6 generations flagship of NVIDIA compared

Jimmy, here's a new card to get
http://www.tcmagazine.com/tcm/news/h...+Magazine%2 9

Sure, €457 is a bit steep, but the Matrix 5870 Platinum does more than just match the GTX470. It does even more than match the GTX480. And it's not a case of me being a fanboy. I even prefer NVidia, due to their CUDA/PhysX possibilities (although the latter has come under scrutiny of lately thanks to finding out that NVidia uses aged software which doesn't add much to 'standard' effects). Last year I 'needed' a new card and only ATI had some good stuff (DirectX 11) available.

For the Matrix card, I put the money factor aside and compared it with the GTX480 and I chose ATI for better temperatures, lower noise and lower consumption with (most of the time) equal gameplay results. Since I wasn't able to lay my hands on an Asus Ares (fabrication limited at 1000 units) I went for the Matrix.

I only buy Asus or Sapphire. Club3D may be 'established' that doesn't mean it is esteemed. They tend to tinker with the standard PCB/cooler too much to my taste, just to be able to get prices down. That doesn't mean their cards are below par. It means they get me all paranoid.

Anyway, to get slightly back on topic, I think the top-range G-Force comparison chart is a nice thing for, well, comparisons. Interesting, to say the least...

http://www.alternate.be/html/product...X4836/435084/?
Club3D is an established brand in EU zone;
€399 is hard to beat price/performance wise
knowing that HD5870 matches GTX 470, that HD 5870 @ €457 makes for a lousy deal imho

I do my shopping at either Alternate or Power4Pc... Alternate has the (Asus) GTX 480 for 479 flat...

Can't check Power4Pc cuz their site is unreachable for now... but they're usually a tad cheaper.

I know from experience with 8800 GTX that Crysis at 1600x1200 and High detail was barely playable without some tweaks.

wow zekers; for that price GTX 480 pretty please, price €399

100W extra don't make a dent in your powerbill in a gaming station

Paid the Asus Matrix 5870 Platinum €457 (factory O.C.@900MHz & 2GB of RAM). NVidia 470 makes waaaayy too much noise to my taste and gets 15 to 20°C hotter than the Matrix card... Guru Of 3D '3DMark Vantage' score shows the Matrix eating a 470 for breakfast

Then there's still the matter of power consumption...

Well since I bought my 6800GT I have gamed on only a 19" 1600x1200 monitor before I upgraded to my current 22" 1680x1050 monitor, so I dont have any extremely high res displays. Not using a 1920x1200 monitor has extended the life of my video card.. Overclocked to 725/2000, it plays even most new games at my native res with most of the eye candy turned on.. Although, the newest games I play are DIRT2, BioShock2, and HAWX probably.. Crysis is a fluke considering we are 3 or 4 generations from when it was released and cards are still not able to run it at the highest specs.

well, that's because playing UT1 and Q3A at 1280x1024 and lower doesn't need much GPU power.
as the charts above illustrates, play Crysis or other new more demanding games at 24" resolutions or higher and you can see that even GTX480 not even reaches 40fps, 8800 GT <15fps

sorry to hear that you wasted €100 or more, NVIDIA GTX 470 is €250 and matches 5870 easily.

Started off with an MX440, back in 2001. Went to a 5200 and two days later turned it in and bought a Point-Of-View 5900. Skipped the 6-series and bought an Asus EN7600GT and in 2007 went for an ASUS EN8800GTS 512-TOP.

Since the latter has trouble following the latest games, I switched to ATI (thanks to NVidia screwing-up their 300 series in a major-league way) with a Sapphire 5770, last December. Switched to Sapphire 5770 VaporX in crossfire in February and two weeks ago I bought an ASUS Matrix 5870 Platinum...

No more NVidia for me for a while, I'm afraid...

I bought the 6800GT when it first came out and the same for the 8800GT. I had the Artice Cooling Silencer on my 6800GT and had it OCd to Ultra specs.. I have the HR-GT-03 on my 8800GT and have it overclocked way past Ultra specs.. I still havent seen much reason to upgrade the 8800GT yet.. Of course Im also cheap and dont game on my PC as much as I used too...