nVidia 5xx: where is the sweet spot?

[John P. Myers]

Z - please see if you can get the 560Ti x2 card to O/C...at least to 900, maybe even a little more if the temps will allow. Thing is, it has less cores than the 590, so you have to run them faster. But the point is, you can run them faster because they are more "economical" on the juice, i.e. they run cooler. Good to see it is better than the 580 stock, at least - 20% is a fair margin over time. With some O/C I think it should be more like 30%+ faster than a 580...

JPM - how much do you think you can push a 560 Ti before you have to watch it close?

Well of course things like that always vary with ambient temperature, but i'd say in an average situation, 950MHz should be doable without even thinking too much about it. Beyond that, you'll definitely need a voltage tweak, and that's when the temps really start to ramp up

[DrPop]

Yeah, OK - if he hits 950 easy, then that will be roughly 12% increase over what he's got now...so that would be a nice step in the right direction. Clearly smoking the 580, but not up with the 590 I guess. Well, it appears worth the money at least.
@Z - looking at the temps and the brute size / power usage you can see the two pulling, what do you feel is the better buy for the $ - this card or the 590? I'm just curious, as I am not prepared to buy either right this second.

[zombie67]

I am away from the machine for the weekend. Remote OC trials just end in tears...

Hard to speak to the value yet.

[Mike029]

@Z - looking at the temps and the brute size / power usage you can see the two pulling, what do you feel is the better buy for the $ - this card or the 590? I'm just curious, as I am not prepared to buy either right this second.

So it's safe to say you won't be getting another 5970 and are looking to an Nvidia Alt? I sooooooo wanted to threaten Sici on Moo. Ahh well, perhaps next time. I'm hoping that the Egg or someone has an insane sale on GTX 570's in the next 10 days. Then need to find a way to get some cash.

[DrPop]

So it's safe to say you won't be getting another 5970 and are looking to an Nvidia Alt?...

Well, that's just it. I have an RMA # for this card and will send it back. What I'm not sure of yet is if I will replace it or just get an NVIDIA. I really don't know which route is better at the moment.

[John P. Myers]

Yeah, OK - if he hits 950 easy, then that will be roughly 12% increase over what he's got now...so that would be a nice step in the right direction. Clearly smoking the 580, but not up with the 590 I guess. Well, it appears worth the money at least.
@Z - looking at the temps and the brute size / power usage you can see the two pulling, what do you feel is the better buy for the $ - this card or the 590? I'm just curious, as I am not prepared to buy either right this second.

I redid my math and still maintain a 560 Ti 2win is ~5% faster than a 590. This obviously applies to a 590 at reference speed, which is 607MHz. The reference for a 580 is 772MHz. The reference for a 570 is 732MHz. So any speeds other than those shows your card has been factory OC'd by some margin.

Meaning:
ASUS MARS II = 3203.1 GFLOPS
560 Ti 2win = 2612.8 GFLOPS
590 = 2488.3 GFLOPS
580 = 1581.1 GFLOPS
570 = 1405.4 GFLOPS

[Mike029]

This is a good place to start when looking to get a gpu for Hydra.