Best WoW Cataclysm video card

[hyetech]

Hey all. My price range is around $350. I'm running a 30" LG monitor at 2560x1600, using 6GB of Corsair Dominator RAM with a 920 on an EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI LGA 1366 X58 Intel MB. It's powered by a CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W PSU. My current video card is a BFG Tech BFGEGTX275896OCE GeForce GTX 275 896MB. I'm using XP Pro 32bit. Here's what I want to do. I want to play WoW at max resolution, max settings with good minimum FPS and the best picture quality. So what should I do??! I was looking at the GTX 570 here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593

Then I started reading other reviews (from like HardOCP), and they're saying the 6970 is better!! So now I don't know what to believe. I know I currently get around 30~40 fps in Stormwind and it drops while running around. I haven't even touched the new content yet and don't really want to if I'm going to be playing at that frame rate. So what do you guys think?

 

[tigrc]

I think the GTX 570 is better than 6970. 6970 seems to be better when you crossfire it vs. 570 SLi, but not by that much. Your motherboard seems to have SLi option only, so go for the 570 and SLi it later.

 

[Maziar]

Actually no,6970 performs better in resolutions like 2560x1600 in most games
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818-22.html
"As for the Radeon HD 6970, it should be selling for $20 more than a GTX 570. Based on its display outputs alone, that makes AMD’s card worth the Andrew Jackson to me, personally. Otherwise, the two cards trade blows, with the GTX 570 faring better at 1680x1050 as AMD’s Radeon HD 6970 retains more of its performance at 2560x1600."

 

[hyetech]

Oh and I almost forgot! I'd like to get a new sound card. I get crackling in my speakers and I'm pretty sure its from the onboard sound. I do have an old Sound Blaster card but it's probably time to upgrade that. Yeah, Toms says the ATI card will perform better at the resolution I want but I still don't know. I can still go either way! Probably which ever card makes WoW look the best under my circumstances.

 

[tigrc]

You really like that comment, don't you? No offence You are right, 6970 for 2560x1600, 570 for lower resolutions (I guess it's because GTX 570 has 750MB less RAM).

 

[g00fysmiley]

its iffy... WoW tends to prefer nvidia cards,... but ati/amd does better at the resolution you want... I'd probably call it a wash judging by how much better nvidia does in blizzard titles vs how much better ati is at 2560x1600

ultimatly i'd say go with the 6970 just due to having more memory and since they scale very well in crossfire, you mentioned sli on your board, but your mobo does sli and crossfire so you could crossfire the 6970 down the road should you desire

 

[beltzy]

First off it's important to realize that Blizzard designs games to run on a full spectrum of machines, including very low end. So even with settings cranked up Blizz games don't require a TON of horsepower to get solid framerates. Either of these cards is overkill for WoW, even if you set everything at Ultra. There are tradeoffs to be had with the two:

- Power consumption is roughly the same for the 2 cards
- On average the 5970 performs a bit better than the 570 (about as much as you'd expect for the $30 extra)
- The 570 is less noisy (though the 5970 is pretty quiet as well)
- 5970 has 2GB of memory vs 1.25GB on the 570, which helps at 2500x1600

Keep in mind that the scaling on 6970/6950 looks a bit better than the 570 (at least right now). If you're thinking about potentially getting a 2nd card I'd go with 6970. Let us know what you decide on and how it works out!

 

[hyetech]

Now I'm leaning more towards an ATI 6970!! I doubt I'm going to upgrade my video card again until Diablo 3 comes out. There aren't any other games I've seen that I'll want to play on the PC till then. I do play L4D 1&2 from time to time but rarely. I'm still not sure which to go with. I wish there more in depth reviews for how these cards are playing in WoW now. I did see Toms and I appreciate it and wish there more!! You may say WoW doesn't tax the system but I beg to differ. Ever since around Burning Crusade that hasn't been the case. So this upgrade is pretty important to me. I just wonder if I'm missing out on more eye candy since I'm still running XP with DirectX 9.0c. Also if you guys can help with getting a new sound card I'd appreciate it!!

 

[g00fysmiley]

yes. yes you are, wow uses dx11 and it does add alot while improving performance

if you can i'd say go win 7 64 bit or vista 64 .. prefrably win 7 64

then you cna enable with a simple script

/console -d3d11

the water effects are really nice

 

[Ev1lryu]

the 6970 should have support for audio over HDMI, so you might want to explore that too

 

[dirtmountain]

Jeez guys, at least give him the Tom's Hardware WoW: Cataclysm link.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793.html

 

[hyetech]

My speakers support toslink optical and thanks, I've seen that review. Doesn't have the 570 or 6970 on it. I'm mostly looking for a single card configuration if I haven't said so already. If anybody has link to a review with either of these cards for Cataclysm let me know please!

 

[sowexly]

The 570 is really a cheaper 480, so you could compare the results there.

Nvidia cards do better in WoW, and single GPUs are always better because WoW doesn't utilize the extra GPUs

 

[Avro Arrow]

It won't matter much. WoW depends more on internet speed than video card performance. I don't think you'll notice much of a difference on anything stronger than a GTS 250.

 

[hyetech]

Nice trolling Avro but I believe my internet is fine. So what brand are people buying these days?

 

[Maziar]

For ATI,brands like Sapphire,HIS,XFX,ASUS are good and for Nvidia,EVGA,XFX,ASUS,MSI Etc. are good

 

[WoWpro]

Hey, I noticed your running windows XP Professional 32 bit with 6 gigabytes of RAM. Did you know that XP 32 bit only supports up to 4 gigabytes of memory, and in my opinion i would upgrade to windows 7 professional 64 bit because direct X 11 wont work very good with the XP format and your computer can take advantage of the full 6 gigs.(Windows 7 home premium does not play old programs that are not formated for windows 7 so it would be in your best interest to get professional or higher)