In gaming, the difference is
about 90W or so. 150W is likely under a power virus like Furmark.
Now that the dust settled and reality of DX11 games set in, the
GTX480 is 22% faster on average than the HD5870 and still yet slightly faster than the HD6970 up to 1920x1200.
The equivalent comparison would have an FX-8150 be about 20% faster than 2600k and in 6 months when Ivy Bridge (~ HD6970 refresh equivalent) gets released, the FX-8150 would
still be slightly faster.....
The comparison to Fermi makes
no sense.
You can't use Bulldozer on its own, you need a motherboard.
At stock speeds, the FX-8150 system consumes
about 80W more than a 2500k system.
Here is another review that shows a
70W difference for system:
However, most people here overclock their CPUs. That
difference grows to an astounding 250-270W between a 5ghz 2500k and a 4.8ghz FX-8150. Problem is, Bulldozer
gains a lot less performance in overclocked states than an overclocked 2500k since it has worse IPC and more aggressive Turbo Boost to begin with. On the contrary GTX480 overclocked better than the HD5870 and Fermi also scales better with overclocking.
So in summary:
- Fermi was faster right out of the gate, and that lead only extended in DX11 games to let the original Fermi still be as fast/faster than an HD6970
- Fermi had better overclocking and scaling when overclocked
- Fermi offered extra features such as superior Tessellation, NV's superior 3D gaming surround, CUDA, PhysX
- Fermi also had more VRAM than the HD5870
- Fermi was 6 months late not 10 months late
- Fermi has allowed NV to retain a 59% desktop discrete market share
- GTX460 was one of the best mid-range cards this generation
- GTX570 is easily as good as the more expensive 6970 and GTX580 is single GPU king atm vs. Bulldozer that looks hopeless against a 2500k and has no shot whatsoever of beating Ivy Bridge.
vs.
- Bulldozer has worse performance, and it gains less performance when overclocked than Sandy
- Bulldozer's power consumption difference vs. an overclocked 2500k skyrockets to well over 200W
- Bulldozer will have 0 chance of beating an Ivy Bridge (Intel's refresh)
- Bulldozer offers 0 extra features over Intel's CPUs that anyone can actually use
- Bulldozer also forces you to buy an AM3+ motherboard that has inferior SATA 3 performance.
- Bulldozer has made a less than stellar 1090T for $160 suddenly exciting again for AMD users......that would be the equivalent of a GTX285 being a better buy than a GTX480....
It makes no sense to even begin to compare Bulldozer to Fermi. Bulldozer is a huge failure in
every way imaginable. It is a way worse CPU than Phenom I was since it costs MORE than a faster 2500k.