Upgrade XFX5870XXX to 78xx Sideways move ?

[revin]

By using the very nicly redone GPU database it still appears to me I would have to skip the 7800 set of cards if I want to stay with single GPU setup?

5870
Render Config
Shading Units: 1600
TMUs: 80
ROPs: 32
Pixel Rate: 27.2 GPixel/s
Texture Rate: 68.0 GTexel/s
vs
7870
Render Config
Shading Units: 1280
TMUs: 80
ROPs: 32
Pixel Rate: 32.0 GPixel/s
Texture Rate: 80.0 GTexel/s

Both same bandwidth{153.6 GB/s} so it seems on paper I wont gain anything worthy of $200?
In that case I'm stuck going into 7900's and a butt load of money [that I really dont have since that asshole Disabled me in Feb},

What is it I'm not understanding about upgrading?

Do I really want to just add another card ??

EDIT My XXX Ed is pushing 166 Gb/s and Texture Rate: 76.0 GTexel/s

 

[Flibolito]

Just wait bro, new AMD cards coming soon in the coming months and your looking at price drops and better mid-range cards as the 28nm process is more refined.

 

[revin]

better mid-range cards as the 28nm process is more refined.

I dont get it, it's been 2 Generations past and I guess unless I was to spend the same $400 that the XXX Ed. cost to get into 7900's IS it not STILL a sideways move ?

Which in that case a 79xx performer would have to fall into the $200 bracket right ?

 

[Flibolito]

Well the 5870 was a high end card back then. So to really upgrade now it would take high end money other wise its not worth is. In my opinion the 6xxx series was a half generation just a refined 40nm 5xxx series, same as Nvidia did with the 5xx series. It seems nowadays you get 1.5 generations out of a process, the later being the more refined one such as cooler, better power consumption and clock speeds. Also for some architectures meaning a fully enabled chip.

The 7xxx series is great its just a $250 card today runs like a $450 card 2ish years ago.
I would wait for the 8 series because you money will go further, whether you save longer and pick up another big baller card or hit up a mid range 78xx card for less than 200 is your choice.

I like to save and buy High end cards as they seems to be built better and usually run more quiet. I upgrade when a game comes out that it makes sense for. At the point my GTX680 runs 2560x1440p games very well including BF3, and my heavily OCed GTX480 still does very well for the 1080p TV. That card cost me $700 and ill get a good 4 years out of it before it goes to a friend for cheap.

In my opinion high end cards last 2-4 years running games very well but mid range is usually not up to par after 2 years or so once a big title hits that really needs horsepower.

 

[mastrdrver]

Hardly a side grade.

Expect about a 20-30% increase in performance from all the reviews I've seen. I've been thinking about doing the same upgrade myself. Though for what I want to do (Eyefinity) I need a little more graphics power.

 

[Flibolito]

But its $200 minimum for 20-30%. If you can sell the 5870 then it might be a sweeter deal but that's a decent amount of cash, the 5870 is still a good card. But if eyefinity is coming into play then yeah the newer cards handle that much better. From what I understand the 8xxx AMD cards are just a few months away right?

 

[TissueBox]

The 5870 wasn't exactly a tessellating monster; compared to the current-gen cards, it's seriously lacking in that department.

You'd see great DX11 performance gains, somewhere between 40% to 100%. Assuming the games you mainly play are DX11, it'd be a substantial upgrade.

 

[revin]

Hardly a side grade.

Expect about a 20-30% increase in performance from all the reviews I've seen. I've been thinking about doing the same upgrade myself. Though for what I want to do (Eyefinity) I need a little more graphics power.

As in my OP, and in the link, the SPEC's are less than my 5870, I'm pushing more shaders, more bandwidth, and almost same Gtexsl/s.............so just where is performance going to show up. ?

The 5870 wasn't exactly a tessellating monster; compared to the current-gen cards, it's seriously lacking in that department.

You'd see great DX11 performance gains, somewhere between 40% to 100%. Assuming the games you mainly play are DX11, it'd be a substantial upgrade.

Now were getting somewhere, so it's tessellation that the 78xx have that's beter?

So is it prudant to think about adding a 78xx with the 5870, or will it be like RAM, only as good as the slowest ?

Let me add this here to help clarify
I'm prolly never going to use more than 1 monitor, and occaionsally use the 55" thats 19xx x1080P, so just what is the the better cost/performnce option,
Nvidia?
xfire?
Or as Flibolito suggest, wait.............................

 

[3870x2]

If I remember correctly, the 6xxx series wasnt necessarily more powerful than the 5xxx series, it just added efficienty.

I remember reading that in some cases, the 5870 performed better than the 6870. maybe drivers have fixed it since then.

 

[mastrdrver]

As in my OP, and in the link, the SPEC's are less than my 5870, I'm pushing more shaders, more bandwidth, and almost same Gtexsl/s.............so just where is performance going to show up. ?

Just because the "specs" appear the same does not mean they're the same. It is possible to increase memory bandwidth efficiency without increasing the speed. Also what the specs don't tell you is the improvement that came with the change in the architecture.

 

[Flibolito]

What games are you into right now that would help make the decision more than anything.
If you are at 1080p most of the time the 5870 is still a good card unless you need BF3 on ultra with 4xAA and so on.

Which game do you enjoy right now and ones out before the end of the year?

 

[Steevo]

GCN VS VLIW5


There is no comparing the cores directly by shader count.


Just read the performance charts and decide if you want to spend the money. I would honestly wait till black Friday, we are going to see some good sales again this year.

 

[Flibolito]

i would honestly wait till black friday, we are going to see some good sales again this year.

+1

 

[revin]

Thank's to all but......
I edited the OP since I was looking for more of Technical reasons, as a couple had started to point me to, but also where would I stand by ADDING a second (kind/type?) card ?
And yes I like all the eye candy as much as the next lol...

W1zz chart show the 5870 on z77 at about 78% to the 7870, so really ONLY a 20% OVERALL gain with 1680x1050 to a 7870 !!!

 

[mastrdrver]

20% is a lot. The 7970 is about 20 to 30% faster then the GTX 580 fwiw.

You'd have to wait another generation or two to get 50% or so.

 

[WarhammerTX]

I went from a 5870 to a 7950 Id say close to 30% performance increase on average. I also looked at the 6800 and 7800 series cards even tho the 7800 are good oc cards so is the 7900 series I hated to shell out 300.00 for one but I'm happy with it.

 

[eidairaman1]

is the CPU, ram, chipset, video card overclocked and at what voltage?

Ok Your CPU not being overclocked.

4 sticks of ram (PSU calculator doesnt compensate for Ram OC or voltage increase)

6 HDs

4 USB devices

2 Optical Drives

3 120 MM fans

and Capacitor Aging of 30%

if you were to add a second 5870 You Would need:

Minimum PSU would be 790 Watts and 840 Watts Recommended.

So if You add a second 5870 you might need to get yourself a 850 watt powersupply.

If You go with a 7870 a 625 Watt Powersupply is recommended

2 7870s a 752 Watt PSU is recommended

 

[revin]

Dave done cleared me up on the PSU issue back when I got the SS X750 Gold since it can push far more than rated power, so it's not too much of a concern as I see the 78x0 is a solid 40% more efficiant than my 5870.

It kinda seem's my thread is getting off track somewhat.
Dont get me wrong it's all usefull and good to know

1. I wanted to know where/how is the same spec card better, in which I have seen a couple point me there

2. And about adding a/what {ATI/nVidia} 2nd card ? or 78xx?

3. Is a single 79xx card the better choice overall, say even comp'd to using 2 cards ?

On a side note I am really fond of the XFX's with lifetime warranty's

I agree that HD6000's are just not cutting it so it's 78xx's or all the way to 79xx

 

[eidairaman1]

Dave done cleared me up on the PSU issue back when I got the SS X750 Gold since it can push far more than rated power, so it's not too much of a concern as I see the 78x0 is a solid 40% more efficiant than my 5870.

It kinda seem's my thread is getting off track somewhat.
Dont get me wrong it's all usefull and good to know

1. I wanted to know where/how is the same spec card better, in which I have seen a couple point me there

2. And about adding a/what {ATI/nVidia} 2nd card ? or 78xx?

3. Is a single 79xx card the better choice overall, say even comp'd to using 2 cards ?

On a side note I am really fond of the XFX's with lifetime warranty's

I agree that HD6000's are just not cutting it so it's 78xx's or all the way to 79xx

ok If You intend on running crossfire, adding the second 5870 would get you those power draw results below, if you replace that 5870 with a 7870 you get the results below. a 7950 shouldnt be much more on power draw.

Most Are picking up 7850-7950s now

Use this site to get a average of your machine for performance numbers with different video cards
http://www.game-debate.com/

use this site to get average wattage your psu needs for your config with different video cards

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[revin]

Sweet, thank you. I'll get reg'd at the game site asap, also Dave was pretty much spot on my current sys using that calc link you gave me is just over 560w depending on M/B select.
577w using a 7970 card.
740 keeping the 5870.

I'll get the comp's trying the differant GPU's to get an idea of what's going to happen.
One thing that drives me nuts now, is like xtra candy in say, Train Sim3 makes it crawl............. but

Lastly, Is crossfiring still? a PIT as before, or is ATI/CCC better now?
It would just give me a "cheaper" option in the near time to get xtra GPU power..............

 

[eidairaman1]

Crossfire seems to be working better as of 12.8s and 12.9s Id Ask cadaveca about it, same with Erocker.

Ive never had too much trouble navigating CCC as of late, i did notice the gui changed between 11.9 and 12.4s so i just played around with it a lil more and found all the settings needed.

Installs on top of GPU drivers have been a lot easier then again im not changing from 1 graphics series to a totally new one.

As I say if You decide to go to a 7800 or 7900 series AMD card, id ask Erocker and cadaveca about removing the drivers.

 

[badtaylorx]

if yer@ 740w with the 5870, adding the second one(even if your psu can overproduce 100+w) it just wont run right....

power-starved cfx is a MAJOR ass pain.....

you WILL NOT regret the new card....

go for it

 

[revin]

740w 7970 AND keeping the 5870 the x750's good for 900ish watts

 

[eidairaman1]

http://sites.amd.com/PublishingImag.../WebBannerJPEG/AMD_CrossfireX_Chart_1618W.jpg

use that for the crossfire compatibility


http://sites.amd.com/us/game/technology/Pages/system-requirements.aspx

use that for can you run it

 

[trancet]

7950

If possible, jsut grab a deal on a 7950, often times can be had for as low as $280 a pop, quite an upgrade.