5870 vs GTX 295

[hoOt^^]

Hey everyone I've got a couple of questions about nvidia/ati cards.

All the new ATI cards have the GDDR5 memory (or atleast I think so...)
And the nvidia ones have GDDR3, I believe.

Is it just that the ATI cards run faster?
Also, how much of a difference is there between the 5870 and the 295.
I hear the 295 runs hotter but they are all around the same.

I'll be looking to pick one of these up pretty soon, can someone help me out?

P.S. - The most graphics intensive game I'll be playing will probably be WM2, but I would like to be set for a while.

 

[dirkpitt45]

I'd go with the 5870, because its a single GPU, DX11 card and its better bang for your buck. The gtx 295 is two gtx275 (pretty sure) GPUs on one board. Really though the performance difference with the 295 is negligible. Especially once you count in the price difference; 5870 is $379 USD, the gtx 295 is $499 at the cheapest, its also last gen. So the 5870 is definitely a better choice IMO.

 

[95BlackGA]

I'd go with the 5870, because its a single GPU, DX11 card and its better bang for your buck. The gtx 295 is two gtx275 (pretty sure) GPUs on one board. Really though the performance difference with the 295 is negligible. Especially once you count in the price difference; 5870 is $379 USD, the gtx 295 is $499 at the cheapest, its also last gen. So the 5870 is definitely a better choice IMO.

And not to mention once better drivers come out, the 5870 may not be beat by the 295.

 

[veg1992]

I'd go with the 5870, because its a single GPU, DX11 card and its better bang for your buck. The gtx 295 is two gtx275 (pretty sure) GPUs on one board. Really though the performance difference with the 295 is negligible. Especially once you count in the price difference; 5870 is $379 USD, the gtx 295 is $499 at the cheapest, its also last gen. So the 5870 is definitely a better choice IMO.

And not to mention once better drivers come out, the 5870 may not be beat by the 295.

These!

It's just not worth buying a GTX 295 anymore, IMO anyways.

 

[patonb]

especially with the 300's due out in a couple months.. Itd be dumb to get a this years csrd at full price

 

[Luke]

^the 300's could prove to be very under whelming, because they are more focused on computing...and super computer clusters. (heard it on maximum pc podast, I'm not just pulling that out of my butt). I would definitely go with the 5870, it is an awesome card. Gtx295 runs hotter, is more expensive, and performs only a bit better right now, and it is entirely possibly that new driver releases for the 5870 will make use of the hardware better and it could pull ahead in performance.

 

[INNOVATOR]

So how hot does the 5870 run in comparison? The 295's were better off water/ice correct? Can 5870's run just fine under air?

 

[Luke]

I dont know the exact temperatures. But the gtx295 runs rather hot because it is a x2, so a lot of people water cooled it. The 5870 will run fine on air, an after market cooler would be nice for overclocking, and water for even more ocing. Depends what your going to do, If your just doing a mild oc then the stock cooler will be fine as far as i know, again i have not seen any results on the 5870 temperatures, but you can guarantee it will run a good bit cooler then the 295.

 

[patonb]

Anyone know how warm the single pcb 295s get?

 

[Luke]

^i think it was around 95 or something with stock cooler and under load