new ATI cards!! I need one... but which one?

[digibucc]

new ATI cards!! I need one... but which one?(solved)

edit: thanks for all the input, went with the ASUS 5850 x2 ordered from the egg, estimates one day shipping with rush before noon ... let's hope

so yeah... i was trying to wait months, but it'll be a month at most and all that'll do is drive me crazy.
main thing is i want DX11. I know it's not huge yet, it i guess it may not get huge but i think it will, and am willing to invest on that idea.
the second thing, is i don't want to lose any raw power. right now i have 2x4870s in crossfire, thought they are 512mb.

so i want a card or cards that will equal->exceed my existing ones in Xfire, but add DX11.

going by raw clock speeds on newegg, I knocked out 5770 as an option, even though it's on sale at a decent price. what i paid for my 4870s actually. is this correct, no go on 5770?
and 5970 is not even really available, and way out of my price range if it were.
I would say 5870 is out as well, unless only one of them will do. no way i can buy two.
so that leaves the 5850, and the 5830.

i'm leaning towards the 30, simply because of the price. I know i'm asking a lot trying to get better and still stay ... fed.
but what do you guys recommend? can i OC a 30 to reach 50's power? is there any reason to go with a 50 over a 30, given that they are about $80USD more expensive? am i looking at this wrong? did i knock out a viable option?
will i get ANY raw power increase over 2x4870s? talking about getting two(2) 5830s or 5850s...

If your advice is to wait... I'll keep trying. but it seems once a month i want to go ahead with it... and i kinda simply don't want to wait any more.

thanks everyone in advance!

1080p whether it's on the TV or not. I've got to have at least x2 but want x4 or more AA, AF is less necessary, but x4 , x8 is wanted as well for that.

 

[kenkickr]

What resolution do you play at most of the time? Do you want/use AA and AF in games?

If playing on that 42" I would definitely go with the 5850

 

[DOM]

5850

 

[digibucc]

1080p whether it's on the TV or not. I've got to have at least x2 but want x4 or more AA, AF is less necessary, but x4 , x8 is wanted as well for that.
I do play on the tv sometimes. so two 5850s in Xfire...

how much of a raw power increase, (or efficiency, just disregarding DX11) will i get over the 2x4870s?

also, how is the heat with those? is it worse than mine now?

thank you both

 

[DOM]

are you going to run this on the i7 ?

heat should be better but idk for sure i dont have one you can get 2 and give me one lmao

 

[kenkickr]

I doubt it's anything like the 5870 and from what I remember on air my 5870 was alot cooler than the 4890 and 20x quieter. I have done one build at work with a 5850 and it was quiet and cool as well.

 

[digibucc]

yeah it'll be on the i7 ... since putting the h50 on it though, the i7 has been staying at under 40c on load... so i'm not worried about it's heat like i was in the beginning.

thanks ken, that's what i was hoping.

 

[newtekie1]

The HD5830 should definitely be eliminated considering it is more of a side-grade than an upgrade. It barely outperforms an HD4870.

 

[Fishymachine]

5850 it clocks higher and clock to clock it's very close to it's bigger(and driver/bandwith starved) brother

 

[Fishymachine]

The HD5830 should definitely be eliminated considering it is more of a side-grade than an upgrade. It barely outperforms an HD4870.

it outperforms a oc 4890 without AA,but ...i guess that not of real world relevance

 

[DirectorC]

5700 series is definitely weak sauce. Good job avoiding the 5770 and going straight for the gold.

IMO, even a 5830 will get the job done for the upcoming generation of DX11 games.

 

[digibucc]

now, i'll save about $40 a piece going with this ASUS over this XFX...

i love my asus mobo, the card has good ratings - is it safe?

am i right in thinking the higher clock speeds on the XFX can PROBABLY be attained on the ASUS manually?

 

[newtekie1]

it outperforms a oc 4890 without AA,but ...i guess that not of real world relevance

There are a few games it does better in, but overall it is right about the level of an HD4870 512MB.

now, i'll save about $40 a piece going with this ASUS over this XFX...

i love my asus mobo, the card has good ratings - is it safe?

am i right in thinking the higher clock speeds on the XFX can PROBABLY be attained on the ASUS manually?

I would say it is a safe bet to say the ASUS card can match the XFX card's clocks. Though I prefer XFX cards simply for the double lifetime warranty. Usually gives them a slightly higher resale value than the ASUS cards, and having a lifetime warranty is always a good thing.

 

[Zubasa]

There are a few games it does better in, but overall it is right about the level of an HD4870 512MB.

Nope, over all it is pretty even with the 1024MB 4870
Which both the 512MB and the 1024MB cards are quite close in most cases anyways.

 

[digibucc]

and my newegg preferred account says "no"...

updated billing address, but now the account is up for review, so i have to wait days .... if only I had enough real money

 

[newtekie1]

Nope, over all it is pretty even with the 1024MB 4870
Which both the 512MB and the 1024MB cards are quite close in most cases anyways.

Nope, overall it is pretty even with the HD4870 512MB, but yes the difference between 512MB and 1024MB is marginal at best:

 

[Zubasa]

Nope, overall it is pretty even with the HD4870 512MB:
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH_5830_DirectCu/images/perfrel_1920.gif

On Guru3D's review it is head to head with the 4870 1GB, and they actually used 1GB cards.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/15
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/18
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/20
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/22

 

[newtekie1]

On Guru3D's review it is head to head with the 4870 1GB, and they actually used 1GB cards.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/15
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/18
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/20
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/22

Yes, but I believe W1z's reviews far more than Guru3d, if this was the Guru3D forums I'd believe their reviews...

Either way, as I said the 512MB and 1024MB cards are actually extremely close in performance. So yeah, all three are basically the same performance wise, doesn't matter if it is 512MB or 1024MB.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

eitherway the 5850s will server him well they overclock like mad and put out some crazy numbers when setup with i7 etc hell my 2 5850s are actually asking for MOAAARRR cpu time but my Phenom II just cant push them

 

[BarbaricSoul]

With the performance I get from a single 5870 on my 1920*1200 monitor(equal to the two GTX280 cards it replaced), I honestly don't see a need to have two 58*0 cards. I get atleast 60 fps on very high settings for every game I play except crysis, in which I get +45fps. Unless your 42" runs a resolution of 2560 x 1600 or higher, two 5850 or 5870 cards are over-kill.

 

[digibucc]

no it's only 1080p ... i just assumed i guess so i should be fine with one? ... at least i can start low

but at the same , 1 would not equal 2x4870s, would it? i don't want to lose power during this "upgrade"

 

[newtekie1]

no it's only 1080p ... i just assumed i guess so i should be fine with one? ... at least i can start low

but at the same , 1 would not equal 2x4870s, would it? i don't want to lose power during this "upgrade"

1920x1200 and 1920x1080 are extremely close in performance, if anything you should get a couple FPS more.

I would say you will be just fine with one, though one will not outperform two HD4870s. To get an idea, look at the chart I posted above. The HD4870x2 on that chart should give you an idea of how your two HD4870s perform.

You're looking at a very slight performance loss by going with just one HD5870, and pretty noticeable performance loss by going with one HD5850.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

1920x1200 and 1920x1080 are extremely close in performance, if anything you should get a couple FPS more.

I would say you will be just fine with one, though one will not outperform two HD4870s. To get an idea, look at the chart I posted above. The HD4870x2 on that chart should give you an idea of how your two HD4870s perform.

You're looking at a very slight performance loss by going with just one HD5870, and pretty noticeable performance loss by going with one HD5850.

Like I said, atleast on my system(in system specs), my single 5870 is atleast matching what the two GTX280 cards I had gave. The GTX280 is stronger than the 4870. I honestly don't know how the two 4870's in crossfire is suppose to match the 5870. Benchmarks may say one thing, but we all know there is a difference between benchmarks and real life performance. But even benchmarking with 3d mark06, the 5870 beat the two GTX280 cards, my results were-

5870 OC'ed to 875/1250 3d mark06 score 22228
GTX280 in SLI OC'ed to 682/1179/1468 3d mark06 score 20066

Both tests were done with 4 gigs ddr2 800 RAM and a q9650 OC'ed to 4.162ghz

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=13059616
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=12655758
check out the video card scores for yourself.

 

[newtekie1]

Like I said, atleast on my system(in system specs), my single 5870 is atleast matching what the two GTX280 cards I had gave. The GTX280 is stronger than the 4870. I honestly don't know how the two 4870's in crossfire is suppose to match the 5870. Benchmarks may say one thing, but we all know there is a difference between benchmarks and real life performance. But even benchmarking with 3d mark06, the 5870 beat the two GTX280 cards, my results were-

5870 OC'ed to 875/1250 3d mark06 score 22228
GTX280 in SLI OC'ed to 682/1179/1468 3d mark06 score 20066

Both tests were done with 4 gigs ddr2 800 RAM and a q9650 OC'ed to 4.162ghz

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=13059616
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=12655758
check out the video card scores for yourself.

Thats because 3DMark06 is a broken ass benchmark...

You're right, benchmarks don't mean much, which is why the benchmark shows such a high lead for a single HD5870. While the real world tests in W1z's review give a much more accurate idea of how the cards perform.

A GTX275 is very close in performance to a GTX280(as you can see from the chart I posted) and a GTX295 is two GTX275's together, so probably pretty similar performance to two GTX280s. In the real world, two GTX280s outperform a single HD5870, and his two HD4870s will outperform a single HD5870 also.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

ppl forget a 5850 will overclock and this is an enthusiast site look at the heavens bench compilation heavily oced 5850s take the cake fact of the matter is you can apparently flash the 5870 bios to a 5850 and get the 5850 clocks and then the performance difference is miniscule and since the voltage is set to that of a 5870 u can then overclock the 5850 to the same thresholds i dont see where the extra $100 spent makes the 5870 worth it i own 5850s i did own a 4870x2 overclocked a single 5850 gave me better minimum fps then the 4870x2 and slightly less average but then again min fps is what matters if the minimum sucks it means ur gonna see lots of spikes