GTX 580 brand, and the 7970

[FtsArTek]

If you want to buy nvidia right now, only consider their midrange cards - the 560ti and the 560ti 448 core. The GTX 580 is a waste of money since the 7950 outperforms even the 3GB versions of the card, is cheaper, and overclocks insanely well even on its reference cooler. My 7970 with its overclock beats a GTX 580 by about 50-70% depending on the game/test.

If you want a high end Nvidia card that is worth the money, you should wait for Kepler. I really don't see any value in Nvidia's portfolio for the dollar right now other than the 560ti and 560ti 448 which are both in great positions especially with the rebates available on them.

If you really want Nvidia high end right now, then you should get a pair of either the 560ti or the 560ti 448 core version and put them in SLI. The former will trade blows with an HD 7970 in performance, the latter will get you better performance than any single GPU can offer right now.

I dunno, even my pair of 6950s (when the third one isn't in the system, sometimes for testing), overclocked to 950mHz core, seem to only just trade blows with my mate's OC 7970, so really I would wait for nVidia 600 series.

@ OP, yeah I can see what you mean, tbh, i used nVidias for years, with only 3 AMD cards before my current ones, and no doubt, the nVidias were overall better cards. My 4890 wasn't bad though. And my 6950s are great. I do use OpenGL a lot, and nVidia cards have an OpenGL memory cache, whereas AMD cards seem to use system memory for that. So depending on what you do, I would say wait for GTX680, which should be amazing going by rumours.

 

[bystander]

They've all been the same to me, though I agree that movies are the worst offenders.

Look, I don't really care if you like the 3D stuff - obviously some people like it or they wouldn't be marketing it so heavily. But please, don't imply I'm naive just because I disagree with you.

I can only assume here, but if you thought they were the same, clearly you weren't using an active 3D display. 3D vision with active glasses looks like real life in terms of 3D. 3D movies and some of these systems which convert 2d to 3D look like pop up books, with a few different plains of view.

Anyways, as far as the 580 goes, I agree, and to take it one step further, No, it will not max out games in 3D because you need 50% to 100% more power to support 3D frame rates. If not, you'll get sick or have eye strain.

 

[fustrun]

Ok, the thing is Nvidia has kept this card in the dark for some reason . . let's not forget that the intial "leaked" release date was stated to Q4 2011, now one of the reason might be:

1) They dropped the ball on the design and rebooted.
2) The card is just not strong enough yet to compete with the 7970
3) They are making something beastly and perfecting it to make a joke out of the 7970

Whatever the reason is i don't know when will this card see the light of day . . the April lauch date is only a rumer not to mention you the "Rumers" suggest that they would release the "mid range" cards first so who knows when we will get the "gtx 680" . .
And finally i can just imagine the price they are going to slap on it . .
So-
1) we are not sure about the release date
2) we don't know in what order the cards will be released
3) they re going to cost a tons of money for ATLEAST the first month

So that could take a while . . some say the high end cards are schedualed to release in June :S so it's kind of hard for me to wait . . i mean if they would have at least released specs or some press release but we have nothing . .

 

[fustrun]

You are right without a shadow of a doubt . . don't get me wrong.
I've always wanted to try the 3D vision option thats all, some games with physix look pretty amazing also . . and in general i feel that Nvidia has more to offer, because the main "Gimic" that radeon offers is "Eye Finity" which is completely usless for me . .
I'm all for having multplie displays . . but never in gaming, it just feels wierd for me.
And the 7970 will be a card i will stick with for 2-3 years without no doubt . . and i would be limiting myself from trying 3D, i heared so amazing reviews from people that played skyrim with it. this and Crysis 2 also . . which are by far the games i want to play the most.

 

[bystander]

Translation:
"Oh look... someone disagrees with me! That's absolutely unacceptable... there's no way anyone knowledgeable would ever disagree with me. He must just be clueless. I'd better remind him how naive he is to not think the way I do about something. I mean, come on - there's no WAY anyone could disagree with me if they really knew what they were talking about."



I think I'll just leave it at that.

Anyways, 6950 CF is pretty similar to 560ti SLI, so I'm not surprised it also trades blows with a 7970 OC. Two midrange GPUs will almost always beat a single high end GPU in terms of value - you pay a bit of a price premium to go the single GPU route. I just personally like single card setups enough to pay the extra money, but they're not the best for price/performance ratio.

It's more like I don't believe you've used 3D Vision that was properly setup. Your descriptions can't possibly be true if you had. I am not disagreeing that you don't like it, but your description doesn't add up.

 

[fustrun]

http://vr-zone.com/articles/nvidia-in-for-a-tough-year-pressure-on-both-high-end-and-low-end-/14937.html
How credible is this ? some intresting points.

 

[bystander]

I think the odds are, it'll play out much like the differences between the HD 6000's and the GTX500's, but that could means it will play out like the 5000's and 400's in which Nvidia ran into troubles and wouldn't release it until it could beat the 5000's but at a delay.

 

[17seconds]

You are right without a shadow of a doubt . . don't get me wrong.
I've always wanted to try the 3D vision option thats all, some games with physix look pretty amazing also . . and in general i feel that Nvidia has more to offer, because the main "Gimic" that radeon offers is "Eye Finity" which is completely usless for me . .
I'm all for having multplie displays . . but never in gaming, it just feels wierd for me.
And the 7970 will be a card i will stick with for 2-3 years without no doubt . . and i would be limiting myself from trying 3D, i heared so amazing reviews from people that played skyrim with it. this and Crysis 2 also . . which are by far the games i want to play the most.

Don't think that just because a higher performing card just came out that the GTX 580 isn't still a great card capable of handling everything you want it to... and yes you get the option of gaming with 3D Vision and PhysX, just in case.

In fact, if Skyrim your thing, the GTX 580 will offer great performance, as well as ambient occlusion and higher quality antialiasing options that the 7970 doesn't offer.

You should also try to keep some perspective on what the performance differences translate to in the real world, 5 fps, 10 fps won't make a big difference when you are up over 50 fps anyway. 48 FPS in Crysis 2 is pretty good.

The great thing is, you have the money to get a great card either way, just don't assume that all truth is simple and do your own research in addition to reading the posts in this thread.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/27.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/28.html

 

[Guest]

I was in the same boat as the OP.I sat there for a few weeks trying to decide on the gtx 580 classified and a 7950/70 GPU.The more i researched the gtx 580 classified can push a 1000 watt psu overclocking.Thats just to much so i settled on a 7970 and should recieve it in a day or two.This is coming from a nvidia fanboy lol.I owned 2 ati card in my life x1900xt and the 5850 i had bad luck with both so stayed with nvidia never had a card die on me,but with the performance the 7970 puts out i just couldnt pass it up.To the guy that said the 7970 is overpriced sorry to say but its priced where it should be.Im seeing all the gtx 580 3 gb being priced at over 500$ while the 7970 i got was only 568$ you do the math.20% performance difference stock for stock and with overclocking the 7970 to its full potential your talking 30-40% increase for roughley 10% more not a bad deal if you ask me.

 

[Guest]

Don't think that just because a higher performing card just came out that the GTX 580 isn't still a great card capable of handling everything you want it to... and yes you get the option of gaming with 3D Vision and PhysX, just in case.

In fact, if Skyrim your thing, the GTX 580 will offer great performance, as well as ambient occlusion and higher quality antialiasing options that the 7970 doesn't offer.

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/images/skyrim_1920_1200.gif

You should also try to keep some perspective on what the performance differences translate to in the real world, 5 fps, 10 fps won't make a big difference when you are up over 50 fps anyway. 48 FPS in Crysis 2 is pretty good.

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/images/crysis2_1920_1200.gif

The great thing is, you have the money to get a great card either way, just don't assume that all truth is simple and do your own research in addition to reading the posts in this thread.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/27.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/28.html

Well will see what happens when the 7970 driver are optimized.From my understanding there crap right now and still beat the gtx 580 in about every game.Gtx 580 is a great card but 7970 is also dx 11.1 compatible and overclocks hella better

 

[Guest]

Throw it in the rumor mill with everything else. No way to know until we get some confirmed info.

Some rumors have the GK104 beating the 7970, this says it "can't". We just don't know. If you want to see the sky falling for nvidia, you could construe rumors out there to say that it will be most of another year before they can even compete with a 7970. If you want to see the sky falling for amd, you could construe rumors out there to say that the 7970 will be beaten by nvidia's midrange offering in another month or two and then CRUSHED by their high end offering soon after that.

Hi bigmack i agree with all your posts.I would like to ask a question sorry if this is going off topic slightley.How do you like your xfx black?I was sort of afraid to go xfx because of all the bad rants on them.I got the black edition to but not the DD one.Thanks in advance

 

[fustrun]

How much does a new genration card cost when it comes out ? i mean the gtx 680 series . .
Since this is the first time i'm buying a high end card i have no idea what the prices are for high end cards on launch date, i've always had little money for a video card so i just went to the store and bought anything asus/gigabyte that fitted my pocket.
So what i'm trying to get here is an aproximate price tag on a the card on lauch date based on past expiriences.

 

[Guest]

Ok i'm just having a hard time to go for a redaon . . so you guys say two 560 ti can perform as a 7970?
What about stutter issues in SLI? can the two cards be overclocked ?
And what is the best 560 ti card to use with SLI? no EVGA and PLY.
I just feel that nvidia is ahead of radeon and the use of physix and 3d vision and cloud rendering (i'm a flight sim fan)
Are just better then redaon from what i hear . . i'm so torn because the 7970 is such a beast of a card and i can actually afford it.
So if still decide to go with nvidia i understand that the GTX 580 is a waste of money so what's the best SLI setup with 560's ?

Do not go 2 gtx 560 ti cards.If you can get one powerful card over two midrange cards do that instead.SLI is great when it works and with the games it does not work you will be stuck with 1 midrange card.I got 2 gtx 460 cards over 1 gtx 580 and regretted it ever since.SLI only works in about half the games that ive played and the ones it didnt i was stuck not being able to turn on the eye candy.If you already owned a 560 ti then i might go with a second but if you can afford one powerful card over buying 2 mids i would deffinetly go to the better 1 card.You will have alot of issues with SLI sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt

 

[17seconds]

We're not talking about a 5-10 fps difference between a GTX 580 and a 7970. We're talking about a 40-70% increase on average of an OC'd 7970 compared to a 580. That's only going to translate to 5-10fps in games that are EXTREMELY demanding (i.e., where your average framerate is 30 or less) and at that point you will absolutely notice 5-10 fps.

You keep tossing out that 40-70% number. It would be helpful to provide a link to illustrate the point.

 

[Guest]

All i know is my xfx 7970 is coming today that with an overclocked I5 2500K 4.5 ghz will be fun

 

[genetic98]

go for the 590 instead of 580

 

[fustrun]

Well guys i finally made my choise, bought an ASUS xonar essence STX with PC360 senhiser headphones to push my audio to the limit, and in a few months after prices have dropped and kepler is out i'm gonna get one of the GTX 6xx series, thank you all for your feedback and help!

 

[17seconds]

Here's a little red meat to help encourage you about your decision:
http://www.guru3d.com/news/kepler-will-be-unbeatable-nvidia/

 

[bystander]

I remember all the wait for Fermi news and it took them a year longer than expected to deliver. I don't believe in the "wait it out" idea when it comes to GPU's, unless you have a hard date in front of you, otherwise you are always waiting.

 

[17seconds]

Did you expect nvidia to say something different about their new card?

It's not always about you, Mack.

 

[fustrun]

Thanks for understanding guys and sorry for creating this flamewar

 

[17seconds]

Thanks for understanding guys and sorry for creating this flamewar

I don't see any flame wars here... nope, everything's cool. I hope you got the answers you were looking for.
Cheers!

 

[fustrun]

Most defently!
One of the most friendly forums i visited.
Thanks again for all your help!