My 6870 is struggling at 1920x1200 and I want moar juice. I'm looking at the 580 GTX, probably the MSI variety with the Twin Frozr cooler so I can have cool, quiet and overclockable card. Are there any meaningful alternatives I've not considered? I've looked at two 560 GTXs, again the MSI kind, in SLI, but my PSU is only 650W and I would probably need to upgrade to a Corsair 750W modular. I'm on the verge of buying so if you have any other suggestions, speak now!
your struggling with a 6870 ? what games ? mine GPU is only just struggling and its a 4870 and i game @ 1920x1080 with just about everything on MAX although sometimes i do have to turn off some special efefcts likeHBAO and depth of field etc etc oh and i usually have low AA x2 x4 max usually
For me, the GTX 560 handles pretty much everything maxed out at 1920. Overclocking it brings it very close to a 570 too.
I got the basic Zotac 580 GTX for £420 and never looked back! It handles Crysis max settings, max AA, max AF with ease! 40-60fps! The MSI being cheaper, faster and better cooled i cant see any reason why you havent bought it already!!! Dunno what the warranty is like with MSI but the Zotac is a 5 year extended warranty, which is pretty good.
At that resolution, I would go for a 560 or a 570. I think that you should just about be ok with a 570 on a 650w PSU. You could go for the 560 and overclock it. I have an EVGA GTX 570, and at that resolution it is an absolute beast. Overclocks quite nicely as well (although from what I hear the 560 is even better in this regard)
Hx650 is fine for gtx580, i ran it on an older Hx620. but for your resolution, gtx570 should be enough, shouldn't be any need to go for gtx580. if you must have MOAR POWAH! gtx580 won't disappoint
Also forgot to add - with a quality PSU, 600W is more than enough for a 580. It's only when you start going into multi-GPU territory that you need more juice. My 600W PSU could easily handle another 560 in SLI.
My vote wouldn't be for 560 SLI, it would be a 570 and if you think that may struggle, a 580 (providing cash isn't an issue).
1920x1200? And the 6870 is struggling with it? What's your CPU? I thought a OC'ed 6870 could do Crysis maximum settings at that res fairly comfortably... Edit: NVM, I saw your sig. i7 won't be a problem at all. Have you tried OC'ing your 6870?
my vote would be for a GTX 570, which have really come down in price; you can get one for near enough £250. As fast a turbo overclocked GTX 560, with more memory, and that extra wedge of overclocking headroom. Should slay pretty much everything at 1,920 x 1,200.
Although you will probably look anyway, there are currently 7 GTX570's on Scans today only starting at £249.59 as Baz said...
Thanks for everyones input. Heard that the 570 isn't that overclockable - I'm not too keen on that as I can buy a 560 GTX and OC to the same kind of levels for £190, and can add second. I'm still leaning towards a 580 as I've never had the fastest card before
I'd much rather take a single card than put up with possible driver issues and poor optimisations. Having said that, if I had more money than I knew what to do with, I'd probably spend it on ridiculous sli and crossfire setups, for fun mainly.
If it was me I'd go for 560's in SLi just because they outperform everything for the cost and the problems with dual GPU set ups are barely noticeable any more and the drivers are much better. Then again, saying you have the FASTEST gpu out there, bragging points. Eventually a second 580 could also be added. I'd still go for 2 560's though
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/02/21/msi_n560gtx_ti_twin_frozr_ii_oc_sli_review/10 Has given me food for thought!
If it was my money I would be going for a 570GTX Scan have one now for 250 pounds. If you ever want more power sli it. Lots of power and a single card. Makes living with the Pc easier. EIDT: Have you considered adding another 6870? seems pretty logical. The benchmarks don't lie http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_6870_CrossFire/1.html
