SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 vs SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GD

[puNDuKE]

hey guys I recently purchased the Radeon HD 5770 1G 128-bit GGR5 in hopes that it would greatly improve my graphics come some of the newer game releases ahead such as Dues Ex, DNF, Crysis 2, etc. Currently I have the radeon HD 4870 so I felt that I could sink another $140 or so to get the latest card of the year or at least closer to being newer. Having not compared too much the specifics which at this point I realize I overlooked a few things like the bit amount.

I don't have an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to these things I try to educate myself the best I can when purchasing new computer components but a lot of it frankly scares the hell out of me because I've been through a lot putting my new rig together and had a lot of scares and tons of stress involved, probably more than there needed to be, but you get what I'm saying.

Looking closer at my order I noticed the bit amount was actually higher on my soon to be older card, 4870 256 bit, opposed to the 5770 which only has 128-bit. I'm a little stressed out now because in my head after reading the reviews and based off of how great ppl claimed it performed I looked more into the bit factor and now Im concerned because it basically controls the amount of flow of data which seems like this will greatly effect the performance. I do realize it has the upper hand of Direct x11 so that helped my peace of mind as well but basically I am trying to find out if this is going to be like my current card and little difference and I wasted my money and should have gotten something a little more, even though I don't have a huge budget to do so, or if I will still notice a considerable amount of difference.

Another note about the 4870 card it seems to reach high temps and I've heard this is due to a faulty card among the many so I also hope this lowers some temperature in my case as well... anyway hope someone can shed some light on the manner to ease my peace of mind otherwise I'm going to go through the hassle of returning the card for a refund and maybe sinking in a little more to get something with 256-bit at least. I hope someone has a considerable amount of info on both cards to where they can help so thanks and I appreciate anyone that can lay down some wisdom on the matter of differences between the two and if I will still see considerable amount of performance and detail. I'm not looking to run this thing on incredibly high resolutions maxed out or anything either if anything around 1600x1050. ps they are both Sapphire.

Here is the link to the one I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102873
and heres my older one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102849

[Swamp Monster]

HD4870 and HD 5770 are very similar in performance. Truth is - performance wise it's not really an upgrade. But 5770 runs a lot cooler and quieter, draws less power, and it has DX11. That's all.

[BarbaricSoul]

Hate to tell you this, but the 5770 performs about the same as your 4870. Going from a 4870 to a 5770 is a side-grade, not really a upgrade.

[bear jesus]

A drop in temps and power usage is all you should expect.

The memory bus is half (128 vs 256) although it comes with faster memory so it drops the difference a bit but the difference is next to nothing when it comes to gaming due to memory bandwidth not being much of a bottleneck on both cards.

[puNDuKE]

lol well damn thanks for being honest. Yea I'm not really loaded right now to buy a card that's too pricey but I would probably drop $200 if it meant having to make a difference. So what is that list BarbaricSoul? Is that all Sapphire brands and what not? Like I said I'm willing to shell out $200 at most and if it's on newegg thats even better since I like to shop there but I really appreciate you guys helping out a noob like me I just want to be prepared for some of these games coming out and beef it up a little to begin with since in some of my games I have to hold back a little. I resent having bought this already without asking but luckily I can return for a refund and give this a little more thought. Thanks for the feedback and any additional ideas on which card I should look into would be greatly appreciated.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by bear jesus

A drop in temps and power usage is all you should expect.

The memory bus is half (128 vs 256) although it comes with faster memory so it drops the difference a bit but the difference is next to nothing when it comes to gaming due to memory bandwidth not being much of a bottleneck on both cards.

Actually gddr3 256bit and gddr5 128bit will give identicle bandwidths gddr5 is quad pumped



And op if your looking at $200 maybe a 5870 pr 6850?

[bear jesus]

The GTX260 is not much of an upgrade, the difference between the 4870, 5770 and 260 would not be noticeable in most game.

From newegg the ATI 6850, 5850, 5830 and nvidia 460 and 465 are all under $200 and should give a noticeable increase in power.

I upgraded from a 4870 to a 6870 and it gave a very nice jump for me.

[puNDuKE]

Originally Posted by bear jesus

The GTX260 is not much of an upgrade, the difference between the 4870, 5770 and 260 would not be noticeable in most game.

From newegg the ATI 6850, 5850, 5830 and nvidia 460 and 465 are all under $200 and should give a noticeable increase in power.

I upgraded from a 4870 to a 6870 and it gave a very nice jump for me.

Cool. From this list what can you say is the best pick? And your right these aren't too much more expensive... lol kicking myself right now but I'll probably just purchase the one now knowing I can get my refund anyhow so I don't have to wait ;p

ATI 6850

[bear jesus]

they are all very similar so it should come down to a couple things, the cards with dual fans should run cooler although the asus one does have a little bump on the core speed.

Would you intend to overclock the card? if not i would suggest the asus one due to the speed bump but also without overclocking dual fans should not be needed.
If you do intend to overclock i would suggest the gigabyte card due to the dual fans.

If temps are very important though i would say the gigabyte card, really your choice should come down to how important the temps are and if you intend to overclock.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by bear jesus

they are all very similar so it should come down to a couple things, the cards with dual fans should run cooler although the asus one does have a little bump on the core speed.

Would you intend to overclock the card? if not i would suggest the asus one due to the speed bump but also without overclocking dual fans should not be needed.
If you do intend to overclock i would suggest the gigabyte card due to the dual fans.

If temps are very important though i would say the gigabyte card, really your choice should come down to how important the temps are and if you intend to overclock.

I would get the xfx double lifetime warranty and dual fans

[bear jesus]

Originally Posted by cdawall

I would get the xfx double lifetime warranty and dual fans

I missed that one and only noticed the single fan version from XFX.

I would agree with that, good warranty with a dual fan cooler should give you great temps and peace of mind in the long run.

[puNDuKE]

Originally Posted by bear jesus

they are all very similar so it should come down to a couple things, the cards with dual fans should run cooler although the asus one does have a little bump on the core speed.

Would you intend to overclock the card? if not i would suggest the asus one due to the speed bump but also without overclocking dual fans should not be needed.
If you do intend to overclock i would suggest the gigabyte card due to the dual fans.

If temps are very important though i would say the gigabyte card, really your choice should come down to how important the temps are and if you intend to overclock.

Yea prolly wouldn't overclock since I don't have the best cooling system. CPU gets up to 60c sometimes on high loads so that kinda bothers me. ATM I'm looking at the XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 P... based off of what cdawall was saying and it has a nice mail in rebate as well.... Again, thank god I can return this for $ and thanks for all the help you guys are awesome lol

[Dent1]

Originally Posted by puNDuKE

Yea prolly wouldn't overclock since I don't have the best cooling system. CPU gets up to 60c sometimes on high loads so that kinda bothers me. ATM I'm looking at the XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 P... based off of what cdawall was saying and it has a nice mail in rebate as well.... Again, thank god I can return this for $ and thanks for all the help you guys are awesome lol

Also look at the 5850. Despite the lower model number its actually faster than the 6850!

DIAMOND 5850PE51G Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5...