what makes the 5970 better than the 5870?

[E13thirty7]

Besides the 5970 being dual GPU,lol. People say the 5970 is 2 5870s in one, but how is that when the CC on the 5870 is at 850 and the GPUs on the 5970 are 725? Yeah, the 5970 has 3200 stream processors and is 2GB, which in that sense makes it double the 5870, but not GPU wise....i know the 5970 is a better card, but what makes it the better card?

[Bosco]

Basically because of Crossfire. If a game scales with Crossfire performance can almost be doubled in some cases. If you do get impressive scaling you can also turn on lots of eyecandy and still have decent performance making the game still playable.

[GabrielT]

The difference is that the 5970 has two down clocked 5870 gpu's. The reason they are downclocked is so they wouldn't draw more than 300watts but can be overclocked over 850mhz for more performance. Most will hit over 900mhz.

2 stock clocked 5870 > than 1 stock clocked 5970

1 overclock 5970 is equal or greater than 2 overclocked 5870's or 2 5870's at stock settings.

 

What makes it the better card is having all the power of two 5870's in a single package. Even at stock speeds a 5970 will give two 5870's a run for their money.

Edited November 6, 2010 by gabrieltessin

[E13thirty7]

The difference is that the 5970 has two down clocked 5870 gpu's. The reason they are downclocked is so they wouldn't draw more than 300watts but can be overclocked over 850mhz for more performance. Most will hit over 900mhz.

2 stock clocked 5870 > than 1 stock clocked 5970

1 overclock 5970 is equal or greater than 2 overclocked 5870's or 2 5870's at stock settings.

 

What makes it the better card is having all the power of two 5870's in a single package. Even at stock speeds a 5970 will give two 5870's a run for their money.

 

how much can a 5970 OC u think? GPU/RAM?

[ccokeman]

Depends on the cooling solution used on the cards. They will throttle if the power circuits get to warm which is a common problem with the factory cooler. You should be able to get close to the 850/1200 clocks of the 5870 but beware you will need a cool room or really high fan speeds that are equivalent noise wise to a hair drier or vacuum when cranked up.

[Nyt]

I hit some decent clocks on my 5970. Its fans is at 100% btw.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Nyt Ryda

[GabrielT]

Depends on the cooling solution used on the cards. They will throttle if the power circuits get to warm which is a common problem with the factory cooler. You should be able to get close to the 850/1200 clocks of the 5870 but beware you will need a cool room or really high fan speeds that are equivalent noise wise to a hair drier or vacuum when cranked up.

I never owned one so I never knew the power circuits overheated sometimes. Good to know

[joel.monteiro]

The overclocking depends on if u can unlock voltages thats only in MSI and Asus.i would go for these brands if u want to overclock.