Well I stand corrected and I'll take back my words then re: frame rate performance, I did get a little bit carried away. However AMD still has the bang for buck title over nVidia no matter which card you look at.

Re the driver part - same old same old. nVidia has their fair share of issues as well. I had them when I first got 8800GTX's in SLI and a 9800GTX. I also had them when I got the 4870X2, for me I've always had driver issues with a new card.

I'm not even going to try and explain why I buy the top of the line cards, anyone who knows me knows why. But at the end of the day it's about choice and what a customer wants. I'm actually waiting to see how the 590GTX fairs before I upgrade again.

Ati's 4,5 series were excellent imo, i've had nvidia quite a few times but they never lived up to my expectations.
Considering switching to Nvidia again for the a new card but we'll see might as well wait for the next ATI series.
(And no im not an ATI fanboy, both have and had plenty of nvidia cards)

No they dont - how many of these ATI cards can you link up? How much will it cost to cool them? Can I buy three or even four of these and have them in crossfire?

edit-made me lol: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/08/ju...on-benchmarks/

lol yes thanks for reminding me Oldschool :)

Errrr ???? yeah you can. I've only ever had 2 way crossfire / 2 way SLI systems.

4 x 5870 crossfire on stock cooling.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=4043081

You can even now crossfire your stand alone cards with your on-board graphics chip (Hybrid CrossFire) if you've got one.

Cooling ... it depends what your doing. The stock coolers are fine even under load, just make sure your case is well ventilated. But you'd be crazy not to get a well ventilated case if your using multi GPU's, doesn't matter if your using SLI or Crossfire, goes without saying.

If you decide to overclock then that's another story. Spending $$$ on cooling depends on how much you can afford and how far you want to push the hardware.

I'm probably coming across as a AMD fan boy but I can assure you I'm not. I only go for what will gives me the best bang for my dollar.

I think that when talking about bang for buck, most of us don't mean multiple GPUs. For the majority of people what it translates to is "the cheapest single card solution for a given performance range or the fastest one for a given price range, preferably one that i won't have to upgrade again for the next year or more".

In that department, Ati have been ahead during the 4xxx and 5xxx series. Heck, the first time i bought an Ati card was when i got my current i7 rig almost two years ago. I initially bought a 4870 which was defective/damaged during shipping so when it died i used the 3 year warranty and exchanged it for a 4890 which i still have. I'm very pleased with it, it runs well and cool and has more vRAM than the more expensive nVidia GPUs of that generation. If i'm 10fps ahead in one game and 10fps behind in another, i don't care much about it. It does the same job overall for less money and that's good enough for me.


If you mean bang for your buck in regards to multi-GPU setups for expensive rigs to run every single new game at maximum detail then yes, i agree there's other variables in the mix, but it's not what most people have in mind when they are talking about building a well-rounded, capable system on a budget. ;)

I've always used nVidia since their first TNT cards apart from a brief spell with an ATi 9800 card. Back then drivers were a little patchy, no as bad as some make out mind you but were not as strong as nVidia who seemed bulletproof at the time. I stuck with nVidia for a long time but having seen the performance on friends machines and that ATi's drivers are - in my opinion as good as nVidia's I took the plunge and bought a 6870 for a cheap upgrade. I've been very happy with the performance and may stick with ATi the next time aroudn though as always I'll evaluate the cards from both manufacturers but right now it seems like ATi gives the best bang for buck and I certainly would not discourage a member here from using them.

+1, the 48xx series have been wonderful for me, and for a relatively long time in computing terms as well.

Since Nvidia tricked me with their horrible FX 5000 series I never went back. Sold my "old" HD4670 (best low budget card ever) and got my new HD6850 a couple of weeks ago. Works like a charm but consumes a bit more juice than the 4670 but the 4670 barely consumed anything so it's not a biggie. No problems or hitches so far, I'm not a fanboy but I do perceive myself as an informed consumer. That's why I go for AMD, good performance/€, low energy consumption (maybe not the high-end cards but I never buy high-end anyway).

"I say toh-mah-toh, you say toh-may-toh!"

Another 2-headed beast is coming out on March 22nd
 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Launch Date is March 22

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-11-19/147a.jpg

Lets hope it isn't a flop like 6990.