Thoughts on HD5970 vs. 480GTX SLI

Hi everyone!

On my new rig I went with a 5970 based on the idea that A) its the fastest single card available and B) I would be able to add a second down the road, making the first one a more upgradeable/a better investment.

Now that I've got everything set up, I've been having tons of issues with the 5970, including dual monitor (120hz, no eyefinity) flicker, getting both GPUs recognized, getting both GPUs used, etc etc. I've also realized that adding a second 5970 down the road probably won't scale well, since its essentially x4 crossfireX.

So I'm considering returning the 5970 and replacing it with GTX 480 SLI because:

A) Its an overall faster setup than a 5970
B) I've heard Nvidia drivers are more stable
C) When I upgrade again down the road, I can use still use one card for PhysX

So someone talk me out of doing this, as I'd like to hear from others why this change might not be the best choice!

Thanks!

I had dual monitor flicker as well... altho only when the card was overclocked, a driver update fixed this...

10.10c drivers seem to be really good... you are probably right about x4 scaling... i had 2 4870x2's at one point and the performance gain was maybe about 40% if that...

If you have the cash, go with two 480's... or wait until the high end 6 series come out... they could be worth it or at least knock down 480 prices depending on how the the high end 6 series cards are priced...

sandyduff said:

I had dual monitor flicker as well... altho only when the card was overclocked, a driver update fixed this...

Click to expand...

That's really interesting. To fix my flicker I actually had to OC the card! I upped my voltage and gpu frequency a bit and dual screen flicker went away!

So while the issue did end up going away, it bothers me on principle that I had to OC the card to make it work - stock should always be fine!

NiteTortoise said:

That's really interesting. To fix my flicker I actually had to OC the card! I upped my voltage and gpu frequency a bit and dual screen flicker went away!

So while the issue did end up going away, it bothers me on principle that I had to OC the card to make it work - stock should always be fine!

Click to expand...

What drivers are you using...?

I'm using 10.10c - I've stepped through the drivers back to 10.8 trying to fix the problem, no luck.

Turns out the OC trick doesn't work consistently anyway - Just played Metro 2033 for the first time and had a flicker problem. Seems like it may be related to DX 11.

Nvidia's SLI tech has its fair share of issues with flicker and microstuttering as well. Some people are more sensitive to the micro stuttering than others. Me personally love my 2 480s and experience NO flickering or microstuttering. Nvidia's drivers are updated constantly improving quality and performance. AMD's updates there Cata drivers frequently as well, but (by experience) it seems to take AMD a lil bit longer to address some issues. Both cards are freaking amazing!!!