Keep 5850 or get 470 GTX?

Pooptacular

Member
Sep 3, 2005
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Right now at work I have a chance to swap my 5850 for a 470 GTX. It would be an even swap with a co-worker with no money out of my pocket. I tried the card last night and without running any benchmarks it seemed comparable to my 5850 in BC2 and Just cause 2.

The card was hot as hell but not that loud so thats not a problem.

I am not sure what to do, I don't really need the 470 but the geek in me can't help it. What should I do guys.

p.s. I dont really care for 3D vision or physx.
 

Seero

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
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Right now at work I have a chance to swap my 5850 for a 470 GTX. It would be an even swap with a co-worker with no money out of my pocket. I tried the card last night and without running any benchmarks it seemed comparable to my 5850 in BC2 and Just cause 2.

The card was hot as hell but not that loud so thats not a problem.

I am not sure what to do, I don't really need the 470 but the geek in me can't help it. What should I do guys.

p.s. I dont really care for 3D vision or physx.
If you don't care about 3D vision or physx than it is less electricity consumption vs better minimum FPS. Your call.
 

Keysplayr

Elite Member
Jan 16, 2003
21,211
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Right now at work I have a chance to swap my 5850 for a 470 GTX. It would be an even swap with a co-worker with no money out of my pocket. I tried the card last night and without running any benchmarks it seemed comparable to my 5850 in BC2 and Just cause 2.

The card was hot as hell but not that loud so thats not a problem.

I am not sure what to do, I don't really need the 470 but the geek in me can't help it. What should I do guys.

p.s. I dont really care for 3D vision or physx.

If you can't tell the difference, and don't care about PhysX or 3DVision, why bother with a switch? Seems you two are just curious to try new hardware. I'd switch for a little while with the option of swapping back if either of you decide to. That'll give each of you a test run with each others cards at least.
 

veri745

Golden Member
Oct 11, 2007
1,163
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I say: Swap for the GTX470, sell it on eBay for $500, then buy yourself 2 more 5850's.

+1

This is really the only reason I would make the switch. If you don't care about 3D vision / PhysX, then why bother?
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
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www.neftastic.com
If you can't tell the difference, and don't care about PhysX or 3DVision, why bother with a switch? Seems you two are just curious to try new hardware. I'd switch for a little while with the option of swapping back if either of you decide to. That'll give each of you a test run with each others cards at least.
You know... I swear I've seen this exact same opinion posted in L&R... :sneaky:
 

ramj70

Senior member
Aug 24, 2004
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It doesn't look like these are selling for $500 on ebay though. They have some listed at $379 "buy it now" that are not being bought. The highest auction one so far is up to $398 for an evga superclocked one with 8 hours to go. Just keep your 5850, the urge will eventually pass ;)
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
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I'd do that swap in a heartbeat, just for the geek in me. Will be fun to bench and play on new hardware. But something must be up, why is your friend willing to do the swap for free when he should be getting your 5850 and 40 bucks or so?

Your friend doesn't like the heat or noise of the 470?
 
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Pooptacular

Member
Sep 3, 2005
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My friend knows I'm much more of a geek when it comes to this stuff so he doesnt mind doing a even swap. If I did keep the 470 I would not sell it on ebay, too much of a hassle for little gain.

I'm going to mess around with the card more tonight and then decide, wish there was a game that made heavy use of tesselation so I could compare the implementations :(.
 

RaistlinZ

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
7,470
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Hm, why does he want to switch if he obviously has a faster card that is worth more than yours? Something's fishy about that. Why doesn't he just sell his 470 and buy a 5850 and pocket the remainder of the cash?

I dunno man. There's something going on here your friend isn't telling you.
 

Axon

Platinum Member
Sep 25, 2003
2,541
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Ohhhh a swap! Eh. I guess you could kinda trust a co-worker...the only problem is that if he screws you, you could get fired for hitting him :p
 
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Pooptacular

Member
Sep 3, 2005
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Hm, why does he want to switch if he obviously has a faster card that is worth more than yours? Something's fishy about that. Why doesn't he just sell his 470 and buy a 5850 and pocket the remainder of the cash?

I dunno man. There's something going on here your friend isn't telling you.

Nothing fishy, I opened and took the card out myself. His rig is still incomplete so I have a day or two to decide. He said he is going to Microcenter today so yeah, about a day or two.

I'm leaning towards the 470 gtx for the higher resale value, I imagine I would get rid of the card when the new Ati refresh comes out.

I read that the fermi's have different voltages amongst the different cards, whats a good voltage for this card and how do I check? If this card overclocks nicely then that might seal the deal.
 

MagickMan

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2008
7,460
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Meh, you could get it just to try it out, if you aren't happy later you can sell it and get a 5870.
 

Seero

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
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Not hugely.
GTX470 != GTX480
And 5850 != 5870

The fact that 470 is indeed faster justified its price. However, the question really is do you need all that power. OP already said s/he doesn't care about physX and 3d, so in terms of raw power it is true that it is still faster, but also consume more electricity. The fact that his/her friend offered a trade that is of different value, so if OP don't need 470, then don't take the favor, especially when the favor doesn't mean anything to OP.