Graphic Cards HD 5970 Micro Stuttering Problem a Big Deal?

memnom

memnom

Explorer
Hello folks
im getting a Used 5970 with remaining warranty pretty cheap [14-15k]. Ive been reading about it and it seems to spit out higher frame rates than 580 GTX. And in one of those reviews i heard about micro-stuttering.
What i would like to discern is, is the issue too bad as to put one off buying this piece of hardware? And at the price im getting[14-15k] its seems like a good deal, but don't want to end up with a relic that doesn't even work properly.
Q9550

Corsair 620W

4GB Ram

1680*1050 [will upgrade to 1920*1080 soon]
Please give ur opinions. If anyone had this card or currently having it please share ur views.
 
You should ideally test it out on a few games, with the latest CCC+driver. For multi-GPU the micro-stutter has been almost nullified with the advent of mature drivers. Though you would need to keep that Quad OC'ed quite high so it can keep up with the accelerators.
 
It will be OC'd to 4Ghz when running games and switched back to 3 using the profiles.

the problem is im getting it from abroad and have no solid way of testing it.

Yes i do hear the drivers have matured so much that its reduced to a impertinent thing but would like to have a input from those who have a XFire or Sli setup.
 
With anything less than a SB or at least Core i5/i7 @ 3-3.5GHz or more, that GPU will be a waste. Even a QX9650 @ 5 GHz isn't really good enough because it is old architecture.
 
Micro stutter will bother you in some games and not in some others. An SLI setup I had before my 4870x2 was quite nasty, and even this one was quite a handful with early drivers. As the drivers have matured it is less of an issue. After about 10.9 it is almost impossible to notice, though the best performance improvements have come with 11.3 and 11.4, even for my dinosaur of a card.

It might really hurt some FPS games. Most others should be fine unless you're very picky.
 
For 15k I would suggest getting the HD6950 instead. It still powers the latest games at full hd, but gives:

- better tesellation performance

- more performance per watt

- lesser power consumption

- brand new card and warranty

- unlockable and highly overclockable

- no micro stuttering
 
memnom said:
It will be OC'd to 4Ghz when running games and switched back to 3 using the profiles.

the problem is im getting it from abroad and have no solid way of testing it.

Yes i do hear the drivers have matured so much that its reduced to a impertinent thing but would like to have a input from those who have a XFire or Sli setup.
Click to expand...
Then get it...!

If you face micro stutter or non-XfireX kick-in let me know. Will help out.

Game hard..!
 
Thanks for the help and input guys...

May be i should've started off with this question.

Is it sane to spend 15k on a gen-old card which is very soon to be two-gen-old with evident micro stuttering but has 2 years remaining warranty and clearly beats the 580 on almost every game?

Or Should i buy a 6950 at 12k or wait a coupla months and get the 7xxx instead?

And no im not taking about future proofing im just looking for the best bang for the buck. I upgrade strictly in a two year cycle so want a card that i can ride hard for the next coupla years.
 
6950 now is enough to play all current games at the resolution you're looking for. A 5970 is needed only when dealing with 2560x or higher resolutions. Add a 6950 later if you so wish.

Also - 5970, imported so warranty is a question. Don't take that out of the equation.
 
I can take care of the warranty if need be bruv.

is 6950 good enought at full hd? and almost every review i found is with old gen games with the games like BF3, ME3 and such i wanna be sure im making the right choice.
 
is 6950 good enought at full hd? and almost every review i found is with old gen games with the games like BF3, ME3 and such i wanna be sure im making the right choice.
Click to expand...

how do you expect reviews to put benchmarks for unreleased games?

See, new games will come, new hardware will come. You can do best by making the right choices.

Here, HD6950 just seems the best choice.
 
memnom said:
I can take care of the warranty if need be bruv.

is 6950 good enought at full hd? and almost every review i found is with old gen games with the games like BF3, ME3 and such i wanna be sure im making the right choice.
Click to expand...
Yes it is. I'd say get a reference HD6950 2GB ~ 15k unlock it to HD6970 and by doing this you will gain 12-15% performance.

HD6970 has shown some pretty good results lately with new games (like Dirt 3, Dragon Age 2 etc) against GTX 580. All kudos to AMD driver team, they have the best performance drivers out there. See these links

NVIDIA/AMD Comparisons - Dragon Age 2 Performance Follow-Up | [H]ard|OCP

1920x1200 - DiRT 3 Gameplay Performance Review | [H]ard|OCP

Highest Playable Settings - 1920x1200 - F.3.A.R. Gameplay Performance Review | [H]ard|OCP

We can safely say that with upcoming games HD6970 and GTX 580 could tied for the single GPU crown. :)
 
@comp, i guess my words were a bit unclear, im not asking for benches of unreleased games rather im explaining that the choice i make should not depend on reviews which make use of prev gen games. Everyone no matter how un-futuristic, looks at the AAA games that are going to be released in the next coupla months and decide his card, which is exactly what im doing. And as far the 6950/70 im coming to a similar conclusion.

@muzux2, i completely forgot to take that into account, thanks for the links, i can get a 6970 for the price of 15k or lesser and oc the hell out of it. So might just go for that.

Thanks to all.
 
@comp, i guess my words were a bit unclear, im not asking for benches of unreleased games rather im explaining that the choice i make should not depend on reviews which make use of prev gen games.
Click to expand...

According to devs, BF3 should run maxxed out on high end previous gen hardware.

not sure which segment high end, HD5870, or HD5970.
 
Lets hope its the former.

Im almost decided on the 6950/70. Waiting for a good deal though.

Thanks guy for all the valuable insight.
 
try hitting a good comparison among the 6970 and the 5970... Reviews and stuff... If the card u'r getting goes for any lower ;), then i think the 5970 will do a superb deal... It may be a gen old but has some serious shit Horsepower packed in, and is a gamer's dream... Choose wisely!
 
Back
Top