Poll: ATI vs. Nvidia for a serious gaming machine.

[SquirePB]

I've always used Nvidia but that's only cos that's what's come stock in whatever computer I've bought at the time and I've never had the money or time to build a proper rig. With that said I can report no problems with Nvidia so I guess I'd recommend it.

 

[MrTub]

Feel free to cite specific cards, and their abilities when combined with specific processors or in SLI.

First things first, both SLI and Crossfire don't work. They consistantly deliver more bugs and lower frames rates than single cards whilst also using masses of power (high end Nvidia cards in SLI eat close to 1000W/hr!). So don't bother with it.

At the high end of single cards it's really a wash. Nvidias seem to use memory more efficiently whilst ATIs have more processing power, but both deliver comparable frame rates.
I would buy a HD6970 2GB as they're a good price and can be hugely overclocked (10-15% on the bas clock, more on some really high end ones like the MSI lightning). With more than one monitor they also perform a lot better than a HD6990 despite having half as many cores (go figure).

But really any of the 6970, Nvidia 570 or 580 ranges will work extremely well.

Below £150-ish, ATI 6850 utterly cards destroy everything else.

SLI/CF works very well. They have around 80-90% increase of performance compared to using only one card. And I had very few bugs with sli, and when I have they are often fixed within a couple of days.


And there isnt anything odd that 2x 6970 outperforms a 6990 since 6990 have two downclocked 6970 gpus

And the only card that is close to using 1kwh is (2x)590 in sli (used 935w, measured before the power supply unit)
So please do your research before saying stuff.

 

[fix-the-spade]

SLI/CF works very well. They have around 80-90% increase of performance compared to using only one card. And I had very few bugs with sli, and when I have they are often fixed within a couple of days.

More details on your set up please, you are a rarity.

On a single monitor I haven't seen any gains from SLI/CF that couldn't be made by buying the next card up the range. Any single GPU over £200 now can push 1080p and a fairly high level of AA through it without a problem.

On multi monitors both systems are crap. They deliver good average frame rates but the actual fps swings massively. It's common to see CF set ups delivering average rates close to 100fps but a minium of 0, stuttering is the most common complaint and whilst new profiles come out regularly they never seem to fix it.

It's a complete compatability lottery too, especially in DX11 games like BC2 (and one would assume BF3 as well).

My experience of the 6970 is that with some clocking you can make one of those cards produce a more stable frame rate than one 6990 or even two 6970 cards running multiple monitors.

 

[MrTub]

SLI/CF works very well. They have around 80-90% increase of performance compared to using only one card. And I had very few bugs with sli, and when I have they are often fixed within a couple of days.

More details on your set up please, you are a rarity.

On a single monitor I haven't seen any gains from SLI/CF that couldn't be made by buying the next card up the range. Any single GPU over £200 now can push 1080p and a fairly high level of AA through it without a problem.

On multi monitors both systems are crap. They deliver good average frame rates but the actual fps swings massively. It's common to see CF set ups delivering average rates close to 100fps but a minium of 0, stuttering is the most common complaint and whilst new profiles come out regularly they never seem to fix it.

It's a complete compatability lottery too, especially in DX11 games like BC2 (and one would assume BF3 as well).

My experience of the 6970 is that with some clocking you can make one of those cards produce a more stable frame rate than one 6990 or even two 6970 cards running multiple monitors.

Im in no way a rarity. Just cheak pretty much every benchmark test that have been done during the latest 2-3 years.

Here is a test on Bad company 2 (with highest settings)
http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/13175-amd-radeon-hd-6970-och-hd-6950/13#pagehead

It was done a few days after 6970&6950 was released.

1x 6970 = 72 highest fps, 52 fps lowest
2x 6970 = 142 highest fps, 101 fps lowest

Here is a test on Bad company 2 with 6990.
http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/13610-amd-radeon-hd-6990/13#pagehead

It was done a few days after 6990 was released

1x 6990 = 136 highest fps, 99 lowest fps

So can you please show a link that a 6970 is beating a 6990.



And btw my setup is

2x gtx 480 (wc)
i7 2600k (wc)

5760x1080 resolution.

And as you can see Im using multi monitor and its not crap at all. Unless you think highest settings possible in bc2 with 5760x1080 and stable 60fps (since Im using vsync). And I have never had stuttering

 

[JochemDude]

If you're a casual user that has no interest in overclocking and all that tech stuff then a ATI is your thing. If you're gonna be doing some hardcore tweaking then you should get a Nvidia.