GTX 570 and GTX 580 price to performance

[johntmssf]

so ive recently come into the ability of having some money in the near future, which means i can buy a new graphics card

and i ave decided on buying Nvidia because of the CUDA cores and Physx (because i like to play video games, along with working industrial 3D CAD software)

I have an AMD CPU, so sadly SLI is not an option. i don't think i'm going to budge on switching over to AMD cards anytime soon either (I like playing games with Physx, even if i cant play them with the setting on high)

Anyway, my question is, what is the price to performance ratio of the two cards... as in, if i paid $500 for a 580, would the performance increase really be worth the extra $150 that could have been saved if i just bought the 570

or do you think it would just be best to scrap Nvidia altogether and Crossfire two AMD 6870's or 6950's, and if i did so would i notice any performance increase, or would my 3D CAD programs suffer from not having the CUDA cores.

 

[Aurus_OC]

First, I wouldn't buy 2 AMD cards at the moment and crossfire them, simply because you will have to deal with possible crossfire problems. The 570 and 580 are absolutely cracking little cards, so if you want to save some money get 570 or of it's all about perfomance get a 580.

 

[Heebs]

What resolution do you play at?

What games are you thinking of that actually support physx?

I bought a new monitor with a resolution of 2560x1440. The 6970 is faster than the 570 at that resolution and the AMD card beats the 580 in some instances so for me thats an amazing performance/price comparison vs the 570 or 580.

Physx is cool but what games really support it? Steam games run on their own engine and BFBC2 runs on Havok. So physx to me (unless you are playing specific games that support it) is not really a good selling point as who knows if the next game you buy uses it or not.

 

[Aurus_OC]

Physx is cool but what games really support it? Steam games run on their own engine and BFBC2 runs on Havok. So physx to me (unless you are playing specific games that support it) is not really a good selling point as who knows if the next game you buy uses it or not.

True, if you don't have any games that use physx, then there is not much use for it. For me the support for NVidia CUDA is essential since I do use quite a few that support that.

Me personally I run my games at 1920 x 1080, but I don't yet own a 570, however I am planning to get one.

The AMD cards aren't bad at the moment, but if you plan spending like 300-400 pounds now buy the single best card, so you don't have to deal with Crossfire or SLI. If you are running games on this high resolution the 2GB of memory will be benefitial to some point. If you want to go AMD then by all means do it, they aren't bad but with the release of NVidia's 570 and 580 video cards the market has go a whole lot more interesting.

Choose the card that best fits your needs. For example if you want to use Display Port, well there really is no way around AMD. If you want CUDA, folding ability or Physx NVidida might make the best card for you. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.