AMD 6970 vs nVidia GTX570?

Hi all,



I'm building a new rig and I want to know which of the above cards to get. I'm looking for personal opinion and links to benchmarks/reviews etc.

The card will be paired with either an i5 2500K (OC'd) with 16GB RAM, or an i7 2600K (OC'd) with 8GB RAM (give me your opinions on those too). The PC will be used for medium-to-high detail gaming, video editing and general work/internet stuff.



Thanks.|||My 2 cents:



I say, if a majority of your games are going to use PhysX/APEX Advanced PhysX, have applications that make use of CUDA, do folding@home like there is no tomorrow, and also like your computer to double as a space heater during the winter months...Nvidia is your choice. (I love running our computer in the winter months because we never need to use the heater...funny enough, it really is that good for that alternative purpose) Also, their drivers are slightly better than ATI/AMD Catalyst/Vision, but AMD releases them faster and generally has immediate hotfixes because Terry Makedon is always on Twitter and the forums, listening to feedback.



For all out performance coupled with *best bang for your buck* you are better off going for the 6970, over the 570, unless the majority of your games are PhysX based.



http://physxinfo.com/data/vreview.html

A list of PhysX enabled/optimized games.

Keep in mind, in order to enjoy a good portion of these, you almost have to have another Nvidia card co-op for strict PhysX only duties.

For example: I am easily able to run Batman Arkham Asylum just fine with all the PhysX options turned on with my Nvidia GTX 460 1GB, but...I get killed running APEX PhysX on Mafia II.

Same with Metro 2033, with PhysX full tilt.



http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-…

Battlefield 2 Bad Company benchmark



http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-…

Metro 2033



http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-…

Crysis Warhead (Because we all must know how it handles Crysis)



http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/0…

Another BF2 comparison



If you ask Tom's Hardware, they favor the Nvidia slightly over the 6970 in the best bang for your buck category for the 320.00 price delta.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gami…



AMD also has always been...slightly...better in the hardware acceleration of video, and having a good solution with HTPC's with their onboard HD Audio on the card. (It took Nvidia until the 4xx series to provide a non-piggy back solution to HDMI audio)



The benchmarks favor the 6970 slightly. I say, if you can find the 6970 cheaper than the GTX 570, and of course do not have a whole lot of games that run PhysX, opt for the HD 6970.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

Sapphire consistently makes the best ATI/AMD cards, and it is reasonably priced at 330.00 USD

Only downside..they only have a 2 year limited warranty.



http://bit.ly/n8ddS0

In the Team Green camp...EVGA makes the best branded Nvidia cards on the market today, and they also provide a limited lifetime warranty, which is a plus.

In order to take advantage of this, you must choose the cards with the "AR" designation.

http://www.evga.com/support/warranty/



Edit:

If you ask me, personally. If my computer was doing double duty as a gaming machine and home theatre PC...I would opt for ATI/AMD...Radeon is just slightly more flexible and less troublesome than Nvidia...but, if going for a system that is not going to see that but just be a workstation and gaming platform...I have always preferred Nvidia for that. And...well, the limited lifetime warranty is a bonus (if you go the EVGA route)|||Both cards have very very similar performance. The GTX570 has a very slight edge overall.



You should get the one with the best warranty.



I have the 2GB 6970 in my machine and have done since the start of the year and it maxes out any game i have thrown at it so far. I'm very happy with it. It runs nice and cool and it clocks down its speed when you're not asking much of it, so that saves power. Then again, the 570 may do the same thing. I'm not sure.



It doesn't really matter which CPU the card will be paired with as long as the CPU isn't so shitty that it can't keep up with the card.

There is absolutely no truth to the myth that says AMD cards work better with AMD CPU's and NVIDIA cards work better with Intel CPU's.