Today we’ll be comparing AMD vs Nvidia, but rather than looking at the latest $1000 or $700 or even $400 cards based on the latest chipsets, we’ll instead be paying attention to a pair of models that have been around for a while. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, we haven’t reviewed video cards in quite a while (for the reasons why, I suggest you read this blog post from last week). Secondly, when new models are released, the older ones often become available at a discounted price, or you can find them used as people dump their older models in favour of the latest hype.
Most of all, we just want to find out if a $200 video card has what it takes to power the most common gaming resolution according to Steam’s hardware survey – 1920×1080. around 1/4 of all gamers with Steam installed are using this resolution, with a total of about 96% of them using lower resolutions. In other words, if you are one of those 96%, you would probably be wasting your money buying a $1000 GeForce 690. The question is, is $200 enough? Let’s find out!
AMD vs Nvidia – The Contenders
For the purpose of this review, we’ll be sticking with one manufacturer – MSI. They produce video cards that perform better than stock, and have other features worth considering. The models are:
AMD Radeon HD6870 – MSI R6870 Hawk
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 – MSI N560GTX/OC Twin Frozr II
Both these cards are available now for around $180-185 after a mail in rebate. The “Hawk” is actually a slightly souped up model with a few extra features we’ll talk about on the next page. Note that the GTX 560 is not a “Ti” model.
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