upgrade video card question

[slick2010]

Im running with a gtx 260, what would be the next step up in the ATI line? ($300 range) ive always had nvidia cards but im thinking about changing teams and going wiht ati, are there driver issues with ati cards? ive heard that there are

 

[Silenus]

I was in the same boat as you. I've always had nVidia cards, and just recently tried an ATI card for the first time. In my case I went from an old 8800 GTS to an HD 5770. It was only about $150 but a nice improvement.

In your case you are pretty much looking squarely at the 5850. That should be a clear upgrade right the $300 mark.

 

[crisium]

Personally I don't think a GTX 260 to a 5850 is worth it, but to each his own. It varies wildly depending on the game of course, but you're looking at a 30-40% improvement over a Core 216? Maybe if you are running a 192 it is worth it, but I wonder what games you you held back in and at what resolutions?

Personally I feel that the proper "next step up" is minimum about as fast as two of your cards in SLI or Xfire. For GTX 260, that would be the Radeon 5870. If Nvidia aggressively markets the GTX 470 then we could see the 5870 close to $300 sometime this calendar year.

 

[toyota]

Personally I don't think a GTX 260 to a 5850 is worth it, but to each his own. It varies wildly depending on the game of course, but you're looking at a 30-40% improvement over a Core 216? Maybe if you are running a 192 it is worth it, but I wonder what games you you held back in and at what resolutions?

Personally I feel that the proper "next step up" is minimum about as fast as two of your cards in SLI or Xfire. For GTX 260, that would be the Radeon 5870. If Nvidia aggressively markets the GTX 470 then we could see the 5870 close to $300 sometime this calendar year.

when both the 5870 and 5850 are pushed to their max they will be within 5% of each other. its certainly not worth 100 bucks more for 5% more performance now is it?

 

[crisium]

I think it's ~5% if they are at the same speed, and I think the 5870 can still reach slightly higher clocks. But certainly they are much closer when OC'd, I agree.

I'm just a fan of the waiting game if you already have such a good performing card (GTX 260). If he waits to when the 5870 is $300, he could either get that and have better performance for the same price for waiting, or get the 5850 which will probably be under $250 by that point.

Now I know you can play the waiting game indefinitely, but unless he's absolutely starved for frames in current games (Crysis, new Stalker, etc) why upgrade right now when Nvidia is 40-60 days away from finally launching new cards that may lower prices of ATi.

 

[betasub]

Silenus has it correct. $300 gets you a good upgrade to the 5850.

 

[zerocool84]

Im running with a gtx 260, what would be the next step up in the ATI line? ($300 range) ive always had nvidia cards but im thinking about changing teams and going wiht ati, are there driver issues with ati cards? ive heard that there are

I've always had Nvidia cards as well and the 5870 is my first ATI card ever but it's a good card. I've heard there are some driver issues as well but my card is fine. You could wait until Nvidia releases their stuff in 2 months or if you find a good deal you could jump on that which I did cus I got tired of the waiting game. The thing with ATI and driver issues is that they release new drivers a lot more frequently than Nvidia does so they fix problems with updates fairly quickly compared to Nvidia.