Nvidia GTX 480 or ATI Radeon HD 5970 ???

Hi all, I have a very urgent question.  My system is currently in the process of being built (in stage 3 right now).  However, I am having doubts as to the best video cards to have installed in the machine.

I originally opted for the 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5Gb video cards and that is the selction I chose when I put my order in.  However, the more I read into video cards, the more it sounds like the 2x Crossfire Quad ATI Radeon HD 5970 2 GB would be a lot better.

I read that the ATI cards have better performance, better heat/energy/etc than the GTX 480.  One of the main factors from what I understand is because there are 2 GPU's per card in just one ATI card.

Honestly, I really don't know much about it, but what would be the most optimal thing to do?  Should I keep the GTX 480 cards or change to the ATI cards?  Are the ATI cards overkill?  Are the GTX 480 cards too loud or too hot?  Would the fact that I have the stage 6 cooling option negate any drawbacks to the GTX 480 cards?

I would really appreciate comparison facts between the two cards and such as well to help me better make up my mind.

------------------------------This is my current configuration------------------------------

Chassis Model: Digital Storm HailStorm (Black OPS Edition)
Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: !SALE: EVGA X58 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 12GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: External USB Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (150GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 22x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 6: Sub-Zero LCS Dual Loop: CPU & Dual SLI/CrossFire Video Cards
H20 Tube Color: Black Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
CPU Boost: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: Memory Fan Kit Only (Does not include memory overclocking service)
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)





Edited by VideCorSpoon - 16 Apr 2010 at 6:06pm

if you have to go now, I say go sli 480 or sli 5870, if you can wait the next revision of 480 as mentioned should be better.

I like the 480 better myself.

Edited by DST4ME - 17 Apr 2010 at 1:50am

the 5970 card kinda sux, but two of them really sux, that why I said do not do them in the earlier post, stay away, lots of problems... thought I was clear. lol

DST4ME, my current setup is two 1980 x 1050 Hp monitors and a 47 inch LCD TV (currently attached to a splitter).  Honestly, I never had a problem running games and HD movies on them all at once, especially when I am using the TV as my primary monitor, but maybe I am not noticing any degradation in quality (current card is a GeForce 9800 GT). 

Check out my current setup in the office (the computer is hidden in the back under the desk.


I suppose the main thing I want to do is make all of this as future proof as possible, which is why I was thinking about the ATI setup instead of the 480's (since it may be more advanced = longer relevancy) After so many years of buying computers every other year, it gets frustrating.


Edited by VideCorSpoon - 17 Apr 2010 at 7:27pm

I suppose I am looking at it more as though I would have additional benefit by getting the most advanced card now so that it would last me the longest in the grander scheme of things (my idea of so-called future proofing).  Last thing I want is to invest in hardware half way through its relevancy (and by this, I mean it being a competitive, top contending card).   My thoughts were that (based off of the reviews that I have read on the ATI card) that it is a more advanced GPU.  I would suppose now that that is not the case.  The GTX 480 is obviously the better, more advanced card from what I have been told within the context of this thread.  So that really does settle that, the GTX 480’s stay in the system.  Huzzzah!

On the different note, I said I have no problem running my game and the HD movie at the same time (on different screens).  In this case, I really haven’t had that much trouble with picture quality as far as I can tell (but I can tell the system is a lot slower in the process).  I just hope this system I am getting will make things a lot faster, better quality, etc.  (Which it most likely will).  

I very much appreciate yours and justin.kerrs thoughts on the matter!  Thanks again!

Edited by VideCorSpoon - 17 Apr 2010 at 9:52pm

I’m curious to hear anyone’s thoughts on the heat and power consumptions numbers on the two graphics cards.  I was reading the overview of the GTX 480 (SLI config) and they had a detailed analysis of the power consumptions in idle, average, peak, and maximum consumption.   I kinda freaked out for a second because I noticed that the GTX 480 SLI consumed up to 624 watts at maximum consumption (rare, but still… damn.)  Here is the link to the article I was reading;

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_480_SLI/26.html

The superficial numbers for the ATI HD 5970 and the GTX 480 are as follows;

(single) ATI HD 5970
IDLE: 39 W
AVERAGE: 178 W
PEAK:  211 W
MAXIMUM: 304 W

(single) GTX 480
IDLE: 54 W
AVERAGE:223 W
PEAK: 257 W
MAXIMUM: 320 W

(sli) GTX 480
IDLE: 103 W
AVERAGE: 431 W
PEAK: 472 W
MAXIMUM: 624 W

In my own case, given (roughly) the options I opted for in conjunction with the GTX 480 sli configuration, you end up reasonably using around 500-750Wh of electricity.  Over the course of a month, that is (accounting for .1488 per 500 Kwh where I am) around 82.75 a month ($993.24 per year) not including additional fees.  Seems a bit steep to me.



Edited by VideCorSpoon - 18 Apr 2010 at 8:25pm

yes, 5970 ATM sux butt.

I tell you why, first, the 5970 is not a single card, its in internal cf exposing you to cf bugs. its limited to 1GB of vram, cause each gpu has 1GB of ram, the 480 is a single card with lots of power and 1.5GB of ram.

anytime you can get what you need from a single card solution, thats the best choice, cause you get what you need and no sli/cf bugs.

on top of that if you ever upgrade to 2 x 5970 you are at quad cf, in which scaling is not as good as dual/tri sli.

so 3 x 480 or 3 x 5870 would do better then quad cf 2 x 5970.

I say go with 2 x 480, its more then you would need, Plus I have seen all the reviews saying temps are high but I have lately been looking at some other forums where users with sli 480 are saying their temps are not anywhere near the reported temps, so it makes me think about the temps a bit.

Edited by DST4ME - 19 Apr 2010 at 1:13am

Isn't the power difference gonna endup like $80 bucks a year?

well $80 a year is not even $10 a month so I don't think many will worry about $6 a month, there are games like gta4 that the 480 can max out that the 5870 can't. also in future games with more tessellation, nvidia will come out on top, so its not just a matter of willing to spend, its more a matter of do have use for it.

he won't budge and wants to have 2 gpus and is not comfortable with adding another himself. So if you read my earlier post I tried to point the waste of his own money to him.

Originally posted by DST4ME he won't budge and wants to have 2 gpus and is not comfortable with adding another himself. So if you read my earlier post I tried to point the waste of his own money to him.

I probably won’t budge as far as wanting 2 GPU’s.  Money isn’t the problem, it’s more important that I have what I want for as long as I want it for.  Honestly, when I first started pricing out the computer options, I would have opted for 3 480’s if I had the option.  However, even regards to that, even I understand that that would have been too much.  2 480’s seem fine.  The prevalent issue now is trying to find the most efficient, powerful, and longer lasting energizer..erm… video card.   Based off the advice I have received here as well as the additional research I have done on the internet, I am satisfied with my choice.  BTW, what activities other than games would necessitate having 2 or more GPU's?  I mentioned earlier that I run adobe programs and some other digital animation software from time to time.  Would those just require a solitary 480?

But as far as not being comfortable with adding an additional video card myself, I really don’t (nor would I suspect a majority of other customers to DS) want to bother adding another card down the way as well as altering the liquid cooling system.  If I did feel comfortable with it (as well as having the time to do it), I would be building the computer myself rather than paying the good people at Digital Storm to do it for me.  But I’m sure Digital Storm appreciates my business as much as I appreciate the services they provide.

I definitely appreciate the advice though on many of these issues.  Its always best to refer to others as to how best to proceed, but in the end, only the individual knows what they really need.



Edited by VideCorSpoon - 19 Apr 2010 at 6:05pm

DST4ME, are you talking about the level of customizability that you can achieve going through DS compared to other companies or are you saying that the customer is able to add/change hardware further on down the road through DS?  I had thought it was a onetime purchase thing.  That would be great if that were the case because I had no idea that was even possible.

But as far as the disabling the second GPU is concerned, I understood that you could actually go through an application and literally opt out of the sli setup, essentially leaving the second GPU dormant (though still using an idle level of power).  Is this actually possible?



Edited by VideCorSpoon - 19 Apr 2010 at 6:27pm

As I said, yes you can disable sli in the control panel but you still leaving the card running at 210w idle, thats total waste of money and energy, since the existence of that card is totally irrelevant in the system.

As for upgrades, I'm saying because we can pick and choose our own parts, 99% of us, choose parts that allows us to to add/change hardware in the future, be it through DS or us doing it ourselves, 99% of us will do gpu/HDD/ram upgrades ourselves, but we have the options of paying more and having DS do it.


Edited by DST4ME - 19 Apr 2010 at 7:30pm

Thought this might be interesting for anyone interested in the max power consumption of a 3-way sli gtx 480 (1 Kw in this guys case) and  the sound those cards generate (which reached 67 Db).  Of course, this is non-scientific.  Honestly, I'm very glad I opted for the stage 6 cooling if it takes the Db down at least a quarter of what this demonstration shows (reliant on GPU fans).  I read a few customer reviews and I understood the system would be a little on the loud side but wow, sounds awesome... like a jet engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jtEg3RcDA


Edited by VideCorSpoon - 22 Apr 2010 at 10:51am

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know exactly how much of a difference the stage 6 cooling option from DS makes in regards to cooling a GPU?  Is it a dramatic difference compared to air cooling or a moderate difference?  Minimal?  And also, what is the specific brand that DS uses for their water cooling products?

Originally posted by Ben I highly recommend you use ATI cards over Nvidia due to a very important reason - I own AMD stock.

at least you are honest

Originally posted by VideCorSpoon Just out of curiosity, does anyone know exactly how much of a difference the stage 6 cooling option from DS makes in regards to cooling a GPU?  Is it a dramatic difference compared to air cooling or a moderate difference?  Minimal?  And also, what is the specific brand that DS uses for their water cooling products?

LC depends on the surroundings but it should be around 10c I think with a good LC system vs air, but its only needed if one wants to oc the card or just wants lower temps on gpu.

DS uses different parts from different companies, so its not one place.

Edited by DST4ME - 22 Apr 2010 at 4:36pm

are those drunken monkey temps?