AMD 5970 still good enough ? Hi there, I am using i5 2400 and need a gpu. I was wondering would i be able to play witcher 3 and dragon age: inquisition with this graphic card ? I wanted to buy a second hand 7950 which is a great card but right now second hand 7950 sells for 100€ while i can get 5970 for just 50€. I know that 2 core card can be problematic and will draw more power but i just can't see it justify 2x the price. I do plan to upgrade to a new gpu in the future when i find some good gpu deal but until then, 5970 seems an interesting option. I will playing in 1680x1050 resolution and i dont mind lowering eyecandy. My PS should handle it since it ran 280x just fine. Its Corsair CX600 with 48A on 12V line. What do you think, will 1GB per core be enough ? edit: it would appear that i have an older version of this power suply with only 40A on 12V line, while 5970 is said to need 50A. Not sure this is accurate though, my PSU can give 480W on 12V line and all tests with 5970 i saw stated that full system power draw was lower then 400W.
That 5xxx series is pretty old in general. On paper you see that dual-gpu 5970 putting up 4ish TFLOPS like a 7970 does, but in reality you won't achieve that kind of ideal scaling unless the game has excellent crossfire support. Plus, its not GCN so you will not see any of the recent optimizations that have gone into the drivers for that so comparing the paper numbers means even less. In 99% of situations you will be better served by a more recent single-gpu solution than an older dual-gpu solution. I would stay away from that 5970 - I'm sure it was great back in it's glory days, but I sure would not want to be limited to only one GPU for some newer game that doesn't play nice with crossfire.
It would appear that the guy made a mistake. He meant to advertise his 5970 for 150€, not for 50€. Well in anycase i decided to go with something like an old 6950 and then upgrade when i feel the need
You have 7950 in your signature though? The HD7970, particularly the GHz edition, is fine for you at the moment. It wouldn't be worth getting anything better until next year when the next generation cards come out. The next generation cards is a significant jump, probably the biggest jump in performance and efficiency in a very long time. However, that said your CPU may be a little limiting for the next gen. The good news is however, that with proper DirectX 12 games the CPU probably won't be as limiting as you may think.
7950 at 1100/1500 can easily match stock performance 7970Ghz (same clocks). I dont see the point getting that card atm. You should probably wait new line up from AMD or nVidia.
Well there are tons of better cards out now than the 7970/7970 ghz edition 280x etc. It was definitely worth upgrading 2 same era 680 cards years ago for me.
Well of course, but the 280X etc still performs fairly well considering. Also take into consideration the target application, cost etc.
I had 7950 it's true but with me it's a funny thing, whenever i buy a second hand card, i put it on sale right away for like 20% more then i paid for it and if it sells i make a little bit of profit. And since i have an eye for good deals, i sell them pretty fast and then i am without a card and have to look for it once more. The truth is i don't have much time for games so there are plenty of games a few years old that i still have to play. Thats why there is no point in me buying a new expensive card, i simply buy something cheap like 6950, play all the games i can with it, then sell it and upgrade to stronger card and again play games it can run, etc. Anyway i am getting 6950 for a good price and at the same time i might be getting 270x for a good price too. Still bargaining for some 7950 also. It all must be a bit confusing
Hehehe i know, that is why i am always bargaining, there is always something better i can get X) ps: 7950 is such a wonder of a card, with its crazy OC ....
If you have a 7950, keep it. Your are playing at 1050p, Anything more than a 7950 is not really worth it.