The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

thanks sam

 

HAWX, contrastingly to the DX10 generation, is massively in favour of nvidia, and this shows through in pretty much all tests. This is because DX10.1, a heretofore ATI-exclusive performance boost, is done much better on the GTX400s and the HD4800s than the HD5800s.
The benchmark doesn't record minimum frame rates, so it's a little more difficult to gauge how well the game runs, but suffice to say the HD5870 cannot even average 60fps at 1920x1080, whereas the GTX460 can. The HD5970 is able to average more than 60fps at 2560x1600, but two GTX460s are far cheaper and pull off an average of 75, and even without needing two GPUs, a GTX480 can average 60. If the average of 75 isn't going to be enough to keep minimums at 60, two GTX470s can average 95 which should be ample, still for less than an HD5970.

In Battleforge, 2560x1600 is exclusively the domain of the GTX480. Nothing else, even two 470s, can touch it. The same is true of 1920x1080. While a minimum of 25fps is hardly smooth, no other combination can even pull of 15. Realistically, Battleforge at 30" is best left to the next generation of graphics cards.
At more sensible resolutions like 1080p, the GTX480 is in a class of its own. Two GTX470s will achieve a rough minimum of 30, but with a minimum of 50, it's GTX480, or reduced detail/res. The HD5970 can only minimum 15, and two GTX460s can only minimum 10, less than with one GTX460! While SLi fails here, crossfire does at least work, as a single HD5870 drops into single figures.
1600x900 allows SLI to work, and two 470s can minimum 60, thankfully. The GTX480 isn't far behind at 50, but the pair of 460s fares poorly, with 35 versus the 30 of a single card. Crossfire seems to work well, but because of the drastically poor performance of the HD5870 (a third as good as the GTX460 that costs barely half as much), the HD5970 is also totally outclassed, it's not even very smooth at 1600x900 either.

Starcraft 2 is a little more forgiving, and the HD5970, and both pairs of 460s and of 470s can minimum 30fps at 2560, which for an RTS is reasonably respectable. The GTX480 and HD5870 are pretty much neck and neck, and while they'll struggle with 30", 1080p is not too much an issue.
At 1080p, two GTX460s is enough to minimum 60fps, which is ample. The HD5970 can also achieve this, so anything beyond is superfluous. The frame rates may increase at 1600x90, but this doesn't really open up M60 to anything below these dual-GPU configs. SLI/CF are necessary to attain these fluid frame rates.

WiC Soviet Assault runs fairly similar to Starcraft 2, but the GTX470 SLI pair has more of a clear advantage, providing the only semi-fluid playback at 30" res. Even when you drop to 24" monitors, the only other setup that can really deliver the goods is two GTX460s, which at that resolution actually surpass the 470s. A single 480 can manage 30 at 24", but since crossfire scaling is almost non-existent in WiC [and has always been], the HD5870 and HD5970 are equal, and can only really run 1600x900 properly, thus both sit behind the GTX480, and at 1600x900 they both sit behind a single GTX460.

 

So are we gonna continue to call Amd GPU's Ati Gpu's?

 

I'll call them ATI GPUs if they're sold as ATI GPUs. Once they're branded as AMD GPUs (probably from the 6 series onwards) I'll likely switch to AMD, though I'm bound to forget on occasions..

 

Indeed. I'll likely make the mistake myself

 

October 12th is the official announcement day for the HD6 series detailing what they'll release, when it'll come out, how much it'll cost etc. Not bad, only 6 weeks away from yesterday. The current plan is for most of the GPUs to arrive in November. It's not clear if this includes the dual-GPU Antilles, but going by ATI's past record I can see that arriving either in December, or maybe January/February. The HD6870 still seems on track for a 30-45% generation boost. Not huge, but considering there's nothing new from nvidia under the sun yet, and they haven't even finished padding the 400 series out yet (the GT430 is only set to be unveiled on the same day, Oct-12) the only possible card they have up their sleeves will be a 512 shader GTX485. In which case, how much will ATI be gouging for the HD6870?
The TDPs are shaping up to be rather worrying for the new cards, the HD6870 is likely to have a 225-250W TDP like the GTX470 currently has, so a dual GPU card is likely to be based on the HD6850, with perhaps a 350W TDP with a massive cooler. I'd also hazard a guess at the 6870 being £420 or so like the 5870E6 cards were, and the dual GPU card being the same £580 initial launch price the HD5970 had.
Hopefully ATI will have the sence to offer a 2GB per GPU reference design for the 6870/6970 from the get go this time round, especially as Eyefinity matures.

 

i say we stuff it and eat it then. sound good DDP?

 

LOL, i know. Stuffed DDP i wonder what it tastes like.

like chicken i bet

 

i was hoping for a daul nvidia card based on GF104 or a 512 core GF104

 

i'm sure the need for six 6 wire power connectors would limit its intended application

 

im sure it could be done (the dual card) with an 8 and 6.

 

i was joking.

 

Ha just got a new 75 round drum magazine for my AKS-47 and my buddy got a 120 round drum for his AR-15 in the same order. We decided to celebrate the new acquisition by testing them out



That's me in the yellow and the guy next to me is my buddy Kyle. Shame we didn't get some pictures of me firing my Ruger .357 revolver as we did have it there that day.

Really should have had ear protection for the magnum... ouchies on the ole' ear drums. Temporary hearing loss wasn't an issue till the revolver came out XD

 

A dual GPU card based on the GTX460 would be somewhat doable, though I suspect it may be done based on the weaker 768MB card, not the 1GB version, for heat/cost reasons. Considering the current markup of the cards, you'd be looking at maybe £330-£340 for the card, and it would still take on the HD5970 and win a lot of the time I suspect. I do wish Crossfire wasn't so terrible in all but a few games. TDP of the card would be a pretty astronomical 350W, that's really the stumbling block. Same for the GTX485 really, that's going to be a 320W card unless they do something clever...

 

Having a beautiful place like that where you can go out and do that makes me very jealous. The best I get is a desert several hours away

 

if it cant drop a target with one shot it ain't worth shooting, i own an M1 Garand 30.06 fun gun to shoot if your hunting bear.

who am i kidding have fun shooting 120 rounds of ammunition, my finger would get tired of pulling the trigger 120 times.

.357 is a nice stopper, i tend to favor the piercing power of the .44 magnum.

i had a 1903 Springfield that was deafening to shoot, without headgear. not to mention you could spot the muzzle flash a mile away.

 

That sucks. This shooting range is right in town.

Actually the drum magazines are for combat longevity in a zombie apocalypse. One shot to the head is one kill, but they come in large hordes. We practice by shooting 2 liter soda bottles filled with water XD

Yes but both the gun and the ammo are prohibitively expensive. A .357 is enough power for close quarters anyway. I have a Ruger and my friend there has a Taurus copy of the S&W.

Yeah we had forgotten our headgear that day as normally we always have it. Kyle has a shorter barrel for his AR15 which makes it painful on the ears without headgear. My AK, on the other hand, is tolerable.

Have fired a Springfield 1903 before. Very nice quality weapon with good power and range but yeah very loud. My Winchester Model 70 7mm Mag is like that as well. My favorite one would have to be my Marlin .30-30 though. Taken lots of deer with that gun

 

I can shoot right here in my own yard. But it ain't pretty LOL! There are lots of places like that in western Oregon though. Western Oregon is gorgeously green! I'm in what's considered to be a semiarid terrain. Nearly desert. But the small town life is quaint and agreeable