2xHD4850 CF or 1xHD5850?

[Igorius]

HD6870 or GTX470?

Hi All,
First post so here goes.

I've got a Palit AMD/ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 sonic 685/1000.

What is better - 1xHD5850 or 2xHD4850 sonic?

I've got:
Phenom II x3 720BE 3.0Ghz
Asus M3A78-T
3x1024 DDR2 800Mhz Kingston
Modecom MC-620 Carbon
20' iiyama ProLite E2003WS

\EDIT 2010-10-23
HD6870 or GTX470? I'm going to buy a more powerful graphics card than the one of a series HD48xx

 

[Robert-The-Rambler]

1 5850

Hi All,
First post so here goes.

I've got a Palit AMD/ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 sonic 685/1000.

What is better - 1xHD5850 or 2xHD4850 sonic?

No problems dealing with crossfire profiles for similar performance and you will always have 100% of the performance, not 50% or somewhere in the middle. If the price is right it is an easy choice.

And welcome to TPU!!!!

 

[afw]

No doubts there ... go for the single 5850 ... its faster ... has DX11 ... consumes less power ... no crossfire issues ... great overclocking potential ... etc ...

 

[musek]

1x5850.
It's not just the performance that counts. 5850 is has great power saving functions and while 100% loaded - it's not consuming a lot of power. You don't have to deal with crossfire issues either.
And 5850 is very silent, has tremendous overclocking potential.

EDIT: Where are you from?

 

[Igorius]

But my OS is WIN XP Prof SP3.
How can I use dx11 on it?


I'm from Poland.

 

[musek]

Well... you can't.
But DX11 is just one of many reasons, not the only one.

And I think that you're not going to stay forever on XP.

PS. I'm from Poland as well. I'm thinking of selling my 5870. It still have 24 months warranty.

EDIT:
Wellcome to TPU. Shame that we don't have such great forums in Poland.

 

[Igorius]

But GTX460 768 OC is better than HD5850 without OC and it's cheapier at all.

 

[musek]

But remember, that 5850 also can be OC'd.
And IMO 768MB of RAM is kinda downside...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

460 is 20% slower then a stock 5850 and both overclock when both are overclocked theres still a 20% performance difference if u have a reference 5850 that is non reference im not as sure but a 30% overclock gives me around 25% performance gain in general and sadly a 460 at stock still uses more power then a 5850 same as when overclocked but it comes to whatever you can get for the best price to be honest crossfire isnt worth it try and get a single great gpu and save yourself some trouble it should also be said 2x 4850s = double the power consumption of a 5850 300w combined vs 150 of the 5850

 

[Igorius]

Yes but HD5850 costs $311 -- GTX460 costs $170

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Q4U5EY/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V8ATWC/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[erocker]

But GTX460 768 OC is better than HD5850 without OC and it's cheapier at all.

I don't find that to be true. As a owner of both cards, my GTX460 768mb @ 875mhz GPU is about equal to my stock 5850.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

listen to the mod he has even more experience with both series of cards then i do lol by a long shot

 

[musek]

crazyeyesreaper and erocker are telling the truth. Both cards can be OC'd and power consumption is still better on 5850.

 

[MatTheCat]

Hi All,
First post so here goes.

I've got a Palit AMD/ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 sonic 685/1000.

What is better - 1xHD5850 or 2xHD4850 sonic?

5850 beats 2*4850's in every possible department, except price.

If you have the money, my advice to you would be to wait until the 6000 series hits (pretty soon I believe) and snap one of them up for a similar price that the corresponding 5000 series cards are going for just now.

The only way that the CF 4850 route would make any sense was if you were broke and you get another 4850 dirt cheap.

 

[Igorius]

But... What do you think about it?
[more=better]

http://pclab.pl/art42441.html

 

[m4gicfour]

Your graphs show exactly what erocker said. 5850 is slightly better than 460 both at stock. 460 overclocked will outperform 5850. your graph does not show an OC'd 5850 but I'd imagine when both are OC'd you'd still have better performance on the 5850.

 

[musek]

What do I think?
Those charts are telling you exactly the same thing that we did.
OCed GTX 460 768MB can get close to 5850 it performance. But you must know, that every card has it's own OC capabilities. No one can confirm, that your card will reach clock that high. And you must remember, that overclocking increases power consumption.

But 5850 also can be OCed (and it OC like a dream).

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

uh yea 1 game does not a difference make examples i can pull Crysis benches if u want where the 5850 and 5870 are faster then the 460 465 470 and 480

and its comparing OCed 460s vs STOCK 5850 so again fail notice the 460 OCed is slightly faster ooo yay but fact is out of box the 460 stock is nearly 20fps slower if you OC the 5850 guess what the frame rate difference is the same

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_460_1_GB/12.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_460_1_GB/31.html <- depending on resolution a 5850 is 5% to 23% faster stock vs stock same applies to overclocked

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850_6.html#sect0 <- as noted here most REFERENCE 5850s will clock to and exceed stock 5870s with relative ease where a 460 oced can match a stock 470 which the 5850 trades blows with a 5850 overclocked can hammer a 5870 and even with both a 5850 5870 at max clocks there only 3% difference key point here is no 460 will overclock far enough to beat that performance and your looking for GPUs on amazon id suggest looking elsewhere for GPU purchases

 

[musek]

And to be honest - it makes totally no difference to me if the game is rendered with 100fps or 120fps.

 

[Dent1]

Igorius,

This is a straightforward situation, if you've got 1x4850 already it only makes sense to buy another if you've got a CF motherboard already. You will not only be saving money but you'll get similar or better performance than the 1x5850. Luckily for you I've already done the homework and did an analysis a few months ago so I can prove that what I say is correct. I was in the same situation as you

Also, I would like to add that a single 5850 is faster than the GTX460 1GB, in some cases the GTX460 1GB can be slower than the 5830.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

true enough dent but no performance benefits will be coming to the 4k cards anytime soon and while cheaper ive never even HEARD of a modcom 620w psu

fact is a 4850x2 while good price to performance is pretty shitty these days in terms of performance per watt and considering max power draw i dont like taking chances putting that much load on a PSU ive never heard of

http://www.modecom.pl/specyfikacja.php?id=664&category=6&lang=en

yea that psu dosent really seem to be that great a unit at 70% efficiency with 2 6pins few assorted other connectors seems to be lower mid range if lucky current setup with a single 4850 etc its fine but i really wouldnt want to have to make that psu work any harder then it is

 

[musek]

I know Modecom PSUs... When I was working in computer service the reaction on Modecom was always "Damn... not again".

But! Lately AFAIK they are a little better.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea i cant even find the specs for the 3.3v 5v and 12v rails at all just lists max power it can give and again 620w max = peak means most likely it can only do 500w stable reliably and continuously

 

[EastCoasthandle]

What I suggest you do is save up a little more and upgrade your video card, PSU (if needed) and OS. And wait until Black Friday to see what kind of deals you can get. From estores that sell those components they also have sales the following monday, etc. Or whenever they have a big sale in your area.

 

[DOM]

whats res do you game on ?