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5870 verses 5850?

L

la_guy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
194
I have a Q9550 and I own a 24" monitor and was wondering how much more powerful is a 5870 than a 5850? Are we talking 20% 30% ?

I hear the 5850 is a better buy but I would like some raw numbers from users who have seen both of these cards in action gaming.
 
I don't think you'll find many people who've owned both, best bet is to look at reviews, just about every review that has one will have the other too.
 
I would say 20-30% is about right. I have a buddy with a 5850 with a similar build, who scored 4005 and I scored just a bit over 5000. So that's a 25% improvement.
 
I've owned both. There is no noticeable difference between the two once overclocked. A 5850 @ 900/1200 is virtually identical to a 5870 900/1200. Hence why I still have the 5850 and saved some cash :).
 
Mr. K6 said:
I've owned both. There is no noticeable difference between the two once overclocked. A 5850 @ 900/1200 is virtually identical to a 5870 900/1200. Hence why I still have the 5850 and saved some cash :).
Click to expand...

This.

Clock for clock the 5870's memory advantage only extends the lead 6%, the average overclock for both chips seems to be 1050 core on the stock reference cooler.
 
I like Anand cause he compares a ton of video cards at once. According to his review of the 5850, the 5870 is not a whole helluva lot faster than the 5850. If youre at 1920x1080 and watching the budget, you might wanna consider getting a 5850 and overclocking it. That should be enough muscle to max out any game at that resolution and still get very playable framerates.

Its even more tempting with this XFX 5850 going for $245 shipped at Newegg. Christ-a-mighty thats an awesome deal. If I had $245 to spare, Id grab that in a heartbeat.
 
You're not going to max out Metro 2033 at 1080p but neither will a 5870
 
MrGuvernment said:
that Q9550 stock.... could play a limiting factor for a 5870?
Click to expand...

If you like playing 1024x768 maybe. CPU makes very little difference in games other than GTA 4 and a couple of others. Even then Q9550 at stock is fast enough for any game out there.
 
Except for the huge system hogs (Crysis, metro, etc) the 5850 will max out single player games at smooth framerates @1920x1200. That being said, 8 months into my 5850 ownership I want eyefinity and kinda wish I had the 5870. If you are ABSOLUTELY sure you won't be tempted into a multi-monitor setup, go 5850. If it is something you could see yourself wanting before you upgrade gpu again, get the 5870.
 
RamonGTP said:
You're not going to max out Metro 2033 at 1080p but neither will a 5870
Click to expand...
A 5850 can play Metro 2033 on 1920x1080 Very High pretty well. Tesselation kind of hurts it (two 5770's would be better, for example), and DoF kills performance (as it does on every card), but you can have an excellent experience with Metro with this card.
ryken said:
Except for the huge system hogs (Crysis, metro, etc) the 5850 will max out single player games at smooth framerates @1920x1200. That being said, 8 months into my 5850 ownership I want eyefinity and kinda wish I had the 5870. If you are ABSOLUTELY sure you won't be tempted into a multi-monitor setup, go 5850. If it is something you could see yourself wanting before you upgrade gpu again, get the 5870.
Click to expand...
When you even the clocks, the 5870 is ~2% faster on average than the 5850. It won't make a difference unless you get a 2GB version or something.
 
Mr. K6 said:
A 5850 can play Metro 2033 on 1920x1080 Very High pretty well. Tesselation kind of hurts it (two 5770's would be better, for example), and DoF kills performance (as it does on every card), but you can have an excellent experience with Metro with this card.
Click to expand...

I'm glad we agree that it can't be maxed out ;)
 
Thanks alot guys for all the input I will overclock this Q9550 as I am on water. I had it running @ 400 FSB which put me @ 3.4 Ghz and that was @ stock voltage so I will be pushing it higher than stock.

Looks like the 5850 is the winner for my 1920 X 1200 set up. Thanks again everyone!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I've got a "budget" AMD system (OCed 965, 4GB RAM, etc.) in my office running a Sapphire 5850 Toxic and an Intel system (OCed 920 6GB RAM, etc.) in my game room with a stock 5870 and honestly, in real-world experience, they are virtually identical.
 
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