mac_shinobi Posted December 9, 2011 Posted December 9, 2011 Why not the GTX 580 OR 590 ?? http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=gtx+590&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4245454063844334877&sa=X&ei=-0PiTr7rAvCO4gSK5bG6BQ&ved=0CDkQ8wIwAQ
Arthur Posted December 10, 2011 Posted December 10, 2011 Looky what I found Fingers crossed I don't get a laser cut one!! Have you seen Sapphire's Radeon HD 6950 Toxic Edition (~£270)? It's a 6950 which comes with an additional 6970 BIOS from the factory. Just flip the switch on the card to the second position to unlock the extra shaders. It can't get any easier than that. 1408 Shader BIOS and 1536 Shader BIOS The SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD6950 has a BIOS switch that allows you to choose between a standard HD 6950 BIOS with 1408 Shaders, or an HD 6970 BIOS with 1536 Shaders. Many HD 6950's can be flashed to an HD 6970 BIOS, but this one comes with it already done for you. SAPPHIRE has made it extremely easy to possibly get a lot more performance out of this video card. SAPPHIRE does not guarantee that all the extra shaders will work for the card, or that you will receive any performance gain by using it. We did see a noticeable performance increase when switching to the 1536 Shader BIOS however, but your millage may vary. It was with this BIOS switch, and overclocking, we were able to beat an HD 6970 and GTX 580 with this video card. (Source) If you want to play BF3 at 1920x1080 on Ultra at a decent framerate, you may be better off with a GTX 580 (~£480 for one with 3GB RAM). Alternatively, you could do what HilcrRWise suggested and wait a month or two for the 7950 or 7970. These should be faster than the 69xx Series Radeon's and use less power too. Why not the GTX 580 or 590? Technically the GTX 590 only has 1.5GB RAM, because the 3GB is split between the two GPUs.
mac_shinobi Posted December 10, 2011 Posted December 10, 2011 Technically the GTX 590 only has 1.5GB RAM, because the 3GB is split between the two GPUs. Not sure if this video will work but plenty of videos on youtube of BF 3 on the ultra setting using a 590http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnu8vscAhHY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
3s-gtech Posted December 11, 2011 Posted December 11, 2011 The 580 is a beast - but all of those top cards are in a different league price wise!
Arthur Posted December 11, 2011 Posted December 11, 2011 Not sure if this video will work but plenty of videos on YouTube of BF3 on the ultra setting using a 590 I suppose it depends on the resolution you play at, the quality settings and whether you're in a single or multi-player map. There seem to be tons of variables with BF3. BF3 is not playable in 64/64 multiplayer in Ultra Settings preset on ANY map at 2560x1600. None, nada, ZIP. Unplayable. There's no network lag or anything like that. The four GTX 590 GPUs just struggle to render those damn frames at 2560x1600 on any multiplayer server with more than 50 players. It's perfectly smooth in campaign mode, but who the hell plays BF3 in campaign mode? It's also butter smooth at ANY lower resolution. If you crank the resolution one notch down, it's very smooth. (Source) According to Tom's Hardware, you will still get stuttering with a GTX 580. It’s entirely possible to get a good experience out of a GeForce GTX 580 at 1920x1080 or lower, though in real-world game play you still run into occasional stuttering. A GeForce GTX 570 handles 1680x1050 pretty well. However, I’m willing to bet that you didn’t buy a $300+ card to play on a 17” screen. Two GTX 570s should handle Ultra quality with aplomb at 1920x1080. (Source) nVidia's own benchmarks show the GTX 590 having more-or-less the same FPS at 1080p as a GTX 580. For a £620-£792 card that is rather strange. http://i.imgur.com/sHvTD.png http://i.imgur.com/TCD43.png
CHR1S Posted December 12, 2011 Author Posted December 12, 2011 Ive made my decision, im waiting until the 7XXX series is released in Jan and making my purchase then
featured_spectre Posted December 12, 2011 Posted December 12, 2011 January sales the cards and SLI them...PC World put a GTX 480 in the bargain bin last year for £25 so my stepdad snapped that up! lol
3s-gtech Posted December 12, 2011 Posted December 12, 2011 January sales the cards and SLI them...PC World put a GTX 480 in the bargain bin last year for £25 so my stepdad snapped that up! lol That's a bit of a silly price! It's slightly offset by the fact that the 480 used more power than CERN, but at least you don't need central heating
featured_spectre Posted December 12, 2011 Posted December 12, 2011 Speaking of CERN, I applied for a job there. Having a Swiss account makes life a bit easier and I already have a permit to work in Switzerland, so win win win!
Arthur Posted December 12, 2011 Posted December 12, 2011 I've made my decision, I'm waiting until the 7XXX series is released in Jan and making my purchase then A good idea IMO, because any graphics card you bought today would be obsolete in less than 28 days. www.techpowerup.com/156641/January-9-Launch-Date-for-AMD-Radeon-HD-7900.html 1
CHR1S Posted December 30, 2011 Author Posted December 30, 2011 Hmm, still waiting for the price drops to come! Not sure I can wait much longer. In the weeks since posting ive thought, 7970 then a cheaper 6970 then a couple of 68X0 in Xfire argh, why is it soo hard! Oh PS the limit on £ has gone so sky is the limit lol!
ihaveaproblem Posted December 30, 2011 Posted December 30, 2011 AMD Radeon HD 7970 Review - TechSpot Reviews
Arthur Posted January 2, 2012 Posted January 2, 2012 Why stop at one 7970? http://i.imgur.com/V1qMq.jpg It looks like there will also be quite a few non-reference Radeon HD 7970s e.g. Sapphire's Flex 6G with 6GB RAM and the Atomic RX (factory overclocked from 925MHz to 1,335MHz!!!). 1
CHR1S Posted January 5, 2012 Author Posted January 5, 2012 Well, a big thanks to Chris at @CPLTD for getting me a 6950 that unlocked to a 6970! Altho TNT did their best to lose it!! Grrr
3s-gtech Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Beast of a card, and cheap for the power with an unlock!
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