Gtx 560ti or 6850 or 6870?

[amuffin]

I currently have enough money to get any one of these cards. Which one would be the best? I generally like nvidia better, but the radeon series seems like a good bang for the buck.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Oh, so doubling the actual date CF/SLI have been out is "semantics" to you... okay, fine. But who the hell cares what was before? That was then, this is now. Now is the fact that AMD cards often beat nVidia for the same price and less power consumption. Lol, you remind me of this guy on Tom's who keeps saying that Macs are great because they used to have better hardware than Wintel (can't remember such a time, though) - you both are stuck in the past.

And for Emperor's sake, it's lose, not loose. I'm sick of seeing that mistake all over the place. To lose is a verb; loose is an adjective and means "not fixed, shaky". I'm so glad English isn't my mother tongue and my English teacher hammered the most common mistakes (lose-loose, affect-effect) into my head... sorry for the rant, but spellcheckers and common sense are available world-wide nowadays.

So are calenders! [:mousemonkey]

 

[FlintIronStagg]

In the spirit of getting this thread back on track, OP asked which is the better card. That would be the 560ti. Happy gaming

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

So are calenders! [:mousemonkey]

Sorry for being the Grammar Nazi again, but... it's actually calendars And yes, you have a point.

In the spirit of getting this thread back on track, OP asked which is the better card. That would be the 560ti. Happy gaming

We've figured that out already.

 

[eyefinity]

Greaaat... so you took the cheapest cards; $48 is 50% to you instead of 33% and you again disregarded OC potential of 560 Ti. No, I'd buy a 560 Ti or a 6950 over the 6870 any day... screw Batman and Dirt 3, I don't like either

Yes you do understand what "bang for buck" means right?

Also, most 6950's overclock by 15%+ without touching voltages (They are just 6970's without some shaders after all). Most 560 Ti's only do the same 15%.

http://techgage.com/article/amd_hd_6950_1gb_vs_nvidia_gtx_560_ti_overclocking/4 shows how far ahead an OC'd 6950 is vs an OC'd 560 Ti.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Sorry for being the Grammar Nazi again, but... it's actually calendars

I've got the flu at the moment so sue me! But if you like I could always pull up some your past mistakes, like this one for instance :-

I don't know what temps are safe for AMD, but for nVidia max temps are 100C, so my GTX 560 Ti's max 72C don't trouble me. I advise against Crossire: you have a great card and it should max out pretty much everything for now... so unless you have some games you're desperately trying to max out and it doesn't work, wait for a while. I know I won't be getting a second GTX 560 Ti for quite a while, since all the games I play are mostly console ports and I can't see a difference between Ultra and High detail, except for the drop in fps for Ultra (though even then, it's still smooth).

Where's the f and why the colon?

 

[ncc74656]

its good to keep in mind this is a forum on the Internet, not a collage dissertation paper. when broken speech, lack of grammar, or spelling mistakes interferes with the message attempting to be conveyed then i will concur with your assessment of the English language. in the context of this forum and the posts in this thread i do not believe we have reached that point.

as for multi gpu techs, both nvidia and ati hit main stream in 05 and 06 however they along iwth 3dfx had dual gpu system back in 1996, 1999 and 2000. so yes my 15 years is 1-6 years off.

 

[ncc74656]

aside from raw gpu power you need to consider compatibility with the programs you want to use. if you are going to be doing any 3d modeling or rendering then i would go nvidia as there cuda is better supported compared to ati stream tech. also Nvidia has better 3d tech but if you dont care about that then spending another 20 or 30 bucks to get 30% boost in fps thats a no brainier. people spend 100.00 to gain a 3% boost in there computers...

 

[Mousemonkey]

its good to keep in mind this is a forum on the Internet, not a collage dissertation paper. when broken speech, lack of grammar, or spelling mistakes interferes with the message attempting to be conveyed then i will concur with your assessment of the English language. in the context of this forum and the posts in this thread i do not believe we have reached that point.

as for multi gpu techs, both nvidia and ati hit main stream in 05 and 06 however they along iwth 3dfx had dual gpu system back in 1996, 1999 and 2000. so yes my 15 years is 1-6 years off.

Not quite, 3DFX were bought by Nvidia who prior to that didn't have a dual GPU solution IIRC.

 

[ncc74656]

the 6870 is cheaper than the 560ti and about equal to its performance in DX11 however in DX10 the 560 is a fair amount faster than the 6870. make your choice

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I've got the flu at the moment so sue me! But if you like I could always pull up some your past mistakes, like this one for instance :-
Where's the f and why the colon?

WHAT! You actually dug up my past posts and found a typo? Lol, 1:1.

aside from raw gpu power you need to consider compatibility with the programs you want to use. if you are going to be doing any 3d modeling or rendering then i would go nvidia as there cuda is better supported compared to ati stream tech. also Nvidia has better 3d tech but if you dont care about that then spending another 20 or 30 bucks to get 30% boost in fps thats a no brainier. people spend 100.00 to gain a 3% boost in there computers...

If you're doing what you said, you're better off with a FirePro or a Quadro. 560 Ti, 6950, 6870 and 6850 are GAMING cards. And ATI Stream stuff is recent, that's why there're less applications that support it, but there will be more.

Yes you do understand what "bang for buck" means right?

Also, most 6950's overclock by 15%+ without touching voltages (They are just 6970's without some shaders after all). Most 560 Ti's only do the same 15%.

http://techgage.com/article/amd_hd_6950_1gb_vs_nvidia_gtx_560_ti_overclocking/4 shows how far ahead an OC'd 6950 is vs an OC'd 560 Ti.

I call BS on this benchmark. My 560 Ti averages 35 fps, kind of in accordance to what the benchmark says:

However, the benchmark does NOT say what kind of OC'd 560 Ti or 6950 it is - it just says they TRIED to OC the 560 Ti to 1000 MHz and OC'd the 6950 to 950, explicitly stating that their 560 Ti sample was worse than expected and the 6950 was better. And TechPowerUp's benchmark shows OC'd 560 Ti ahead of 6970 at times. Whom to trust? The way I see it, 560 Ti wins in some games and is on par with 6950 or 6870 in others - depends whether the game favors nVidia or AMD.

 

[amuffin]

I would like to get the msi twin frozr 560ti and I was wondering if this oced would be better than the 6950. I have seen this card go to 1ghz easily and later on, I would like to get this card in sli. But what about the 6950? Crossfire on 6950 or sli on 560ti?

 

[Onus]

Check the benchmarks of the specific games you want to play, or other applications you will run. For example, a "mere" GTX460 beats the HD6950 in Civilization V, but a HD6790 outperforms a GTX560Ti at bitcoin mining. Do you care about PhysX? That means nVidia. Three-monitor support? ATi. Consider the general case of course, but don't forget YOUR specifics.
And then, make sure your PSU can handle whatever you decide to get.

 

[eyefinity]

I call BS on this benchmark. My 560 Ti averages 35 fps, kind of in accordance to what the benchmark says:

You know different setups and test conditions can give different results. The most important thing is the comparison and in that one the 6950 is streets ahead, almost 40% faster.

However, the benchmark does NOT say what kind of OC'd 560 Ti or 6950 it is - it just says they TRIED to OC the 560 Ti to 1000 MHz and OC'd the 6950 to 950, explicitly stating that their 560 Ti sample was worse than expected and the 6950 was better. And TechPowerUp's benchmark shows OC'd 560 Ti ahead of 6970 at times. Whom to trust? The way I see it, 560 Ti wins in some games and is on par with 6950 or 6870 in others - depends whether the game favors nVidia or AMD.

Actually it's more like the 6950 wins all of them except those games that heavily favour Nvidia, ie HAWX 2, Dirt 2 and Lost Planet.

Nvidia have gone on record to say that the average 560 Ti overclock is 900 Mhz. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/nvidia-geforce-gtx-560-ti-gf114,review-32102-14.html

Nvidia confirms that core clocks around 900 MHz are fairly typical from what it has seen so far.

Now sure the more expensive cards with better VRM's and cooling will clock higher, but the average reference card will not go much further than 900 Mhz, which incidentally is less than 10%.

 

[eyefinity]

I would like to get the msi twin frozr 560ti and I was wondering if this oced would be better than the 6950. I have seen this card go to 1ghz easily and later on, I would like to get this card in sli. But what about the 6950? Crossfire on 6950 or sli on 560ti?

6870 crossfire is basically the same as 560 Ti sli over a large selection of 15 games.

6950 crossfire is equal to 570 sli.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-3-way-scaling,2865-12.html

Superior scaling allowed two mid-priced Radeon HD 6950s to approximate the performance of two higher-cost GeForce GTX 570s, while three HD 6950s took the performance win over three GTX 570s.

560 Ti is a bit slower single-card and a lot slower in sli compared to the 6950.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Actually it's more like the 6950 wins all of them except those games that heavily favour Nvidia, ie HAWX 2, Dirt 2 and Lost Planet.

Isn't Dirt 2 an AMD sponsored title?
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/games/Pages/colin-mcrae-dirt-2.aspx

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

And also 560 Ti wins in FC2, Civilization V and basically half of the games there

 

[ncc74656]

its worth noting some differences in drivers between the two companies as well. last i checked nvidia did not have any integrated over clocking tools while ati does make an attempt at such a feature.

in my experience ati's CCC crashes more frequently than nvidia's nview. thats not to say it happens alot but just more frequently.

my main issue with nvidia is in its drivers vs any hardware issues. i believe it was in November of 09 that they launched a new driver which changed how they handle over-scan on large screens. prior to this launch it functioned the same way as ati's in that you could move sliders to change the direct scale with out changing the resolution however with there new drivers it forces a direct resolution change vs a scaling. i.e. a 1920X1080 display which goes slightly past the edge of the physical display; once resized will have a resolution of 1872X1061 or some other odd number. this caused me many issues in games and movies while full screen and in the end forced me to buy the 5870's that i use in my computer today. i am not certain if nvidia has changed this but such things are wise to take into consideration when selecting your components.

I have used a 46" samsung since 2007, i have not encountered such over scan issues on any computer monitors; only on TV's. also only through HDMI, DVI and VGA connections to large TV's have never had any over scan issues for me.

 

[Mousemonkey]

its worth noting some differences in drivers between the two companies as well. last i checked nvidia did not have any integrated over clocking tools while ati does make an attempt at such a feature.

If you mean CCC then that is not part of the driver but then neither is Nvidia System Tools but they can both be used to OC their respective GPU's.

 

[ncc74656]

both CCC and nview are used in part with there drivers and there packages. while yes you can install just the drivers and still use the cards you loose many features by not installing each companies respective control centers. i would submit that the vast majority of computer users will have such control centers installed and thus it is worth comparing the two to select the best manufacturer for your particular application.

The last time i used a nvidia system tool i do not recall seeing a OC feature but i am glad they have now added it. is it like ati's or more robust?

 

[Mousemonkey]

both CCC and nview are used in part with there drivers and there packages. while yes you can install just the drivers and still use the cards you loose many features by not installing each companies respective control centers. i would submit that the vast majority of computer users will have such control centers installed and thus it is worth comparing the two to select the best manufacturer for your particular application.

The last time i used a nvidia system tool i do not recall seeing a OC feature but i am glad they have now added it. is it like ati's or more robust?

I don't know, like most people who use Nvidia cards I've always used third party software to OC. Oh and Nview is for Quadro cards.

 

[bystander]

They both are good cards.

If you have a desire for 3D, go for the Nvidia card.

If you want to use 3 monitors off one GPU, go AMD.

As far as unlocking the shaders on 6950's go, I have seen a few recent successes with HIS 6950 IceQ Turbos. You'll want to use the bios edit version, not the 6970 flash.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I don't know, like most people who use Nvidia cards I've always used third party software to OC. Oh and Nview is for Quadro cards.

All the people I know use MSI Afterburner

 

[ncc74656]

i use msi afterburner, evga precision, ati tray tools, and power strip (i think thats what its called). depending on card and os. all are great tools

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

i use msi afterburner, evga precision, ati tray tools, and power strip (i think thats what its called). depending on card and os. all are great tools

Lol, that's a lot of tools. Funny thing is, the only thing I've used the Afterburner for so far was fan control... no need to OC - the 560 Ti can max out anything at 1080p, it's even sad... what's the point of higher cards?

 

[ncc74656]

well if your going to use 3D or an eyefinity style display then a higher card may be needed but your right that for a normal computer higher cards are not required for even a high end gamer. ive been running my 5870's for awhile and i have yet to find anything i can not totally max out and still get perfect game play. i do not run them in crossfire as i run many monitors but if i ever do find a game i cant run ive got the option.