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Graphics Cards: ATI Radeon HD 5870 vs Nvidia GeForce GTX 480
Régis Jehl
Updated: July 14, 2010
Updated: July 14, 2010
| On the left, we have the ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB, the first graphics card to support DirectX 11 which remained unchallenged for a long time. We gave it five stars ... |
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On the right, we're looking at the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 1.5 GB, which also supports DirectX 11 but only scored four stars. Does that mean we can forget about it though? |
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| Chip: Cypress XT | | | Chip: GF100 |
| GPU Frequency: 850 MHz | | | Memory Frequency: 700 MHz |
| Memory: 1 GB |
| | Memory: 1.54 GB |
| Memory Type: GDDR5 |
| | Memory Type: GDDR5 |
| Memory Frequency: 1200 MHz |
| | Memory Frequency: 924 MHz |
| BACKGROUND |
 In the world of graphics cards for dedicated gamers, there are just two big players: ATI and Nvidia. Recently, the two arch rivals have moved on from seeking the fastest ever performance to compete with extra features.That's why ATI was the first to market with a DirectX 11 compatible card when it released the Radeon HD 5870 in September 2009. This was a big blow for Nvidia. |
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 Nvidia, meanwhile, has continually put back the launch of its next generation graphics cards.After months of marketing and useless rebrands of the GeForce GTX 400, everybody wanted to see what the firm's latest hardware was capable of. It was only in March this year, a good six months behind ATI, that the GeForce GTX 480 was finally released. |
| These two graphics cards have their support for DirectX 11 games, which should look better than when played DirectX 10 hardware, but without any impact on the framerate. We looked into the question of which version of DirectX you should use a little while ago. |
| GAMING SPEEDS: NVIDIA WINS |
For most users, the most important feature of their graphics card is that it should be able to handle video games quickly. Everybody wants to be able to turn on all of the graphics options without any jerkiness. Overall, both of our competitors are capable of doing just that with all of the most recent games. |
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If we take an average over all of our different tests (nine games, two quality settings and three resolutions), the GeForce GTX 480 scores 173. The Radeon HD 5870, meanwhile, is at 150, giving Nvidia a clear advantage.
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The difference between the two cards is even more marked when you only consider DirectX 11 games. The GeForcce 400 series cards are clearly much better at DX11 than they are with DX10 or 9.
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| POWER, NOISE AND HEAT: ATI WINS |
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The Radeon HD 5000's biggest advantage is its low energy consumption. Whether it's idle (browsing the web or doing anything that doesn't require ED), or handling a complicated game, ATI's card uses a lot less power.
 That big difference also has an effect on the temperature. Even when idle, the GeForce is quite hot to the touch while the Radeon remains lukewarm. That has a direct impact on the temperature of the the other components in your computer. Things aren't much better in 3D, where the GTX 480 reaches 93 °C, while the ATI is stuck at 88 °C.  |
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With both cards, you're going to want a decent cooling system—or an excellent one in the case of the Nvidia. Our noise level tests produced fairly even results, but ATI once again has a slight advantage. While idle, neither card makes too much noise and the results are more or less comparable (although the ATI is quieter).  |
| GAMING IN 3D: NVIDIA WINS |
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3D seems to be everywhere now: at the cinema, on the latest TVs—and in video games. There's no use pretending otherwise, in this area, Nvidia has a clear advantage over its rival.
 If you read our piece about gaming in 3D, then you'll find that Nvidia's 3DVision technology is now pretty mature. Not all games have been adapted, of course, but for those that have, the results are really worth the effort (Ed: and the cost). All of this costs money. First of all, you need to get yourself a 120 Hz monitor, and prices start at £200 depending on the model you choose and how big it is. |
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Then, you need a 3D Vision kit with the famous active glasses and a transmitter.
You can expect to pay around £130 for the kit, and up to £90 a pair for extra glasses if you want to have a 3D move night.  That's right: another advantage of 3DVision is that you can watch Blu-ray movies in 3D. Adding a Blu-ray drive to your computer will set you back another £100 or so. At the end of the day, you can expect to spend up to £400 on top of the cost of the graphics card itself. |
| GAMING ON MULTIPLE MONITORS: ATI WINS |
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You can game on several monitors at once with both of these graphics cards. Put simply, you trick the software into thinking that you have a single display with a very high resolution.
 ATI: the Radeon HD 5870 comes with Eyefinity technology which allows you to extend the display across up to four monitors at once. Be careful, though, because at least one of the monitors has to be connected to the Display Port output. There's also a special version, the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 which allows you to use a half-dozen monitors. Finally, we're glad that ATI's drivers take into account the location of the edge of each individual monitor so it doesn't have an impact on the 3D you see. Nvidia: things are a little more complicated with the GeForce GTX 480. Firstly, you have to use two cards in parallel (SLI), so you should probably warn your bank manager. first Next up, you can only use three monitors for the time being. That's not really that much a downside, though, as we don't know that many people who need (or can afford) to run six monitors or projectors at the same time. |
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Whichever manufacturer you choose, you'll be investing a lot in hardware, and need plenty of room too. If you have three monitors on a standard sized desk, it's very difficult to find the space for more than just a keyboard and mouse. Even adding some speakers will be tricky. The last problem is the negative impact on video quality. If you want to play on three 24'' Full HD monitors, then your graphics card has 5760 x 1080 pixels to handle. With Nvidia, using two cards obviously reduces the loss in quality.  With ATI, you'll have to make do with reducing the amount of detail in the biggest games, or else use two cards in parallel. An alternative is the Radeon HD 5970 which has two chips on a single cards. |
| PRICE: ATI WINS |
| The price of your new hardware is obviously very important. For the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480, you can expect to spend around £450, things are a little less pricey with the ATI Radeon HD 5870, which starts at just £320. |
| RESULT: ATI FOR VALUE FOR MONEY, NVIDIA FOR 3D GAMING |
| Choosing a graphics card is actually simpler than it looks. If you want to play in 2D, then the ATI Radeon HD 5870 is an excellent choice. It's powerful enough to handle the most recent games and its low energy consumption is a real bonus. Better still, it's much cheaper than its competitor. |
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If, on the other hand, you really want to get involved with 3D, then the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 is what you need. Avoid the next range down, which is less powerful with recent games. And as for the higher energy consumption and price, you'll just have to get over it, as ATI doesn't have an alternative for you. |
| More information: alongside our graphics card reviews, we also have a series of other articles on this topic. First of all, there's the product face-off where you can compare the raw results from all of the cards we've ever tested. We've condensed those results into a performance index to give you an overall comparison, and we all test different games using 3DVision and let you know what we think. |
