New computer: GTX 580 or HD 6970?
By
je_saist,
Posted on: 2011-01-16 09:44 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Well... let's see..
The GTX 580 costs over $500
The 6970 can be had for around $375, but don't be surprised to play closer to $390.
Despite costing $110~$125 more than a 6970, the GTX 580 generally doesn't buy you any higher resolutions... any higher anistropic filtering... any higher anti-aliasing... any better image quality... in many games won't even buy you a higher frame-rate in the same resolution... and in some games posts less frame-rates for the same resolution.
Then there's the memory consideration. In Eyefinity / Triple-Screen-Configurations, you'll actually run into memory bottlenecks on the GTX 580's memory count.
* * *
Now, as to your specific question, a RadeonHD 5770 that costs $120 will push City of Heroes with 200% detail, Ultra Shadows High, Ultra Reflections High, and Ultra Water in 1920*1200: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219534
A 5770 just won't do high amounts of Anti-aliasing or Ambient Occlusion.
More powerful cards from the RadeonHD 6800 or 6900 series should buy you both high levels of anti-aliasing and ambient occlusion.
On a 460 GTX here, I7 920 oc to 3.0, 9 GB ram, Win 7. I'm runnin 200 detail, all other on ultra, cept performance on ambient occlusion settings. I rarely get less than 30 FPS in the game, incl while runnin in Pratoria. Only an 18 in monitor here, so lil lower resolution however.
I know je saist knows his radeon/amd cards, (and others for that matter), but I still their lackin a bit in driver support myself. GL with your decision.
You might try looking at a radeon 5870. One can be picked up relatively cheap. I got mine for $219 after discounts and rebates.
I can run all game settings to ultra, with max sliders an particle physics settings, and have no stutter or lag.
However if price is no option and you just want the bragging rights, pick up a 6970.
Leader/Founder of Order Sixty-Six Guardian Server
Going to building a new machine since the video card on my current rig died, and the rest of the hardware is showing its age. Since I'm currently unable to play the game, I'm looking to buy and build this week. Just wanted some suggestions as to which of these video cards would be better for this game when trying to shoot for high ultra mode settings, 200% world detail at 1920x1080. CoH is the main game I play by a large margin, so I'm more concerned with the performance of it than any other game.