With current drivers is it a good idea to chuck the 5850 for a 470 now?

[Xarick]

Seems a lot of people are making this move. Is it a good move? I see you can get a 470 for $234 at TD right now. That is nearly $40 cheaper than my 5850 cost me. So is it worth the move. Drivers seem to push the 470 significantly above the 5850 now plus physx.

 

[Genx87]

Not sure if it is worth it coming from a 5850. But anybody with lower end cards at 234 a 470 is a steal imo.

 

[mhouck]

If you sell your current card for enough to get enough to cover the 470 and shipping, don't care about straightening out your drivers, and really care about physx then sure. I don't think you are going to see a notable differences in performance between the two other than the phsyx. Just a matter of preference IMHO.

 

[v8envy]

Seeing as old hardware frequently ebays for more than new and 5850s are still going for around $300 I could see how that would make sense. Sidegrade, get a new warrantied toy to play with and pocket a few bucks.

 

[RussianSensation]

With newer drivers, 470s are indeed slightly faster than the 5850s (slotting between 5850 and 5870). http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1874&pageID=9312

If you don't mind the increased power consumption and noise, then as v8envy mentioned it could make sense after selling your 5850.

Personally I would probably just overclock the 5850 and live with it. The performance difference isn't that large unless you either care for PhysX or Tessellation performance in say Metro 2033. 5850 are awesome overclockers too. At 950 mhz on the GPU, the card will be faster than the 5870.

 

[MyLeftNut]

Wouldn't a 5850 still perform better than a 470 when comparing average overclocks for both cards? 5850's around 1ghz+ should be pretty tough for a 470 to parallel on air, no?

 

[RussianSensation]

Ya at 950/1ghz clock speeds, the 5850 card will be faster than the stock GTX470 in most games. If you are talking about the latest DX11 games with Tessellation, then the Fermi architecture is faster.

Metro 2033, with tessellation and Depth of Field in Metro 2033 - GTX470 > 5870: http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1899&pageID=9320

STALKER: CoP, with God Rays enabled - 470 > 5870: http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1899&pageID=9321

I still think that I wouldn't side-grade from a 5850 to a GTX470. I'd rather sell the 5850 and upgrade to the 6000 series when they come out. Overclocked, the GTX470 is as fast as the GTX480 so it will still beat the 5850 OCed. The problem is it will run hotter and louder. That trade-off is not for everyone.

I am going to test out my new GTX470 against my 4890 in about a week once I come back to Canada. Primarily, I am going to compare noise levels! My 4890 runs at 57*C @ 27% fan speed at idle and at 80*C @ 38% fan speed at load @ 920mhz clock speeds on the GPU. The thing is ATI fan speeds and NV fan speeds are not comparable. My 8800GTS 320 was quieter at 70% fan speed than the ATI is at 30% fan speed!!!!

 

[Xarick]

my 8800gts 320s fan speeds were pretty quiet too. However my 5850 uses the powercolor fan so even at 100% it is not very loud, but I have never seen it above 50 and at 50 it is inaudible.

 

[Grooveriding]

Performance wise, I think you'd only notice a difference in one or two games, they're very similar.

But it's always fun to try something new and after selling your 5850, you would easily break even on the switch.

The only hassle I had switching from 5870s to 480s was for one reason or another SLI just would not perform properly on my system, I tried everything from repair installs, driver sweeping, registry cleaning etc. I had to fully reinstall my OS to fix it :\

 

[RussianSensation]

However my 5850 uses the powercolor fan so even at 100% it is not very loud, but I have never seen it above 50 and at 50 it is inaudible.

That's impressive! 100% fan speed and not loud is an achievement! Therefore, I would only encourage you to overclock it before you sell it. At least see what it can do on the core. From all of the responses on these forums and various reviews, a GTX470 is going to be WAY louder than your card.

 

[Kenmitch]

The only hassle I had switching from 5870s to 480s was for one reason or another SLI just would not perform properly on my system, I tried everything from repair installs, driver sweeping, registry cleaning etc. I had to fully reinstall my OS to fix it

That is the best way anyways!

OP....It's up to you but if it was me I'd wait at least to see what SI is gonna bring to the table.

The GTX 460 in SLI is kinda tempting to me....But my nicely overclocked 5850 makes it very hard to justify!

 

[bryanW1995]

That is the best way anyways!

OP....It's up to you but if it was me I'd wait at least to see what SI is gonna bring to the table.

The GTX 460 in SLI is kinda tempting to me....But my nicely overclocked 5850 makes it very hard to justify!

um, doing a full OS reinstall is not the best way, that's the way that newbs use because they don't know how to do it the correct way.

 

[Kenmitch]

um, doing a full OS reinstall is not the best way, that's the way that newbs use because they don't know how to do it the correct way.

The requirement of a full install is not beyond the realm of possibility even to the most advanced users! Although it is possible to make the jump from red to green and back sometimes the underlying components are damaged or are already damaged from tweaking and just won't cooperate

Besides what better way to insure the optimal performance of your system by trimming out all the uneeded fat that has accumulated along the way....Isn't the whole purpose of video card upgrading for the increased performance!

Guess for a person with a buttload of apps and games it would be a hassle tho.

 

[Will Robinson]

um, doing a full OS reinstall is not the best way, that's the way that newbs use because they don't know how to do it the correct way.

Please enlighten us on how the leet users do it then.
Having swapped from NV to ATi cards plenty of times,I've seen the situation where all other fixes have failed and an OS format was the only solution.

 

[MyLeftNut]

I remember there was some sorta command you can use that pretty much unloads all the drivers etc in windows back to clean slate. I did that when I made a motherboard swap a few years back. That should have the same effect.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I am going to test out my new GTX470 against my 4890 in about a week once I come back to Canada. Primarily, I am going to compare noise levels! My 4890 runs at 57*C @ 27% fan speed at idle and at 80*C @ 38% fan speed at load @ 920mhz clock speeds on the GPU. The thing is ATI fan speeds and NV fan speeds are not comparable. My 8800GTS 320 was quieter at 70% fan speed than the ATI is at 30% fan speed!!!!

I could tell you now that at idle, the GTX470 will run much cooler than your current card. Mine runs at 36(morning)~40C(afternoon) @ 45% fan speed during idle depending on ambient temps. However load is where it gets loud, but not in a high pitch/whine/annoying way. Ive changed out the stock TIM, and with an undervolt/new fan profile via MSI afterburner, it hits 82C max for me (where the fan speed is around 70~80%). The overclock would raise the temps to 87C. Im waiting to get the EVGA high flow bracket + maybe the backplate so that i could hit 800/1600 with reasonable temps.

@OP, its going to be a side grade even if the overclocked GTX470 will be a little faster than the GTX480 in return for high power consumption i.e heat/noise. However its really up to you. I like to try different hardware even if it was a side grade so id probably justify such a move.

 

[Chiropteran]

I remember there was some sorta command you can use that pretty much unloads all the drivers etc in windows back to clean slate. I did that when I made a motherboard swap a few years back. That should have the same effect.

format c:\

 

[MyLeftNut]

Looks like there was a sticky in the motherboards section:

Sysprep
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=265026

 

[MagickMan]

Given the overclockability of the 5850, going to a GTX470 is a sidegrade, at best. Invest in some good after-market cooling and really give that 5850 a workout. They love to get pushed when you can keep them cool.

 

[Kenmitch]

Given the overclockability of the 5850, going to a GTX470 is a sidegrade, at best. Invest in some good after-market cooling and really give that 5850 a workout. They love to get pushed if you can keep them cool.

Fixed that for ya!

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Not worth it IMO.

Don't base anything on physx. Until I see a big difference in games physx looks like a marketing scam to me.

Had a 5850, 470, and a 5870. 5850 might be best all around card this gen. Just too much money for one right now. But since you already have one keep it.