Upgrading question - new 7950 or buy second 5850 for CF?

[Golgatha]

Anandtech FS/FT, amazing how many people horde computer parts I'm sure if you posted a want to buy thread you'll come up with one around 120 to 130. Otherwise there's a pretty good supply of them on Amazon.com at a slight premium ($160) with free shipping.

Already sent him a PM 😉. Just upgraded to a 7970 and sold my GTX 570 to a friend. He had a 5850, which I also sold to him around a year ago and I was the original owner.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

An overclocked single 5850 should be pretty powerful IMO. Definitely enough horsepower where you don't need to get into a rush to buy anything. I'm not really understanding the need for so much gpu power at this point. Turn AA down a notch or two. I doubt you'd even notice a image difference and framerates would jump dramatically. I'm happy with an overclocked gtx 480. Unless nvidia or AMD blows my socks off with some insane deal I'm content to use the 480 for at least another year maybe two.

 

[BD231]

Already sent him a PM 😉. Just upgraded to a 7970 and sold my GTX 570 to a friend. He had a 5850, which I also sold to him around a year ago and I was the original owner.

😀 Great trader!

 

[Golgatha]

😀 Great trader!

Well, I have 1 or 2 positive feedbacks 😉.

 

[BD231]

An overclocked single 5850 should be pretty powerful IMO. Definitely enough horsepower where you don't need to get into a rush to buy anything. I'm not really understanding the need for so much gpu power at this point. Turn AA down a notch or two. I doubt you'd even notice a image difference and framerates would jump dramatically. I'm happy with an overclocked gtx 480. Unless nvidia or AMD blows my socks off with some insane deal I'm content to use the 480 for at least another year maybe two.

If we're talking about console ports sure, but games that are more optimized for DX11 and PC's tend to struggle on value cards though which can get pretty annoying. Your 480 fairs a lot better in those situations.

 

[superjim]

I'm throwing in with the "wait" crowd. The price difference between a used 5850 and a new 7950 is not exactly in the same league as another pointed out. This is the beauty of CF (when it works). Three-generation-old cards get new life (especially if they start with 58xx). If you start to experience micro-stutter or CF just doesn't work down the road, take another look at upgrading. Hopefully by then prices will have come down.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yikes on used 58xx parts. Bitcoin mining burnouts - watch out.

 

[exar333]

I would say snag a 2nd 5850 now, if you can find one for at or below $120. Otherwise, wait for kepler to roll out and see what the best deal is for ~7950 performance. Even a single 5850 is still very strong for running 1080P.

 

[3DVagabond]

A PowerColor PCS+ runs ~ equal to a 5970 (According to TPU). While price is not even close buying a 7950 compared to a 2nd 5850, the performance overall should be noticeably because of better tessellation performance and single GPU. Better power and thermal performance, too. They O/C'd it for an additional ~19% performance increase. You're not going to touch that with a 5000 series. There's the additional VRAM, as well.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Yikes on used 58xx parts. Bitcoin mining burnouts - watch out.

This cannot be stressed enough. The amount of people who burn out cards then sell them with no returns accepted is pretty high.

 

[gramboh]

No way in hell is a 7950 worth buying over adding another 5850 for pennies, that's nonsense.

This.

7950: $450 (+tax/ship?) less $120 selling your 5850 = $330
5850 CF: $120

Difference: $210
Difference as a % of 5850 cost: 175%

So you would have to pay $210/175% additional cost for basically the same performance with the benefit of lower power usage/heat/noise and not having to deal with CF issues. To me, the 5850 CF is a no brainer, or wait and see what Kepler does to the market. I'd argue it would also be easier/less stressful trying to sell two $120 5850's if you experience issues you do not like, versus one high end card (likely to have to take a bigger hit off the new price), and who knows what will happen to 7950 prices in the next 3-6 months, whereas the 5850 has less room to fall (in absolute dollars).

 

[KingFatty]

This cannot be stressed enough. The amount of people who burn out cards then sell them with no returns accepted is pretty high.

How can you protect against this? I bought a used 5850 for $100 and the seller was happy to demonstrate anything I wanted, including Kombustor, games, etc. etc. while running a monitoring program to show the card's performance. He was happy to prove that the card was perfectly fine, and I watched carefully for artifacts etc. during the testing.

 

[blckgrffn]

How can you protect against this? I bought a used 5850 for $100 and the seller was happy to demonstrate anything I wanted, including Kombustor, games, etc. etc. while running a monitoring program to show the card's performance. He was happy to prove that the card was perfectly fine, and I watched carefully for artifacts etc. during the testing.

I'd probably buy from a trader here on the forums or from a reputable reseller that has a return policy. As always, a deal too good to be true probably is.

It sounds like you simply got a good deal. Have you had problems with the card since?

I think its more of a public service announcement thing as there was a whole wave of these cards pressed into service doing 24/7 100% compute service - not many other video cards are like that.