Thoughts on XFX Radeon HD 6970?

[Stickgore]

Newegg.ca - XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Should I get this card or the GTX 570? I will be doing heavy gaming, and using dual screen (1 for games and 1 for skype and such while gaming). What are your thoughts on this card?

[Jake-]

I run dual screen and all the games i play black out the second screen, unless you set the game to dual screen.

Otherwise dual screen i have found is an 'odd' number of monitors, due to shooter and driving games the centre of the screen is now split by two monitors bezels either go for a third or get used to gaming on one screen like me .

Just saying so you don expect to be skyping and gaming :/

NOTE: Ill leave the graphics side of the question to a person who knows

[IAntDemo]

PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

claims 570 is better

[Indigo]

PassMark for basing a video card purchase? Really?

If I based my purchase decisions on PassMark I'd be fired.

In this one case however, it's mostly got it right. The GTX 570 is where the money's at.

[Stickgore]

I get lots of controversy when I ask people for which is better. I see the 570 has less memory but its faster, and the 6970 has more memory. Which exactly is better in the long run? Considering gaming performance, drivers, etc. All information is appreciated

[IAntDemo]

Originally Posted by og

PassMark for basing a video card purchase? Really?

If I based my purchase decisions on PassMark I'd be fired.

In this one case however, it's mostly got it right. The GTX 570 is where the money's at.

whats wrong with passmark, their are over 1,000 users registering their cards their for people like the thread maker.. sorry to be blunt but it's better then using your head.. right? can you perform a stock check on a core speed threw your brain? NOPE that's why we have sites like this where they are tested.. my god

[Indigo]

Originally Posted by IAntDemo

whats wrong with passmark, their are over 1,000 users registering their cards their for people like the thread maker.. sorry to be blunt but it's better then using your head.. right? can you perform a stock check on a core speed threw your brain? NOPE that's why we have sites like this where they are tested.. my god

Folks who have been doing this a while usually quote more than just one site. In the past, PassMark has shown very little in terms of GPU performance. It's what's known as a Synthetic benchmark, and for some folks, it's not enough to measure general GPU/APU performance. This is why folks usually (and I do try) list multiple sources so that they're backed up (which is what I did in this case, I took your recommendation and compared it with a Guru3D result).

Synthetic benchmarks carry a nasty stigma, after all, if they're synthetic, why use them to compare against real world testing? That's my point here.

If you'd like to get butthurt over that aspect, be my guest.