Wow these cards 6870 6850 are really impressive

Interesting cards for sure. Wonder what the minimum processor specs would be before it'd be a bottleneck with this series of cards?

 

Around 3Ghz Quad Core would be enough

And obviously it depends on games (see GTA4)

 

Anyway i expected ATI to be more competitive price-wise...i mean NVIDIA lowered prices a lot...u can find GTX470 1280MB for 208€....dunno if i will resist and wait for AMD to lower prices since HD6870 & GTX470 performs exactly the same (i really like the low power AMD architecture though so it will be a hard choice)

 

I was comparing my sapphire 5870 1gb oc toxic edition with the sapphire 6870.

The 5870 I have is more powerful then the 6870

mine has higher memory speed and more stream processors

 

actually yours has 120sp less because its still 5way, these on 6000 are 4way alu's making them less cores, but better efficiency as by 5way alus

1120sp÷ 4way alu = 280cores; but 1600sp ÷ 5way alu = 320cores = 240cores × 4way alu = new 960sp


imo its only slower because of lower texture units; on 5870 its 80, on 6870 its 56 and yea ram a little, but not as much as texture fillrate.

 

You are right that it is more powerful by the specs, but in real world performance the 6870 is pretty close to what the 5870 can dish out.

I think the thing that sets them apart is price. How much did you pay for yoru 5870? Right now the cheapest I could buy a 5870 for new is $380+/- Canadian dollars.
I just bought the 6870 this morning and it was all in $280.

Considering the differences in power consumption and heat output, which also effects noise output naturally with the fan not needing to be as active, the 6 series sits nicely around the 5870 and gtx470 for not a lot of money. Considering I will sell my 5770 for $100 (hopefully) I will get essentially twice the fps performance (in most games I've noticed) for $180.

Again, we can't really fairly compare the two cards since the 5870 is last gen's toplvl card and the 6870 is uppermidlvl.. for the price though, the 6870 was a perfect upgrade choice for me.
The 5870 is obviously still a great card and in no way would upgrading to this current series be of real use to you.. maybe once we see what the 6970/90 can bring to the table it may change your mind as to whether you need to upgrade, but if I had bought a 5870 months ago, I would not even consider getting a new card right now.

 

Guys I'm totally confused. I can't decide between the EVGA 460 FTW or this new 6870 .
Nvidia guys are surprisingly split on the matter but man the cards are close in performance/price and its doing my head in!!!!
see: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=331330

 

personally, i would say wait and see how the 6970 performs. nvidia might get scared and drop their prices more XD

but mainly, wait to see if a decent OC'd edition of the 6870 comes out. if youre getting a regular 6870, get the asus, it comes with mild OC and an unlocked bios as well as being a voltage tweak edition.

 

It is damn competitive price wise. I think in your case (because of the low stock) the companies see that there is a lot of profit to be made since they are in low stock and high demand.

 

Well, it was no brainer for me.

Lets say you have them for the same price :

HD6870 is faster by 20%
HD6870 eats less power.
HD6870 produces less heat
HD6870 is more quiet
HD6870 has MLAA

GTX460 has physx.


Thats 5:1.

Still your choice

 

Not really true now is it kapu, if you have to lie to sell a card you like, it means you don't really believe what your tellig other people, which is wrong if your asking them to spend money.

If you want to pick and chose information, then he is a revised version of what you said.

HD6870 is faster by 20%.
GTX460 is 25% cheaper.
GTX460 produces about the same heat as a HD6870, or alot less if you get a one with a custom cooler, which can be picked up for less than the price of a HD6870
HD6870 uses more power than a GTX460 according to the Guru3D review.
HD6870 has the same noise level as a GTX460, GTX460 is ALOT quietier if you get one with a custom cooler.
GTX460 can be overclocked to the same level as a HD6870.
HD6870 can be overclocked to the same level as a HD6870
HD6870 has MLAA - PS3 has MLAA - GTX460 has real AA
GTX460 has physx.
GTX460 has proper 3D that can be used with any 3DTV.

I would say thats a victory for the GTX460, but for fairness, lets call it a draw, and let people make up their own minds.

 

GTX 460 has AA real AA. You realize how stupid that sounds ?

HD6870 can be overclocked to the same level as a HD6870 ?

Did you thought this through ?


Also if you overclock GTX460 to levels of HD6870 it will eat much more power and produce more heat and more noise.
See what i did there ?

 

I never wrote AA twice.
I wrote that the GTX460 has real AA, as i mean that it can be forced on every game other than GTAIV, i went from 2XAA to 16xAA in Dirt2 with no performance hit.

MLAA isn't a selling point, its a post processing effect similar to what the consoles do, its no better than the driver level AO that Nvidia has.
I also thought i read that is uses DirectCompute, surely that means that......well im sure you can guess the rest.

The overclocking bit is a joke, im sure someone else will get what i meant by it.

I know it would consume more power, but heat and noise would depend on the card, the last one that HH reviewed is the coolest, quietest mid-range card around.
But your missing the point, my post was to show that if like you, i picked and chose the best points, i could make something sound better than it is.

The 6870 is a great card that has the ability to sell on its own merits, it doesn't need someone being selective with the truth.

 

lol and what 6870 doesn't have real aa, and what you judge its OC capabilities with stock voltage?? another lol.

and 2xaa to 16xcsaa is like going from 2xaa to 4xaa so of course you won't see a perf.hit. Or if you have 16xqaa its still 8xaa, so thats not real aa either.

 

I Just sold my 5970 for 520$Can and buy 2x6870 for 521.64$Can

Its a nice upgrade for 1.64$

 

I compared to it to a GTX460 using stock voltage, one because that fair, and two we don't know much, if anything about what can be done with more volts, but even with my noob overclocking skills i can still get a stable, albeit hot 900mhz on stock volts with this.

Never said that 16xCSAA was say 16x MSAA, it was there to point out other ways of decreasing aliasing with a zero performance hit.
Of course the 6870 has real AA, but if there weren''t so many issues, when games don't have ingame AA, then MLAA wouldn't be so attractive, or even a feature, and i doubt GTAIV is that important to so many people.

Not forgetting that according to AMD, MLAA uses DirectCompute, so no reason why it couldn't be modified to be used on Nvidia's DX11 cards, lets hope that doesn't happen before the 5800 cards get it, as that would be sure to annoy some people.

Your also missing the point of my post though, it wasn't to say how sh1t the 6870 is, as that's far from what i believe, it was to show that anyone can twist the truth to make one card more attractive than the other, and that if Kapu genuinely believe the 6870 is better, then he doesn't have to do that.

 

6870 seems like its a good chunk faster than the 460. well game depending ofc.

but if u asked me what i would like 2x460 or 2x6870 i might be tempted to go for the 460's.

but then again ati drivers have been pissing me off as of late. i just did a fresh os install as was getting dam inf files problems. if same **** happens again i will switch back to nvidia.

(dont see why i need to go through such shanigans to install a simple driver plus i have to say since 10.5 most of the drivers for me have been pretty crappy).

heatwise i think the 460 is better than a 6870 no? also it is a bit cheaper but not by much.

 

Honestly guys don't bother with this one. It will get you nowhere fast. We know the benefits of the 6870, if redemption80 doesn't want to (or can't) see these benefits and insists that Nvidia is still the l33test based on the couple points he made, then just let him be.
I say just sit back and enjoy using your new card.. I know I am!

not sure where people are getting the idea that the 6870 is a hot running card.. ? I have mine set to 25% on the fan and it idles at 41c with the stock cooler and my place is very warm in general. Full load has not gone over 70c in every case I've tried except for Metro with dx11 very high.. that put it over a couple more c.

Overall though temps are not that bigga deal with this card. I for one am waiting for some decent third party cooling and voltage mods to be released so I can start the OC testing.

 

mitzi76, it is a good bit faster at stock speeds, but its also more expensive, something people love to point out when its the other way round.

If you had the choice between 2x6870 and 2xGTX460, then i don't know why you would go for the GTX460's, your not a fan of PhysX or 3D, so don't need them, and the 6870's would be a decent bit faster.

ScoobyDooby, am i still blocked, lol.
Guess you can't avoid the quoting
Don't know where i claimed any Nvidia card was the "l33test" im pretty sure in every thread like this, i've suggested the HD6870 over the GTX460 and even the 470, all i did was complain when someone was lying about the card i own, by using the same spin to manipulate the truth as he did with his post.

 

Got a waterblock on it?? price???