Which high end GPU to get?

Hey guys,

Comparing GPUs at the moment, thinking of which one(s) to get.

GTX480

HD5870 (About $200 cheaper than if I went with 480)

HD5850 Crossfire (About $100 more than the 480)

Ill be getting a completely new computer, so size, power consumption etc wont really matter. I will be getting a CF mobo as well.

Kind of just stuck between what would really be worth my money.

hd 5970

hd 5970

ionusX

5870...then later on you cf

Problem with that is that I dont think it will fit into the case I'm getting (HAF 922) and that I would have to get a larger PSU which would increase the cost a bit much for me.Iantheone

The 5970 will fit in your HAF 922. And if you're worried about the power req's of the 5970, then the same would go for the GTX 480. They both use the same amount of power.

What is your PSU? If it's at least a decent 650w, then you will be fine for both the 5970 and GTX 480. If not, then look to getting the 5870, or even one of the 6800 series cards when they come out sometime this year.

Wait till november and get the 6870!

[QUOTE="Iantheone"]Problem with that is that I dont think it will fit into the case I'm getting (HAF 922) and that I would have to get a larger PSU which would increase the cost a bit much for me.ravenguard90

The 5970 will fit in your HAF 922. And if you're worried about the power req's of the 5970, then the same would go for the GTX 480. They both use the same amount of power.

What is your PSU? If it's at least a decent 650w, then you will be fine for both the 5970 and GTX 480. If not, then look to getting the 5870, or even one of the 6800 series cards when they come out sometime this year.

I thought the 5970 needed something like a 750 minimum. Guess not, just looked at the minimum requirements.

This was the PSU i was looking at getting. If that is good enough and if I do end up having enough money then Ill try to get it. ($200 or so more than the 480).

Wait till november and get the 6870!

Espada12

gtx480, sli them in the future

That power supply is... better, compared to some bad ones I've seen in the past. It's not the best though. What I meant by a decent 650w was something from Antec, Corsair, Silverstone, XFX, Seasonic, etc. And stay away from Coolermaster's GX series; voltage regulation is crap.

That power supply is... better, compared to some bad ones I've seen in the past. It's not the best though. What I meant by a decent 650w was something from Antec, Corsair, Silverstone, XFX, Seasonic, etc. And stay away from Coolermaster's GX series; voltage regulation is crap.

ravenguard90

I haven't bought anything yet so its all good. How about this? Pushes the very limits of what I can afford though.

Also, could you please tell me what I should really be looking for in a PSU? Its always confused me...

Here, get this one. That should hold you over for quite a long time, as well as it being cheaper too. It may not have the modular capabilities like the EVO 650w, but if your budget is being compromised because of it, then this will work just as well.

What you usually want to look for in PSU's are stable voltage outputs on each rail (look at reviews), 80plus certification or above, and Active PFC. Both Corsair and Thermaltake make very good power supplies, save for the TR2 series, so I'm sure either power supply will work fine for you.

Yep, pretty much. Although don't try to do any extreme overclocking on that build; the 650w may not be able to handle the extra load. With the 5970, of course.

Yep, pretty much. Although don't try to do any extreme overclocking on that build; the 650w may not be able to handle the extra load. With the 5970, of course.

ravenguard90

GTX480 is THE best GPU out there, only downside is that its very hot and uses a lot of juice!

wait for 6870, but the 5870 prices are coming down and its a great card also.

Get a 480 and SLI that baby. SLI is MUCH better than Crossfire thanks to Nvidia's drivers. It might run hoter but it comes with the performance.

If you want only 1 card the GTX 480 is the way to go.

Could also go with the GTX 470 which is cheaper and faster than the 5870.

Hey guys,

Comparing GPUs at the moment, thinking of which one(s) to get.

GTX480

HD5870 (About $200 cheaper than if I went with 480)

HD5850 Crossfire (About $100 more than the 480)

Ill be getting a completely new computer, so size, power consumption etc wont really matter. I will be getting a CF mobo as well.

Kind of just stuck between what would really be worth my money.

Iantheone

in all honesty if you want to get a5870 or gtx 480 then go ahead but i think you should wait 4 the 6900 series cards to come out and see what performance they give, i have two 4850's in crossfire and im wiling to wait its all up to you dude.

6800*

Like I said before I need to replace the computer Ive sold. Im that sad that I cant be without my games for a few months. Also since I've decided on the 5970 it will last me for a very long time. At least another 2 gens im thinking. Iantheone

[QUOTE="Iantheone"]Like I said before I need to replace the computer Ive sold. Im that sad that I cant be without my games for a few months. Also since I've decided on the 5970 it will last me for a very long time. At least another 2 gens im thinking. tequilasunriser

do not get a 480, not because they're not good but because you can't SLI them later. freesafety13

usually when the performance is similar between the top 2 cards on the market, I tend to go with the card which has more features and to me that's been Nvidia with having PhysX onboard.

[QUOTE="freesafety13"] do not get a 480, not because they're not good but because you can't SLI them later. abuabed

Have you purchased the motherboard yet? Because it is true that SLI scaling is equal to or better than Crossfire scaling.

i was in this exact situation with selling my xps m1730 but in the end i decided to put more money into the cpu mobo etc. (went i7 instead of amd) and bought a 1 gig gtx 460 so that i can save up for the high end ati 6 series (and if they dont turn out great the price will drop on all hd 5 series cards), have to say though the gtx 460 is a pretty amazing card

SLI GTX 480 is the best dual GPU solution currently.

[QUOTE="abuabed"][QUOTE="freesafety13"] do not get a 480, not because they're not good but because you can't SLI them later. Iantheone

Id say wait until the hd6 series launches, It is literally right around the corner! If you must go multi-gpu setup, go SLI... Crossfire is no where near as good at scaling as SLI. especially compared to SLI gtx 460s. But regardless of the multi-gpu setup, a single powerful card is more stable, and more widely supported!

I think a HD5870 is the best choice

Have you purchased the motherboard yet? Because it is true that SLI scaling is equal to or better than Crossfire scaling.

ravenguard90

SLI GTX 460 are really really good...and cheaper than most of those.Human-after-all

I think so too, but the op may not like.

Customer loyalty is pointless and costly, imo. Sticking with one company, regardless if they are providing the most or not in the market, is a really unwise thing to do.

Anyways, if you really do wish to stick with AMD/ATI, then wait. Right now, the ATI's lineup are very powerful, but are lacking in certain areas. You might as well wait until the 6800 series comes out. Even if you don't need the extra performance they will probably give, you'll still benefit through lower prices when they are released.

Customer loyalty is pointless and costly, imo. Sticking with one company, regardless if they are providing the most or not in the market, is a really unwise thing to do.

Anyways, if you really do wish to stick with AMD/ATI, then wait. Right now, the ATI's lineup are very powerful, but are lacking in certain areas. You might as well wait until the 6800 series comes out. Even if you don't need the extra performance they will probably give, you'll still benefit through lower prices when they are released.

ravenguard90

[QUOTE="ravenguard90"]

Customer loyalty is pointless and costly, imo. Sticking with one company, regardless if they are providing the most or not in the market, is a really unwise thing to do.

Anyways, if you really do wish to stick with AMD/ATI, then wait. Right now, the ATI's lineup are very powerful, but are lacking in certain areas. You might as well wait until the 6800 series comes out. Even if you don't need the extra performance they will probably give, you'll still benefit through lower prices when they are released.

Iantheone

you never know it very well could be all we do know is that the 6870 series will be more powerful than the 5870 which is very powerful as it is ( was there any dual card like the 5970 last gen so we could compare that to the 5870), btw the deciding factor of me not getting the 5970 was that it is actually two gpu's (clocked as two 5850's) in one card which means you are getting all the little problems of having dual cards

>you never know it very well could be all we do know is that the 6870 series will be more powerful than the 5870 which is very powerful as it is ( was there any dual card like the 5970 last gen so we could compare that to the 5870), btw the deciding factor of me not getting the 5970 was that it is actually two gpu's (clocked as two 5850's) in one card which means you are getting all the little problems of having dual cardsicyseanfitz

Well the last dual card was the GTX295 and that performs near on par with the GTX480. So going by that, the 5970 will be as fast as the next gens top of the range cards. So getting one will last me for at least another 2 gens of high end gaming. From what I understand the 5970 is a 5870 and a 5850? Thats why it had (Im assuming they have fixed it by now) that micro stuttering because of the differences in the core clocks between the 2 GPUs.Iantheone

Actually, microstuttering still exists, and I doubt they're going to fix it anytime soon. The reason it exists is because of the delay caused by transferring the workload from GPU to GPU. For instance, when running a game, it's basically a 2-step pattern to run the framerates. Ie. Frame 1 is rendered by GPU 1, then frame 2 is rendered by GPU 2. As long as that work pattern is not changed (and it hasn't), microstuttering will still exist in multi-GPU cards.

The GTX 480 may be the equivalent of the GTX 295 in terms of framerate performance, but it doesn't suffer from the microstuttering issue that the GTX 295 is plagued by. That is why it is wise to get a single-GPU setup when you can, hence why we are recommending everyone to wait until the 6800 series is released.

Well, considering your situation, I would then consider what is the best you can get with the current offerings that the current market has. However, I strongly recommend you look at both sides of the competition. ATI may have the strongest card when it comes to framerate-crunching performance, but it suffers severely when you put it in a DX11 environment that has tesselation play a heavy role in its rendering compared to the competition.

That's the exact reason why I'm telling you to wait if you're getting an ATI card, or get the GTX 480. It may be a bit more expensive, but at least it won't be crippled when DX11 tesselation becomes more heavily used in future games. You're getting a card to last you for a while, right? Then look to the card that gives the best all-round performance, both in the current DX9/DX10 environments, and the newer DX11 environments. This is pretty much what you're getting from the each competitor:

5870: Great DX9/DX10 performance, weak DX11 performance

GTX 480: Great DX9/DX10 performance, extremely good DX11 performance (by today's standards, that is).

5970: Extremely good DX9/DX10 performance, extremely good DX11 performance (with microstuttering though, as full DX11 rendering tends to bring every card in the market below 40fps. So, not only is it stuttering when rendering DX11 tesselation, it is equal to the cheaper GTX 480 in this area).

If you were to go for the 5870, then I will go ahead and recommend it as well as it is the best performing card in that price bracket (now between 300-400USD). However, if you are looking at the 5970, then you must understand the deficiencies that it has against the competition, and to decide if you are willing to pay the extra money despite those faults.

In the long run, yes it is. Considering an OC'ed 5970 is equal to two 5870's, yet it just keeps up with one GTX 480 in DX11, I personally would go with the GTX 480 SLI route if you choose to pick any of the cards right now. I was in the same situation as you pretty much, where I was deciding: HD 5970 or GTX 480? As you can see, I chose the GTX 480, particularly because 1) it was cheaper than the 5970, 2) it can handle anything you throw at it well, both in DX9/10 and DX11, and 3) SLI scaling is incredible. Heat won't be a problem for you nor the power req's, as a 650w and a HAF 922 would more than suffice for remedying those issues.

In any case, the choice is yours. Be sure to come back and let us know which you've picked.