^^ Yeah but these cards are meant to game at fullhd resolutions only. So that is what is to be considered. But they also give playable framerates at 2560x1600 in most games if not newer titles.
So if we consider the guru3d review of msi 6870 hawk and msi gtx 560 twin frozr II (
Hawk is expensive and in the league of 560-ti as far as pricing is concerned) @ fullhd , you get the following results :
GPU
|
Msi 6870 hawk
Title
|
Fps
Codmw2
| 122
Farcry2
| 69
anno1404
| 66
Crysis warhead (2xaa)
| 46
Metro2033
|23
Dirt 2
|70
BFBC2
|48
GPU
|
Msi Gtx 560 TF II
Title
|
Fps
Codmw2
| 115
Farcry2
|79
anno1404
| 64
Crysis warhead (2xaa)
| 45
Metro2033
|22
Dirt 2
|66
BFBC2
|44
Now we see that the hawk leads the tfII Iin all benches except farcry2. But the lead is negligible and just a single fps more in shader heavy games like crysis and metro even with aa on. Considering that the 6870 is a hawk version and should be pricier, a similar msi gtx 560 hawk version will bridge the gap and maybe surpass 6870 but marginally. That being said , lets compare the
Palit gtx 560 sonic with 6870 hawx.
GPU
|
Palit gtx 560 sonic
Title
|
Fps
Codmw2
| 119
Farcry2
|80
anno1404
| 66
Crysis warhead (2xaa)
| 46
Metro2033
|22
Dirt 2
|67
BFBC2
|45
You see right now its neck and neck with 6870 hawk and even beats it in crysis albeit by just 1fps and that is negligible. I expect gtx 560 hawk to perform slightly better than this.
Now if we check some newer titles :
Gpu
|
6870
|
Gtx 560
crysis 2
|57|63
Dragon age II
|29| 33
Bulletstorm
|61 |55
Now check out the excellent sli scaling of Gtx 560 - *www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-560-sli-review/1
The scaling is brilliant and almost 2x in all titles and no driver issue in any games.
Besides the new 275.20 automatically downloads aa and sli profiles of any new title and adds them in the background silently. This really is a wonderful feature and finally a card thats worthy recommending for a multigpu setup. Expect all geforce 5 series cards to scale brilliantly with this new driver launch i.e 275.20. This is actually one of the cheapest sli setup worthy of its performance.
The only drawback is the powerconsumption which is around 308w for the gpu's itself. So a 700+w powersupply is a must have. The seasonic 750w and corsair tx and hx 750 will do the job easily and that too with all highend components.
Finally 6870 has some serious competition and its no longer the top dog in the entry to midrange segment. If nvidia manages to get the indian pricing right, then expect these to just fly of shelves.