ATI vs NVIDIA

[jinnai3k]

Hey guys,

I just bought a slight upgrade today, going from 4 gbs of system RAM to 24gbs, annnnddd switching up my GTX 260 for two Radeon HD 6970s in Crossfire.

Do you think i'll see a performance boost in dolphin with this upgrade? I had really good results with nvidias gtx 260 card, but I wanted the duel-rig for higher end pc games. I am just wondering if (even though its a better-card setup) ill notice fps loss with dolphin now that I am using ATI cards?

Seems like a ridiculous thing to ask i know, since its quite a leap from gtx 260 to dual 6970s, but I remember using ATI with dolphin in the 4000rev days and having some issues.

Any incite into this would be greatly appreciated.

[Dynam0]

From my experience:

SMG1 - Observatory. With my old 260 gtx oced = 44~45 fps.

SMG1 - Observatory. With my actual hd 5850 = 50~51 fps.

Conclusion: GPU is important, but you can get more fps upgrading your CPU, i think.

[knglrk]

Just like Dynam0 said
to get better FPS you upgrade your cpu

[Link_to_the_past]

If you have an old and /or cheap GPU you will notice bigger differences. Depending on the GPU and resolution, differences might be from small to enormous. If you have a 580 GTX you might not even care at all about settings in full hd with high efb scale and antialiasing (i don't have one to confirm this). To sum it up there is a point from which depending on your playing settings and cpu power you will not notice a difference with a better GPU since your games will be entirely cpu dependent. Just ask a person with a Core i3 using it's igp what kind of difference he has with 3x efb scale after buying a 460GTX for example (it will be enormous).

[NaturalViolence]

GPU load needed depends totally on the settings, revision, and os you are using. So I need to know those before I can tell if you will have any difference.

The only issues ati cards have with emulators like dolphin are caused by their drivers not the emulator, just turn off catalyst AI and you will be fine.

I would also advise against crossfire in general but since you already pulled the trigger....

[dephined]

(12-26-2010, 02:41 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: GPU load needed depends totally on the settings, revision, and os you are using. So I need to know those before I can tell if you will have any difference.

The only issues ati cards have with emulators like dolphin are caused by their drivers not the emulator, just turn off catalyst AI and you will be fine.

I would also advise against crossfire in general but since you already pulled the trigger....

What kind of problem gives Ati AI?

[tuanming]

When making comparison, make sure it has the same revision, setting, etc. or else it it wouldn't be called comparison! Obviously, a single HD 6970 is a whole lot better than the GTX 260.

[Toxicshadow]

Holy crap, is that 24Gigs of ram a typo or have u genuinely gone for that much!?!?!?! I could possibly understand someone who does some sort of graphics rendering going for that much but if it is just a gaming rig u will never use more than ~3 gigs of it :S

I have 6gb tri-channel and tried to get it as full as possible but it just doesnt happen. I thought Crisis would have made use of it but it has been coded to drip feed the Ram in order to reduce loading times

Also as everyone has pointed out, the 260 was a budget card so you may see ~5 fps increase with the crossfire but at the moment Dolphin is all about the CPU. Overclock it as high as you dare and then watch the FPS increase.

[Nolonar]

24GB RAM seem genuine: 6 x 4GB
I have 8GB on my Laptop (and I only have 2 of 4 slots filled -> I could have up to 16GB RAM on a Laptop), which also seems like overkill, and it probably is, but I often run tons of programs when using my PC even while playing games.
It's really convenient to simply Alt+Tab from the game to a browser and start doing stuff, then going back to the game.

Not to mention the future, where a 8GB RAM-Laptop will be considered mid-range I still wouldn't need to buy a fresh Laptop unless it breaks.

[fb39ca4]

(12-25-2010, 04:13 PM)jinnai3k Wrote: Hey guys,

I just bought a slight upgrade today, going from 4 gbs of system RAM to 24gbs,

A slight upgrade