5970 vs 2x GTX480 MINI review

[Andrew Moore]

5970 vs 2x GTX480 MINI review

To start with I am going to look at the pros and cons here.



GTX480 pros
- Single most fastest GPU on the market
- Cheaper than 5970
- Physx support

GTX480 cons
- Massively more expensive than 5870
- 5870 only around 5-10% slower
- 5970 only £60 more and faster?
- Massive power consumption


5970 pros
- Faster GPU on the market by a long long way
- For £60 more you get how much extra performance than GTX480?
- Low power consumption for the performance (dont confuse this with low power consumption overall)

5970 cons
- £500-600 = HUGE expense
- No physx



Anyway to start on a basic test.

Crysis Bench

GTX480 sli

1920x1080, 64bit, 16xQ AA, VeryHigh, DX10



Nice minimum of 26.02fps, average of 46.02, max of 50.07

so for £900+ you get this kind of speed.


5970

1920x1080, 64bit, 16xQ AA, VeryHigh, DX10



A minimum of 21.63fps, average of 48.84, max of 50.36

Now the Average might be a little on the low side but this little glitch is hardly going to upset your gaming any time soon. So with this in mind we can safely say at these settings the 5970 is just about on par with a PAIR of GTX480s in sli and for under £600 too!

Not onyl this but a 5970 uses less power than a GTX480 so you will be saving on the electricity especially if it was an option of 2 480s (like here) or a single 5970.




GTX480 sli

1920x1080, 64bit, 2x AA, High, DX10



These are the sort of setting most would aim to play at. here you can see a healthy 37.26 fps minimum, an average of 61.26fps and a maximum frame of 82.38. A very nice score and in most people eyes a good way to spend £900+


5970

1920x1080, 64bit, 2x AA, High, DX10



Sporting a minimum frame rate of 43.89fps, an average of 84.47fps and a maximum frame rate of 103.95fps it starts to look as if a pair of 480s really is not up to much cop! The 5970 is storming ahead with an 30% lead at these settings. For sub £600 there really is no competition here. Nvidia as such really do need to pull there socks up as this is clearly showing to be a little bit of a one horse race.

For comparison purposes, here is a test of the 5970 at 2xAA compared to 16xQ AA just to show how little AA seems to affect this card.

5970

1920x1080, 64bit, 2x AA, VeryHigh, DX10



With a minimum of 22.93fps, an average of 51.36fps and a max of 60.75 going from 2xAA to 16xQ AA really doesnt seem to have much of a performance hit.


Conclusion

From all of this all I can say is that the GTX480 isnt really all too brilliant in terms of what it offers for the price. Yes the card is new and yes drivers will no doubt improve the cards performance. Whether or not it will be able to make up the 30% lead that the 5970 has at 2xAA is another question entirely and one that I can see being very doubtful indeed.

I was a true green team member but now I am fully converted! My only gripe is the fact the drivers on the 5xxx seem poor and that there seems to be a hell of a lot of instability unless you are willing to mess around with profiles and CFG files. For those that can in all honesty just save a few quid and buy a 5970.



***5970 quadfire coming soon***



Andy

[Martin.day]

When you want to get rid of a card or 2 give us a holler :P xD

[Mitchell]

I really liked this mini review that you are did between the HD 5970 and GTX 480's, good work mate!

I think NVIDIA might have the chance to compete with the HD 5970 once they get developing their dual GPU Fermi. However, considering the GTX 480 is already an incredibility power hungry single GPU a dual solution might be taking those current factors too far for a single card.

[scottath]

the 5970 is 2 downclocked 5870s - and only down clocked to keep within the atx specifications fro a pci-e card of 300w total draw.
the cooler is designed for ~400w, hense they are designed to be overclocked, they just sold them as a 300w card to keep within the spec.

a dual 480 card will not happen within the atx specs - even dual 470 card would have to be downclocked i would think.....