Graphics Card Question

Right now, I'm planning to buy a new GFx card. Also, I've noticed that ATI is beginning to catch up and has even overtaken Nvdia.

So I'm thinking of buying ATI's current flagship GFx card, the Radeon HD 5970.

Okay, so I do know the ff. info of the card:

1. It's apparently has 2 GPUs.
2. Can do 20,000 in 3DMark Vantage.

But since I'm a loyal Nvdia customer, I'm also thinking of buying the GTX 295.

1. It's also has 2 GPUs.
2. Can bash out also insane FPS in 3DMark Vantage.

I don't know what to choose, I need advice! HELP!

I think this site may help you to choose ...
* This site can compare Cards

GPU

If you use linux, or are planing to try, you should go Nvidia because of the better drivers.

If you are just using windows you should forget about the name on the card, and just find the price/performance ratio which suits you best, regardless of what brand the card is.

And i think you better choose a Graphic card based from what do you want to do ..

If i want to edit some pictures .. i usually use ATI Product
If i want to Playing Heavier games ... i recommend you to use Nvidia Product ..

But in this case, i think you better buy ATI Radeon HD 5970.
Since ATI Product always cheaper than Nvidia product and the quality doesn't have much different ...

Hmm, on that site that Jenkins posted.. it says Nvdia is launcher the GTX 480 and 470 on March 26. I think I'll wait for those and then I'll give my final verdict on what to buy.

of course the later the better..

My recomendation: Neither card.

This is because BOTH SLI and Crossfire (AKA Multi-GPUs) have bugs with certain games, and in some games like Empire total war, it is completely incompatible with SLI. I've seen it on an i7 GTX295, and it ran at about ~20-35 FPS on the lowest settings, and Empire is not the only one. Yes, it's all cool to say I have the flagship card, but remember that Single GPU's will be able to beat you on games where Crossfire or SLI isn't supported, so what's the point?. It's really awful to have spent so much money on a really good graphics card and have it spit out low performance. I feel bad for my friend who has to put up with his GTX295 and another friend with crossfire 4770s who also struggles on certain games.

If you have to pick now, get the 5870 to crossfire later. If you can wait get the GTX 480, it sounds like it's going to be the strongest single GPU on the market, or better yet, wait even more until ATI releases their Trillian 5890 which will probably be toe to toe with the GTX 480. Stay away from the multi-gpu systems.

Although SLI and Crossfire is supported on most games, there will be some that won't be. It's a matter of, are you willing to take that risk?

I am sorry if this post is unhelpful, but it is worth considering.

You should be able to disable crossfire and sli in the respective cards' control panels for specific games.

I also agree that ATI is going to give you the best price/performance ratio at this moment. Also like the previous poster mentioned, the fermi and trillian cards are just around the corner so you may want to wait a bit before you blow a lot of money on a card.

That is what I usually do. Hmm, so what I said above does speak true. :3

Here's my two cents.

I say wait it out to see what Nvidia is going to release before jumping in.
Rating a card on how well it does in 3dmark does not give you a realistic idea of how well a card will run a game.

Anyway if you're adamant on getting a card I'd suggest getting the 5870 or 5970 from ATI great performance for a neat price.
These cards will satisfy the average use easily same with the high end nvidia cards.
Unless you plan to build a cockpit or play on multiple monitors having a crossfire/sli set up is a waste of money otherwise it's an epeen extension.

A final note lots of people miss this; make sure the rest of your box is up to scratch to run the card, no point having an uber video card but your CPU is junk and can't supply it with instructions fast enough.

I made sure mine is.. (well heck, it's an i7)

Tom's Hardware has a monthly (or at least every couple months) "Best XXX For The Money" feature. Google it for graphics cards, and you get the best of every major price level, from under $90 USD to over 4 times that.

Graphics cards go out of date fairly regularly, I wouldn't advise putting more that $250 into your graphics setup.

FYI: I don't live in the US.

Well, for the cards Tom's Hardware lists, figure out their price in your country (I'm not sure they'd translate exactly to exchange rates), and focus on the passable graphics cards rather than the state of the art ones.

The money you save could be put towards something you'll get more all-around use out of than a moderate improvement in computer graphics.

Given the price difference between cutting edge cards, and previous top cards, you could build a SLI/CrossFire setup in stead of buying a single card. It would cost around the same amount, and give you better performance.

Depends on the setup.
SLI/Crossfire is a great benefit if you game at high resolutions above 1920x1200 or like I previously mentioned with multiple monitors (surround gaming).
Otherwise the power of your SLI/Crossfire setup will be wasted.

It can also be used for just cranking up all settings to high, though resolution is of cause where you get the real benefit according to the tests. But that would kind of be the whole point of buying the latest and greatest, right?
I mean, if you are not going to increase the resolution (or run , what is all that power for? 1000 FPS?