Tidgy

think its time for new graphics card.

looking at this one

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280m...r-1540mhz-plus

im pretty much settled on a gtx570 (price vs performance they seem to be about best at the min), but with there being so many different versions of the same card im wondering what folks think of that one and any other similar cards that might be worth looking at.

Tidgy

and just to add a bit of meths to the debate,


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...14&subcat=1812

mmmmmmmmm

CREWJ

I'd probably go for that one or the Gainward version since the cooler is brilliant on it.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Its a good card mate, worth the money, although I do wonder what you can buy used for that price and SLI them I must admit.

ENSURE your PSU is up to the job though, its a common pitfall.

Tidgy

I wanna stay away from SLI, simply becasue i dont like loosing so much performance on one of the cards, worst case i can wait a bit and get a second one of these then sli them hehe

question now is the extra £60 for the 580 worth it over the 570?

PSU should be fine (i hope lol), its 600w im currently pulling 190peak from a pcs+ 4890, so its only upping it by 54 (580 pulls 244 peak)

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Thats why i went with ATI, they scale 100% in most cases.

I would get the 580 for sure mate for that much extra and its also got a little more ram that will help you should you want to run larger resolutions.

Sounds like you have it all tied up then, hope it all goes together and works well for you.

Tidgy

ah righto, never knew that, might be worth having a nosey at twins then, brb. lol


cheers chap, current spec is

Asus p6t SE motherboard
I7 920
6gb ddr3 corsair xms3 ram
OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU
powercolor 4890HD PCS+

when i built it i got the graphcis card cheap, £50 in fact lol, was about 18months ago. the GC was always just a stopgap till i decided what i wanted to get. So its always been the weak part of the system so to speak.

Tidgy

grrr, now you;ve gone and done it, lol

two of these,

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...dmi-2x-mini-dp

comes in similar price, and benchmarks about 20% better.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...d%5B4835%5D=on


so next question is A will it fit in the case, B have i got the power capabilities, C how stable are twins vs single and D how hard is it to setup crossfire?

i believe this is my MB,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-1366-P6...1560097&sr=8-1

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Your motherboard support only ATi Crossfire,i've same motherboard like you have,this motherboard doesn't support nVidia SLi(is possible only via BIOS hack)

6870 is about the 5-10% slower than older 5870(great card,but still expensive),but uses less power,in Unigine heavy tesselation is actually lot faster than older 5870

For similar money you can have too HD6950 like 1GB version or 2GB,prices ranging from £160-£200

I've tried few months ago nVidia GTX570,but this card run too hot,plus i wasn't too very impressed with the power consumption

What case you have?


Jura

Tidgy

right then,

2x http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...dmi-2x-mini-dp

but then additional

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...s-12v-quiet-fa


which takes it up to £366 mmmm

for £60 less the 580 seems like it might be a better option again, ahhhhhhhhhhh lol

Tidgy

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...e-sata-w-o-psu

zat one

jura11

iTrader: (7)

At this i would go with modular PSU,better cable management and you will end with cleaner case

ATi cards are mine favourite and i'm using only those cards in my builds


Jura


I think this case can take two cards without the problem


Jura

Tidgy

will a 750w have the bollocks to run twin cards without issue?

jura11

iTrader: (7)

This can help




http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1445/6/

Not sure what extra(HDD,DVD,Fans etc) you are running

Jura

Tidgy

HD - 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda

Fans wise there a 120mm in the side of the case and i think thats about it.

So then lets go back a stage, £350 budget, what do you reckon?

Tidgy

just to throw summit else out there

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1752

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Two 6870 should be enough for you there,but GTX570 have good review there against the one 6870,but price for SLi GTX 570 is above your budget and mainly your MB doesn't support SLi.

Just have look on few tests

http://www.hwcompare.com/9023/geforc...adeon-hd-6870/

http://www.guruht.com/2010/12/hd-697...s-hd-5870.html


With ATi and your MB you will be OK,because you can buy now just one 6870/6950 and if will be not enough for your needs,you can easily upgrade to second one

Decision is yours there and from mine experience with ATi,i would go with ATi


Jura

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Yes this is great option too there


Jura

Tidgy

mmmmm,

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...d%5B4829%5D=on

so basicly,

this one

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-x...-dvi-i-dvi-hdm

or this one (prob go oc one though for BF3 saves me buying it lol)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1752

over this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...14&subcat=1812

Tidgy

think i will go that route unless someone comes up with a bloomin good reason not too lol

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

None from me, its a great GPU.

judgejules

Just a 2p chip in, if you are going to be doing "arty stuff(tm)" on there, Id lean towards nvidia just because of cuda

Tidgy

its for gaming, cheers though

judgejules

Ahhh cool, rock and roll then

andys

Well Kepler is just around the corner, I would wait and see how the 680 performs vs price.

Tidgy

gonna be mega bucks i bet, also the first ones will have worse benchmarks than the existing 580/590.


im kinda swinging back to 580 again, the bench marks seem to come out better.

yes i know, im swinging in the wind lol

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

The other reason to wait for the new chipsets to be released is the likely affect it'll have on the older cards. Although if you are always waiting for the next big thing you'll never end up buying a card

Tidgy

lol, yeah, i said that 15 months ago and still not got it lol

a couple fo games i;ve had to tweek the settings back a touch so thinks its time now.

Tidgy

just had this pointed out to me on overclockers

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3148-21.html

due out in next couple of weeks, looks to come up above 6970. im not planning to buy till end of the month so shall keep an eye on that for when i do and see what the crack is then.

Tidgy

haha, i;ve managed to pin down what im gonna get i think.

for the price difference the 580 isn;t that great compared to the 570, £50 differnce for 5 extra fps doesn;t seem good value. after doing some digging i came across this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/25gb-...4mhz-480-cores

its about £10 more than the initial twin fozer i found, but double the memory and not far off the 580 performance for £40 less.