So where are we at with the 470

[MrK6]

Are there any tests comparing 470 GTX overclocked performance to HD5850 overclocked performance?

Unfortunately, I haven't found any. Furthermore, most review sites that get hardware and try to overclock them couldn't overclock a video card to save their lives (yes, this includes Anandtech). I simply find it amazing that few review sites on the internet can get a 5870 past 950MHz with voltage, and many members of the forums, including me, run our 5850's and 5870's all day long at 1GHz+ with little problem. I'd really like to see a GTX 470 @ 800MHz vs. a 5850 @ 1GHz analysis.

 

[konakona]

I remember seeing from 'somewhere' that those extra shaders on 5870 are not actually being used at the moment, any truth to that? Anyhow, if you are planning on replacing the stock cooler, 5850 might actually work better (or more economical); the stock cooler's heatplate, when detached from the whole cooler assembly, is in fact a quite competent at VRM/VRAM cooling. On 5850, you could actually unscrew that and reuse it. On 5870s however, no such luck as they are soldered onto the whole thing. Or so I have been told multiple times. I have a 5850 myself, reusing the said heatplate.

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

If 5870 is cheaper than GTX470, then it's a no brainer decision.

5850 is 725mhz, 1440 shaders
5870 is 850mhz, 1600 shaders

The 2 cards have the same ROPs and only 8 difference in texture units. Therefore at about 950mhz on the GPU, 5850 will become similar in speed.

5850s also overclock extremely well: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gpu-power-consumption-2010_4.html#sect0

The only problem is beyond 975mhz and 1.20V on the GPU, the power consumption is unreasonable.

But if you aren't going to overclock, get the 5870.

I get that an overclocked 5850 is on par with the 5870 at stock but surely an overclocked 5870 will also keep a healthy lead over the 5850?

But yea I'll definitely 100% be overclocking.

 

[dug777]

I get that an overclocked 5850 is on par with the 5870 at stock but surely an overclocked 5870 will also keep a healthy lead over the 5850?

But yea I'll definitely 100% be overclocking.

It doesn't entirely answer your question, but a useful article nonetheless:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850_6.html#sect0

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

It doesn't entirely answer your question, but a useful article nonetheless:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850_6.html#sect0

Oh wow... thanks a lot for the link. Seems like people with the 5870 are getting fairly high overclocks too but given the price difference, I think I might just go with the 5850. The graphics market is truly awful for the time being so no need to invest a lot at the moment.

 

[Tempered81]

OC'ed 5850 would be between a 5870 and 5870 OC