Gtx 580 sli vs hd6970 crossfire for 2560x1600

[prolymphocyte]

Hey guys,

So I am almost done building my gaming rig and the last part will be the graphics card. From reading diff benchmarks it looks like the hd6970 cf gets very close to gtx 580 sli @2560x1600 because of the larger 2gb memory it has for significantly cheaper. Should i go with the 6970`s or spend more for the gtx`s.

My system is:
I7@4ghz(noctua heatsink)
Asus rampage 3 formula
12 Gb DDR3 gskill trident
850 W Corsair
Dell u3011

Cheers

[Rison]

are you using a single monitor, or are you running a 2560x1600 setup?

[prolymphocyte]

Just one monitor the Dell U3011 @2560x1600:) I want to be able to play all the games at that high res for some time.

[matsta31]

Do you want to GPU fold ? I suppose if you are considering the red team offering you are not, but I just wanted to get the question out there.

[prolymphocyte]

I dont really care if it is nvidia or ati as long as i get the best possible performance @2560x1600. So what would you guys choose?:)

[CMetaphor]

The board supports 3-way crossfire and SLI right? Not sure which scales better for a third card, but that might help your decision.

[matsta31]

GTX 580 are the pure performance winners. Now do you really need that power ? Hell One GPU would likely be enough. So go with what you prefer.

Our questions pretty much indicate that both of them would be a great solution. Now to want the best of the best or the little lower best of the best. You have to make the choice I think.

[_dangtx_]

bang per buck ati

bang per single gpu solution/card, nv

ASUS Radeon HD 6950 CrossFire Review - Page 21/23 | techPowerUp

100 more than one 580, at your rez trucks better

[draemn]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

bang per buck ati

bang per single gpu solution/card, nv

ASUS Radeon HD 6950 CrossFire Review - Page 21/23 | techPowerUp

100 more than one 580, at your rez trucks better

I agree with best bang per buck since the ATI cards do better at 2560x1600 (relatively speaking) than the nVidia cards do. You'll be missing out on games that support decent PhysX (as a CPU can't handle it) and CUDA special effects (which aren't tons). I'd really ignore that bloody review as it's a piece of garbage with it's comparisons and I don't know where they get their prices from because the GTX 580 FAILS MISERABLY at the price/performance category. Using benchmarks from Anandtech, pretty much any GPU CF/SLI combo gets a fraction of the performance at an even lower fraction of the cost.

i.e. say dual GPUs XX performs at 80% of the 580 SLI, then it costs 70% of the 580 SLI. If you pay tax or extended warranty the price gap gets worse. Also, as a single card, the 580 has a $60-$80 price mark-up in addition to a 1:1 % increase in cost for increased fps.

The best bang for your buck (but probably lower graphics performance than you are looking for) is the HD 6870 CF solution by far. Otherwise, the GTX 570 SLI, HD 6970 CF, and HD 6950 CF are all very similar price/performance wise with the 6950 CF being slightly better value but at less power.

In terms of total performance, the 6970 CF rarely beats the 580 SLI, but the 580 SLI has no price/performance value.

[_dangtx_]

Originally Posted by draemn

I agree with best bang per buck since the ATI cards do better at 2560x1600 (relatively speaking) than the nVidia cards do. You'll be missing out on games that support decent PhysX (as a CPU can't handle it) and CUDA special effects (which aren't tons). I'd really ignore that bloody review as it's a piece of garbage with it's comparisons and I don't know where they get their prices from because the GTX 580 FAILS MISERABLY at the price/performance category. Using benchmarks from Anandtech, pretty much any GPU CF/SLI combo gets a fraction of the performance at an even lower fraction of the cost.

i.e. say dual GPUs XX performs at 80% of the 580 SLI, then it costs 70% of the 580 SLI. If you pay tax or extended warranty the price gap gets worse. Also, as a single card, the 580 has a $60-$80 price mark-up in addition to a 1:1 % increase in cost for increased fps to price.

The best bang for your buck (but probably lower graphics performance than you are looking for) is the HD 6870 CF solution by far. Otherwise, the GTX 570 SLI, HD 6970 CF, and HD 6950 CF are all very similar price/performance wise with the 6950 CF being slightly better value but at less power.

In terms of total performance, the 6970 CF rarely beats the 580 SLI, but the 580 SLI has no price/performance value.

i wouldnt dwell on wiz's work like that......sure the graphs come out messed up but they usually correct them along.

either or hell be fine, dual top dog single gpu will do a killing with not as much as driver hassles as 4 gpus in the mix :)