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Radeon 6970 Vs GTX 570

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Now go fire up some PhysX games, or at least try the Mafia 2 demo, to see what you've been missing.
 
Just to add all the benefits for the 6970, as no one is pointing them out:
+ 2GB of ram means higher resolutions won't have some of the problems the lesser vram cards have.
+ Supersampling AA is officially supported, and works better than Nvidia's unofficial version (I've compared both as used both cards recently). The 2GB of vram also allows for higher levels of supersampling AA. Supersampling AA is a lot better than Multisampling in many games.
+ Morphilogical AA is decent AA with very little performance impact, and since it's post process, it allows you to use AA when games don't offer it (sadly I have too many of these, but using 470's, so I can't use AA).
 

Did you notice if Morpholigical AA caused menu and in-game text to be blocky or blurry as noted in most reviews I have read?
 


Sadly, I have not been able to use the Morph features. When I said I've used both cards, I meant ATI/Nvidia, not this specific card. The 5870's also had supersampling, and it rocks when I had enough vram to run it (Dragon Age: Origins looks a ton better with it, for example.)
 
What so special about Physx or CUDA? I don't think i've played a single game that uses either, and pretty much everything uses HAVOK engine now anyways since its non proprietary.

I'm trying to decide between these two cards, eyefinity, physx, and cuda are all non facts, the $20 means horseshiat to me, and the cards perform the same despite what each companies respective fanboys say.

Is the 2GB ram worth it? I remember a friend of mine bought a 512MB 4870 where I had a 1gb 4870 that I still use to this day, his 512MB 4870 hasn't been good at all since last year.

The only thing I think about is that EVGA is an awesome company and the gtx 570 superclocked seems like a good card where the 6970 since its new has nothing like that yet. Probably what would make me choose the GTX 570.

Seriously, who cares about Physx and Cuda? This isn't 2007 when it seemed like Physx might be important in the future. Its future is pretty much nonexistant. Also WTF use would I have with CUDA? That is the most useless thing imaginable for 99% of all gamers unless you are some folding@home nerd with quad SLI 580s.

Same with Eyefinity. If this were 2004 when companies actually made combat flight sims like IL-2 Sturmovik then it would be an amazing idea. Right now? I dont run proprietary Air Force flight simulations.... so kinda useless.
 
I think you may be overstating some of your opinions. There are some physX games, like Metro 2033 and Maphia 2 that people play. If you don't play those games (I don't currently), it may be not be useful, but it is useful to some.

I understand your point with the 2GB of vram.

Also, Eyefinity is used outside of flight sims. If you don't plan to use it, it might not mean anything to you. It is useful if you are doing eyefinity.

I can understand you saying these mean nothing to you, but you can't say it doesn't mean anything to others, as you seem to write.
 
It's scary, Metro2022, Mafia 2, BFBC2 and Black Ops all working like a dream on this monster. And its even quieter then my last card! F*kin hell
 
This is not so. Physx is actually a very popular engine and if you haven't played any games that use it I doubt you are much of a gamer. There are over 250 released games using the Physx SDK but even in those titles the GPU acceleration capabilities of Nvidia cards are rarely used. To be specific there are 16 titles and IMO about 5 maybe are both worth playing and use the GPU acceleration in a way that makes a worthwhile difference.
http://physxinfo.com/
CUDA on the other hand is a niche thing that is useful to some people that use specific software that supports it but the average person has no need for it.
Eyefinity is certainly useful outside of flight simulators btw, for those that can afford 3 monitors. Youtube it and you'll see what 3 monitor gaming can do. Nvidia cards can actually do this as well but it needs to be an SLI setup in that case.
 

The most prominent CUDA enabled software is probably CS5. Here's a few articles from Tom's on CUDA that are worth a look;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-cuda-gpgpu,2299.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/future-3d-graphics,2560-8.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770.html
As for games the only one I know of that uses CUDA rather than Physx is Just Cause 2. It uses CUDA for water effects and a filter;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A29uSkIo04s
 
CUDA isn't really a language. It's an API used within other languages that allows programs to utilize specific functions of Nvidia GPUs. Saying "PhysX is written in CUDA" isn't accurate but rather that the GPU accelerated functions built into the Physx engine utilize CUDA. Most Physx games are not GPU accelerated and don't use CUDA. A lot are even console games and the consoles have no CUDA capabilities.
 


Perhaps I worded it poorly, but the point is, if it's GPU accelerated PhysX, it's utilizing Cuda.
 



There you go. You can't go wrong. In all honesty, im just going to wait til after Christmas so I can buy the Radeon 6970 for the same price as the GTX 570 (or cheaper).

Suck on it nvidia fanboys
 
hey guys, i need some other peoples opinions.

im not entirely sure which graphics card to buy, i want to play like test drive unlimited 2, gran turismo 5 and black ops and MW2 on all maxed out settings on a 42" 1080i plasma. :na:

would i be safe with the HD 6850 or should i get the 6870, the 6950, or just bite the bullet and get a 6970?
or should i just go with like the gtx 460 2gb version, or the 470?
or any other cards out there for around the same price range as the 6870. :??: :??:

but as of now im leaning towards either the 6950 or the 6870.

im also not planning on playing with multiple monitors, just my tv. so let me know some of your opinions, thanks. :bounce:
 
From experience using both recent GPU's, I'll give you a couple things to consider for your choice.

If you have games that support GPU accelerated PhysX, and wish to use it, you'll probably like that gtx460. I'd probably recommend either the gtx460 ftw or if you really want to max everything, a 570.

If not, I might recommend a 6950 for much better AA features. Supersampling AA makes many games look far superior to other forms of AA if the game isn't overly demanding. If you play games that don't support AA at all, you can use Morphilogical AA for at least some AA improvements.
 


????


you'd be safer with a ps3.
 
my bad, i thought gran turismo was gonna be on ps3 and pc. but i guess not
one last quick question. which out of these 4 are best?
*hd5870
*hd6870
*gtx 470 evga super clocked
*gtx 460 palit platinum 800mhz superclocked

i cant get the 69xx series because my cpu will bottleneck the hell out of them.
so i gotta pick one of those four
 
I'm new to this forum but just as a point of objective observation many of the Nvidia supporters come across as jerks. I have read multiple reviews of both the 6970 and the 570 and they appear to both be fairly equal. The 570 is an amazing card but you don't have be rude to others who may prefer the 6970. I am researching these cards for my computer and what strikes me with all responses is the lack of any first-hand owner comments which is what I think the original poster wanted. To regurgitate Tom's Hardware reviews doesn't add anything valuable to the conversation. It assumes that the original poster didn't read and understand these review. People who actually own one of the cards may have some real insight to add to this conversation. And yes I know that some posters do own one of the cards but many of their comments did not relay any real-world experience. For example, are the drivers for the 6970 unstable? Are the 570 drivers stable? People running these cards are the only ones that can answer these questions.
 
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