ATI Radeon 5970 vs SLI GTX 480 (Fermi)

[Davidxtux]

As promised from a previous post I'd start posting reviews as my friend and I put our cards to the test.


My Build:
OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
CPU AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz
Motherboard MSI NF980-G65 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 (PC3 12800)
Graphics Card(s) SLI 2x MSI N480GTX-M2D15-B GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5
Screen Resolution 1920x1080 60hz
PSU Antec TPQ-1200 1200W Continuous Power with PowerCache

His Build:

OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
CPU AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz
Motherboard MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 (PC3 12800)
Graphics Card(s) XFX HD-597A-CNB9 Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5
Screen Resolution 1920x1080 60hz
PSU hec Zephyr 1000 1000W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91


Though are builds are slightly different.. they are close enough for us to benchmark them against each other. One thing I can confirm as of now.. while tessellation is on. His 5970 ,sadly, doesn't stand a chance against my setup with 1 480 (other 480 on physX). So we made the agreement to, when possible, not run tessellation during our benchmarks.

 

[JonM33]

His build is actually cheaper and uses less power (more money in his pocket every month).

 

[Davidxtux]

His build is actually cheaper and uses less power (more money in his pocket every month).

Depends really on where and how you get the parts. We paid pretty much the same except I went for larger PSU. Once we get this hw monitors to record data as we take it through some tests I'll start to post some reviews. I upgraded from a tri-sli 250 and him from crossfire 5770.

 

[JonM33]

Radeon HD 5970 = $699
(2) GeForce GTX 480 = $998

hec Zephyr 1000 = $179
Antec TPQ-1200 = $279

You would have been fine with the 1kW PSU. He saved $400 compared to you.

 

[Davidxtux]

Maybe you missed what I said in my post or perhaps you were to set on proving a point. A received one 480 through a promotional offer and only purchased the second one. My PSU I got on sale from a local computer shop which was closing down and got it at half price for $125.99. While he paid $199 for his. So according to your math....

Radeon HD 5970 = $719 (What he actually paid for it. not 699.)
2x Geforce GTX480 = 1 free and 1 at $459.99

hec Zephyr 1000 = $199
Antec TPQ-1200 = $125.99

So he spent: $918.99 and I spent 585.98. So I saved $333.01. and thats just where the savings begin as we both have been through this already.

So I'll say it one more time and I'll even bold it for yah. Depends really on where and how you get the parts.

Now I will state this.. This post will be for information only. If you feel compelled to resurrect another age-old battle on who is better, ATI or Nvidia, go find another post to spam. As I have tried them both and one thing remains the same. Nvidia produces reliable drivers and ATI produces faster game friendly cards. Some models on either side sometimes slip through the hole and triumph but that simple fact has remained since both parties started competing with each other.

 

[smarteyeball]

One thing I can confirm as of now.. while tessellation is on. His 5970 ,sadly, doesn't stand a chance against my setup with 1 480 (other 480 on physX).

The 5970 is woeful at tessellation. Tbh, it's rather a disappointing card.

Once we get this hw monitors to record data as we take it through some tests I'll start to post some reviews.

Look forward to it.

Ah, I see David. Thanks. There are plenty of GTX 480 in SLI reviews on the web though.

Some more evenly matched, unbiased, user level opinions/reviews is never a bad thing.

Not sure if I would call nVIDIA's drivers more reliable than ATI though: NVIDIA Responsible for Nearly 30% of Vista Crashes in 2007

Both camps release both good and bad driversets.

 

[Davidxtux]

All topics discussing anything besides the benchmarks of the 5970 and SLI 480 are off-topic. So please get back on topic.

Trying to match 2 systems to get real benchmarks is not as easy as lets load the same settings and play. Though I can say this.. regardless of settings the 5970 does out-perform my SLI 480s in Crysis. (16xQ AA at 1920x1200) 45-51 FPS 5970 and 37-48 FPS Sli 480. The main issue we are having is heating. We can only do one series of tests before we both need to let our cards cool off. After our Crysis bout his 5970 was sitting at a toasty 81c and SLI 480s at 87c. And we are both in an A/C room running fans at 100%. As far as benchmarks go MSI Kombuster (DX10/DX11) at 1920x1200 32XQ (Quality) CSAA: sample count = 8 and quality level = 32 my SLI blew the 5970 out of the water. Though we need to do a retest as his card started to suffer from his GPU throttling back to reduce heat. I can say is when it was running at 99% he was getting 97 FPS and SLI 480s at 179 FPS. Though as I said the GPU kept throttling back.. so until I get some definitive results I'll save on posting "real" results.

 

[Davidxtux]

Sorry about the delay but the 5970 died, cpu got stuck in low power mode, so until we get the new card from XFX (Props to them.. sending out a new card ASAP) the test results will be delayed. Preliminary results though point all DX11 applicated run much more efficient on the Fermi rather then the 5970.. but all directx9 games run smoother and faster on the 5970