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Go 5870 or Wait for Fermi?

S

skulkingghost

n00b
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Messages
33
Ok, I am not a fanboy at all. I currently have a GTX260, I picked up a second gtx260 for sli and it does not work at all, I am sick of messing around with it so SLI is out of the question.

Easy question. I am headed to microcenter tomorrow to return my other gtx260, do I just return it, and wait for a FERMI, or should I purchase a HD5870 for $363? I game at 1920x1200, I like to have everything maxed.

Reasons for Nvidia:
I like Cuda + Physx
I use BADABOOM to convert videos
Last ATI card was a 9800 pro.
I am a fan of the frequency of driver updates.
Hear really good things about FERMI, and willing to spend $450 on a fermi card.
Friend has a 4870x2 and I want better FPS than him, its a bragging rights thing.

Reason to go ATI:
At the moment terrible Bad company 2 performance.
Microcenter has 20% off PCI-E card so regular $459 5870 = $363
Eyefinity would be nice, as I would like to add a third monitor soon without the need to sli.


My specs are as follows:
Rig Name: Skulks i7-920
CPU: Quad Intel I7-920 @ 4ghz
Motherboard: Asus P6T
Memory: 12000 MB of Crucial PC1600 DDR3
Video Card: BFG GTX 260 Nvidia Geforce
Hard Drive: OCZ Velocity SSD 120.0 GB
Additional Hard Drives: 4x 1TB WD Green
1x 320gb Seagate Barracude
1x 500gb WD
Monitor: 28" Hannspree HF289H
Additional Monitors: 20" Asus 2203W
DVD R/W: LG 52x DVD+-R/W
Storage Interface: SATA
Sound Card: Auzentech X-FI Prelude
Powersupply: Thermaltake 750w
Speakers: Logitech Z-5500
Internet Connection: Verizon Fios Cable @ 25/12mbs
Operating System: Windows 7 64bit
 
Go with a 5870 , great card , great performance (more so for the cost if you factor that in) plus who knows when exactly Nvidia will release the 480's and if they will be priced to compete. Sure they may end up performing better but they may also have tons of bugs , defects .. do you really wanna be in the first group of people to deal with "out of the gate" issues? Also consider the 5870 has been out awhile now and has great drivers now.
 
I would wait... your system isn't horrible and shouldn't have horrible performance in BC2. I have a 8800gts 512 and my performance is fine.

be patient grasshopper
 
I'd normally just say get something to tie you over until Fermi is released in a few weeks. However, for that price the HD5870 is a terrific buy...so I'd actually buy that and then just sell and upgrade later when it is released.
I think Fermi will likely cost at least $500-550 US upon release (expecting $600-$650 aussie dollars)
 
I'd vote towards the 5870. The price offered is a pretty good price actually.

In addition, you mentioned that "Eyefinity would be nice, as I would like to add a third monitor soon without the need to sli". Really, a 5870 would be your best bet for that. In order to get 3 monitors with Fermi, your going to need to SLI 2 fermi cards together. So it's not just spending $450.00+ for a Fermi, its spending $900+ for 2 Fermis.

The last reason is the time till Fermi is released is still a bit 'up in the air' as no official announcements have been made. Really, Fermi is 6 months late so who knows how many more months we'll need to wait. 1? 2? 3? 6? I think few people suspected Fermi would be as late as it already is...
 
I'm personally waiting for Fermi to drop before I do any upgrading. Got myself a nice system planned out, but am resisting the huge urge to purchase now. Hopefully the price on the 58xx series will finally fall back to MSRP or even more due to Fermi's release by that time. You're GTX260 in SLi sound like a pretty healthy combination anyways.

Besides, last I checked nVidia was planning a late March early April release? I think? :eek: So it should be soon-ish.
 
fochkoph said:
You're GTX260 in SLi sound like a pretty healthy combination anyways.
Click to expand...

FYI, original post says he couldn't get the SLI to work so he's debating waiting for Fermi while having a single GTS260 or getting a 5870 and having better performance today. So his situation is a bit worse off than two GTS260s which would still be able to max most stuff I think?
 
if you can get a SUPER price go for ATi. If it's average then might as well wait. Fermi is weeks away, and if we start to see more deals like the one above then maybe Ferrmi is coming out soon....
 
if we remove the following from the nVidia list

Last ATI card was a 9800 pro. (Not really a reason to like nVidia considering how good that card was at the time)
I am a fan of the frequency of driver updates.(wait, wut? Ati does it at least once a month with hotfixes when needed)
Hear really good things about FERMI, and willing to spend $450 on a fermi card. (speculation at best)
Friend has a 4870x2 and I want better FPS than him, its a bragging rights thing. 5970.....
 
I went to a 5850 and very happy at the moment, If Nvidia brings a good performing card and some good features with their mid-range cards, I will glady sell this 5850 to my friend and jump back on the Nvidia train.

No need for brand loyalty make me blind.
 
I also traded up from a 260 to a 5870.....this was 3 months ago, I was thinking about waiting for Fermi...I'm glad I didn't wait, because I would still be waiting...

Get the 5870 , its a fantastic card and the price is right.
 
With Fermi just around the corner surely it'd be best to wait?

If nothing else ATI's prices will drop when Fermi arrives and that 5870 could cost alot less.


You should take advantage of the fact you visit hardware forums and are clued up about expected release dates etc. Leave it to Joe Public to blindly buy a full priced 5870 60 days before the graphics card landscape changes completely.
 
5870 for under 400??? get it....and then GET TO THE CHOPPA!
 
I definitely enjoy my 5870 and it has been flawless. I had used BFG cards exclusively in the past and my last card from ati was the 9800 pro. Nonetheless I've not had any problems with drivers or games and I run AA and AF maximized @1920x1080. I would assume ati will do a price drop on these cards when fergi is released.
 
spine said:
With Fermi just around the corner surely it'd be best to wait?

If nothing else ATI's prices will drop when Fermi arrives and that 5870 could cost alot less.


You should take advantage of the fact you visit hardware forums and are clued up about expected release dates etc. Leave it to Joe Public to blindly buy a full priced 5870 60 days before the graphics card landscape changes completely.
Click to expand...

We don't really know what corner Fermi is right around , and even if it were to release next month, it would likely be 3-5 months before they have enough stock to even fulfill the orders they get.

ATI is not likely drop prices anytime soon,and why would they.

With the 5870 priced at 351.99 at MC right now, there is no better time to buy than right now.
 
Caleb said:
Stay away from ATI's buggy POS drivers, and wait for Fermi.
Click to expand...


LOL at the guy that's still stuck in 2003 and thinks Nv's Windows drivers are any better than AMD's on existing hardware.
ROFL, at him, if he thinks that will be the case for a brand new chip compared to one that has been out around half a year. :p
 
Man the name 'Fermi' is annoying me for some reason.
I say wait for the GTX4** series.
 
I vote wait for the GTX400 launch as well. Even if you have absolutely no plans to buy an Nvidia card, it certainly must have some impact on ATI's pricing I would imagine.

Someone posted a link to a $350 5870. That is how much the card was selling for at a few places immediately after launch (if you were quick enough). And now 5 months later we are actually getting excited that prices have come back down to what they were at launch, haha.

With 40nm production apparently on track now and competition coming from Nvidia in a month or so, I'm remaining hopeful the 5800 prices will come down even more.
 
WTF? 350??? dude if i had the extra money id pick that thing up right now
 
My previous card was a GTX 260 (192). The 5850 is much smoother and I can enable all details. I absolutely love having eyefinity. I am very glad I upgraded.

I see no reason to wait for a hot expensive card when I can have the performance and Eyefinity now. Try finding an XFX 5850 in stock. They're still selling like hotcakes and only remain in stock for a day.

The "price drop" will probably be back to MSRP. Bad company 2 isn't even out yet. Nobody knows how the performance will be on Radeons until it's released.
 
xfx is $368 at the moment on bing after cash back - it's 10%, was 15% the other day if you don't want visiontek
 
To the OP, if you really don't need a better card right now I'd wait for the Fermi cards; the GTX 470 and GTX 480. It's doubtful that the fastest Fermi (GTX 480) will be much faster than a Radeon 5970, but since you like CUDA and PhysX it might be worth waiting for.

Caleb said:
Stay away from ATI's buggy POS drivers, and wait for Fermi.
Click to expand...
I'm not a fanboy, I always buy whichever brand has the best card, but I must say that this comment is entirely unfounded. I currently have two ATI cards, and ATI drivers are solid and with monthly releases and hotfixes when needed I've had nothing to complain about. Also, have you forgotten this report?

'NVIDIA Drivers Caused Lion's Share of Early Vista Crashes'

That said, ATI drivers are not perfect, but they are certainly not terrible.
 
I just received confirmation on my in-store pickup order at the Microcenter right outside of Philadelphia PA. They only had the XFX version but XFX is more preferred since it has the double lifetime warranty and I plan to resell it if Fermi actually out performs the card by a fair margin.

I was planning to just do a moderate upgrade to a 5850 until I saw this deal. You really can not beat this deal, specially if you don't mind the little added hassle of reselling it if Fermi is "all that and a bag of potato chips". :p
 
why do people still think that a single 5870 is enough for 3 monitor setup? maybe for 2d work and some really old games but a single card is just not enough to run today's games with good frame rates with eyecandy and stuff.

at least nvidia is being straight up and telling you right from the start that you need 2 gpu's to run 3 monitor setup with latest games.

i think alot of people here thing that 1680x1050 res is just upcaled across 3 monitors, lol.

we are talking about high resolution here with 3 monitors running in native res.
 
DualOwn said:
why do people still think that a single 5870 is enough for 3 monitor setup? maybe for 2d work and some really old games but a single card is just not enough to run today's games with good frame rates with eyecandy and stuff.

at least nvidia is being straight up and telling you right from the start that you need 2 gpu's to run 3 monitor setup with latest games.

i think alot of people here thing that 1680x1050 res is just upcaled across 3 monitors, lol.

we are talking about high resolution here with 3 monitors running in native res.
Click to expand...

What game are you talking about in particular? Crysis runs OK on mostly medium settings, no AA at 5040x1050 on a single 5870. Source games do so maxed with AA at that res.
The console ports are not really challenging the 5870 that much, and I doubt they will challange Fermi that much if at all either. In their high end version of Fermi, performance is not a reason not to add a mini DP for triple monitor off of one card like AMD has. Unless it performs worse than the 5870 which I doubt will be the case.

DarkVoid is an example of modern console ports, maxed without AA or PhysX, [H] was getting min fps of 63, avg of 111 in that game at 2560x1600 on a single 5870. I would wager that, that game would still be playable at those settings at 5040x1050 or maybe even 5760x1200/1080.
 
Last edited:
UtopiA said:
Holy crap.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0321274 $351.
Click to expand...

Wow....I haven't researched the price on this thing but I guess this would be called a steal? If I purchase this tomorrow I'll pretty much be forced to upgrade the rest of my system. Hmmmmmm......

How good of a deal is this is my real question?

Edit:

Lowest on pricewatch is.....

Price $394.99

VisionTek
900298 VisionTek Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 9002
Part# N82E16814129140
 
I don't plan on gaming with 3 monitors though, just the one 1920x1200. The trimonitors would only be for 2d web development / modelling work.
 
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