Honest answer about ATI for an Nvidia guy please

[Lord Vader]

That's quite a price and performance spread, did you mean 6950?

6850 ~$120
560 ~$160
6950 1GB ~$200
560Ti ~$210

Give or take 10 bucks either way. 560Ti or 6950 will outperform a single 6850 by quite a bit.

Not to confuse you even further, but what Bobnova said is very correct. The bang for the buck of a dual 6850 setup is stellar as long as you're not planning on running more than 1920x1080 due to 1GB frame buffer. And they overclock like sprayed roaches. 580-level performance for little over 200 bucks. Same can be said for GTX460s. Big price drop probably in the near future for existing AMD cards due to 7xxx coming out.

I've been pouring over hardware so hard that I made a mistake on the prices. I was thinking that the 560 was $130 and the 560ti was $160 when I was actually looking at the 550ti for $130 and the 560 non-ti for $160. Yeah, I don't really want to spend $200 on a GPU so I'll be looking at either a 6850 or a non-ti GTX 560.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

At the $160 price point, why not grab a 6870 and get more performance than a non-ti 560?

 

[Bobnova]

At the $160 price point, why not grab a 6870 and get more performance than a non-ti 560?

This.

The 6870 is probably the price/performance winner of the current market. They scale like wow in crossfire, too.

 

[Amnesiac]

They are just 20$ cheaper then GTX 560. Nothing else.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

They are just 20$ cheaper then GTX 560. Nothing else.

So if everything else is equal, why spend more than you have to...?

 

[Ivy]

Should i run a PC on Linux, Radeon is must have, having proprietary stuff there is kinda ackward (just doesnt fit with my mind, i want to be pure).

For game use it truly totaly depends. No general answer to this. But for me, as a lover of classical games and a high range of newer games which does not include PhysX, the Radeon is at advantage. I still judge a game by its gameplay primary, graphic and physics comes secondary.

Anyway, just get what you want really, not worth to even discuss about, just endless fanboy/girl talk. In that term buying by heart is the best bet.

 

[Zantal]

Should i run a PC on Linux, Radeon is must have, having proprietary stuff there is kinda ackward (just doesnt fit with my mind, i want to be pure).

linux and ATI drivers. good luck XD

 

[Amnesiac]

So if everything else is equal, why spend more than you have to...?

... because our friend OP has prioritized Nvidia. Go back and read his post. The first choice lingering in his mind is Nvidia.

GTX 560, GTX 560 TI and the 6850.

See? Only 1 AMD .

I'll be using XBMC heavily too, which I know uses Nvidia specific accelerations (because I'm running now on an Atom/ION platform)

In games its a mix.

 

[LZ_Xray]

Should i run a PC on Linux, Radeon is must have.

I've fought this battle and lost a few times too. Do you have luck with AMD drivers in Linux?

 

[Rinne]

I've fought this battle and lost a few times too. Do you have luck with AMD drivers in Linux?

I am running a Gentoo System with a hd4850 and the FOSS radeon driver.

I had very few problems, and none since the last driver update. The only 3d application I'm using is Blender, though.

If using a FOSS driver is important to you, AMD/ATI is currently the only option if you want 3D-support.

Don't know about the quality of the proprietary linux drivers of both companies, though.

That said the only driver problem on windows I've experienced so far (since 2008) was a lightning problem in shift 2 that could be worked around by disabling catalyst AI.

 

[vdgamer]

after all that im gonna keep it simple and to the point
6870 is equal to 560 in performance
6870 can be found cheaper than 560
6870 scales better in crossfire and 560 in sli
6870 has lower power consumption
560 has physics x, these are the games that its useful in: metro2033, batman asulym/city, mafia 2, Mirror's Edge (not nearly enough to make physic x significant asset but its nice to have it)
drivers shouldnt really count, but based on my experience they do, so i will give it to nvidia, love their game profiles option (i heard amd finally implemented that into their drivers, but not sure how well they work)
Conclusion: if i was OP i would go with the best deal i could find, which probably be 6870 as stated above, unless physics x is a factor for him, its impossible to build gpu setup that gets the best performance in every game, in some cases you need ton of vram while in others 1GB sli/crossfire does way better because raw gpu power is needed, some games scale poorly while others take advange of physics x, one thing is for sure go with the best deal available on the part that fits your requirements

 

[Bobnova]

I've had excellent results from both nvidia and ATI in linux.
The only downside to either one is that once you install drivers you absolutely positively MUST uninstall them before changing video card makes/models. If you don't, have fun resurrecting your install.

Other than that, both brands have worked great in Linux for me.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

... because our friend OP has prioritized Nvidia. Go back and read his post. The first choice lingering in his mind is Nvidia.

See? Only 1 AMD .

In games its a mix.

The quotes you used were corrected by the OP. What he actually said was that he was choosing between the 6850 and the non-Ti 560. But in reality, he is choosing between the 6870 and the non-Ti 560 because their prices are relatively closer. He hasn't shown any preference towards either brand (other than the title of the thread), and as VDgamer stated, the only real advantage the 560 would have is Physx (which he also stated isn't that important).

Since the OP mentioned price to performance ratios in his first post, I find it a no-brainer to go with the 6870. Saves himself $20, gets better performance in some games and a little less in others which is a trade off he can't escape. Missing Physx is not at all a big deal. I have an Nvidia card and I still don't use it. Some people find it important, but when it comes down to it, the OP is the one to choose. I've tried my best to put forth factual posts from a pretty non-biased viewpoint so he can be informed and make a decision which best suits his needs.

 

[Lord Vader]

I think the deciding factor was the better performance is crossfire and the better bang for the buck. The non-TI 560 seems to be a bit of a red-headed stepchild or afterthought to the TI version from everything that I've read so not wanting to plunk down the extra $50 I decided that it's probably best to give ATI/AMD another try.

Thanks for the information guys.

 

[seth.i.simmons]

You'll love the 6870, it's a monster of a card for the price, and it CFs CRAZY well. I'm running CF 6870s, and BF3 plays at Ultra easy. By far the best price/performance out there, as it was $280 for >580 performance.

 

[Amnesiac]

I think the deciding factor was the better performance is crossfire and the better bang for the buck. The non-TI 560 seems to be a bit of a red-headed stepchild or afterthought to the TI version from everything that I've read so not wanting to plunk down the extra $50 I decided that it's probably best to give ATI/AMD another try.

Thanks for the information guys.

So... it again boiled down to the price.

 

[vdgamer]

So... it again boiled down to the price.

everything boils down to the price for 99% of people, very few people can afford to thow money around as they please thats the harsh reality, im just glad that im more fortunate then others

 

[Lord Vader]

everything boils down to the price for 99% of people, very few people can afford to thow money around as they please thats the harsh reality, im just glad that im more fortunate then others

That's a pretty conceited point of view. It's not a matter of price so much as it is a matter of practicality. If I WANTED to spend $1000 in video cards I could but I could also use that money better elsewhere. Remember the old saying "A fool and his money are soon parted". Steve Ballmer could afford any car he wanted, but did he drive a Rolls Phantom or a Bugatti Veyron? No, he drives a 1998 Lincoln Continental.

 

[vdgamer]

That's a pretty conceited point of view. It's not a matter of price so much as it is a matter of practicality. If I WANTED to spend $1000 in video cards I could but I could also use that money better elsewhere. Remember the old saying "A fool and his money are soon parted".

that is exactly my point, some of us are more fortunate than others, but we still need to watch how we spend our incomes, while very few can say price inst a factor at all

 

[ChanceCoats123]

So... it again boiled down to the price.

Are you serious? You would pay more for a worse card just because you want Nvidia? Please stop trolling and go hang out in the Nvidia forum. He, and every other member on the forum (you included) can spend their money however they wish. He chose to spend it wisely and get great bang his buck. If you want to waste yours, go nuts.

That's a pretty conceited point of view. It's not a matter of price so much as it is a matter of practicality. If I WANTED to spend $1000 in video cards I could but I could also use that money better elsewhere. Remember the old saying "A fool and his money are soon parted". Steve Ballmer could afford any car he wanted, but did he drive a Rolls Phantom or a Bugatti Veyron? No, he drives a 1998 Lincoln Continental.

I don't think he quite meant it like that. It sounded to me like he was thankful that he could afford to buy things he wants. It's not like he was laughing at those who can't.