GTX 480 or ATI HD 5970?

[wasim12]

So I am finally getting a new gfx card and I was wondering if someone could help me decide which gfx card is better. I dont know that much about gpu's, so im aksin here. I currently have an intel X58 motherboard with an ati hd 4650. ANY advice is more than welcome. Thx a lot!

[Ami89E1234]

At the moment, ATI cards are still better than NVIDIA ones, so I'd go with the 5970. If you want to get a billion pixels per second go with the HD 5870 Eyefinity 6.

[usmc123]

Neither of those cards could run EM4...

On a serious note, I would go with the GTX just because I'm an Nvidia guy.

[Ami89E1234]

^? EM4 runs perfectly on my 5870.

[wasim12]

^? EM4 runs perfectly on my 5870.

Thats why it says 'on a serious note'...

[Ami89E1234]

I know but just because you're a fanboy of the the NVIDIA cards doesn't mean they're right for everyone.

[usmc123]

I know but just because you're a fanboy of the the NVIDIA cards doesn't mean they're right for everyone.

And I clearly stated that. I said it was a joke and then I clearly stated that I'm more of an Nvidia person so if it were me I'd go with the 480. I wasn't trying to stir shit just saying in my opinion the card I would go with is the 480. If you want a better explanation I'd say that I think that Nvidia updates and releases drivers on a much more constant basis, not to mention Nvidia's control panel makes games very easy to tweak often with better performance without much visual loss. But really I'm not a huge PC guy and really the only game I play on it is GTA IV and ArmA II.

[Xplorer4x4]

And I clearly stated that. I said it was a joke and then I clearly stated that I'm more of an Nvidia person so if it were me I'd go with the 480. I wasn't trying to stir shit just saying in my opinion the card I would go with is the 480. If you want a better explanation I'd say that I think that Nvidia updates and releases drivers on a much more constant basis, not to mention Nvidia's control panel makes games very easy to tweak often with better performance without much visual loss. But really I'm not a huge PC guy and really the only game I play on it is GTA IV and ArmA II.

That may have been the case in the past because I know ATIs driver support was not quite as good as what it is now. ATI is constantly pushing out driver updates just as much as Nvidia imo. If not as often pretty close as I know my 4890 gets a driver update every 2 or 3 months if I had to guess. Im not completely sure about Nvidia DX11 cards vs DX11 ATI Cards, but the DX11 ATI cards drew far less power then the DX 10 Nvidia cards. Less power draw means less heat created by the card and less work for the gpu fan to cool the gpu. Factor those possible things into the equation with the fact the 5970 out performs the 480 by a good margin, and a huge margin when overclocked(atleast compared to a stock 480) I think the 5970 is the best bet.

The real question is what are the rest of your PC specs? If your running anything less then a core i7, maybe a high end Core i5, your cpu will bottleneck the card preventing it from reaching its full power. Not to mention you need a good power supply. I would recomend going with about an 800 watt Corsair PSU. Corsair has some of the best PSUs on the market and have a 5 year warranty on a good portion of them. 800 watts might be a bit on the over kill side but it gives you head room to grow.Brands are very important thing to look at in PSUs. If you have a cheap psu you risk the fire of frying your parts.

[billyfromhill]

Now you really can't compare a 5970 to a GTX 480. You really need to compare 2 GTX 480s to a single 5970.

I say get a single GTX 480 now, and take the $200 you save over the 5970 and put it towards a second 480. Two 480s in SLI are faster than a 5970. The 480s scale extremely well in SLI also.

Besides, the 3D vision surround drivers just were released.

[Xplorer4x4]

Billys got a point, but then again two 5970s will probably slaughter the 2 480s.

Billy, I havent looked into the DX11 cards from Nvidia yet. Does what I say hold true in comparison to power draw and heat for there DX11 cards vs ATI DX11 cards?

[billyfromhill]

Billys got a point, but then again two 5970s will probably slaughter the 2 480s.

Billy, I havent looked into the DX11 cards from Nvidia yet. Does what I say hold true in comparison to power draw and heat for there DX11 cards vs ATI DX11 cards?

Well if you're going to get 2 5970s you might as well get 3 GTX 480s for less money and better performance.

Yes, the GTX 480 runs pretty hot.

[wasim12]

well guys, thanks for your help, i just bought an msi gtx 470 and since my comp only had 460 W, i also bought a 550 W power supply, one of my comp geek friends is gonna install it for me 2morrow, for FREE!! Im just a little scared cuz the minimum req for a 470 is 550 W, cross your fingers..

[Xplorer4x4]

Wattage means almost nothing in terms of PSUs. For example a 500 watt Corsair will outperform a cheapo 800 watt psu. Its the amps that you need to be concerned with, and good name brands. A junk psu is just asking for a fire that could jeopardize your rig, if not your home. That might sound silly but I have heard numerous stories of cheap psus going up in flames. Corsair makes fantastic PSUS, if not the best on the market. Alot of people use certain OCZ psus, but i dont trust them. OCZ sells cheap parts because they make cheap parts. Seasonic makes some good psus. BeQuiet! makes good psus from the little reviews i heard of them. Im a bit out of touch on my hardware as of late, but surely things havent changed that much.

Also if your worried about power requirements the 5970 draws less power then a 480. It may be $200 more but it also has more memory, dual processors,and runs quieter.

Your friend wouldnt be much of a friend if he charged you much of anything for installing a video card. It snaps in to a PCI-E slot and you run 2 cables from the psu to it. So easy a 5 year old could do it.

You really should have saved your self the trouble of buying an HP with the upgrades your doing. Prebuilts PCs like these arent designed to go swapping everything around.

[wasim12]

Wattage means almost nothing in terms of PSUs. For example a 500 watt Corsair will outperform a cheapo 800 watt psu. Its the amps that you need to be concerned with, and good name brands. A junk psu is just asking for a fire that could jeopardize your rig, if not your home. That might sound silly but I have heard numerous stories of cheap psus going up in flames. Corsair makes fantastic PSUS, if not the best on the market. Alot of people use certain OCZ psus, but i dont trust them. OCZ sells cheap parts because they make cheap parts. Seasonic makes some good psus. BeQuiet! makes good psus from the little reviews i heard of them. Im a bit out of touch on my hardware as of late, but surely things havent changed that much.

Also if your worried about power requirements the 5970 draws less power then a 480. It may be $200 more but it also has more memory, dual processors,and runs quieter.

Your friend wouldnt be much of a friend if he charged you much of anything for installing a video card. It snaps in to a PCI-E slot and you run 2 cables from the psu to it. So easy a 5 year old could do it.

You really should have saved your self the trouble of buying an HP with the upgrades your doing. Prebuilts PCs like these arent designed to go swapping everything around.

Its not really the graphics card I needed him to do, its the power supply, and mine is a coolermaster.

[Xplorer4x4]

Hell, thinking about it I doubt theres any 500 watt psu on the market thats adequate for a power hungry card like a 480 or 5970. The 5970 is the lesser of two evils n this case, but still a hungry card. A 480 draws 40 Amps minimum. For comparison a 550 watt corsair PSU is pushing 41 Amps. That 1 amp left over is maybe enough to power a single hard drive, but not your CPU or fans for that matter.

With the $200 you saved from getting a 480 rather then the 5970 useit to upgrade your PSU now, before you even think about running that 4890. Unless you want to risk damage to your system.

52 amps on this psu, a Corsair 650TX. This should give you some head room but tbh, I would go for the 750 which would give you 60 amps to work with, and leave more head room for the future.

650TX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

750TX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006