2x5850 vs 5970

cc2096

cc2096

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 1, 2003
Messages
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So I was in the market for a 5870 or 5970 this weekend and I went to my local Microcenter to check out their stock. I couldn't find either, but they did have 2x XFX 5850 Black Edition's in stock for $303 each, so I jumped on them. I will be running them in eyefinity with 3x Dell 2709w monitors. So my question is was this is a good idea to do CFX 5850's or should I return them for a 5870 (or 2) or possibly a 5970 if i can find one?
 
well the 5890 will have problems oc and heat..

keep the 5850's and oc = 5870 perfomance
5850 isnt that much slower than a 5870

unless u have money to burn..
 
what about the performance hit of 1440 vs 1600 shaders, or will i not be able to see that?
 
I think the 1440 vs 1600 shaders will matter at your resolution especially with Eyefinity.
 
Yes, Eyefinity resolutions are pretty taxing...

I had 2 5850s when I started my build, then stumbled on a 5970, so I scooped that up. I WOULD have kept the extra cards for tri/quadfire, had the scaling for that not been SOOOO bad at this point...

My single 5970 OCd (5970 speeds) is doing admirably, though. (just finished a run through of Crysis and WH, high res texture mods, high in the 50/60s, low FPS around 30s...Not spectacular, but very playable, and OH so cool on my 3 IPSs :D )
 
Well case settled. I happen to catch the Sapphire 5970 in stock at newegg for a few minutes so I grabbed one. Will take back the 5850's to Microcenter once it arrives next week.
 
cc2096 said:
Well case settled. I happen to catch the Sapphire 5970 in stock at newegg for a few minutes so I grabbed one. Will take back the 5850's to Microcenter once it arrives next week.
Click to expand...

Pfft, returning stuff sucks. Just mail them to me :D
 
Sure thing. Paypal me $600 and your address, and they're all yours :D
 
That's what you get for thinkin. Didn't your mom ever tell you that was bad for your health?
 
If you can afford the 5970, go for it. Don't go for the 5870 as it represents a terrible value. Sure, at stock speeds the 5850 is ~14% slower than the 5870 on average. Clock-for-clock however, the 5850 is only ~2.5% slower than the 5870. Many (but not all, YMMV) 5850s will be able to reach the same clocks that a 5870 can overclock to with some voltage adjustment.

The 5850 and 5970 represent the best value for the dollar. The 5870 is a good way for people with too much money to spend to waste their money, because you're paying more dollars for essentially the same GPU core.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850_10.html#sect0
xbitlabs said:
The default Radeon HD 5850 is an average 12.7% slower than the Radeon HD 5870 in the low-quality modes and 14.1% slower in the high-quality modes. When the frequencies of the Radeon HD 5850 are increased to the level of the HD 5870 (850/4800MHz), the gap is smaller at 2% and 2.6%. When overclocked to the highest frequencies, our sample of Radeon HD 5850 is 8.2% and 6.7% faster than the senior model of the series in the respective modes.
Click to expand...

The 5870 2GB may change things at high enough resolutions, just like the 4870 1GB did from the 4870 512MB. But then the 4GB (2GB effective) 5970s will be even more worth the money.
 
Last edited:
friend'scatdied said:
If you can afford the 5970, go for it. Don't go for the 5870 as it represents a terrible value. Sure, at stock speeds the 5850 is ~14% slower than the 5870 on average. Clock-for-clock however, the 5850 is only ~2.5% slower than the 5870. Many (but not all, YMMV) 5850s will be able to reach the same clocks that a 5870 can overclock to with some voltage adjustment.

The 5850 and 5970 represent the best value for the dollar. The 5870 is a good way for people with too much money to spend to waste their money, because you're paying more dollars for essentially the same GPU core.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850_10.html#sect0


The 5870 2GB may change things at high enough resolutions, just like the 4870 1GB did from the 4870 512MB. But then the 4GB (2GB effective) 5970s will be even more worth the money.
Click to expand...

How is the 5970 worth the money considering its outrageous price right now?
 
How is the 5970 worth the money considering its outrageous price right now?
Click to expand...
Still a couple hundred buck cheaper then 2x5870 for the same performance.5970 is just a beast if you ever had one.
 
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