Choices =( 5850,5870,5970,480....

[HumblePie]

Uhh, the corsair TX750 is capable of up to 950 watts really before shutting off. It's more than capable of handling crossfire or SLI of any two card configuration. If you want to tri-SLI 480's then you need more power.

As for the best bang for the buck. Get two 5850s in crossfire. Overclock them to at least 950 core and maybe reach 1000+ core. At that speed it will perform just about as well as any other overclocked 2 GPU configuration. The 5850 has more headroom for overclocking than any other card that you are looking at.


Now if you don't want to overclock, then that changes things a bit.

 

[Keysplayr]

Is 256MB going to make much of a difference at high res?

Any difference at all would be worth noting IMHO. And I wouldn't want to be the guy to find out the hard way either. My point would be that it's an absolute positive aspect. More RAM means less of a chance you'll run short, whatever the situation at higher resolutions.
So when listing the pros and cons of these cards, this particular aspect would be under the "pro" column.

 

[WelshBloke]

Any difference at all would be worth noting IMHO. And I wouldn't want to be the guy to find out the hard way either. My point would be that it's an absolute positive aspect. More RAM means less of a chance you'll run short, whatever the situation at higher resolutions.
So when listing the pros and cons of these cards, this particular aspect would be under the "pro" column.

Well I was just wondering if anyone had tested that.

Just because there is a little bit more RAM doesnt necessarily mean performance will be higher (doesnt mean it wont either though).

 

[Jacky60]

No Nvidia or ATI fanboi but anecdotally my 5970/5870 trifire system does seem to start to choke at 1920/1200 with 16AF and much more than 4x aa in unigine 2 and arma 2 (every thing maxed sometimes drops below 30 fps) The game is a lot more demanding than crysis and I have only 1gb ram for each gpu. I'm on 900 core all cards but the fps drop at high resolution and uber high everything (unigine 2 visibly stalls and I have vertex 2 ssd feeding it) I can only surmise is ram related.

 

[Mireli]

Wow,

This thread exploded while I slept. Thank you so much for all the information.

As I stated, price isn't really a problem. I can't do $1000, but I can do up to around 700, and maybe a bit more.

Weird statement to make, but I would rather spend as much as I can, assuming the performance is better. I sold some things I wouldn't have sold to pay for this computer, and after price matches it cost a lot less than I thought, so I ended up with more room to breath on the video card. It would feel like a waste to not spend =) I know, it's a terrible way of thinking, but I'm buying this and not you- so letting me overspend on a better card is allowed!

I really like the discussion, people actually tried to steer away from the price =)

From what I gathered:

-5850s OC'd will perform the same, or better as 5970
-GTX line is extremely hot and loud
-5870 is a nice card, however seems like the inbetween option, and I don't really want that.
-Benchmarks seem to have SLI'd GTX480/470 dominating 5850s and a single 5970
-GTX470 compared to GTX480 seems to be another one of the price debates, is it not?
-Tesselation seems to be a lot of peoples points on the GTX line. I'm guessing this is hardware, and not fixable by drivers for the ATI series?

And a question about drivers. How will they change things in the future? I mean by now, 5850s drivers should be magnificent, but the 480/5970s not perfected yet. Will drivers in the near future give any of the newer, higher end cards a significant advantage?

Also, I can't seem to find any recent benchmarks with the current drivers, does anyone have one that includes all the cards in question?

 

[videogames101]

It's funny how the same people who claimed tessellation didn't matter are now claiming it does...

EDIT: This post provided more than enough amusement in just one response., <3 AT.

 

[Keysplayr]

Are you the one that intends to bring unrest to this thread videogames101?
This thread is doing just fine without you throwing a match into the powder keg shed.

 

[WelshBloke]

Wow,

This thread exploded while I slept. Thank you so much for all the information.

As I stated, price isn't really a problem. I can't do $1000, but I can do up to around 700, and maybe a bit more.

Weird statement to make, but I would rather spend as much as I can, assuming the performance is better. I sold some things I wouldn't have sold to pay for this computer, and after price matches it cost a lot less than I thought, so I ended up with more room to breath on the video card. It would feel like a waste to not spend =) I know, it's a terrible way of thinking, but I'm buying this and not you- so letting me overspend on a better card is allowed!

I really like the discussion, people actually tried to steer away from the price =)

From what I gathered:

-5850s OC'd will perform the same, or better as 5970
-GTX line is extremely hot and loud
-5870 is a nice card, however seems like the inbetween option, and I don't really want that.
-Benchmarks seem to have SLI'd GTX480/470 dominating 5850s and a single 5970
-GTX470 compared to GTX480 seems to be another one of the price debates, is it not?
-Tesselation seems to be a lot of peoples points on the GTX line. I'm guessing this is hardware, and not fixable by drivers for the ATI series?

And a question about drivers. How will they change things in the future? I mean by now, 5850s drivers should be magnificent, but the 480/5970s not perfected yet. Will drivers in the near future give any of the newer, higher end cards a significant advantage?

Also, I can't seem to find any recent benchmarks with the current drivers, does anyone have one that includes all the cards in question?

If SLI GTX4*0 is too hot and CF HD5850 too slow then what about CF 5870?

 

[Mireli]

I actually thought about that option. It is a little out of my budget to grab two 5870s right now, so I would have to get one, I would likely have to upgrade my PSU before I got a second 5870 as well, in which case I would rather just have 5850s or a 5970, and hell- if I was going to upgrade my PSU, at that point I could just grab another 5970.

 

[manimal]

I use a 5870 in my 920 rig in sig with eyefinity 24 5760x1200. I can play most games maxxed with a little AA. BC2 I need to drop to all medium with 2x AA and I get 60 frames. I can run single player with everything on high but the occasional stutter in multiplayer is deadly.

When I was running single monitor my 5870 ran better minimum frame rates than the xfire 4890s OCd like crazy. In all honesty I care not for maxximum frame rates at all anymore. I run Vsinc on everything and watch minimums on my G15 with fraps with no overlay. Again I would recommend getting a 5870 reference card, OC it to max CCC and get a SSD. Much better overall than just a graphics card upgrade.

 

[Mireli]

I use a 5870 in my 920 rig in sig with eyefinity 24 5760x1200. I can play most games maxxed with a little AA. BC2 I need to drop to all medium with 2x AA and I get 60 frames. I can run single player with everything on high but the occasional stutter in multiplayer is deadly.

When I was running single monitor my 5870 ran better minimum frame rates than the xfire 4890s OCd like crazy. In all honesty I care not for maxximum frame rates at all anymore. I run Vsinc on everything and watch minimums on my G15 with fraps with no overlay. Again I would recommend getting a 5870 reference card, OC it to max CCC and get a SSD. Much better overall than just a graphics card upgrade.

Which 5870 would you get from ncix/newegg?

And about the SSD, I was planning to get one at christmas =o

 

[Jacky60]

Get a 5970 it big its fast and you can always get another fairly cheap in 6 months /1 year. At least you won't be disappointed-I went from 4890 xfire to 5970 and it was great -really impressive best ever upgrade and I've had more than you should know. If you saved to get uber PC get the best single card and another later. 470/480 do well in 'Extreme tessellation' but it will probs take 18months before many or any games employ that level of tessellation. By then you'll be replacing your chump card for something that really goes!

 

[Jacky60]

Are you the one that intends to bring unrest to this thread videogames101?
This thread is doing just fine without you throwing a match into the powder keg shed.

OK Keyplayer who wants some??

 

[Powermoloch]

If you can get a 5970, it's the best single card solution atm. plus you can add another 5970 for expansion.

 

[MagickMan]

Which 5870 would you get from ncix/newegg?

And about the SSD, I was planning to get one at christmas =o

If I may step in here, for a 5870 I'd grab one of these. Voltage adjustable and a cooler that works like the reference, only it's a bit quieter.

 

[Mireli]

This is the 5970 I would probably get:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-460-_-Product

Hmm

 

[hdfxst]

This is the 5970 I would probably get:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-460-_-Product

Hmm

if your going to get that one get it here http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=...-Black-Edition and save a hundred dollars

 

[Mireli]

The price there is in Canadian which is why it's a little higher...still with conversion I'm still getting raped by newegg there- kind of weird, they're usually the cheapest.

 

[hdfxst]

I didn't notice the ca. i guess that explains the 20 dollar shipping

 

[Mireli]

One question that I haven't really seen answered:

The 5970 is somewhat new, so drivers are not perfected. Whereas drivers for the 5850 are probably close to optimal.

Is this statement correct? Can I expect the 5970 to only improve from here on out, and the 5850s to pretty much stay where they are?

 

[Keysplayr]

Too many micro-management questions at this point. I think the OP knows what he wants now.

 

[Mireli]

Yeah. I am pretty set on the 5970 right now. Not so much set on it, but set against the 5850, and a single 5870.

Not much has been said about the GTX480 or duo 5870s, which would probably be my other option.

I am honestly entirely curious about the driver question though, if anyone has an answer.

 

[MagickMan]

One question that I haven't really seen answered:

The 5970 is somewhat new, so drivers are not perfected. Whereas drivers for the 5850 are probably close to optimal.

Is this statement correct? Can I expect the 5970 to only improve from here on out, and the 5850s to pretty much stay where they are?

ATI seems to alternate their drivers that have performance gains. They'll release a driver that has improvements, and then next they'll release one that focuses on compatibility. It's basically a 2 month cycle. I expect that the whole 5000 series will continue to see gains.

 

[Mireli]

Thank you Magick.

A question on which 5970 to get, I read that Sapphire had better cooling and such, but XFX had a better warranty.

However, when I look into the comments on the Sapphires on Newegg, they state that the card was purposely limited.

Am I looking at the wrong Sapphire? Could someone direct me to the right one? Or should I just stick with any XFX Black?

 

[MagickMan]

You could just stick with XFX (the double lifetime warranty is nice), they all use the same reference cooler design, except for the 4GB models. When you shop for one the most important factors are customer service, price, and warranty.

Edit: Oh, and the word is that xfire performance will get a sizable bump in the near future, which will directly improve the 5970.