There is very few games where 5870 beats 480 now, plus you get Fold / PhysX / improved tess. It does suck more power and generates more heat, unfortunatly
480 is faster, a little hotter (5-10c under load) and uses more power. But it's the fastest single GPU card out there. Your alternative of the 5870 is not a good one. If you want ATi, then wait a few months, 6000 series should be out by Xmas, wait for reviews of the 69xx series before making a decision.
Simply saying that the gtx 480 uses more power is a huge understatement. At maximum load the gtx 480 uses slightly more power than even the likes of the 5970 and gtx 295 (both being dual gpus cards) which is absolutely ridiculous. Which card do you think is the loudest? Of course its the gtx 480 beating (again) the likes of the 5970 and gtx 295. Do you want to guess which is the hottest...even though the gtx 480 is loudest of the bunch it is still the hottest by far.
Dont simply just say that the gtx 480 consumes more power because that is like saying that iron is more dense than marshmallows, NO DUH.
The gtx 480 is the stronger performer but it is not the better overall card when you factor in heat, power, and noise.
You will get same gaming experience from both other then PhysX that GTX480 but it personally dont think its worth it. Myself i would get GTX480 purely because of performance but for that performance you get a 20-30C hotter card once bith are overclcoked. Also GTX480 uses a lot more power @ load.
I had 5850 overclocked enough to match 5870 and now I have gtx 480. I love gtx 480 and nvidia's feature such as cuda and physx. Driver isn't really mature for my needs on certain games but the selective management of applications are very nice too.
So based on what I have read here, Shadowman should get a 5870 because it uses less energy and runs cooler rather than a video card that does more graphically? So is it safe to say he should really buy a GTX240 because it uses way less energy? Or perhaps a 5670 because it uses less power? Both are considerably cheaper.
Come on, you buy a video card for video. That means he should buy the 480. Sure it runs hotter. My 470 runs 80c at full load. It's a bit noisy but in real life it seldom runs full load.
Originally Posted by Zarchon
So based on what I have read here, Shadowman should get a 5870 because it uses less energy and runs cooler rather than a video card that does more graphically? So is it safe to say he should really buy a GTX240 because it uses way less energy? Or perhaps a 5670 because it uses less power? Both are considerably cheaper.
Come on, you buy a video card for video. That means he should buy the 480. Sure it runs hotter. My 470 runs 80c at full load. It's a bit noisy but in real life it seldom runs full load.
OP. You have a 850watt power supply. You must have expected some degree more power usage other than 300 ish power usage? Get a gtx 480 and enjoy your more power usage and more performance. Don't put that PSU to waste lol.
This is overclock.net Overclocking results in more power usage in most cases
So based on what I have read here, Shadowman should get a 5870 because it uses less energy and runs cooler rather than a video card that does more graphically? So is it safe to say he should really buy a GTX240 because it uses way less energy? Or perhaps a 5670 because it uses less power? Both are considerably cheaper.
Come on, you buy a video card for video. That means he should buy the 480. Sure it runs hotter. My 470 runs 80c at full load. It's a bit noisy but in real life it seldom runs full load.
Stop acting like a child and put things in perspective. Its called efficiency. If the gtx 480 uses proportionally more power than the 5870 than i would tell him to get the gtx 480, no doubt. But the thing is, it doesn't, not even close. As I said in my previous post the gtx 480 even uses more power than the dual gpu 5970 (which is ridiculous) and the 5870, in terms of performance, is not that much behind from the gtx 480 to warrant this ridiculous increase of power, heat and noise.
Think logically man. Even if you still think the gtx 480 is the card to get (over the 5870) do you really think it's ridiculous for someone to choose the 5870 based on the reasons above?
GTX 480 for the simple fact that it's higher priced and I can always resell it.
People over exaggerate the heat output of the Fermi cards and with proper cooling it'll be like any other card. You're getting more power, more overclocking potential, and better scaling.
If the 5870 was actually on par with the 480, I'd be on the 5870 in a heartbeat.
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