5850 vs 460

[endlessmike133]

Which ones the better card?

 

[badb0y]

Which ever one is cheaper at the given time, both perform similarly assuming the GTX 460 is OC'd.

 

[Castiel]

IMO i would never buy a 5850 over a 460 unless the 5850 was reference and like 170 bucks

 

[DaveSimmons]

Both are very good cards. "Better" depends on price, clock speed (factory or user overclock), and vendor-specific features like the cooler (reference vs. custom).

There are eleventy billion gtx 460 vs. AMD 5850 / 6850 threads here, plus the reviews on the main AnandTech site and everywhere else on the interwebs so if you do a little reading you can see for yourself how they compare.

 

[happy medium]

I would not buy either one of these cards till the gtx560 launches in 2 weeks.
Then make a decision.

 

[mizzou]

Which ever one is cheaper at the given time, both perform similarly assuming the GTX 460 is OC'd.

+1

also OP, the features for Nvidia cards vs ATI cards are pretty stark, that alone should help you choose which model, but if not, go for whats cheapest

 

[Face2Face]

Stock for stock the 5850 is faster.

 

[3DVagabond]

Stock for stock the 5850 is faster.

Has more shader power too, for high res performance, more power efficient, and is a great O/C'er as well.

Unless you have a need for CUDA (PS CS5, or something), or are a big HAWX2 fan, the 5850 is a better card.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Has more shader power too, for high res performance, more power efficient, and is a great O/C'er as well.

Unless you have a need for CUDA (PS CS5, or something), or are a big HAWX2 fan, the 5850 is a better card.

But that ignores price, which has varied wildly for both cards, and the fact that most 460s are sold with factory overclocks and most seem to allow massive user overclocks.

So I'd argue "it depends" is still the correct answer 🙂

 

[3DVagabond]

But that ignores price, which has varied wildly for both cards, and the fact that most 460s are sold with factory overclocks and most seem to allow massive user overclocks.

So I'd argue "it depends" is still the correct answer 🙂

Price always matters. That doesn't change which is the better performing card. They both O/C quite well. Not just the 460.

 

[MrK6]

Has more shader power too, for high res performance, more power efficient, and is a great O/C'er as well.

Unless you have a need for CUDA (PS CS5, or something), or are a big HAWX2 fan, the 5850 is a better card.

Agreed. If they're the same price, go with the 5850, without a doubt.

 

[SickBeast]

The 5850 seems like a slightly better value than the GTX 460 1gb card. That said, the 768mb GTX 460s were going for $90-120 not long ago, making them an unbeatable value.

My GTX 460 768mb is faster than a 5850 most of the time. I have it running at 950mhz on the core which is close to a 50% overclock over the reference speed.

 

[MrK6]

The 5850 seems like a slightly better value than the GTX 460 1gb card. That said, the 768mb GTX 460s were going for $90-120 not long ago, making them an unbeatable value.

My GTX 460 768mb is faster than a 5850 most of the time. I have it running at 950mhz on the core which is close to a 50% overclock over the reference speed.

The 5850's overclock just the same. My 5850 @ 1050MHz gives GTX 480 performance, if not better.

 

[SickBeast]

The 5850's overclock just the same. My 5850 @ 1050MHz gives GTX 480 performance, if not better.

I was tempted to get a 5850 when they went on sale for $150 around Black Friday. I wound up jumping on the GTX 460 for $120. Both cards are worth those prices IMO. I've developed a bit of a preference for NV cards lately. I'm waiting until AMD gets their act together with respect to OpenCL, along with widespread application support to use their GPUs as processing cores.

 

[Face2Face]

The 5850's overclock just the same. My 5850 @ 1050MHz gives GTX 480 performance, if not better.

Not sure if it give better performance than a GTX 480 but I am sure it comes close --

 

[MrK6]

I was tempted to get a 5850 when they went on sale for $150 around Black Friday. I wound up jumping on the GTX 460 for $120. Both cards are worth those prices IMO. I've developed a bit of a preference for NV cards lately. I'm waiting until AMD gets their act together with respect to OpenCL, along with widespread application support to use their GPUs as processing cores.

I didn't keep a close eye on the sales, but most of them were for AIB-custom models and not references. That makes the decision a little closer, especially if a 5850 lacks software voltage control by default, but there are some cool things you can do with changing voltage registers or flashing to a 5870 BIOS to get around that. Either way, if you're after pure gaming performance, the 5850 is the way to go.

Not sure if it give better performance than a GTX 480 but I am sure it comes close --

It depends on the application because the architectures are so different. In something that's tessellation heavy like 3DMark11, it falls behind (~5150 vs. ~5350), but in games it's sometimes 10-15% ahead (e.g., BF: BC2). Like I said, it's a great value if you take the time to overclock it.

 

[Red Storm]

It would be easier to make an accurate recommendation if you told us what resolution/display you use, and what games you will be playing with the new video card.