HD6870 vs GTX470

[killablade]

Right guys, the situation has changed a bit. I now have enough money to get one of these, instead of a HD6850/GTX460/GTX465, so which one would you say is better?

With the GTX470 I get Mafia 2 for free, and with the 6870 I get, well, nothing.

I've read a couple of reviews, and it seems to me that overall the HD6870 is just a bit faster, but with the GTX470 I also get CUDA and PhysX. Both of them are €215.

It's kinda hard for me to decide

Which one would you go for and why?

 

[J0s3e]

I'd go for 470, but don't get me wrong, I would do it because I am a little of nVidia fanboy, and also 6xxx's just hit the market, so we can expect some price drops very soon, and also the reference cards seem to be a bit noisy.

In fact, I would go for 470 and a better cooler, or 6870 and a better cooler. Price-wise it works out the same, with 6870 you get wee bit of extra performance, with 470 as you said, PhysX and Cuda.

Hard decision

 

[alienware]

It depends on what you are going to have to pay for the 470.

Out of the box stock the 470 will be OK. However I wouldn't dare to overclock it with the tiny fan on it. I really couldn't get over how small it was !

I suppose what it comes down to dude is this.

Do you want CUDA?

Do you want Physx?

If the answer is no then go with AMD.

Do you want to pay more for electricity for the above? I'm not doing the temp and noise argument on the 470, I'm just not. At 50% my fan is completely inaudible over the rest of the system. In gaming I have never seen more than 71c (well under the 80c recc threshold for a GPU) with the fan at 70%. Yes I *totally* agree at 100% the fan is INCREDIBLY loud but I mean, who runs Furmark all day? Honestly it kinda erks me that people use Furmark as a guideline. It works a GPU harder than pretty much anything else, including most games.

I will run Crysis later and see how that goes, but even Vantage didn't push my fan over 70% and at 70% it's loud but not offensive.

I'm not sure how they stack performance wise but I would imagine in my PC the 470 would be better. I mean, it outperforms a pair of 5770s. Whether a 6870 could do that? not sure. I would suggest looking up the 5770 Crossfire review on here and then look at the 6870 review and compare the results. If the 5770 CF beats the 6870 then the 470 will also.

 

[hmmblah]

Easy decision for me...folding. Go with the 470!

 

[alienware]

I did a wee bit of poking for you dude. I couldn't find a 470 review on here so I went with the next best thing, the Twin Frozr. I would strongly imagine that a custom cooled 470 could take out the 465 TF.

6870

5770CF

465 TF

Are all pretty much in the same Vantage ballpark. So, I think it's fair to assume that the 470 with better cooling could just about take the edge. So, it would come back to -

Do you want Physx?

Do you want Cuda?

Do you want to fold (cheers Hmmblah

)

Also you need to figure on money. Money talks, BS walks. If the 470 is cheaper then it's a bit of a no brainer but if it costs more I wouldn't bother.

The big problem IMO with the 6 series GPUs is that they are not overclockable. By that I mean it's hardly worth it. If you want out of the box non fiddle with it performance the 6870 would be a good choice

 

[killablade]

Thanks Alien.

I think I'm going with nVidia this time. I re-read some reviews on the 6870 and when it comes to the games I play the GTX470 is usually 5-10% faster. That, and the fact that I wouldn't mind having physx in games like Mafia II, and I also like overclocking. When it comes to price the difference is 2 euros (in favour of the 6870) so yeah, big deal, lol.

I might just slap an accelero xtreme plus or a zalman vf3000f on the 470 when I've got money again, but we'll see about that.

Oh, and folding, not sure about that yet. I don't think my mom would like it with the energy the 470 consumes at load

 

[alienware]

Thanks Alien.

I think I'm going with nVidia this time. I re-read some reviews on the 6870 and when it comes to the games I play the GTX470 is usually 5-10% faster. That, and the fact that I wouldn't mind having physx in games like Mafia II, and I also like overclocking. When it comes to price the difference is 2 euros (in favour of the 6870) so yeah, big deal, lol.

I might just slap an accelero xtreme plus or a zalman vf3000f on the 470 when I've got money again, but we'll see about that.

Oh, and folding, not sure about that yet. I don't think my mom would like it with the energy the 470 consumes at load

OK to compare I did some Heaven benchmarks.

Here is the original one from my 5770 Crossfire. Try and remember these are comparisson scores on my machine, not with an I7 triple channel machine. What I mean is, don't compare my scores to the ones above as they beat mine hands down due to better system hardware. However, this may help you as our CPUs are pretty much dead evenly matched.

First of all here are the settings I used. It's how it runs as standard.

Here was the result. To keep it fair I brought my CPU down to the same settings (IE overclock) so that it was identical.

And here was the result from the 470. I wouldn't say it's miles faster but yes, it won.

What you need to remember though Complex is (and I am pretty darn certain of this) that Crossfired 5770s will beat the 6870 by quite a margin (in a comparitively powered computer of course). Thus, I think it's fair to say that in Vantage and Unigene the 470 wins by a small margin.

 

[killablade]

Yeah I'm really gonna go with the GTX470 guys, thanks again Alien!

It'll be interesting to use nvidia again after the 4770 and the 5770.

 

[hEx]

I wonder why are you guys after nvidia 470...

6870 is far better and physx works ok, all the physx games on my 5870 run very smoothly on maximum detail.

State-of-art games need 2x6870 wich is better, cooler, takes less energy and it is faster and cheaper than nvidia 580 - just ordered set of asus 6870 oc for 370 pounds.

The only reason I am getting rid of 5870 is because I need 3D playback.

I do not see any reason to go with nvidia.

Don't think I'm AMD fan boy (my system is i7), I always go with the best buy after studying 100s of benchmarks and tests, comparing prices etc. I've been also building PC systems for over 15 years, I'm surprised of this poll and opinions. All these 3dmark and heaven benchmarks do not mean much, real in-game FPS is important and you guys are picking favourising tests. Maybe you're emplyed by nvidia?

 

[killablade]

The 6870 gets beat on the points that matter most to me, therefore I bought the GTX470. I am well pleased with it. It overclocks like a champ. I've got it to 730 mhz on the core stable with the standard clock being 607 mhz. I could easily overclock it further if I'd slap an aftermarket cooler on it. From what I've heard the gains when overclocking a 6870 as opposed to the standard clocks are minimal. This is not the case with the GTX470. Also, games look better with physx on, and with for example my 5770 PhysX is not for AMD GPUs. My FPS in Mafia 2 would drop loads if I turned on PhysX, and a friend of mine who has a 5850 experienced the same thing.

Yes, the 6870 uses less power, yes it runs cooler, but those things aren't an issue for me.

The GTX470 and 6870 perform about the same, exchanging blows in everything you throw at them. But when they are both overclocked the GTX470 really shows it's potential.

 

[alienware]

I wonder why are you guys after nvidia 470...

6870 is far better and physx works ok, all the physx games on my 5870 run very smoothly on maximum detail.

State-of-art games need 2x6870 wich is better, cooler, takes less energy and it is faster and cheaper than nvidia 580 - just ordered set of asus 6870 oc for 370 pounds.

The only reason I am getting rid of 5870 is because I need 3D playback.

I do not see any reason to go with nvidia.

Don't think I'm AMD fan boy (my system is i7), I always go with the best buy after studying 100s of benchmarks and tests, comparing prices etc. I've been also building PC systems for over 15 years, I'm surprised of this poll and opinions. All these 3dmark and heaven benchmarks do not mean much, real in-game FPS is important and you guys are picking favourising tests. Maybe you're emplyed by nvidia?

You've only negated to mention one thing. Crossfire is a complete pain in the arse. As for being employed by Nvidia? I supposed you missed the part where I benched a set of 5770s in Crossfire against a 470 and they lost . And it wasn't just heaven, or vantage, it was all of the games I have used it in.

I couldn't care less who makes what.

Have you used Crossfire before? I just hope you don't have all the headaches I have. Playing a game and wondering why it's running like crap only to realise it isn't actually working (even though you are using the indicator and it's at the top right of the screen saying CROSSFIRE in big letters).

Crossfire 5770 was the first, and the last time I will ever use more than one card.

Also. The thread title says 6870 or 470. And considering the 6870 is barely any faster than a 5850 and the 470 is faster than a 5850 and costs £27 less than a 6870.. Well the answer was simple really.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

both (LUCID HYDRA FTW!)

 

[hEx]

Well, I'll just wait until I get them in next week and share the experience

I always had nvidia (9800gx2 was last one I had) but things changed and radeon is actually better choice right now, I find it very good, every game is working perfectly, which wasn't the case with 9800gx2.

It is worst nvidia series ever released, project which wasn't properly finalized, and 5xx series is what 4xx series meant to be, but they rushed on, because they already delayed release date a couple of times.

Before I have bought HD 5870 I was waiting for gx480 to be released - the choice was simple, nvidia is just not good enough for this amount of money.

And now when 6870 was released you can always add 2nd card without upgrading PSU. This makes dual card setup even cheaper, and with nvidia it is just not worth the money spent, and amounts of heat and noise you will get are ridiculous.

nv 4xx series cards are branded 'heaters' for a reason

 

[SnW]

Easy decision for me...folding. Go with the 470!

Can't go wrong with a GTX470

 

[alienware]

Well, I'll just wait until I get them in next week and share the experience

Did you not read the huge review/roundup? They're good cards no one is denying that. But they're quite expensive and it comes down to money. The 470 can be had for much cheaper than a single 6870 and is faster.

I always had nvidia (9800gx2 was last one I had) but things changed and radeon is actually better choice right now, I find it very good, every game is working perfectly, which wasn't the case with 9800gx2.

Well whilst Crossfire is pretty damn good and usually does what it is supposed to it doesn't always. New titles usually don't work properly with it and you have to wait for a profile. Then when it comes you have to hope it works. When it doesn't it can be a pain. The cards need spacing out well or they will run as hot as Nvidias ETC ETC. Personally for £400 I would have gotten a 580. And no, I'm no fanboy but one card is just easier and less hassle if you actually want to sit down and game.

It is worst nvidia series ever released, project which wasn't properly finalized, and 5xx series is what 4xx series meant to be, but they rushed on, because they already delayed release date a couple of times.

The 5 series (well, the one card out, the 580) is a 480 with more unlocked on a better cooler with a wattage throttle. Bypass it? (the throttle) and it becomes just as hot as the 480. The 4 series (465 470 and 480) all need a good cooler on them. Once you do that? they run cool. It has been proven time and time again that the only thing that really let down the early 4 series cards were the terrible coolers and the early drivers that had them running 100% clocks all the time. The new ones use adaptive, same as ATI. And just to prove it.

36c idle after being on for an hour. It hit 42 because I was using photoshop earlier.

Before I have bought HD 5870 I was waiting for gx480 to be released - the choice was simple, nvidia is just not good enough for this amount of money.

And now when 6870 was released you can always add 2nd card without upgrading PSU. This makes dual card setup even cheaper, and with nvidia it is just not worth the money spent, and amounts of heat and noise you will get are ridiculous.

nv 4xx series cards are branded 'heaters' for a reason

A lot of people got the 5870 because they were sick of waiting for the 480. A lot of people got the 5850 because they were sick of waiting for the 470. I got a pair of 5770 because they cost the same as a 5850 and went faster than a 5870. But there are certain things Nvidia have (CUDA for folding) that people must have. Plus I think you will find that every 480/470 owner here will be fitting an aftermarket cooler.

As for them being branded heaters? 36 idle and 71 highest I have seen it go? (In Crysis before you ask?). Well, for £173 for the performance it offers I don't think that's terrible. Could be a lot better yes but that's what the aftermarket coolers are for.

The 6 series thus far are absolute crap for overclocking. So that would be your trade off I guess. You'll never have it all

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

i am going to wait for Nvidia to get up to the 8xxx series again. can you imagine a new 8800 ultra in say about 2 to 3 years.