3 part review: 5870, 480 and then head to head comparison!

[The Duke]

ASUS 480

The great people at ASUS have just sent us Nvidia’s latest. The ASUS ENGTX 480 is what we have in our hands today! With so much hype prior to launch and a few uncertainties floating around at the time of release, we will soon be able to provide more insight into what this card is capable of. A lot of people have been claiming that the GTX 480 will burn a house down with it’s heat output. Well, hopefully not for our sake, and we will be testing temperatures to give you some solid numbers. There is even more banter going around regarding the performance of this card. Can it keep up with other comparable cards? This review should give you a firm answer on whether or not this card can hold it’s own in today’s market. With that all said, let’s get down to the review.

ASUS 5870

With the much anticipated release of the Radeon HD 5 series a success on many levels, the ATI crowd has much to celebrate. The new 5 series cards put ATI back on top of the video card market. They can now boast of the new DX11 capability and the Eyefinity technology introduced with the higher-end 5 series cards. The 5870 is almost at the top of the pack for the new generation of cards, with the 5970 in the lead and the 5450 bringing up the rear. All in all, ATI has to be loving the massive success these cards have brought them. The ASUS EAH5870 that has been provided for testing from our buddies at ASUS certainly has a lot of hype to live up to. With Nvidia’s release of the new 4 series cards, their top end GTX480, is the main competitor for the 5870.

Head to Head Shootout: Both cards compared to eachother

After seeing plenty of topics in various tech forums regarding the decision between the GTX480 or the HD5870, we figured it was time to chime in on the debate. With support from ASUS allowing us to review these two cards, the ENGTX480 and EAH5870, we have all of the information we need for this stand alone head-to-head. We hope that after seeing the comparisons we can help put to rest some of the debates and provide a clear cut answer to “which is the best for my money?”.

Hope you enjoy and find the information useful

[Johnny87au]

480 drills it lol.. well in fc2, but then again its nvidia FAVOURED

[The Duke]

Ya the 480 leads almost every game benchmark ... the 5870 makes up for it with less power consumption and heat though.

[skuldarin]

Ya the 480 leads almost every game benchmark ... the 5870 makes up for it with less power consumption and heat though.

no joke, i use an HD5970 for the extra punch and it's most certainly not the biggest heat generator in my rig and it's OC'd pretty well at 950core / 1250memory and my CPU is still the biggest heat generator

then again i'm sure the HD5970 would show higher numbers to atleast equal, if not surpass the 480 on those charts above.

[Scubar]

The 5970 will beat the 480 comfortably, thats why you never hear the 480 mentioned against the 5970 as they arent competing cards. The 5870 and 480 are.

[The Duke]

no joke, i use an HD5970 for the extra punch and it's most certainly not the biggest heat generator in my rig and it's OC'd pretty well at 950core / 1250memory and my CPU is still the biggest heat generator

then again i'm sure the HD5970 would show higher numbers to atleast equal, if not surpass the 480 on those charts above.

send me your 5970 and ill see what it can do

The 5970 will beat the 480 comfortably, thats why you never hear the 480 mentioned against the 5970 as they arent competing cards. The 5870 and 480 are.

[Johnny87au]

The 5970 will beat the 480 comfortably, thats why you never hear the 480 mentioned against the 5970 as they arent competing cards. The 5870 and 480 are.

Yeh dont forget its a dual GPU, put 5970 vs 2x 480s and we call it equal..

[DTU_XaVier]

Nah, that would still be unfair, as the 5970 is 2x5770 on one card more or less... So I'd say 5970 against 2x 460 would be a fair comparison...

Best Regards

[rockfella]

Not a brainer, 480 wins hands down!

[TIGR]

Nah, that would still be unfair, as the 5970 is 2x5770 on one card more or less... So I'd say 5970 against 2x 460 would be a fair comparison...

Best Regards

That is exactly the comparison I'd like to see done.

Thanks for the review!

[The Duke]

Not a brainer, 480 wins hands down!

for about $100 more i would hope so

That is exactly the comparison I'd like to see done.

Thanks for the review!

Thanks, glad you liked it

[slowfreight]

Not a brainer, 480 wins hands down!

Im so glad I sold my 5870!

[LC_Nab]

Not a brainer, 480 wins hands down!

I dont see it being a no brainer hands down win, All I see its some equals and most of them its just a difference of few points, I dont see it ( at least my opinion ), that paying 100$ dollars more is worth it for just a few points more of frames and scores ? I'm not biased or anything, Its simply something that would not make many spend extra 100$ for a few more points ( Im sure there are some that will) but thats another case .

+1 For the reviews tho and the info.

[The Duke]

Im so glad I sold my 5870!

why are you so glad? The 5870 is till a beast! I mean if i paid $100 more I would expect the same results that showed up in the tests.

I dont see it being a no brainer hands down win, All I see its some equals and most of them its just a difference of few points, I dont see it ( at least my opinion ), that paying 100$ dollars more is worth it for just a few points more of frames and scores ? I'm not biased or anything, Its simply something that would not make many spend extra 100$ for a few more points ( Im sure there are some that will) but thats another case .

+1 For the reviews tho and the info.

Thanks for the kind words.

[Copenhagen69]

Great info!
Glad to see so many games tested

[Blkout]

Nah, that would still be unfair, as the 5970 is 2x5770 on one card more or less... So I'd say 5970 against 2x 460 would be a fair comparison...

Best Regards

The 5970 is two 5870 GPU's on a single card, downclocked to 5850 speeds. Nothing about the 5970 is anything like the 5770.

[YukonTrooper]

no joke, i use an HD5970 for the extra punch and it's most certainly not the biggest heat generator in my rig and it's OC'd pretty well at 950core / 1250memory and my CPU is still the biggest heat generator

Just because your software says the CPU is hotter than the GPU doesn't mean the CPU is producing more heat. Your GPU is most certainly generating far more heat. Well, unless of course you have your CPU under load and your GPU is at idle.

[Erklat]

The 5970 is two 5870 GPU's on a single card, downclocked to 5850 speeds. Nothing about the 5970 is anything like the 5770.

I wonder how that crap stood not corrected for over 2 weeks here

[The Duke]

I wonder how that crap stood not corrected for over 2 weeks here

same reason it just took you 2 weeks to post that

[Copenhagen69]

The 5970 is two 5870 GPU's on a single card, downclocked to 5850 speeds. Nothing about the 5970 is anything like the 5770.

whaaaaa?

Just because your software says the CPU is hotter than the GPU doesn't mean the CPU is producing more heat. Your GPU is most certainly generating far more heat. Well, unless of course you have your CPU under load and your GPU is at idle.

dang GPU's can warm up the room real fast