NVidia vs AMD Radeon: Which one does better at high res and overclocks more under water

I am in the market for getting a new graphics card. My 5850 just died, windows/Motherboard does not see it. The topic is well known and I read several artickles/posts. I just want to get my deduction verified.

I like the concept behind AMD Radeon cards, multiple units with low frequency against nvdia cards with fewer units higher frequency. I saw that Nvdia can give you high FPS at low resoultion since they have high clock rate but this shouldn't be that important since I cannot see the difference between 60 FPS and 120 FPS.

As far as I see, in most reviews, Nvdia 580 gives high FPS at low res but at high resolution like around 2560*1600, AMD 6970 catches up and does better for multi monitor setups. Basically, AMD line is a better choice since you get same FPS on high RES for less money. Is this a correct observation?

I also heard that reference card 580 does not give voltage tweaking, only some card brands give you voltage regulators. On the other hand, reference 6970 has voltage regulation in reference card. Hence, I can overclock 6970 much better if I do water cooling. I read that 6970 overclocks much better since they are not pushed to the limit but curtailed by the frequency due to the power/heat restrictions. Is this also correct?

One final question: Why would a graphic card die all of a sudden? I have this geforce2 still running after 12 years and this stupid card, which is an ASUS one and supposed to be a high quality one, died in 3 years. I tested the card with the new motherboard on the bench, it worked fine. Put it into a static bag and placed in a plastic bin. 2 weeks later, I put into the the build and no signal. The card is dead.

Wrapping up, the questions:

- Do 6970 or AMD line of cards catches up with Nvdia at high res (2560 * 1600 and above)
- Do AMD line of cards overclock better with their voltage tweaking and low frequency which allows higher frequency with better cooling.
- Why did my 5850 die while just sitting in an anti-static bag?

Thanks for all the help.

After checking out the link, I agree 580 is almost always faster but in some of the games like Crysis, the difference is minimal at 2560*1600 and in almost all games the difference gets smaller as you get close to higher res. I agree that 580 is definitely faster but not so fast in high res. Thanks for the link though, very good for me to understand the difference. Here is a picture of things based on resolution: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/29.html


Here is one article I found after quick search that points out you cannot set voltage on reference cards. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/11/20/nvidia-geforce-gtx-580-overclocking/1. I guess good card brands have voltage tweak but I read a post where someone was complaining his card cannot change the voltages. They were doing weird things like using a pencil to change the voltage. I guess my point does not apply to most cards though but one has to be careful. Not all 580's can overclock well..

People get easily 1GHz core clock for 6970 under water while they can't get that easily for 580, although 580 has a higher stock frequency.

I also think card should not have died in a static bag. Last night I spent 3 hours and the card didn't work. I have 2 different computers, one x48 and SR-2. The card didn't work or show up in Windows (I put the card slave to a working graphic card).

After my post, I put the card in a x8 slot (electrically not physically) in Sr-2 and it started to work. I am not sure what happened. I seated the card at least 10 times last night, so that cannot be the reason... In any case, I am scared to put out the card into x16 slot again. Has anyone have that experience? Card running on 8x PCI-E but not on 16 PCI-E.

Thanks for the help.

My budget is around $200 and I don't want to buy a new card for $400. I haven't played any games other than CIV for a long time and my goal is playing diablo III now.

I have a 2560*1600 monitor and that would be my initial resolution. If I can get them fit into my desk, I want to extend them to 4960 * 1600 (2560 + 2*1200). I assume nvdia surround is as good as eyefinity but given that the latter one is more established technology, this may not be the case.

As I said, my 5850 is working on PCI-E 8x lane now so there is no pressure. I will see if my 5850 would be enough for diablo 3 soon, tomorrow to be precise.

Due to my budget, I am contemplating between gtx580 and 6970. I know local sellers selling each one for $250 and $200 respectively. So both cards are in my price acceptable price range though gtx580 is stretching it.

I have an SR-2 system with dual x5550 running at 4GHZ, I am planning to add more cards in the future.

It looks like I was wrong about the clock speeds after all. Actually, 580 stock clocks are lower than 6970 and both have a limit kicking in around 1Ghz. Given that, 580 is a better overclocker with more headroom. I guess reading too many posts/reviews confused me. Since some old reviews were talking about limits of overclocking 580.

I heard that gtx scales better with SLI. I also read that GTX580 consumes more power in comparison to 6970. Is this right?

After checking my facts, 580 seems like a good buy.

I should start a seperate thread on this 5850 issue. I am really surprised that the card only works 8x PCI-E lanes. Something is going on there...