I'm looking at GPU's either as a CMAS Present from Wifey or as a present from my Holiday Pay .

 

Looking at either a GeForce GTX 590

 

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/bahlye/1020467353.jpg

 

VGA 03G-P3-1596-AR GeForce GTX 590 Graphic Card

- 630 MHz Core

- 3.07 GB GDDR5 SDRAM

- PCI Express 2.0 x16 - 3456 MHz Memory Clock

- 2560 x 1600

- SLI - Fan Cooler

- DisplayPort - DVI

 

 

 

Or two AMD Radeon HD 6870's.

 

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/bahlye/900373_l.jpg

• GPU Model: Radeon HD 6870
  
• GPU Line: AMD Radeon™ HD 6800
  
• Bus Type: PCIe
  
• System Type: Not Specified
  
• Memory Amount: 2048MB
  
• CrossFire Capable: 1

Have seen the GTX 590 for $783, and the 6870's are about $355 (plus shipping) each but end up with more Memory than the 590.

 

Current specs are...

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R MB

i7-950

12 gig DDR3

Gigabyte 4890

1 TB Sata

500GB External HD

Gigabyte 750 Watt

(Main PC) Samsung 21', Compaq 19'

 

(Laptop) Toshiba 19', Dell 19'

 

What do you think is better, or can you suggest something better in the $700 to $800 area ?.

go green

If you go the 590, you have the option of sli later on down the track when it becomes a bit cheaper.

the 590 should blow away the crossfire 6870s (which is what i have) but dont tell anyone that i actually recommended a nvidia card.

the 590 should blow away the crossfire 6870s (which is what i have) but dont tell anyone that i actually recommended a nvidia card.

 

This.

 

Except, he isnt talking about normal '6870's' those he is linking are the '2X 6870's' (that is two GPU chips on one card).

 

I am running two normal 6870's myself, but for what its worth, I'd go green. You probably wont SLI later on, as they will only fall ~200 in price, and unless you want to fork out another $500 odd, well, I'd still say the single 590

Small monitors, but two of them... if it were me, I'd go a $550 GTX580 + a $220-$250 SSD

This.

 

Except, he isnt talking about normal '6870's' those he is linking are the '2X 6870's' (that is two GPU chips on one card).

I'm not so sure that's the case.... The HD6870x2 hovers far closer to the $400+ mark from what I've seen... but the normal HD6870 is only around $185-200 these days so I'm not really sure what bahlye's talking about :wacko: Also the link in his post definitely does not reference the HD6870x2...

 

Also for future reference on both SLI & Crossfire (bahlye and everyone else):

 

the 6870's are about $355 (plus shipping) each but end up with more Memory than the 590.

Due to the way that the rendering is handled, your net usable memory is not doubled, but actually constrained by the lowest common factor, as the graphics cards mirror each other's memory. In the above case, it'd be a total usable VRAM amount of 2GB because both have 2GB of VRAM. You don't get 4GB of VRAM, unfortunately... so the 3GB VRAM on the GTX590 would in fact have a 50% advantage over the 2x 6870x2s.

 

That being said, I'd just do this, especially for a 21 inch monitor (probably 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 depending on how old it), which really won't stress 2GB of VRAM for quite some time. If you forsee yourself moving up into the world of bigger resolutions, then perhaps. I suppose if you're going to run 16xMSAA then >2GB is justified at those resolutions, but otherwise it should be of minimal impact in your decision making process.

 

As you can see from these reviews even at 2560x1600, the 3GB of VRAM doesn't become a bottleneck, and I'd say 2GB would still be fine, given that the performance differential between the HD6990+GTX590 and the rest of the 2gb cards would be the dual onboard GPUs, rather than the memory limitations.

 

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-590-review/18

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-590-dual-gf110-radeon-hd-6990,2898-7.html

 

As for what to do... I think Wokeye's suggestion of a GTX580 + SSD is the way to go, as I think it'll give you a better rounded system than the overkill GPUs but lame HDD.

Heya,

 

I recently purchased the GTX 580-The guy working there is a friend-He told me about some issues with the 590,so I went 580 instead.....

 

If you are not planning on Interior design,Film editing etc you will find the 3gig models of these Nvidia cards more than you need.....If this is for mainly gaming[when it comes to pushing your card]....The GTX 580[1.5 gig] will be fine between 2-4 years,then SLI them...

 

Like I said,unless you are doing something other than gaming that uses extreme GPU ram,you will be wasting your money[or Wifey's]

 

Merry Xmas

I run a GTX 580 super overclocked, id give the 590 a pass, ive also heard that they can be trouble

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

Have a look at that site then cross reference the cards you like with google. The 580 seem the most logical choice from all the things i read. But i am bias since i only buy Nvidia.

 

Looking at the spec's of your computer i also notice your in the market for a ssd drive since you have a bottleneck in that there game'n machine!!!!!! You will not regret it!

OH REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEElly - here i am slacking off at work to steal some randomness and you are plotting xmas for youself :stick:

 

you are leaving it a bit late - and skydiving is cheaper - ggggrrrr:disgust:

haha pwned

By GTX 590, Bahlye actually means a candlelit dinner for his favoritest!

Ha Ha, Busted

lmao !

Haha, forum win!

Don't you hate it when you get trolled by your Wife. .

 

Right, am planning on going the 580 and a SSD for now.

 

Beats jumping out of a perfectly good airplane while its flying several thousand feet above the ground , and will be more fun for longer KIM.

Looks like I am buying it for me from me though

 

Many thx for your input guys, was very handy advice. :hi:

Lol someone has a fear of heights ahaha but sensible choice

Yes, good choice - the risk of pissing your pants out of mortal fear is significantly lower with puter parts.

Lol someone has a fear of heights ahaha but sensible choice

 

if he was afraid of spiders as well he would've been great to have in the C152 i was flying in back in the days of yore, at about 4000' when we see this shape go up one of the windows out of the corner of our eye, thought it was a crow until the instructor had a peak and said "theres a bl***y big huntsman sitting up there" . . . i hate spiders, dont mind heights but you get stuck in something you cant get out of with a big bugger of a spider and hilarity can ensue. Luckily the huntsman was just watching the world fly by.

 

oh the Kingston Hyper-X SSDs are very very nice. Mate picked one up that has a 3.5" bracket, external case and something else in there too (o: