GTX 580 vs. ATI 6970?

[T}{OR]

Originally Posted by Flyby

Oh! I see now. Here in the yard (U.S.) the 3gb GTX580 is known as the GTX 590, and it has two GPUs on it.

Not true. 590 is a card with two downclocked chips from 580 in SLI. Think of it as "SLI on a stick". The only problem is - 590 comes with such poor power regulation that many of those uber expensive cards have already died. Nvidia blames it on beta drivers, but there is more to it. All dual GPU cards should be avoided IMO. Particularly for CoD.

Even if you do get it, it is SLI. So, no matter that you have 3 GB of VRAM total, you are only effectively using 1.5 GB as this is what is assigned to each GPU chip. And CoD doesn't support SLI/XF yet. Even if it did, you are left with 1.5 GB of total VRAM - just "twice as fast".

This is where 3GB 580 comes is. It is specifically custom built for SLI on higher resolutions.

1.5 GB of VRAM on HD resolutions is more than enough for almost every other game out there. But CoD seems to need more. Thus, since 580 is faster than 6970 - the choice is obvious, provided you have the money.

So far, I've seen 3 OM's offering 3GB versions. The latest and baddest (with factory OC) comes from Zotac:

ZOTAC AMP²! GeForce GTX 580