Those 580s on ebay have my attention. I've been monitoring auctions and they end at 266-300 Euros for standard models and 300-340 for overclocked - 3GB models (plus shipping). Not bad considering the card retails at 409 Euros in my country.
I wouldn't hesitate to say the Radeon 7950 is the best price/performance ratio card out right now since the price drops. They beat out the 580 in most games/applications especially when tessellation is involved, and they around the same pricing if only slightly more. They overclock like a monster, use much less power than the 580 and are MUCH cooler. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-overclock-crossfire-benchmark,3123.html Crossfire performance vs SLI between the two has BIG gains with the 7950's also. Here's a good reference for you also! http://www.overclock.net/t/1139204/ati-4870x2-vs-gtx-580 My 2 cents anyways. Good luck!
GTX 580 / HD 7950. I don't know if you know this already, but the FPS from a dual-GPU card doesn't equate to the same level of smoothness from a single-GPU card. Even if say a 5870 has the same FPS as a 4870X2, the 5870 will feel noticeably smoother (especially at lower FPS). (I've upgraded from a 4870X2 to a 5870 and experienced much more stability in games. Same thing when had a GTX 590...now have a GTX 680.)
No I did not know this, is this for real? anybody confirm this? Also, did you see much FPS increase coming from a 4870x2 to more up to date cards? from what I am reading the improvements over the last 4 years are abysmal.
Yeah it's been documented, I've seen HardOCP mention it before as well as some users here bring it up. I've owned quite a few cards since the 4870X2, but I have also moved on to other games since then. The only game I still play that I've tested several cards on is BFBC2 and each time I upgraded the performance was significant. HD 5870 to GTX 580 for instance was like night and day in terms of performance. GTX 590 may have gotten the same FPS as the GTX 680, but I noticed the 590 being choppy at 70fps and lower whereas the GTX 680..not so much.
Just tested this using BF3, FPS locked at 60FPS for both cards set to High no AA to keep minimum 60fps. Both feel the exact same, so you are seeing a placebo effect or something limited to the 590 alone.
I've encountered the same scenario when I went from a 4870X2 to a 5870 & GTX 590 to GTX 680. The same FPS on the dual-GPU cards felt less than what it like on the single-GPU equivalents (I've seen others encounter the same scenario). Dare I say "microstutter" as it's probably the most misinterpreted word on the net although I believe what I experienced is the true meaning of the word. I had dual 580's for a month, but didn't do much testing (sold the other as one was more than enough at the time for my small selection of games).
Beyond dual-GPU setups, CrossFireX/SLI setups do not seem to be as affected by micro-stuttering; the frame rate variability in a three-way CrossFireX setup approaches the smoothness achieved by a single GPU. thats from wikipedia... so all i have to do is add another card and i should be good to go? they got that from the toms hardware page.. saying that the 6870 X2 and another card added provided no microstuttering. I doubt that the wikipedia statement is true for all 3 card configurations.
i came from an nvidia gtx 260 the 216 cores for a amd 6850 whit an oc and i noticed big improvementes in fps and game stability specialy in bf3 now i can run the game in ultra setings and smooth the gtx 260 barely keep 30fps in medium so it was a bugtet card but beat my gtx 260 but i wasnt realy fall for an ati gpu but have to say it was the best i ever did we have ati products on the market from ati faster then som expensive nvidias but i wold go for a 7950 if i colud buy another gpu
LOL what can you do, I have native 1080p TV so that's my res, and I like SKYRIM and BF3 and Batman Arkham Asylum/City. I also like vsync ON and I cannot happily play anything below 60FPS.. WHAT CAN U DO!?
no problem but it goes way high then budget if you know what i mean but you did fine like we say here i can you buy now have fun with that monster.
hehe, enjoy! How does the 680 handle PhysX on Batman? What kind of benchmark FPS you seeing with it and DX11 on?