Upgrading from 5850

[Killer_Rubber_Ducky]

Well i am looking to upgrade from my 5850 by GIGABYTE GV-R585OC-1GD.

What can i upgrade to for less than 300 preferably in the 250 to 270 range? I'm looking for Bang for buck and 2GB Cards with good ratings. I'm aiming for the 6950 or better.

 

[AhokZYashA]

why dont get another 5850 in CF?

 

[BrooksyX]

Probably a 2gb 6950 is your best bet for that price range.

 

[brandonwh64]

^ what broosky said. find a ref 6950 2gb with bios switch and unlock it.

 

[Killer_Rubber_Ducky]

Any recommendations on the card? TheLaughingman recommended the Powercolor on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131393

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

dosent matter what you get

pick the cheapest card with good cooling and overclock it

extra shaders are 3-5% performance clock speed will mitigate that

get the cheapest set it to 880 core and tadaa your performance will be so close to a 6970 you would never know the difference,

 

[eidairaman1]

I say keep the 5850 n try to find another if the system will support it

 

[TheMailMan78]

I don't recommend ANYTHING right now ducky.

The new cards will be here in a few months if history repeats. Plus the cards out now are NOT worth the extra effort. Just wait man. Just wait.

 

[LordJummy]

6950 2GB all day. I would get a twin frozr or something else quality with a nice quiet cooler. the reference cards are noisy and hot. i agree, screw unlocking if you can find a nice cheap 2GB model and OC it.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

mailmans on the money their, the 7xxx's radeons will be out soon so even if you still went 6950 you would likely get it cheaper,

whats your 5850 i may be interested if your in the uk

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I love my two 6850s for price/performance. And that was back when they were like $160 each. I got these instead of another 5850 which is technically a bit more powerful due to the better crossfire scaling in 6xxx series.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

the 7800 series will be out by xmass but the 7800 are only equal to there 6900 series counter parts,

7950 and 7970 ment to replace the 6950 and 6970 at the single gpu high end wont be released till most likely Spring, so its still 7 months till an AMD gpu faster then the 6970 is released.

 

[TheMailMan78]

the 7800 series will be out by xmass but the 7800 are only equal to there 6900 series counter parts,

7950 and 7970 ment to replace the 6950 and 6970 at the single gpu high end wont be released till most likely Spring, so its still 7 months till an AMD gpu faster then the 6970 is released.

Which is still worth the wait as the 69xx series isn't really THAT much faster then the 58xx series.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

its a 30% performance gain roughly from 5850 stock vs 6970 stock

overclock vs overclock that distance is about the same,

next gen from AMD aka 7900 i would expect to be about 40% faster then a 6970 which would mean yes a 70% performance increase would be likely, but overall its 7 months away and you know damn well mailman that if you wait wait wait youll always be waiting,

afterall whats the point of your fancy 990FX??? wheres bulldozer you jumped the gun there didnt you same thing as this situation

if he wants to upgrade let him upgrade if he dosent he dosent, his choice to make

id rather he gets a 6950 2gb cheap sell the 5850 to a bitcoin user and it gives him a 30% performance boost for around $100

not a bad trade off, at the ultra high end you pay $70-140 for an extra 7%-10% boost

example 6950 2gb vs 6970 about 7%-10% performance difference

6950 2gb = $265
6970 2gb = $340

thats $75 price premium for 10%

hes paying $100 premium for 30% makes far more sense then the usual cost to go up 1 more tier at the high end now dosent it

and if a 7850 and 7870 hold the same performance lvl as the 6950 and 6970 and have 0 competition from Nvidia what happens to the price mailman tell me cause we saw it happen with the 5850s at release did we not?

the 7850 and 7870 being on par with the 6950 6970 will yes use far less power but overall performance will be the same price will drop about 10-15% i expect meaning 7850 would be $240 7870 would come in around $320 7950 would hit about $400 and the 7970 would be around $500 would be my guess on this release cycle

so waiting 7 months will gain him a huge performance jump sure, but will he have enough money to justify waiting to pay for a far more expensive GPU thats the real question,

 

[TheMailMan78]

its a 30% performance gain roughly from 5850 stock vs 6970 stock

overclock vs overclock that distance is about the same,

next gen from AMD aka 7900 i would expect to be about 40% faster then a 6970 which would mean yes a 70% performance increase would be likely, but overall its 7 months away and you know damn well mailman that if you wait wait wait youll always be waiting,

afterall whats the point of your fancy 990FX??? wheres bulldozer you jumped the gun there didnt you same thing as this situation

if he wants to upgrade let him upgrade if he dosent he dosent, his choice to make

id rather he gets a 6950 2gb cheap sell the 5850 to a bitcoin user and it gives him a 30% performance boost for around $100

not a bad trade off, at the ultra high end you pay $70-140 for an extra 7%-10% boost

example 6950 2gb vs 6970 about 7%-10% performance difference

6950 2gb = $265
6970 2gb = $340

thats $75 price premium for 10%

hes paying $100 premium for 30% makes far more sense then the usual cost to go up 1 more tier at the high end now dosent it

and if a 7850 and 7870 hold the same performance lvl as the 6950 and 6970 and have 0 competition from Nvidia what happens to the price mailman tell me cause we saw it happen with the 5850s at release did we not?

the 7850 and 7870 being on par with the 6950 6970 will yes use far less power but overall performance will be the same price will drop about 10-15% i expect meaning 7850 would be $240 7870 would come in around $320 7950 would hit about $400 and the 7970 would be around $500 would be my guess on this release cycle

so waiting 7 months will gain him a huge performance jump sure, but will he have enough money to justify waiting to pay for a far more expensive GPU thats the real question,

I got a 990FX because I was still running DDR2. See I know how to wait. Also 6950 will give him maybe 15 more FPS constant? Not worth the extra money IMO. Also where do you see 7 months for the 7xxx series and what does he play now his 5850 cant handle?

 

[LordJummy]

I got a 990FX because I was still running DDR2. See I know how to wait. Also 6950 will give him maybe 15 more FPS constant? Not worth the extra money IMO. Also where do you see 7 months for the 7xxx series and what does he play now his 5850 cant handle?

Where do you see end of 2011?

There's no release date. It's all opinion.

Upgrade if you want to, don't if you don't. Really simple.

No point in arguing in this nice man's thread.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Where do you see end of 2011?

There's no release date. It's all opinion.

Upgrade if you want to, don't if you don't. Really simple.

No point in arguing in this nice man's thread.

I said if history repeats itself which is usually years end.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

true it might only be 15fps in say Bad Company 2 but thats also a 35% performance increase so...

7800 is using a 28nm node that currently works from TSMC from what reports are saying where as the 7900 series is on a different 28nm node which isnt currently ready same node that nvidia plans to use and Nvidias GPUs wont be ready till spring, so by way of looking at it if the 28nm node being used for the high end gpus isnt ready for Nvidia and its the Same node AMD will be using how can AMD release there high end 7900 series before Nvidia? the answer is they cant, granted this is speculation, but thats what the logical answer would be 7800 and below use a different version of the 28nm node so they will be released by xmass most likely as thats AMDs launch usually *October - December*

besides how do we know the new GPUs will be that much more powerful, some have stated there just even more optimized versions of what we have already.

again were looking at tech no one has yet, hes also still on a Phenom II, so super high end gpus will still run like shit unless bulldozer is the bomb,

as i know first hand running my 6970s on a Phenom II to a Intel i5 i gained 100% in Bad Company 2 with the same gpus, and then some,

overall it comes back to my previous statement if hes going to wait for the new gpus, why bother buying an AMD bulldozer motherboard now? why bother with bulldozer itself if hes gonna wait on the GPU why not wait for SB-E or Ivy Bridge? or for Nvidia to release there GPUs for better prices etc etc etc.

you can always wait for the next big thing is all im saying and if you do you never upgrade.

 

[LordJummy]

I said if history repeats itself which is usually years end.

That's true, but you are misleading the OP. No one has a clue if history will be repeating itself. Thank you for clarifying though.

I think it best to answer his question directly, instead of confusing him even more.

 

[TheMailMan78]

true it might only be 15fps in say Bad Company 2 but thats also a 35% performance increase so...

7800 is using a 28nm node that currently works from TSMC from what reports are saying where as the 7900 series is on a different 28nm node which isnt currently ready same node that nvidia plans to use and Nvidias GPUs wont be ready till spring, so by way of looking at it if the 28nm node being used for the high end gpus isnt ready for Nvidia and its the Same node AMD will be using how can AMD release there high end 7900 series before Nvidia? the answer is they cant, granted this is speculation, but thats what the logical answer would be 7800 and below use a different version of the 28nm node so they will be released by xmass most likely as thats AMDs launch usually *October - December*

besides how do we know the new GPUs will be that much more powerful, some have stated there just even more optimized versions of what we have already.

again were looking at tech no one has yet, hes also still on a Phenom II, so super high end gpus will still run like shit unless bulldozer is the bomb,

as i know first hand running my 6970s on a Phenom II to a Intel i5 i gained 100% in Bad Company 2 with the same gpus, and then some,

overall it comes back to my previous statement if hes going to wait for the new gpus, why bother buying an AMD bulldozer motherboard now? why bother with bulldozer itself if hes gonna wait on the GPU why not wait for SB-E or Ivy Bridge? or for Nvidia to release there GPUs for better prices etc etc etc.

you can always wait for the next big thing is all im saying and if you do you never upgrade.

I say wait for the next thing that way he will REALLY see an improvement. He has waited THIS long why rush to upgrade now? See where I'm coming from? If this was a year ago I would agree with you. But now? At this stage in the game? I see no point for 15 fps.

That's true, but you are misleading the OP. No one has a clue if history will be repeating itself. Thank you for clarifying though.

I think it best to answer his question directly, instead of confusing him even more.

Um I know both Ducky and Crazy a lil better then you. So I would stop with the sneers. I'm not a fight you wanna pick.

 

[erocker]

Um I know both Ducky and Crazy a lil better then you. So I would stop with the sneers. I'm not a fight you wanna pick.

Regardless of topic, you are trying to incite an argument. I would think you of all people should know better. Stick to the topic at hand.

 

[eidairaman1]

I say either grab another 5850 or grab the fastest out now if you cant wait for the 7000 series

 

[TheMailMan78]

Regardless of topic, you are trying to incite an argument. I would think you of all people should know better. Stick to the topic at hand.

Nope. I was just stating my opinion and being accused of being misleading. But thats fine I have said my peace.

 

[MatTheCat]

Either that:

I say keep the 5850 n try to find another if the system will support it

Or this:

I don't recommend ANYTHING right now ducky.

The new cards will be here in a few months if history repeats. Plus the cards out now are NOT worth the extra effort. Just wait man. Just wait.

 

[m4gicfour]

+1 to what he said ^