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Advice needed with new card decision: 1/2x 5770, 5850 or something else?

Barbon

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Hello there everyone, a first time poster here.

I've had a plan to purchase a brand new computer since my last one broke (motherboard, graphics card and hard drive on the same time), but that plan has been delayed by one little problem probably common to some: the lack of Hd 5850's. That was the card I wanted the most after reading few reviews and what would be a good choice for the rest of my upcoming computer.

Now here are the specs of this computer I someday have:
Antec p183
Asus P7P55D Evo
Intel i5 750
Graphics card
Corsair 550w power
Samsung F3 spinpoint 1Tb
G. Skill 2x 2Gb 1333 mhz
Monitor is 22" so my gaming resolution is 1650x1080

The games I have now are old as my dead computer, probably TF2 being one of the newest. The plan is of course to play the most new games and some of the older, good games which I missed because of the sucky old computer (Fallout 3, Witcher, Batman: AA (not so old, I know), but in general I want a computer that plays all the new games without bigger problems (well, Crysis probably would cause problems anyway ;))

But this purchase has been delayed, as said, by the unavailability of the HD 5850. I've been reading few forums, reviews and articles and tried to make my mind, but I'm in need of help. Here are the options I've been thinking:

#1: Purchase 5770 now and some more powerful card in, say 6 months or so, when the situation in the markets is more decent than it is now. As I've understood this card ain't that bad, power consumption is low and heat stays quite low. Plus it ought to give some decent power and I could play the newest games with high graph settings for now.

#2: Purchase 5770 x2. Now I've never crossfired anything but got a friend that has knowledge to do so, I've been thinking this option too. One thing that bugs me is that I've heard these 1156 socket motherboards might not be so good for crossfire-stuff and in the other hand I've heard they might be, so I really don't know how it is, and why it is so. But if this setting gives the output somewhere near 5870 and the heat production and power consumption stays in reasonable limits (and that power of mine is enough), this sounds like a good choice too.

#3: Wait for 5850/5870. I thought a while for which one of these to go, and now I really don't care. Both of those are out of stock and I'd like either of 'em, both should satisfy my needs, first being a little cheaper and the latter needing to be upgraded later. Now the problem is that at the moment I'm out of computer unless I visit my dad like I'm doing now, and the availability of 5770's is a bit better than 58xx's. In the other hand, as I'm in the army now and going back there soon I'll be coming home next time 18th of december (and in January it's finally over) so those cards could be in stock by the time.

#4: The same as #1 but with some other card. Something like 4890, or some nVidia one. The power consumption and heat producing is higher in these cards than in the 5770's, but would it affect that much, especially if I'm gonna get a new one (after the Fermi cards have been launched and it has had an effect to graphics cards' pricing, both nVidia and Ati).

As you can see, I'm not really that good with computers and which hardware to get, so I'm in need of assistance. By this time I don't mind if the card costs that 150 or 350 euros, since I can save that difference (and have done some already) by staying out of bars and doing similar cheap saving tricks.

Thanks in advance for help.
 

eidairaman1

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well for 1 your resolution of your monitor will be a determining point of which card to get, the 5870/5850 are overly capable of running Games at 1920x1200, the 5770 i Believe is very strong for your monitor. Bear In Mind Cat 9.11s are the second HD5000 series driver to release and it may not be perfect.
 

W1zzard

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my vote goes for 5850
 
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i second the 5850 ;)
 

DrPepper

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I would wait for the 5850. While crossfire sounds appealing, there are some possible drawbacks like some games not scaling (and sometimes having less performance than with 1 card, driver issues, etc). I've been following another thread here where someone has had major graphical issues with crossfire and their new 5xxx cards (the problem disappears when CF is disabled). I'm not here to downplay multi GPU setups like Crossfire and SLi, but if a single GPU card suits your needs vs. crossfire, the single chip GPU would be the way to go. With a 5850, it is just one big chip and you would be less likely to have driver and even hardware issues (say one of your 2 cards burns out in the future).
 

wolf

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5850 is the way.
 

Barbon

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Alrite, thanks everyone for help. I´ll be going with a 5770 or 5850 (or even 5870 if those are out of stock.) 5850 mainly, but if I cant get it in a month, i´ll just go with 5770 and upgrade it later.
 
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Single HD5770 can game well.
 
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5850 afcors , but if time is on ur side then wait for nvidia's new cards: should be awesome
 
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