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Let me preface this by first saying I'm doing this from my phone at work (it's a slow day) so sorry for any typos and such.
So I recently upgraded to an ASUS 5870 from an eVGA gtx 260 core 216 superclocked. Was it worth it? The answer isn't so simple. See the 5870 isn't a bad card, in fact it's quite the opposite with absolutely killer performance in a (relatively) small power envelope.
Looks
The ASUS card is quite simply the best looking video card I've ever owned. The simplicity, lack of sticker, and the fact that the back of the card is covered truly make it a beautiful card. It's long (you knew that already) but it's really not that much longer than my 260 was. I had no problems fitting it in my case (Lian-Li P50).
Heat
I haven't monitored this a ton as things seem to be under control and I have adequate airflow in my case with two nice exhaust fans at the top so the card is ridiculously cool at idle (30 or 40 degrees I beleive, not sure the exact number off the top of my head.) There is a very small vent in the back for heat to exhaust but it seems like a lot of it goes right into your case. During heavy gaming it seems to max around 76 degrees and under furmark burning it hits about 86 degrees. Depending on your case I would go so far as to say that if you don't have great airflow this may cause some big heat problems for other components, or even the card itself as I've read the core will throttle at 95 degrees. Fortunately for me I'm in good shape.
Noise
Honestly my opinion of the noise on this thing is different from all the reviews I've read. This card isn't any louder than anything in my case at idle so for all intents and purposes it's silent. During heavy gaming after about 10 mins or so I can hear it kick on a little bit but it's very quiet and not annoying at all. Furmark gets it going a little bit more but still not noisy. However; setting the fan to manual gives you the full picture. It seems like idle the fan hovers in the mid 20% range. On furmark it gets to low 30s, but manually once you get to 40% it gets noisy. Going to 50% it's noisier than I'd ever want it to get to. From then on it just starts getting ridiculous, at 100% I'd call it about the same volume as a hair dryer.
Performance
Here comes the big question...how does this thing perform? The answer is absolutely great. Framerates seem to be very smooth with no big sudden framerate drops that I've seen on almost every other video card I've had. Now I play at 1920x1080 so your results may vary. You can pretty much play anything out there at max settings with full AF and typically full AA (the exception being crysis). But here's where the problem comes in:
You've probably been able to do this already (Crysis excluded, resolution depending.)
See I've been running basically the same settings on every game with my gtx 260, the only difference is that I'd probably be at 4xAA instead of 8x. My framerates would be say 60fps instead of 80 with the 5870. Yes it's nice to run the whole shabang of settings and this card has every bit of performance you'd expect, but is it really worth upgrading to?
That's where the answer isn't so cut and dry. If you've got money lying around then hell yes. If you game on a 30" then the answer is absolutely. But if you're on the fence, and have a 200 series or better, or a 4870 or better with anything less than a 24" monitor; then you may want to reconsider. Those cards are plenty fast and chances are you're pretty happy with what you have.
Just some food for thought. However with all that said; I am more than happy with my purchase and will likely be for some time to come. Nothin better than new hardware.
[H] forever
mrrogers747
So I recently upgraded to an ASUS 5870 from an eVGA gtx 260 core 216 superclocked. Was it worth it? The answer isn't so simple. See the 5870 isn't a bad card, in fact it's quite the opposite with absolutely killer performance in a (relatively) small power envelope.
Looks
The ASUS card is quite simply the best looking video card I've ever owned. The simplicity, lack of sticker, and the fact that the back of the card is covered truly make it a beautiful card. It's long (you knew that already) but it's really not that much longer than my 260 was. I had no problems fitting it in my case (Lian-Li P50).
Heat
I haven't monitored this a ton as things seem to be under control and I have adequate airflow in my case with two nice exhaust fans at the top so the card is ridiculously cool at idle (30 or 40 degrees I beleive, not sure the exact number off the top of my head.) There is a very small vent in the back for heat to exhaust but it seems like a lot of it goes right into your case. During heavy gaming it seems to max around 76 degrees and under furmark burning it hits about 86 degrees. Depending on your case I would go so far as to say that if you don't have great airflow this may cause some big heat problems for other components, or even the card itself as I've read the core will throttle at 95 degrees. Fortunately for me I'm in good shape.
Noise
Honestly my opinion of the noise on this thing is different from all the reviews I've read. This card isn't any louder than anything in my case at idle so for all intents and purposes it's silent. During heavy gaming after about 10 mins or so I can hear it kick on a little bit but it's very quiet and not annoying at all. Furmark gets it going a little bit more but still not noisy. However; setting the fan to manual gives you the full picture. It seems like idle the fan hovers in the mid 20% range. On furmark it gets to low 30s, but manually once you get to 40% it gets noisy. Going to 50% it's noisier than I'd ever want it to get to. From then on it just starts getting ridiculous, at 100% I'd call it about the same volume as a hair dryer.
Performance
Here comes the big question...how does this thing perform? The answer is absolutely great. Framerates seem to be very smooth with no big sudden framerate drops that I've seen on almost every other video card I've had. Now I play at 1920x1080 so your results may vary. You can pretty much play anything out there at max settings with full AF and typically full AA (the exception being crysis). But here's where the problem comes in:
You've probably been able to do this already (Crysis excluded, resolution depending.)
See I've been running basically the same settings on every game with my gtx 260, the only difference is that I'd probably be at 4xAA instead of 8x. My framerates would be say 60fps instead of 80 with the 5870. Yes it's nice to run the whole shabang of settings and this card has every bit of performance you'd expect, but is it really worth upgrading to?
That's where the answer isn't so cut and dry. If you've got money lying around then hell yes. If you game on a 30" then the answer is absolutely. But if you're on the fence, and have a 200 series or better, or a 4870 or better with anything less than a 24" monitor; then you may want to reconsider. Those cards are plenty fast and chances are you're pretty happy with what you have.
Just some food for thought. However with all that said; I am more than happy with my purchase and will likely be for some time to come. Nothin better than new hardware.
[H] forever
mrrogers747
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