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l33t-g4m3r
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Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Fri Jun 22, 2012 10:50 am

Performance of the two is pretty similar, yet the 570 is now much cheaper. I was originally considering a 7870, but discounted 570's have piqued my interest. Also, there are several overclocked 570's available that should do better than a stock 7870. I'm using this with a 1920x1200 monitor. The 570 seems to have problems at higher res, and that's most likely because it's running out of memory. Would be nice if that point was noted in reviews, and it would partially explain some of the stuttering. Penny for your thoughts?

570 Cons:
less memory
heat
power consumption

Pros:
Cheaper
Overclocked editions
physx (meh)
cuda (somewhat useful)

7870 Pros:
Future proof
Cons:
cost
 
flip-mode
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:32 pm

Seems to me like there are two deciding factors:

1. do you sleep/off your computer when not in use
2. do you plan to stay at 1900x1200 for the next few years

If you answered "no" to either one of those then the 7870 is worth it.
If you answered "yes" to both of those then the 570 is the pick.
 
ordskiweicz
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:57 pm

What are you upgrading from?

Are you sure you'll notice the difference with this rig? (See thread on 5850)
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:40 pm

flip-mode wrote:
Seems to me like there are two deciding factors:

1. do you sleep/off your computer when not in use
2. do you plan to stay at 1900x1200 for the next few years

If you answered "no" to either one of those then the 7870 is worth it.
If you answered "yes" to both of those then the 570 is the pick.

I don't think it's so black and white. The 570 has an acceptable low power mode, albeit not the best, and while screen resolution is pretty significant, texture resolution may eventually increase past the 570's memory capability. I think there already may be a few games that are doing so, considering the frame stuttering. Nvidia's always had terrible performance once their cards run out of memory, while amd has traditionally handled it more gracefully. One of my older cards was a x1900 with 256mb, and it ran everything I threw at it. I do plan on staying at 1900x1200 though, since bigger monitors seem like a waste.
ordskiweicz wrote:
What are you upgrading from?

A 470. Truthfully, I don't think I'll be seeing a major speed bump. The 7870 was my primary choice considering the larger memory and power consumption, but the price lowered so dramatically on the 570 that I'm doing a double take. Both cards have their good points, and the performance is virtually identical. The biggest difference is the price. If the 7870 had a price drop, then I'd go with that in a heartbeat. I honestly would be better off waiting for a drop since I don't feel a need to upgrade. I also figured it would be good to know what other people think before making a decision.
 
flip-mode
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:22 pm

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
I don't think it's so black and white. The 570 has an acceptable low power mode, albeit not the best, and while screen resolution is pretty significant, texture resolution may eventually increase past the 570's memory capability. I think there already may be a few games that are doing so, considering the frame stuttering. Nvidia's always had terrible performance once their cards run out of memory, while amd has traditionally handled it more gracefully. One of my older cards was a x1900 with 256mb, and it ran everything I threw at it. I do plan on staying at 1900x1200 though, since bigger monitors seem like a waste. [Upgrading from] a 470. Truthfully, I don't think I'll be seeing a major speed bump. The 7870 was my primary choice considering the larger memory and power consumption, but the price lowered so dramatically on the 570 that I'm doing a double take. Both cards have their good points, and the performance is virtually identical. The biggest difference is the price. If the 7870 had a price drop, then I'd go with that in a heartbeat. I honestly would be better off waiting for a drop since I don't feel a need to upgrade. I also figured it would be good to know what other people think before making a decision.

It seems strange you'd ask for advice if you pretty well have it all figured out. :D
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:26 am

flip-mode wrote:
It seems strange you'd ask for advice if you pretty well have it all figured out. :D

I have a general idea of what I want, but it's not set in stone becaue of the price drop. I would like to know what other people are upgrading to, and impressions of their cards. So anyone with a 7870, 570, or similar, what's it like?
 
vargis14
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:49 am

AMD's 7870 and 7850 are more interesting then AMD's 7950 and 7970. At least to me they are.
They overclock like a champ, use low power,more graphics horsepower then a 580 in most cases. But you pay a good bit more but still cheaper then a 580 i believe.
I would go with the 7870. But i would make sure i researched the best 7870 for overclocking or even a highly overclocked edition if you do not overclock yourself.

I use 2 560 tis now but i wish i had 2 7870s:)
I added a nice comparison chart from andantech showing stock speeds and overclocked speeds.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5767/caps ... ck-edition
2600k@4848mhz @1.4v CM Nepton40XL 16gb Ram 2x EVGA GTX770 4gb Classified cards in SLI@1280mhz Stock boost on a GAP67-UD4-B3, SBlaster Z powered by TX-850 PSU pushing a 34" LG 21/9 3440-1440 IPS panel. Pieced together 2.1 sound system
 
flip-mode
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 9:09 am

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
So anyone with a 7870, 570, or similar, what's it like?

If I go buy one of those will my opinion carry more weight with you :lol: Just kidding. I don't care what you do.
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:35 pm

flip-mode wrote:
l33t-g4m3r wrote:
So anyone with a 7870, 570, or similar, what's it like?

If I go buy one of those will my opinion carry more weight

Sure. If you need justification, let's call it scientific research. You're in the study group.
 
flip-mode
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 2:36 pm

My opinion remains unchanged. 8) If you'd have said from the beginning that you were only taking opinions from current owners of 7870s or 570s then I wouldn't have offered that opinion. I'd have instead mentioned that it's going to be pointless to get opinions from anyone that doesn't own both. After all, no one can give you any solid information if they don't own both. :wink:

Anyone here own both the 7870 and the 570? Anyone?
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:00 pm

flip-mode wrote:
My opinion remains unchanged. 8)

I didn't get the impression you had a solid opinion, hence the smiley. It was an if/then statement, which was more iffy than then.
flip-mode wrote:
Anyone here own both the 7870 and the 570?

Some people might. Multiple PC's and all that. Or have one card and a friend with the other. It doesn't really matter if you have both since I'm the one comparing.

I'm probably going to get a 7870. Just trying to talk myself out of the 570 because of the price drop. Neither card should be a bad choice, just depends on where gaming goes from here. Nvidia works closer with developers too. Argh. The cards are too damn close to call. I dunno.
 
flip-mode
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:44 pm

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
The cards are too damn close to call.
You're not making sense. If they're so close then you'd get the cheaper one.
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:40 pm

flip-mode wrote:
l33t-g4m3r wrote:
The cards are too damn close to call.
You're not making sense. If they're so close then you'd get the cheaper one.

Makes perfect sense. Because going with the 570 means less ram. I know TR doesn't like to review all cards available equally against each other in multiple tests, only a small detailed subsection, so I get big picture comparisons from anand, and viewpoints from here. The two cards perform very similar, but both have differences, making it hard for me to choose one outright. The 7870 is more future proof, but only in the long range if games continue to increase resolution. Otherwise, the 570 is an acceptable card that should support games better out of the box. Driver and hardware issues are something I'm considering too. IMO, QC sucks with nvidia.

I'm gonna go read some more reviews.
 
BloodSoul
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:12 pm

It also matters which 570 or 7870 you are going with, a non-reputable brand that comes out to be cheaper may have an annoying fault (like an excessive loud fan or high failure rate). I really do not see the point in upgrading from a 470 though... what are you doing that would see a noticeable difference between a 470 and 570? If it is power related, go with the 7870, because you can obviously use the extra power. If it is noise related, the 570 isn't going to be THAT much better, so you might as well go with the 7870, which you've noted to be cooler (and consequently quieter). I understand their are pros and cons between the 570 and 7870, but the pros and cons of the 570 are similar to those of the 470... so you might as well go with something different.
 
vargis14
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:30 pm

7870...7870...7870...:)
Well as you can see with anand charts overclocked the 7870 is surpassing the 7950 and knocking on the door of the 7970 all while using much less power then a 570. I did not notice you had a 470 already. A 570 performs like a old 480, just like the 560ti performs like a 470.

Plus those charts are based off older drivers......from what i have been seeing with the 12.7 betas and even the 12.4 drivers the majority of the new amd cards get a nice boost in performance.
If you are running win7 and you want physics for whatever reason, and you board supports 2 pcie 16 slots even if your second slot is only 4x bandwidth. There is a hack out there to do hybrid physics with a AMD card as your primary graphics and you could use the 470 as a physics card. But from what i have read the hybrid setup is a kinda PITA to get going correctly. Plus you need Enough PSU wattage to use that watt guzzling 470 along with a 7870.

That is why i went a little overkill on my sig PSU with 850 watts. The way i look at it a PSU will last longer running at 40-70% capacity then running at 75-95% capacity over a long period of time. Plus i have the wattage if i need it in the future.
2600k@4848mhz @1.4v CM Nepton40XL 16gb Ram 2x EVGA GTX770 4gb Classified cards in SLI@1280mhz Stock boost on a GAP67-UD4-B3, SBlaster Z powered by TX-850 PSU pushing a 34" LG 21/9 3440-1440 IPS panel. Pieced together 2.1 sound system
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 6:33 pm

BloodSoul wrote:
I understand their are pros and cons between the 570 and 7870, but the pros and cons of the 570 are similar to those of the 470... so you might as well go with something different.

Right, right. The 570 is just an updated version of the 470, and the 7870 uses less power. But the price man, the price...
vargis14 wrote:
hybrid physics with a AMD card

You know, I didn't think of that.. But boy would that be a waste of power, nor do I have room in the case. I think I would miss Cuda video apps more, although it really isn't that big of a deal.

-Slightly OT but, has anyone noticed visual discrepancies between nvidia and amd?
My brother uses a 6950 and he says he can see shimmering in certain things like the heaven benchmark. I think it may be nvidia cheating on the shadowing or something, but it doesn't bother me.
 
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Re: Upgrade to 7870 or 570?

Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:22 pm

.
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