Are you running ATI 5870, 6870 or Nvidia 460?

My 5870 runs everything I have great, RoF being the most demanding (maybe) with IL2 (modded) not being much of a challenge. Planning on a second 5870 when the rig starts to slow down - or I wind up with some bored cash - lol. I've been very happy with it and recommend it highly. The drivers, by the way, are well developed, if you were wondering.

[klem]

First, thanks to you all again for your comments.

I'd like to keep this on the GPUs but of course, related system comments are helpful.

I have been building this spec for a few weeks with a limited budget in mind. In cutting edge terms it's a moderate system as I always seem to build I don't have masses of money and this is a 5-year-one-off excercise again

Triggaar,
I usually build my own. I proposed my parts list to Scan, looking for a discount and they came back with an adaptation of their Black Ops system. Their core product was an Asus Sabertooth mobo, i7 950 o/c to 4.2GHz, 6Gb memory, plus the other bits I wanted. I think theirs was cased but they put in the case I asked for, they seem flexible. After my initial enquiry to their Sales contact point on their website the rest was done on email exchanges.

The o/c comes as part of the package.

I can't find the one that most closely matched my offer, it was there a few days ago:
http://3xs.scan.co.uk/Category.asp?S...rCategoryID=20

I think I'm likely to wait the rest of this month to hear about the 6970 "due for release in November". It should top the 5870 and is optimised for Tesselation although Oleg has just stated that SoW doesn't use Tesselation but "could be considered for about 4-5 years time upgrade" if I interpret him correctly. See last Fridays Update post.

Hecke
I'm only guessing but I don't know that unused Tesselation capability will free up any resources for the other graphics needs.

dduff442
I'm not experienced enough at o/c a GPU. I tried with my 2 7800GTs but didn't get far before artifacts and temperature began to give problems.

maclean525
The AMD website stated a 500W PSU for a 5870 system and I went 600w to allow for one more 5870 in the future. I have a 750w in the cupboard but it doesn't have four 6pin PCIe lines (although I think I can adapt the molex 4 pins for a second card). I'll look at a larger PSU though. Mind you I think the 6000 series take less power so it may depend on my final GPU decision.
The cooler comes as part of the bundle, fitted tested and working - have you seen the size of that cooler??!!

I agree on price drops, in the short/medium term the 5970, 580, etc won't drop into my budget although I might save a little money waiting for the new stuff to hit the market. But my fingers are itching

Badaim
keeping my 7200rpm WDS's instead of getting the SSD would save me £120 but wouldn't help with buying a 5970 or 580 which are double the price of what I am considering. So I'll take the faster load and hopefully a few less 'new aicraftr joined' etc pauses. Anyway FSX takes 2 full minutes to load off my current HDDs

The latest videos from Oleg are pretty impressive on what he seems to refer to as modest system and I would take that right now on a 5870 if it will.

JG52Krupi
stop bragging !

Everyone else
Thanks.

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by klem

I usually build my own. I proposed my parts list to Scan, looking for a discount and they came back with an adaptation of their Black Ops system. Their core product was an Asus Sabertooth mobo, i7 950 o/c to 4.2GHz, 6Gb memory, plus the other bits I wanted. I think theirs was cased but they put in the case I asked for, they seem flexible.

Well if you add all the parts for your system to your cart (using 'Today Only' for deals, and it doesn't come to much less than they'll build it for you, you have all the details to make the best choise for you. I bought an i7-930, 6gig 1600 ram, asus p6x58d-e for £434 ( a month or two ago) and when I added the other parts and compared to a pre OC'ed system it was a big saving (but it might not be for you).

I think I'm likely to wait the rest of this month to hear about the 6970 "due for release in November".

The 69xx series has been pushed back to Dec 13th for the information release, so the cards will hopefully be out soon after that.

It should top the 5870 and is optimised for Tesselation although Oleg has just stated that SoW doesn't use Tesselation but "could be considered for about 4-5 years time upgrade"

He's mentioned a few times about tesselation, and at the moment it looks like the cards that are better at tesselation won't get a benefit. 4-5 years will probably get extended, and we'll get new cards again by then.

The AMD website stated a 500W PSU for a 5870 system and I went 600w to allow for one more 5870 in the future. I have a 750w in the cupboard but it doesn't have four 6pin PCIe lines (although I think I can adapt the molex 4 pins for a second card). I'll look at a larger PSU though.

I have a 5 year old 600W psu, which should do me for a new single GC, but I wish I had more power available, and could SLi/CF if I wanted.

[klem]

Originally Posted by Triggaaar

....I added the other parts and compared to a pre OC'ed system it was a big saving (but it might not be for you).

The 69xx series has been pushed back to Dec 13th for the information release, so the cards will hopefully be out soon after that.
.....

The assembly/overclocking/testing is costing me about £50 which I think is a very fair price for an o/c I would be afraid to push for

Where did you get that 13th December date from? I keep coming up against a wall of silence or "can't say due to Non Disclosure Agreements".

Flanker
yes power and heat are one of my (secondary) drivers

SQB
Thanks for that but I found Toms Hardare website and several others placed the 6870 below the 5870 on gaming tests and one of those sites had similar benchmark results to your link but said "benchmarks aren't everything" (don't necessarily reflect the real world of gaming). You're right about the price but I can afford either so it's down to what will run SoW best out of the two. If the 6970 is going to cost much more than the 5870 it's looking like a straight choice for me between 6870 and 5870. Both have their advantages. The 5970, 480GTX and 580 are beyond my reach.

btw I did check the card lengths which is one reason why I chose that case.

[SQB]

yes, that is true, benchmarks dont reflect everything. truth is the 5870 is i teeny weeny bit better, but nothing to make it worth the extra 100 bucks. All this benchmark shows is the difference is so marginal sometimes the "worse" card beats the "better" one.

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by klem

The assembly/overclocking/testing is costing me about £50 which I think is a very fair price for an o/c I would be afraid to push for

Wow - I enjoyed doing the OC myself, and learning in the process, but £50! When I looked at Scan's OC'ed components (and overclockers) I was looking at £200.

Where did you get that 13th December date from? I keep coming up against a wall of silence or "can't say due to Non Disclosure Agreements".

here - although the link on the first post is down now, it worked when I first read it. I've read a few other places about the details being released in week 50, I'm pretty sure it's official. The 6850 and 6870 were on sale about the same day that the details (benchmarks, reviews etc) were released, so hopefully that'll be the same this time around.

[klem]

Thanks Triggaaar,

that's really depressing. I read through a fair bit of that thread and several of the links. It seems a fair bet the 6970 won't be out before Christmas unless AMD are sandbagging a little.

I now have to decide whether to go 5870 or get the rig minus the Graphics card and throw in my 7800GTs and wait until the 6970 is available. At least then I will know the performance and the price.

Or can I be patient enough to wait until Q1 2011.
Would probably make sense. Prices may have dropped on the 5870 if the 6970 doesn't turn out to be as good as the hype. Or not.

nnnnnngggg.... I want it now!

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by klem

that's really depressing. I read through a fair bit of that thread and several of the links. It seems a fair bet the 6970 won't be out before Christmas unless AMD are sandbagging a little.

I didn't get the feeling that it won't be out for christmas. It's the information they've delayed, and if it's not going to be ready until after christmas, releasing the info on the 13th December doesn't make sense - ie, it's too late to stop some people buying a 580 before the 13th (they could release the info now if it's good news) and it's a bit early if the product still won't be ready. But we'll see.

I now have to decide whether to go 5870 or get the rig minus the Graphics card and throw in my 7800GTs and wait until the 6970 is available. At least then I will know the performance and the price.

It depends if there's a lot of games you're desperate to play now. I've built a new PC and I'm still using my 6600GT, as I'm in no hurry to get new games, and I want a card for SoW. If it's really for SoW, wait (not just for the 6970, but system requirements would be nice).

Would probably make sense. Prices may have dropped on the 5870 if the 6970 doesn't turn out to be as good as the hype. Or not.

I don't think the 5870 will see much proce drop before we know about the 6970. If that turns out to be a good card and a decent price (and while I doubt it'll be as fast as the 580, it'll be faster than the 5870, crossfire better etc, and probably be a reasonable price), the 5870 should then see price drops.

[Slechtvalk]

2x 6850 is pretty nice, perfomance & price wise.

Or just wait untill the 5870 & 5970 replacements are out, 5870/5970 should be cheap to get then.

[klem]

I thought I'd pop back in here and let you know what I decided which I also posted in the "Good thing SOW is Nvidia's friendly !" thread.

How quickly things can change in just a month!

I have decided on the EVGA Superclocked 570GTX (even these were only recently released). After all the hype over the 6970, released on Wednesday, I've spent the past three days poring over the reviews. I have been steered by the written reviews but this link shows graphically what many are saying.
http://www.pcinlife.com/article_phot...game/total.png
Call of Duty is interesting because I believe it is OpenGL which is IL-2 country but these cards should spank IL-2 anyway. The Directx/3D table at the bottom looks at Directx/3D.

All the reviews are pointing to a couple of general conclusions.

General: the 6970 targets the 570GTX. The 6950 pitches in between the 480GTX (in some reviews although I think that should have said 460GTX) and the 570GTX. The 6990 will target the 580GTX.

Performance: Below 1900 resolution the 570GTX has the edge on the 6970. However, if Tesselation is in use the 6970 wins (but SoW won't have Tesselation). At 1900 its a bit of a toss-up. Above 1900 the 6970 takes over.

Power and Heat: Power consumption of the 6970 and 570 at stock speeds is very similar although one report put the 6970 as the higher of the two on higher resolutions/game demands. The 570 edged the 6970 out by something like 30w and 10 degrees under heavy load in one review which also found that two 6970s in Crossfire might lead to heat problems if they are very close, depending on the motherboard/ventilation.

Price: Not much between the 570 and the 6970 depending on which supplier/badge you pick.

My position is: 1680x1050 resolution and not likely to change in the next 2-3 years; New PC is overclocked from 3GHz to 4.2GHz so heat is a point to watch; My budget is £300, squeeezable to £350 in a very cause cause.

I am not a fanboy. I was very happy with my ATI 9600GT and have been very happy with my NV 7800GTs. As much as I wanted to believe the hype and buy a shiny new 570GTX-killing 6970, that did not come to pass so for me its the 570GTX.

It was a fine-line decision. Ultimately it came down to what would best meet "My Position". Add to that the fact that Oleg is developing SoW using Nvidia cards, which may have a sliver of an effect, and the EVGA stock 570GTX review I found that put it ahead of stock 570 cards without even o/clocking and I reckon that the Superclocked EVGA is the best choice for me.

Can't wait to get my hands on my little beauty:-

Scan.co.uk 3XS SLIK i7 X58 950 BlackOps Bundle, tailored, comprising:-
Asus Sabertooth motherboard, Intel X58 chipset, Socket 1366, PCI-E 2.0 , DDR3 1866MHz, USB3/SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield 45nm, 3.06 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 23x Ratio, 130W, Retail, o/c to 4.2GHz
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B,Super 6 Heatpipe Tower Cooler (Fanless, cooled by case roof fan)
EVGA Superclocked 570GTX
128GB Crucial RealSSD C300, MLC-Flash, SATA3 6Gbps, 2.5" SSD, Read 355MB/s, Write 70MB/s
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), CAS 8-8-8-24, DHX, XMP, New connector, 1.65V
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus, Black, Mid Tower Case
750W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU
2 x 120mm Akasa Apache Ultra Silent Fan HDB Bearing PWM fan w/4 pin connector & Rubber Pins
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM
Acronis True Image 2010 sofware
Built and Overclocked to 4.2GHz, Tested and Heat Soaked
1 year on site Warranty plus 1 year rtb