2 x 4890 or 1x 5870?

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Supreme [H]ardness
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If the price is really 399$ for a 5870 would I be better off running a pair of 4890's for the same price? Don't have the $ to lay down for a pair of 5870's or I would do that.
 
I would go with a single card, current rumor of the week has the 58xx with 1600 shaders, so assuming the clocks are similiar to the 4870, real world performance should be about 50% better, more or less.

Also hope the 5870 performs better then the current 48xx series at 25x16.
 
Compddd said:
Single cards are always better
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No, they aren't ALWAYS better.


And OP, I'm almost promising you the cards are gonna be 299 to start out. There's no way they can attack nVidia where they need to (price/performance) with a 400 dollar 2nd/3rd/4th tier card, assuming there's going to be a 5870, 5870x2, and 5890x2.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
RADEoN said:
No, they aren't ALWAYS better.


And OP, I'm almost promising you the cards are gonna be 299 to start out. There's no way they can attack nVidia where they need to (price/performance) with a 400 dollar 2nd/3rd/4th tier card, assuming there's going to be a 5870, 5870x2, and 5890x2.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
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This is comforting.. I hope its $299. They need to start handing these bad boys out for reviews!
 
I strongly disagree with Radeon, why would AMD launch a 5890 now? it makes no sense at all from a business point of view, kill their own 5870 sales with a 5890? more likely that a 5890 refresh of the 5870 will come out next year / cycle. if a $299 5850 is faster then a GTX285 then a $399 5870 should plow it.
 
5890 probably will come next year or whenever nvidia releases their cards
 
You can't crossfire DX 11? Really? This is the first I have heard of that.

And isn't there a 5870x2 in the works? How would that work if there is no crossfire?
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Yes I am wondering about this, too; before I go ahead and buy the 5870x2....
 
Why couldn't you crossfire an ATI card? That's a lie.

and digitalviper, I'm talking about people looking into the future. You know as well as I do it's likely there's going to be a 5870x2, and this is why I said a 2nd 3rd or 4th tier card, Just assuming there could/will be a 5x90 series. If there isn't, then it's a second tier card.
 
heatlesssun said:
You can't CF DX 11.
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MAYBE he meant that you while you can crossfire 2 4890's, they will not give you the DX11 capability of the 5870, and thus, the single card has a very specific advantage.

- NOT that DX11 cards cannot be CF'ed.
 
MAYBE he meant that you while you can crossfire 2 4890's, they will not give you the DX11 capability of the 5870, and thus, the single card has a very specific advantage.

- NOT that DX11 cards cannot be CF'ed.
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What?
 
From my experience, I'd always go single card solution over a SLI setup.

If the software/games/driver doesn't take full utilization, no sense paying 2x the price for up to 2x the performance (which usually isn't the case..)
 
Buy one of the next gen cards, then buy a second one later.

MWahahahahah the suspense it killing me!!
 
And it starts...

In all seriousness though no one can really answer that question until a formal review has been posted. If the specs and early performance numbers we are seeing hold true than I would not second guess myself in purchasing a single 5870 over 2x 4890's. The performance between the two should very similar but with a single 5870 you're going to get DX11 technology, a card that uses less power and creates less heat. You're also not going to have to deal with any of the caveats of a dual GPU solution. Granted, when I ran my 4850's it was a breeze but other users seem to have issues now and again.

Wait till the reviews are out and than make your decision. You could always pick up a single 5870 and than add a 2nd later once the GT300 ships and the pirce war begins.
 
RADEoN said:
No, they aren't ALWAYS better.


And OP, I'm almost promising you the cards are gonna be 299 to start out. There's no way they can attack nVidia where they need to (price/performance) with a 400 dollar 2nd/3rd/4th tier card, assuming there's going to be a 5870, 5870x2, and 5890x2.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
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What's an almost promise?
 
TheBlueChanell said:
And it starts...

In all seriousness though no one can really answer that question until a formal review has been posted. If the specs and early performance numbers we are seeing hold true than I would not second guess myself in purchasing a single 5870 over 2x 4890's. The performance between the two should very similar but with a single 5870 you're going to get DX11 technology, a card that uses less power and creates less heat. You're also not going to have to deal with any of the caveats of a dual GPU solution. Granted, when I ran my 4850's it was a breeze but other users seem to have issues now and again.

Wait till the reviews are out and than make your decision. You could always pick up a single 5870 and than add a 2nd later once the GT300 ships and the pirce war begins.
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Yeah, that's the way I am leaning.
 
Dual said:
You can't crossfire DX 11? Really? This is the first I have heard of that.

And isn't there a 5870x2 in the works? How would that work if there is no crossfire?
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jerryrigged said:
Yes I am wondering about this, too; before I go ahead and buy the 5870x2....
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are you guys retarded? lol

Archmage said:
MAYBE he meant that you while you can crossfire 2 4890's, they will not give you the DX11 capability of the 5870, and thus, the single card has a very specific advantage.

- NOT that DX11 cards cannot be CF'ed.
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yes thats all he meant.


jerryrigged said:
What?
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he just told you "what"
 
Honestly I couldn't careless if two HD 4890s do end up being faster as long as the HD 5870 delivers solid mins in most demanding titles @ 1920x1200 with reasonable levels of filtering. I am tired of multi-GPU myself. If it becomes mostly done on a hardware level, I'll return to it.
 
I wouldn't be too concerned about DX11 support. When DX10 came out, first generation cards could barely run it at acceptable frame rates. Same with DX9. I know word is that DX11 won't bring as much of a performance hit, but they have always said that and it never ends up being true. Plus, we're finally just starting to see developers reap the benefits of DX10.

RADEoN said:
No, they aren't ALWAYS better.


And OP, I'm almost promising you the cards are gonna be 299 to start out. There's no way they can attack nVidia where they need to (price/performance) with a 400 dollar 2nd/3rd/4th tier card, assuming there's going to be a 5870, 5870x2, and 5890x2.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
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Unlikely. AMD doesn't need to go lower than $400 on the 5870. From what has been shown, it looks like the card is more powerful than Nvidia's GTX295 which currently retails in the mid $450 (if you find a good deal on it). So the 5870 would be a very viable alternative to anyone looking for a card on the same level.
 
x3sphere said:
I wouldn't be too concerned about DX11 support. When DX10 came out, first generation cards could barely run it at acceptable frame rates. Same with DX9. I know word is that DX11 won't bring as much of a performance hit, but they have always said that and it never ends up being true. Plus, we're finally just starting to see developers reap the benefits of DX10.
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It depends largely on what games you play and what you find acceptable. Like when Vista was announced no major DX 10 games were around. DX11 has some other features which are more interresting then just another shader model ...


Unlikely. AMD doesn't need to go lower than $400 on the 5870. From what has been shown, it looks like the card is more powerful than Nvidia's GTX295 which currently retails in the mid $450 (if you find a good deal on it). So the 5870 would be a very viable alternative to anyone looking for a card on the same level.
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Think you missed it but they already released the launch details it's very much $299
 
Pieter3dnow said:
It depends largely on what games you play and what you find acceptable. Like when Vista was announced no major DX 10 games were around. DX11 has some other features which are more interresting then just another shader model ...




Think you missed it but they already released the launch details it's very much $299
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perhaps you are the one that missed the details because the 5870 is indeed $399 not $299. x3sphere's logic like many others is flawed though because the gtx200 cards are not the competition so comparing them will only be temporary.
 
Lets see if we can't take an educated guess.

4890: 800 SPs
4890 CF: 800/1600 SPs (CF doesn't work with every game) w/ CF overhead and a huge chance of scaling issues, depending on the game. Also, AFAIK no game has ever had perfect 100% scaling, most I've seen is 80-90%.
5870: 1600 SPs, no CF scaling issues. Also reasonable to assume 5870 has greater memory bandwidth and quite possibly more memory than the 4890 - after all, CF doesn't affect available vram or bandwidth.

My guess: 5870 > 4890 CF.
Obviously a very rough guess, but hey.

Also, I would like to point out that since nvidia first launched SLI, a single high end next gen card has consistently been faster (sometimes by a large margin) than 2 previous gen cards in SLI. Ditto for CF. And there really isn't any indication of that trend being broken this generation.
 
Dual said:
You can't crossfire DX 11? Really? This is the first I have heard of that.

And isn't there a 5870x2 in the works? How would that work if there is no crossfire?
Click to expand...

Think he ment 1 single card in DX11, no need to CF
 
kllrnohj said:
Lets see if we can't take an educated guess.

4890: 800 SPs
4890 CF: 800/1600 SPs (CF doesn't work with every game) w/ CF overhead and a huge chance of scaling issues, depending on the game. Also, AFAIK no game has ever had perfect 100% scaling, most I've seen is 80-90%.
5870: 1600 SPs, no CF scaling issues. Also reasonable to assume 5870 has greater memory bandwidth and quite possibly more memory than the 4890 - after all, CF doesn't affect available vram or bandwidth.

My guess: 5870 > 4890 CF.
Obviously a very rough guess, but hey.

Also, I would like to point out that since nvidia first launched SLI, a single high end next gen card has consistently been faster (sometimes by a large margin) than 2 previous gen cards in SLI. Ditto for CF. And there really isn't any indication of that trend being broken this generation.
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not true. 9800gx2, 8800gtx sli, 8800ultra sli, 9800gtx sli and even 8800/9800gt sli were faster in many games than gtx280 on release.
 
I'll go with 5870 because it uses 200 watts less than 4890 CF with close to the same performance.
 
cannondale06 said:
not true. 9800gx2, 8800gtx sli, 8800ultra sli, 9800gtx sli and even 8800/9800gt sli were faster in many games than gtx280 on release.
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Well, that one is debatable. The 9800GX2, etc.. did benchmark higher in some games, but the GTX 280 could play at higher IQ due to higher min frame rates and lack of "choppiness". It may not have been as clear cut at the time, but the general consensus is that a single GTX 280 is the better setup. I know several people that upgraded from a 9800GX2 to a GTX 280 and got better performance.

And I wouldn't say "many", more like "a few" ;)
 
kllrnohj said:
Well, that one is debatable. The 9800GX2, etc.. did benchmark higher in some games, but the GTX 280 could play at higher IQ due to higher min frame rates and lack of "choppiness". It may not have been as clear cut at the time, but the general consensus is that a single GTX 280 is the better setup. I know several people that upgraded from a 9800GX2 to a GTX 280 and got better performance.

And I wouldn't say "many", more like "a few" ;)
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yeah I would certainly take the gtx280 over any of those sli setups.
 
trinibwoy said:
Bandwidth doubles. Capacity doesn't.
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Sure, technically bandwidth doubles (vram also technically doubles ;) ), but the data is also duplicated, thus completely negating any bandwidth advantage. Having twice the bandwidth doesn't help if you now have to transfer the exact same data twice. So the effective bandwidth remains the same as a single card.
 
cannondale06 said:
perhaps you are the one that missed the details because the 5870 is indeed $399 not $299. x3sphere's logic like many others is flawed though because the gtx200 cards are not the competition so comparing them will only be temporary.
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Seems that European price for the 1gb 5870 will be around 320 euro for the Sapphire version
 
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