HD6870 or 560ti? and ssd advice needed

[tongue_of_colicab]

Hi guys, I'm thinking about upgrading my 4870 as it's not really cutting it anymore in new games. However I'm on a tight budget and really don't want to spend too much money. Especially since the rest of my system is 4 years old already.

I got: Q6600 and a asus p5w dh deluxe (intel 975x chipset, NO pci-e 2.0) gaming at 1680x1050.

I've quickly checked some BF3 benchmarks and the two cars are performing more or less the same. The 6870 is 1~5fps slower but also 50 euro's less expensive.

Now I've always had ati/amd cards with no real problems but it seems that these days amd is having more problems running games out of the box than nvidia has. Don't know if its just my perception but I can't really be botherd about finding fixes all the time anymore. I just don't have the time.

What would be my best choice? Something to keep in mind is that I also plan on buying a 60gb half decent ssd disk. Those seem to come at around 80 euro's and given my budget (or the lack of it) saving some money on the gpu with no real sarifice in performance might be better.

 

[Davros]

I dont see any problems with running games out of the box unless you count 2 games
rage (a lot of the probs were rage's/id's fault)
bf3 (it was a beta)
go for the cheaper unless physx is worth the 50 to you

Something to keep in mind is that I also plan on buying a 60gb half decent ssd disk

= Irrelevant

ps: paradigit has a 560 10euro cheaper than a 6870 €159

 

[Tahir2]

ps: paradigit has a 560 10euro cheaper than a 6870 €159

I think that t_o_c is looking for a 560ti rather than the vanilla 560. There is a 560ti GTX version as well it seems, MSI playing silly buggers with its naming convention it seems.

Anyway t_o_c I think you answered your own question if you want to save money for an SSD the cheaper card is the only option. Perhaps if you are that much against Radeon's right now then the 560 vanilla version is for you?

http://www.paradigit.nl/Paradigit/p...2D1GD5_1GB_PCI_E/N560GTX_M2D1GD5/default.aspx non TI

http://www.paradigit.nl/Paradigit/p...i_Hawk_1GB_PCI_E/N560GTX_TI_HAWK/default.aspx TI version

 

[Davros]

ahh, forgot about the t.i version (950 vs 810mhz) can the normal version be o/c'd to match ?
is it much faster ?

 

[almighty]

Neither have enough VRAM... 1.2Gb VRAM at bare minimum if you want the card to last you more then 6 moths..

 

[Tahir2]

Does the 1GB VRAM limit matter if you are gaming @ 1680x1050?

I seem pretty OK with my 5850 1GB @ 1680x1050..

 

[homerdog]

1GB is fine even at 1080p. >1GB helps for those massive 1600p displays..

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

ahh, forgot about the t.i version (950 vs 810mhz) can the normal version be o/c'd to match ?
is it much faster ?

Doesnt the ti have double the cuda cores?

I think that t_o_c is looking for a 560ti rather than the vanilla 560. There is a 560ti GTX version as well it seems, MSI playing silly buggers with its naming convention it seems.

Anyway t_o_c I think you answered your own question if you want to save money for an SSD the cheaper card is the only option. Perhaps if you are that much against Radeon's right now then the 560 vanilla version is for you?

http://www.paradigit.nl/Paradigit/p...2D1GD5_1GB_PCI_E/N560GTX_M2D1GD5/default.aspx non TI

http://www.paradigit.nl/Paradigit/p...i_Hawk_1GB_PCI_E/N560GTX_TI_HAWK/default.aspx TI version

The normal 560 is a fair bit slower I believe so its between the ti or the 6870. I can get the asus 560ti for 190 euro's so its either that model or the 6870.

I assume that on my old mainboard i'm not able to run a 6870 and a 4870 in crossfire?

I'm tending towards the 560ti because its the faster card but otoh the speed difference seems to be neglectable and I can probably sell my 4870 for ~40 euro's keeping the budget under 200 euro's for a gpu and ssd.

 

[Davros]

I assume that on my old mainboard i'm not able to run a 6870 and a 4870 in crossfire?

your not able to do that on any mainboard
you can run 2x6870 or 2x4870 but not 2x 560

Doesnt the ti have double the cuda cores?

no 560 = 336 560ti = 384

pps: theres a new 560 coming out
"GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores will be officially launched on November 29, and its recommended price is expected to be on par with that of the original GTX 560 Ti.

 

[Tahir2]

Yeah, Radeon 6870 + 4870 = no Crossfire.

I would pick your SSD as well and then see which card makes most sense to you. Both of those NVIDIA and AMD cards are pretty excellent buys, I have owned a Geforce 460 GTX 1GB for a short while and was hugely impressed with it. The Geforce 560 Ti will be even faster and if a newer version is coming out as Davros mentions - it means wait for that

That kind of configuration, 448 cores is almost at Geforce 480 GTX speeds!

 

[Davros]

more info about the 560 448 core
"The rest of the core includes 56 texture units, 40 ROP units and a 320-bit memory bus connected to 1.25GB of video buffer, just as is the case with the GeForce GTX 570."
Ia also uses the GF110 instead of a GF114 used in the normal 560ti
standard 560 has 1gb with a 256bit bus

ps: found this comment about the new card

I can only imagine how that marketing meeting went:

"How do we make up for the bad press we've received for rebadging the same cards with better looking names?"

"I know - we'll use the same name for a better card!"

*M-M-M-M-MONSTER face palm*

 

[almighty]

1Gb is not enough for 1080p, I constantly push over 1Gb usage...

 

[homerdog]

1GB is enough for a 560 or 560Ti class card. Anything above that (or if you're running SLI) and I'd agree with you, but in the vast majority of cases 1GB is enough.

Devs won't be making games that require (or even benefit much from) >1GB any time soon, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[almighty]

1GB is enough for a 560 or 560Ti class card. Anything above that (or if you're running SLI) and I'd agree with you, but in the vast majority of cases 1GB is enough.

Devs won't be making games that require (or even benefit much from) >1GB any time soon, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Games already benefit from over 1Gb of VRAM, Even lower end cards show benefits.

Metro 2033
Bad Company 2
STALKER Series
Witcher 2
GTA 4
Aliens vs Predator

There's loads of games that push over 1Gb of use.

Cards with over 1Gb will only produce the same average frame rates but they will show vastly superior minimum frame rates and will be a lot smoother.

My old ASUS 2Gb 6950 produced lower average frame rates then my crossfire 5850's in Crysis but the 6950 was so much smoother and never ever stuttered.

Do not under estimate the benefits of more VRAM

 

[homerdog]

Games already benefit from over 1Gb of VRAM, Even lower end cards show benefits.

Metro 2033
Bad Company 2
STALKER Series
Witcher 2
GTA 4
Aliens vs Predator

There's loads of games that push over 1Gb of use.

Cards with over 1Gb will only produce the same average frame rates but they will show vastly superior minimum frame rates and will be a lot smoother.

My old ASUS 2Gb 6950 produced lower average frame rates then my crossfire 5850's in Crysis but the 6950 was so much smoother and never ever stuttered.

Do not under estimate the benefits of more VRAM

Okay I yield with the qualification that my GPU has 896MB of GDDR3 and I've never had a problem with running out of memory. And I have played some of the games on your list. Actually most of them.

The stuttering you had on the CF 5800s may not have been lack of VRAM.....

The justification for high VRAM cards is to use high res texture mods IMO. And I don't think there's anything wrong with having lots of VRAM. Some of the Oblivion texture mods can really require lots of video memory.

 

[almighty]

Okay I yield with the qualification that my GPU has 896MB of GDDR3 and I've never had a problem with running out of memory. And I have played some of the games on your list. Actually most of them.

The stuttering you had on the CF 5800s may not have been lack of VRAM.....

The justification for high VRAM cards is to use high res texture mods IMO. And I don't think there's anything wrong with having lots of VRAM. Some of the Oblivion texture mods can really require lots of video memory.

I was VRAM bound on the 5850's, They had the pixel pushing power but just didn't have the memory to back it up.

I have Crysis completely bone stock very high with no texture mods eating over 1200Mb of VRAM with 4xmsaa @ 1080p

Aliens vs Predator over 1300Mb!! And don't even get my started on the STALKER games..

On modern games your card will become pixel bound way before it's memory becomes an issue.

 

[homerdog]

On modern games your card will become pixel bound way before it's memory becomes an issue.

This is true. And I also think it's true of a 560 level card. If you have twin 560s (like that pointless card that EVGA just released) then certainly you could use more than 1GB. But for a single card I don't see much benefit.

 

[swaaye]

I have a unlocked 2GB 6950 and a MSI Twin Frozr II OC 560 Ti. They are pretty hard to tell apart in practice from a performance perspective. The GeForce works better with some games though, like Rage. If it had 2GB, I think I would call it the better card because of NV's drivers.

I've seen 1GB VRAM become an issue in a few situations but it's rare. Dead Space with forced SSAA multiplies RAM usage. RAGE with 2560x1440 + MSAA downscaling.

 

[homerdog]

I have a unlocked 2GB 6950 and a MSI Twin Frozr II OC 560 Ti. They are pretty hard to tell apart in practice from a performance perspective. The GeForce works better with some games though, like Rage. If it had 2GB, I think I would call it the better card because of NV's drivers.

Yeah, given the price parity at every performance level between NV and AMD, I'd definitely go with NV right now. AMD needs to step it up in the dev relations department. It's funny that my GTX260 will actually provide a better experience in Rage than a damn 6970.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I will buy the HD6890. The 560ti is a bit faster but I decided that its not worth a extra 50 euro's just for a couple of fps more. That new 560ti sounds interresting but I can only afford that one if the shop I have my part time job at sells it and they probably wont given the rather crappy assortment of gpu's.

Does anybody knows how the fan noise from the 6890 is? I will be getting the MSI one with the radial fan. I tried looking up some reviews but all I could find is that under load it doesnt go much above 30% fanspeed but nothing about noise apart that radial fans are more noisy than axial fans...

My current card is fairly loud, especially when gaming so I'd like something that doesnt make as much noise (though I probably need to clean the fan, 77c at idle can't be good...)