5850 for $280 or gtx 470 for $312

Z

Zarich

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 7, 2010
Messages
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This would be the powecolor pcs+ For $280 or the $312 EVGA superclock shipped prices. I can get these Today and I want to do so cause I am tired of waiting and agonzing over video cards. Currently gaming at 1920x1080. Scratch that.. currently not gaming because my 8800gts 320 can't do 1920x1080 so if I game it is at 1600x900 but I want to game at 1920x1080 on my 24" monitor.
 
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Well, for $12 I would go for the 5850.

But seriously, for the price and performance the 5850 is a better value. I do have both nVidia and ATI cards, so no fan boyisms here.
 
Zarich said:
This would be the powecolor pcs+ or the EVGA superclock shipped prices. I can get these Today and I want to do so cause I am tired of waiting and agonzing over video cards. Currently gaming at 1920x1080. Scratch that.. currently not gaming because my 8800gts 320 can't do 1920x1080 so if I game it is at 1600x900 but I want to game at 1920x1080 on my 24" monitor.
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If you don't care about 3d, Physx, cuda, then go with the 5850. Also if you don't have a power supply able to handle the 470 that will make your decision even easier.

If you think you might in the near future be going with multi monitor setup then 5850 would be the way to go because you wouldn't need a second card to get it running and well it actually works at the moment.

No clear cut answer, unless of course your power supply makes the decision for you.

I'm assuming you mean 5850 at $280
 
I wish I could fix the title. But it was infact $280.
Powersupply is more than ample.
I do like physx, no multimonitor, but not thrilled about adding more heat into my antec 300.
 
Zarich said:
I wish I could fix the title. But it was infact $280.
Powersupply is more than ample.
I do like physx, no multimonitor, but not thrilled about adding more heat into my antec 300.
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physX? you mean batman...?
 
Zarich said:
This would be the powecolor pcs+ For $280 or the $312 EVGA superclock shipped prices. I can get these Today and I want to do so cause I am tired of waiting and agonzing over video cards. Currently gaming at 1920x1080. Scratch that.. currently not gaming because my 8800gts 320 can't do 1920x1080 so if I game it is at 1600x900 but I want to game at 1920x1080 on my 24" monitor.
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I upgraded from a 8800gts 320mb and was able to game at 1920x1200 and 1920x1800. You just have to be willing to sacrifice a bit on the quality.
 
I'd go with the 5850, but then again I don't think physx is worth 10$, much less 40. The 5850 will over-clock better, and actually have much better performance than a overclocked 470 as well as being quieter and suck less power.

That specific design is completely silent, vs a very loud 470.

It's more powerful, cheaper, and quieter. Now you have to decide if tiny gimmicks will make you go to the green side.
 
That's a close call actually. Personally, I'd go 5850, no questions asked (see sig), but really you have to stack up the benefits and drawbacks of each. As far as noise and power consumption goes, the 5850 is a clear winner. Performance-wise it's close, but the GTX470 will ultimately be faster, overclocking included, but only by a small margin (0-5%). Also note that overclocking will exacerbate the heat and noise of the GTX 470, while a 5850 will still be dead silent even at 900MHz. You also need to take a look at features: PhysX, 3D, etc. for the GTX 470 vs. Eyefinity and superior audio for the 5850. In the end, I think the 5850 is a better card and a better value.
 
Mr. K6 said:
That's a close call actually. Personally, I'd go 5850, no questions asked (see sig), but really you have to stack up the benefits and drawbacks of each. As far as noise and power consumption goes, the 5850 is a clear winner. Performance-wise it's close, but the GTX470 will ultimately be faster, overclocking included, but only by a small margin (0-5%). Also note that overclocking will exacerbate the heat and noise of the GTX 470, while a 5850 will still be dead silent even at 900MHz. You also need to take a look at features: PhysX, 3D, etc. for the GTX 470 vs. Eyefinity and superior audio for the 5850. In the end, I think the 5850 is a better card and a better value.
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I hate to blatantly disagree with you, but [h]ard couldn't get their 470 above 10%... whereas a 25% overclock is pretty achievable on a 5850.

How's the 5850 treating you? :D
 
Alanstein said:
I hate to blatantly disagree with you, but [h]ard couldn't get their 470 above 10%... whereas a 25% overclock is pretty achievable on a 5850.
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It doesn't matter, the overclocking margin is about the same because, in terms of actual FPS gained, it appears that the 5850 doesn't benefit as much from higher clock speeds as the 470.

Just throwing out hypotheticals but -- 50mhz more on the 5850 might gain you the same FPS increase as only 20mhz more on the 470. It's because the architectures are different so you can't compare the clock speeds directly.
 
I'd go with the 470. Mostly because that $30 buys you a lifetime warranty with EVGA, much better tesselation performance, and higher min fps.
 
Alanstein said:
I hate to blatantly disagree with you, but [h]ard couldn't get their 470 above 10%... whereas a 25% overclock is pretty achievable on a 5850.
How's the 5850 treating you? :D
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Lol, it's awesome :D. I'm actually only running one atm (going to sell the other), and it's still plowing through 2560x1600 with little issue. In regards to [H]'s results, I don't think Brent got much time to tinker. My general impression from what I've seen on forums is that after tweaking the cooling on the GTX 470 (mainly reapply/optimize TIM), these cards will clock pretty well with extra voltage (800MHz+). Of course the heat and noise will probably be insane, as I mentioned.
vjcsmoke said:
It doesn't matter, the overclocking margin is about the same because, in terms of actual FPS gained, it appears that the 5850 doesn't benefit as much from higher clock speeds as the 470.

Just throwing out hypotheticals but -- 50mhz more on the 5850 might gain you the same FPS increase as only 20mhz more on the 470. It's because the architectures are different so you can't compare the clock speeds directly.
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This is another good point, as the Fermi architecture does scale with clockspeed better than the aging Cypress architecture (remember, it's been around for three years). While I don't think it's that dramatic of a difference (2.5x), it's definitely better, but fluctuates depending on the application, as some still run better on Cypress. Like I said, in the end, it won't be much faster on average, and you'll have to deal with the heat and noise.
 
btgorman said:
I'd go with the 470. Mostly because that $30 buys you a lifetime warranty with EVGA, much better tesselation performance, and higher min fps.
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XFX also have life time warranty..

also, the only game that shows a bit of differences on tessellation is Metro 2033.

unless that is the only game you play.. better tessellation ain't going to bring you anywhere..

also, that higher min fps is a total myth, none of it is better than other..
this has been discuss so many time. not quite sure who starting that FUD first..
 
The 5850 has a better after-market cooler and uses less power. 20W less idle, 100W less gaming, even at full power it uses barley more than a gts 250 or an HD 4850. XFX is a great brand.
 
shansoft said:
XFX also have life time warranty..

also, the only game that shows a bit of differences on tessellation is Metro 2033.

unless that is the only game you play.. better tessellation ain't going to bring you anywhere..

also, that higher min fps is a total myth, none of it is better than other..
this has been discuss so many time. not quite sure who starting that FUD first..
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Who the hell said anything about XFX? He doesn't have the choice to get XFX for $280, right? He is talking about Powercolor.

Powercolor warranty seems to be...only two years. Pretty weak.

If it was XFX reference design, I'd say get the 5850. But in this case, I'd say get the 470, unless you're not going to use it after two years anyway.

People panting about the usual "but but it's hotter and consumes more power" for the 470 fail to note that it only matters if (1) you have to buy a new PSU or (2) it'll appreciably increase your room temps.

A single 470 isn't particularly loud, just a strong whoosh sound; it offers more performance-per-overclock, more performance in general, more memory, and PhysX. 5850 has working Eyefinity, so that's a consideration if you're thinking of 3-monitor setup.
 
Mirror's Edge, PhysX and 3D Vision:D Oh, and Batman:p

Curious, where could you get a GTX470 Super Clock for $312? I'll return my stock I bought with BCB for $312 total and get that.
 
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Shilohj said:
link is misleading, its actually sold thought buy.com on amazon, so they do
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Ah k, you check if Amazon has it listed? I found Amazon selling the eVGA GTX470 for MSRP of $350 and was about to pick that up until I saw TigerDirect had it for MSRP with BCB and no sales tax. And you can always OC your own stock eVGA with the Precision tool to Super Clock speeds, just make sure you give it plenty of power and cooling. Use to do that with my 8800GTX, until I decided I was only really gaining about 5-6fps (in game that were running well over 60fps) and GTA IV benefited more from OCing the CPU.
 
yeah amazon has it for 349. I don't really wanna do bcb cuz that takes like 90 days
 
I have searched the internet all day and am really curious were the op found this, possibly BCB?
 
As opposed to mail-in rebates, which - if they don't 'disappear' in the mail - already take that long?

BCB is the best method of all rebate methods.
 
IDK I was kinda hoping it was 312 with out jumping through hoops, also last time i used bcb i had to use paypal is that always the case?
 
Shilohj said:
IDK I was kinda hoping it was 312 with out jumping through hoops, also last time i used bcb i had to use paypal is that always the case?
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You know BCB has an option of sending you a check, I just use Paypal.
 
Shilohj said:
Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear, do you need to pay for your item using paypal?
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No, I paid with my card. On the last page I had to follow a link for claiming my BCB, but all that required me to do is sign into LIVE and I got an email that all was well.
 
Tiger direct sc $360 + 12% BCB + $20 MIR. Unfortunately as of today it went up $10. Yesterday it was $350 plus all that stuff that came out to $312.
 
I own 2 Asus GTX 480's and while I'm currently running Nvidia you would be hard pressed to fault the 5850 however the 470 is pretty fast card on its own. I would recommend the 5850 for most people just due the lower power footprint and less heat output.
 
vjcsmoke said:
It doesn't matter, the overclocking margin is about the same because, in terms of actual FPS gained, it appears that the 5850 doesn't benefit as much from higher clock speeds as the 470.

Just throwing out hypotheticals but -- 50mhz more on the 5850 might gain you the same FPS increase as only 20mhz more on the 470. It's because the architectures are different so you can't compare the clock speeds directly.
Click to expand...

Rather misleading. You are talking about absolute clockspeed differences, not relative ones. If you OC both a 5850 by 10% and a GTX 470 by 10%, they will see relatively equal FPS gains. The difference is that 10% for the 5850 is a +72.5mhz whereas 10% on the GTX 470 is +60mhz.

btgorman said:
higher min fps.
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The "higher min fps" thing is bullshit. The faster card pretty much always has the higher min FPS. If the 5850 has a higher average, it almost assuredly has the higher min. If the GTX 470 has a higher average, it almost assuredly has the higher min.

Go look at any [H] FPS run through. Both ATI and Nvidia have peaks and vallies of similar magnitudes. NVidia doesn't have a more stable framerate or higher mins or any of that other useless drivel fanboys love to spew.
 
shansoft said:
physX? you mean batman...?
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Mafia 2 is PhysX, and that game is amazing, just cause 2 uses Cuda for water, many games take advantage of cuda, also CS5 uses cuda, nvidia has so much more to it then just games, ati is a great gaming only card, with that said, get the gtx 470, it overclocks to 800mhz with ease, with those overclocks you are faster than a 5870.
 
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