on nVidia's old "flaws" (power consumption, excess heat & noise)?

I'm really curious to see how the 6970 will perform. Apparently it's rumoured to have the same capabilities of the 5970, but works more efficiently & will be cheaper (which I'm not gonna lie, sounds great).
Click to expand...

Orly?

http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/item/21184-radeon-hd-6970-slower-than-gtx-580-in-3dmark-2011

We have compared the 3Dmark data we acquired from a source with our own that we got on a similar configuration. In 3Dmark 2011 Radeon HD 6970 scores slightly lower than 8000 at entry settings while the GTX 580 scores 8700 in that same test. The runner up, GTX 570, scores slightly above 8000 while the GTX 480 is slightly below 8000.

At performance settings Radeon HD 6970 a.k.a. Cayman XT scores around 5300 while the GTX 580 scores are just tad below 6000 and the GTX 570 loses by an inch with 5250 score. GTX 480 scores almost identical to the GTX 570, its 5250 points are again slightly lower than HD 6970.

In more extreme conditions Radeon HD 6970 scores 1800 while the GTX 580 scores 1950. Radeon HD 6970 again wins against GTX 570 and GTX 480 who scored 1680.
Click to expand...
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
No doubt it will be a dual gpu effort like the 5970, most people are presuming it will be called the 6990.
 
G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
Gorman said:
No doubt it will be a dual gpu effort like the 5970, most people are presuming it will be called the 6990.
Click to expand...

Wow, Radeon are behind. I did a little search and you were right, it will be the 6990 codenae "Antilles", but that's not going to be about January next year. Isn't there a planned upgrade on the 580 due out that same time?
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
Im not sure, there is talk of a dual gpu Nvidia card, but i hope they dont just to knock the 5970 off the top spot. Generally dual gpu cards are nothing but trouble.
 
G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
Gorman said:
Im not sure, there is talk of a dual gpu Nvidia card, but i hope they dont just to knock the 5970 off the top spot. Generally dual gpu cards are nothing but trouble.
Click to expand...

Would you mind explaining why? My knowledge of GFX card is pretty much limited to "More big numbers = better".
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
Dual gpu cards are basically two cards in one, so you get all the inherant problems of SLI / Crossfire which are:

Driver issues
Micro stuttering issues
Game compatability issues
Performance issues in some setups

etc etc

looking back through all the dual gpu cards released in the last 5 years there isnt one i would buy and have the confidence in that i would with a solid single gpu card.
 
G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
Gorman said:
Dual gpu cards are basically two cards in one, so you get all the inherant problems of SLI / Crossfire which are:

Driver issues
Micro stuttering issues
Game compatability issues
Performance issues in some setups

etc etc

looking back through all the dual gpu cards released in the last 5 years there isnt one i would buy and have the confidence in that i would with a solid single gpu card.
Click to expand...

So you wouldn't recommend CrossifreX? Cause that was kind of the route I was planning on going.
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
For me, personally i would go for the highest rated single gpu card i could afford. I would only consider crossfire / SLI as an upgrade path.
 
G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
So I guess in relation to the original point nVidia really is king. If the 580 is a single GPU card, and Radeon's supposed "answer" to it is a dual GPU one, then I guess technically nVidia have the best single GPU card on the market, and probably for the forseeable future as well.
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
For the moment thats fair comment, we need to see the new releases in the wild though and some real world evaluations come in.
 
G

Goosey_J

Silver Level Poster
Well thank you for the clarification Gorman, this has been a most enlightening discussion. I will revive this when the 6970 comes out and see what it's saying.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
I read a massive review that compared the 5970 with teh 580. The 580 won more benchmarks than the 5970. (Newer benchmarks too) it lost out on some older benchmarks. Point is, the single GPU has finally brought down the 5970
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top