• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

5870 or 6870

D

Dr.GumbyM.D.

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Messages
143
Well, a brief introduction... As I posted in another thread, I just sold my 4870 1gb because I got the bug for more power. Specifically I was hoping to with Nvidia to enable me the path to 3d. I'm not sure if/when I'll get 3d, as I'm a student and work for a small stipend, so spending is tough, but I like the idea that I could do it if I get the $300 or so necessary ($200 for monitor, $100 for glasses). I found out recently that you can do 3d on radeon with the bit cauldron setups. For now I'm waiting on 3d, as these new cards have caught my eye.

I guess my biggest question is whether I should get a 5870 now for better game performance, or wait till Friday for the 6870. As far as I understand it, performance on the 6870 will be slightly below that of the 5870, but the price will be much less. Is there anything more than that to it? I've seen in some of the slides that came out today/yesterday that the Tessellation is higher on the 6870 than the 5870, but does that translate to any better visual/performance improvement? The power usage looks similar between the cards, and likely temps will be similar I imagine.

Other than price, is there any reason to go 6870 over 5870?

I know the first answer people will say is wait till Friday for the reviews to come out.... but it sucks not being able to get back into Battlefield Bad Company 2 for another few days... not to mention being able to work on a full sized computer with full sized speakers compared to the netbook I'm using temporarily.
 
Why do these threads come up before every refresh? We don't know about the performance of the 6000 series!!!!! It''s not released, we don't have some special ability to recieve the card before the NDA is released. It's 3 days, you can't wait to buy a card until then? You really can't go without playing a video game for 3 DAYS? go outside; god...
 
mgulbran said:
I believe I had it covered but thanks for the 'input'.
Click to expand...

You can't go light and fluffy on these spam threads. It's common sense, how are we suppose to have all of the benchmarks on these cards before they are released. He is basically asking for detailed benchmarks for us to compare the cards to determine if he could wait or not. We need to stop these ridiculous threads
 
lockheed2266 said:
Why do these threads come up before every refresh? We don't know about the performance of the 6000 series!!!!! It''s not released, we don't have some special ability to recieve the card before the NDA is released. It's 3 days, you can't wait to buy a card until then? You really can't go without playing a video game for 3 DAYS? go outside; god...
Click to expand...

Someone piss in your coffee? He was just asking for an opinion. If you dont like these type threads dont click them. Anyways as for what you should do is consider this. The 5870 is proven tech but the 6870 hasent come out so there for is not tested in real world apps. If you can afford the 5870 I say give it a try. The one I had was awesome but I jumped to nvidia 3D. (Just need the glasses) But this is just my opinion now. If you find that 6870 would be better you can still sell the 5870 and probaly ahve enough to get the 6870.
 
lol I appreciate (most of) the input :p

I'm going to wait, and I know I'm just being impatient.... but computer gaming is my most enjoyable escape from academics, so I prefer to have it available as much as possible...

I understand that the full reviews will be out at the end of the week, and of course will be the best/most accurate information on the cards, but it seems that if you spend enough time around these forums or using "the google" you'd have a pretty good idea of what the reviews will reveal before they're even out. I've got a good idea of what to expect, I just don't know what "improved tessellation" equates to, if anything more than buzzwords or technical improvements that don't relate to real-world improvements.

I guess I don't know what I want to get out of the new cards, and am posting in idle discussion to get a better idea of what I want?

And for the record, I do go outside, just not very much. It's too hot for that business in Florida. If it isn't December-January, it's too hot.
 
Thanks for the heads up on why you switched. After seeing the bit cauldron setup, and seeing that AMD/ATI makes a few references to 3d support, I wonder whether it'll be similar difficulty to set up as a the NVidia setup (not very difficult). I guess any 3d supporting monitor/display will have the 3d sync plug in the back for the zigbee antenna to plug into. People said in January that the Catalyst 10.1 drivers would enable stereoscopic 3d viewing, but I don't think that there is really a solid AMD/ATI solution yet for it as far as I've seen so for 3d I guess Nvidia is the way to go?

I'll wait till reviews on Friday to go either 5870 or 6870.
 
lockheed2266 said:
You can't go light and fluffy on these spam threads. It's common sense, how are we suppose to have all of the benchmarks on these cards before they are released. He is basically asking for detailed benchmarks for us to compare the cards to determine if he could wait or not. We need to stop these ridiculous threads
Click to expand...

Also, I'm not asking for detailed benchmarks, I'm just asking for the opinion of someone more "into" the market than I (which this forum is full of). I've seen a lot of the benchmarks that have been circulating, and I get what they say, but I don't have the experience of many people on here who have been through other product launches and seen what the pre-release benches actually turned into, and what expectations have been real or not. There are a lot of numbers out there already from supposedly good sources (not Fud), and I have seen them as have other more experienced people, I just don't come from a knowledgeable enough position to know what to expect when they come together.

Yes, the reviews will be (more) definitive, but people who are in the know and follow these things year after year can probably already call out what the cards can and can't do from leaked information.

I understand why you'd call this spam, but it isn't, and if I were more knowledgeable about the market and previous releases, as many people on this forum are, then I would happily contribute and help people coming and asking questions, as I have done in other forums in other fields which I am knowledgeable on. To each their own I suppose.
 
Dr.GumbyM.D. said:
Also, I'm not asking for detailed benchmarks, I'm just asking for the opinion of someone more "into" the market than I (which this forum is full of). I've seen a lot of the benchmarks that have been circulating, and I get what they say, but I don't have the experience of many people on here who have been through other product launches and seen what the pre-release benches actually turned into, and what expectations have been real or not. There are a lot of numbers out there already from supposedly good sources (not Fud), and I have seen them as have other more experienced people, I just don't come from a knowledgeable enough position to know what to expect when they come together.

Yes, the reviews will be (more) definitive, but people who are in the know and follow these things year after year can probably already call out what the cards can and can't do from leaked information.

I understand why you'd call this spam, but it isn't, and if I were more knowledgeable about the market and previous releases, as many people on this forum are, then I would happily contribute and help people coming and asking questions, as I have done in other forums in other fields which I am knowledgeable on. To each their own I suppose.
Click to expand...

You need to understand that anyone with actual information that can help you is under a strict NDA, otherwise, like the rest of us, we may know everything about the industry, we don't have real benchmarks, we're in the same situation as you are. I hope you understand were I am coming from, you just can't expect any more information than the rest of the rumors, and rumors don't help you because you're clearing looking for definite proof.
 
If performance is close, I'd imagine the 5870 price is gonna drop like a rock to close to the 6870, thus, its a win/win to wait. Either you get a shiny new 6870, or you get a faster 5870 for cheaper than you would now. Patience my friend.
 
My poor 5870 is soon to be a dinosaur thanks to Barts XT and Cayman XT sniff sniff... :(

Joking aside though I am excited to see how the new cards handle 2560x1600. Cayman is meant to be huge and hot like GF100 but vastly more powerful!

I can't wait!
 
Dr.Gumby.M.D, the 6870 should be similar in performance to the 5850.
The 6950 should be similar in performance to the 5870.

The big question is what will the actual selling prices be?
The 6900 series is rumored not to be out until late November.
 
Nuby1Canuby said:
Dr.Gumby.M.D, the 6870 should be similar in performance to the 5850.
The 6950 should be similar in performance to the 5870.

The big question is what will the actual selling prices be?
The 6900 series is rumored not to be out until late November.
Click to expand...

I don't think that is true- the 6870 should be a bit FASTER than the 5850, and the 6950 should be a bit FASTER than the 5870. The 6870 is already supposed to be reasonably close to the 5870. I'm excited for real benchmarks, but I would imagine the 6950/70 will be some pretty darn powerful cards. My guess is that the 6950 will be competing with and a bit faster than the GTX480, and the 6970 will be closer to 5970 performance. 6990 will probably be, again, in a league of its own.
 
Will a 5870 not be bottlenecked by a q9300@2.5ghz? I thought I read a few places that it's ideal to have it with a CPU at 3-3.2ghz. Any truth to this or is it too game/program dependant to make a definitive statement?
 
SoulCreatr said:
Will a 5870 not be bottlenecked by a q9300@2.5ghz? I thought I read a few places that it's ideal to have it with a CPU at 3-3.2ghz. Any truth to this or is it too game/program dependant to make a definitive statement?
Click to expand...
it will still provide decent framerates in pretty much any game but yes that cpu will limit a 5870. by how much will depend on the individual game, res and settings.
 
2.5? wow poor things is so under uttilized.. Try to up it to at least 3.0 and you hould be good!
 
I've got a nice zalman copper heatsink/fan on the proc, and it never goes over say 60c, so I think it's got some headroom. The only reason I don't like O/Cing is because it messes with the RAM speed ratios and all that crap, of which are simple to understand but frustrate me... I dunno, maybe I'll kick it up a notch to 3.0, couldn't hurt as long as I keep it under the right temps, it gets good circulation, and it runs stable?

Thanks for the heads up though. I wasn't sure whether that would matter or not. I remember hearing all about the CPU bottlenecks that we would see within a few years, but I thought that the more strained the CPU was, the hotter it got. Since it never really gets all that much hotter than 60c, I always thought it was comfortably puttering along, never stressed to the point of bottlenecking? I guess after having a radeon 4850 that normally ran over 100c stock, any temp is low to me.
 
Dr.GumbyM.D. said:
I've got a nice zalman copper heatsink/fan on the proc, and it never goes over say 60c, so I think it's got some headroom. The only reason I don't like O/Cing is because it messes with the RAM speed ratios and all that crap, of which are simple to understand but frustrate me... I dunno, maybe I'll kick it up a notch to 3.0, couldn't hurt as long as I keep it under the right temps, it gets good circulation, and it runs stable?

Thanks for the heads up though. I wasn't sure whether that would matter or not. I remember hearing all about the CPU bottlenecks that we would see within a few years, but I thought that the more strained the CPU was, the hotter it got. Since it never really gets all that much hotter than 60c, I always thought it was comfortably puttering along, never stressed to the point of bottlenecking? I guess after having a radeon 4850 that normally ran over 100c stock, any temp is low to me.
Click to expand...
ram speed doesn't have to be directly linked to fsb. please go read a basic guide on overclocking Core 2 cpus so you don't screw anything up.
 
So the 6870 just showed up on Amazon for $279.99. I was planning on buying on Amazon because I have credit there. The Sapphire 5870 is only $329.99 after rebates, so for $50 more, now I'm wondering whether it's worth it, since its such a small price difference to have what is supposed to be a better card (but I guess I'll wait another 3 days for the benchmarks to see whether there is a performance boost from 5870 to 6870).

I was hoping that XFX or ASUS, my two preferred brands, would have rebates on their 5870s like Sapphire does, but we'll see when the time comes to actually buy, and I guess see whether it's better to go 5870 or 6870.

Thanks everyone for your help thus far. I've been resisting a CPU/mobo/ram upgrade for a while now because of the price plus I always assume (even though I've read plenty of articles contrary to it) that as long as you've got a relatively decent quad core, then most (95%) of the pressure is put on the graphics card, so CPU isn't a huge deal in modern games (especially in FPS which I mostly play). It sounds like (according to the recent Toms Hardware article on CPU bottlenecks) if I hit 3ghz with 4 cores and an otherwise capable system, I should still be constrained by GPU if I went 5870 (or potentially 6870). Truth be told, I doubt I'll see any slow frames on my 2048 x 1152 monitor for the time being, but that'll change if I go 3d or eyefinity in the future.

Thanks for everyone's help so far, and I've begun reading the OCing tutorials... Brings me back to my OCed Prescott Socket 478 liquid-cooling days....
 
Just wait- a single pre-order card does not mean thats the actual MSRP. also- once they are actually available, the prices on other cards will really start to drop.
 
Seems to me the 5870 is the better card after looking at the specs and initial reviews. The 6870 will be somewhere between the 5850 and 5870. If you want a better card, the 69xx series is coming soon.
 
I'm upgrading from a 4980 and I'm skipping the whole 5xxx generation for the refinements they've done to create the 6xxx series.

A 6870 will not beat a 5870, but it's not supposed to. It's a midrange card. That's the job of the upcoming 6970 intended to replace it as the performance solution... although it'll be quite a bit more expensive, more akin to what the 5870 was at release. The fact you can now get one for around 300 bucks is pretty nice.

But the 6870 will be newer tech, though. It'll likely be more power-efficient, and cram more of those shaders and crap into the same footprint, and might be cooler and quieter, among other things hopefully confirmed on the 22nd. But I don't expect those early prices for the 6870 to stay like that, they always like to jack it up for first-day desparados.
 
6870 may be a better value overall. With overclocking it may beat a 5870 even if overclocked. No one knows for sure right now. But If I read the architecture correctly, there should be a huge return for even a small overclock. Then factor in the lower power draw, better thermals etc.. These cards could be sweet. Time will tell.
 
lockheed2266 said:
Why do these threads come up before every refresh? We don't know about the performance of the 6000 series!!!!! It''s not released, we don't have some special ability to recieve the card before the NDA is released. It's 3 days, you can't wait to buy a card until then? You really can't go without playing a video game for 3 DAYS? go outside; god...
Click to expand...

Quite frankly, we're all hardware geeks and speculating about new hardware is entertaining.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top