not sure what games you have been playing....... my gtx 580 1.5GB runs every single game out there (with a few exceptions) maximum 4xAA and 2560x1440 no problem. exceptions: BF3 at High preset instead of Ultra and... erm.... that's it. 580 3GB is not reference design. you should be comparing to 1.5GB 580, which is ~£370.
2560 performance, better shaders, much better 2D Is it worth jumping from a 1 year old 580 though? No, definitely not. Especially if you're running SLi
im looking for an upgrade soon coz every ten mins or so while internet browsing my screen turns black...and i get the message ' nvidia display driver 280.xx stopped responding but has recovered ' never happens in games, only when IE or Firefox is open... so nvidias drivers arent as bulletproof as most people belive in other news, im very skeptical about seeing 100% faster... but im still going to wait for nvidias response to bring prices down a bit
Isn't the whole point of CPU and GPU manufactures, to help reduce cost when they change to a newer die shrink? But yet in the recession we are still in, they do the opposite, and charge more? They say only 1% of households will have CF or SLI setup. But at this rate, it will only be 1% of households, that will own a flagship card....And then we will see them make more people redundant! I'm now thinking of staying 1 generation behind, and picking up last years flagship, at what should be RRP prices. So I might get the GTX 780 when the GTX 880 comes out. Just to add, I'm no fanboy to either company, but I'm beginning to stay more loyal to Nvida, after the Sh!t I had with the HD 5970. Previous cards I have owned. 2x HD2900XT 1x 8800 Ultra 2x HD3870x2 1x 9800GTX 1x 9800GX2 1x GTX 280 2x HD4890 2x HD5970 3x GTX 580 So as you can see, I play on both sides.
You may want to completely un-install your drivers, and start again. But this time use driver sweeper. 99% of driver problems are from user error.
try turn off Firefox's hardware acceleration. also restore your card to reference clock speed, i would never trust any manufacture's factory overclock. i think your card is due for a RMA. display driver stopped responding is usually due to corrupt graphics memory. (same for both camp)
The proof is in the pudding is all I'll say. I'm extremely biased towards ATI/AMD however as the only nvidia card I've ever owned (8800GTS 640) died after a year and the 9800 Pro I've had for a million years is still running in my ancient rig..
Ive had nothing but issues with ATI. Never had an issue with nvidia.. even my work pc uses a 560Ti as the 5850 which was installed died 2 hours ago and so did the 5770 before that. Ive had.. Ati 9600 Ati 9800pro ati 9800xt ati x800 nvidia 6600gt nvidia 6800gt sli nvidia 7800gtx 512mb sli nvidia 7900gtx sli ati x1950xt CF nvidia 8800gtx nvidia 8800gts 512MB sli nvidia 9800gx2 nvidia GTX260 216sp sli nvidia GTX295 Qsli ati 5970 quadfire Nvidia 480gtx sli Nvidia 480 tri sli Nvidia 480 Quad Sli... gave up with it after just a day though. Nvidia 580 SLI Nvidia 3gb 580 sli Next cards... potentiall dual/tripple 7970.. or 2-3x Kepler Top end GTX. Obviously I have had many other cards in the same period in laptops, media centers etc and many GPUs before but thats going back a while and I honestly cant remember what they were without going into the past with the 3DFX etc XD As it goes... ATI drivers = do not like. Im happy to go to Ati though as it doesnt matter too much for just benching and gaming.. its just the plathora of issues I seem to get from them (as do many many others).
I lean towards Nvidia because I like the control panel. Per application settings are pure Cheescake. The Catylast Control Panel (Or whatever it's called) is reputedly absolutely awful according to the opinions of a few of my close friends. Should AMD fix that little bump in the road: I honestly wouldn't mind which company I got my GPU from, just so long as it was the best I could get for the price I spent.
did tg just say he goes both ways ?? !! not what i want to hear...getting this from my gtx 570...and tearing in l4d2...yes lol i still fire up l4d2 OT - if i were buying a card right now, and i was buying top end...it would be the new amd card...the performance and energy numbers make it worth the price...if i already had a 580 or 6970, i wouldn't budge for now...
No offense, but I can't help but laugh when someone with a computer like yours mentions the recession. These are high end cards, people who want them will cut back in other areas of their spending (as you probably know better than most!), AMD/Nvidia have no incentive to lower prices until people actually stop buying their cards. In the case of the 7970 it's selling out the moment stock comes in, be that high sales or low stocks I don't know and frankly it doesn't matter. Until it's more profitable to lower prices and increase sales it'll stay at £450. It sucks, but that's capitalism for you. Before prices come down on the new generation we need the old generation to go away. There's no incentive to price new cards at the same price points as their predecessors because those cards are still on the market and selling. Maybe the release of the rest of the 7000 series and Kepler will usher this in, or maybe we'll be sat at just the same problem where cards like the GTX580 are still selling and the GTX780 has to be overpriced or risk cannibalizing it. There's probably some truth to the comment about 1% of households owning flagship cards as a result of this. Few people actually have a use for a 7970, particularly at £450, when a 6970 (or similar card, simply dropping one number is just easy) gives similar value at a lower price point while still providing the typical gamer plenty of performance. Flagship cards are no longer needed to run the latest games at high settings on a single monitor, instead they're becoming the cards of the extra high resolution, multi-monitor, heavily future-proof and other more unique niches. Totally off that topic, if your card is having troubles, particularly the more unique models, remember that there's a good chance it's neither AMD nor Nvidia's fault. Take it up with the manufacturer first. As far as experience with each go I've had two ATI cards and two Nvidia, and worked with plenty from each camp. Never had a bad experience with either. AMD's currently got my most interest due to Eyefinity. Very much sold on it and excited to get a 7000 series card so I can use all three monitors. Hopefully Nvidia's Surround will support multiple resolutions soon because as it is they're excluded from my upgrade options.
I agree with Sloth. Just recently with Batman Arkham City and the Witcher 2, that my GTX 260 start struggling. I don't even OC it. I have 1 monitor at 1920x1200. Sure I didn't play BF3 on it, I am sure it will struggle at max settings, but my point is see how long my GPU latest. Since what 2008 to let's say 2011. 3 years+. Not bad for a med range card at 300$ Can back then. I could keep it even longer if I reduce game settings a bit and still have great visuals, and keep it for another year or even two.
Couple of things. BF3 is not the worlds most demanding game, nor the best looking. So stop using that one (directed at many, not just you) as a "my PC can play all games because it can play BF3 with acceptable frame rates" card. Try Metro 2033 (AAA is fine, no DoF or whatever - it's ridiculous), or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. CoP at max. Take Crysis 2 with DX11 + HD textures out for a spin, or Shogun 2 at full settings. Very quickly, you'll run out of VRAM, or GPU grunt, or both. Secondly, the reason I mentioned the GTX580 3GB was in response to true_gamer's assertion that the card is massively overpriced, and that he'd get some GTX580 3GB to tide him over. Besides which, if we're comparing like-for-like, there are many situations where a 1.5GB GTX580 is not that useful due to VRAM limitations.
just enable VSYNC to get rid of tearing. but driver stop responding, after many re-installs, is a sign of card dying. @Marvin, fair enough, i don't play those games, so didn't know they are a VRAM hog. but 580 isn't far off 7970 for GPU grunt. (not at stock at least) similar difference between 580 and 570.
if you think 1.5GB is a VRAM limitation in any let alone many you are talking dribble. I've pretty much tried every example you just named completely maxed out, and not come close to the cap...THE only reason that type of memory is required at present is for up and over 1080 with multiple outputs. No singular game out on the market at the moment will take use of 3GB without that implemented with the exception of some sandbox scenarios
I moved from 1.5GB 580s to 3gb 580s No limitations in any games I play excepot for BF3 which now runs with a 40% increase on minimum frame rate, average is about 10% higher with Max frames sitting around the same. I now use 2.1GB of Vram where as before is was around 1.45GB so clearly the game limits vram to the GPU in order to maintain some performance but give it more Vram and its clear that some games you do need it.
I play both side too. I've had many different GPU manufzcturer since I'm using a PC (not mentioning the Amigas before) Tseng Labs ET4000 (1Mo) ATI 3D Rage 2+ (4Mo) Matrox Millenium (8 Mo) S3 Virge 3DFX Voodoo2 (8 Mo) Nvidia TNT2 (32 Mo) Nvidia GeForce 2Mx (64 Mo) PowerVR Kiro 2 (64 Mo) Nvidia GeForce 4Ti (64 Mo) Nvidia Geforce 9600GT (1 Go) ATI HD5870 I do not feel like replacing my HD5870 for the moment. Still powerfull enough for everything I do. Maybe I'll by a second one (found one for 120€ brand new, and my current one cost me 150€ brand new).
That's great that you think so. Luckily I was talking to wuyanxu about 2560x1440, which is nearly double the resolution of 1080p, and so therefore your comments are entirely irrelevant.
