HD5850 vs. GTX260 SLi for eyefinity/surround

Negative Decibel

Negative Decibel

2[H]4U
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Dec 13, 2005
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Like the title says, I'm not sure which way to go. I'm about to buy two more LCDs, and I'm not sure which way to go. I have access to a gtx260 right now that I could could trade out my hd5850 for (with a little cash), and get another gtx260; or should I just keep the hd5850 for now and get an active DP converter??
 
Since you already have a 5850, might as well pick up a DP->VGA adapter and see if you like it. Then you can worry about dumping more money into it ;)

But I agree with the guy above me, why would you trade a 5850 for a GTX 260? Hell, why would you even trade a 5850 for a GTX 460?
 
Try dp to vga adapter and see it works for u.
It worked perfectly fine for me.
I think running 1 card is better than running 2.
Single 5850 will run quiet, less heat, less power than gtx 260 in sli.
 
I guess my question really is, what kind of performance difference is there between the two. I'll probably be pushing 3x(1920*1080)...
 
Negative Decibel said:
I guess my question really is, what kind of performance difference is there between the two. I'll probably be pushing 3x(1920*1080)...
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Probably less than you might think. GTX 260 SLI is somewhere around 5870 performance, give or take (slower overall afaik). So I would stick with the 5850 and OC it instead. iirc people are getting 5870 performance (or close to it) out of overclocked 5850s.

Then, of course, you have the rest of the 5850's advantages - lower power draw, DX11, etc...
 
kllrnohj said:
Probably less than you might think. GTX 260 SLI is somewhere around 5870 performance, give or take (slower overall afaik). So I would stick with the 5850 and OC it instead. iirc people are getting 5870 performance (or close to it) out of overclocked 5850s.

Then, of course, you have the rest of the 5850's advantages - lower power draw, DX11, etc...
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That's what i was thinking. I'm just going to keep my 5850, for now. Awesome. Thanks all!
 
gtx 260 55nm 216sp in sli would provide much better performance then a 5850. The gtx 260's are just about the same as a gtx 295 and would come out being cheaper since you don't need any special adapters. If you don't need dx11 this is the way to go for multi monitor gaming.
 
master noran said:
gtx 260 55nm 216sp in sli would provide much better performance then a 5850. The gtx 260's are just about the same as a gtx 295 and would come out being cheaper since you don't need any special adapters. If you don't need dx11 this is the way to go for multi monitor gaming.
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Yeah, that would be about 5870 performance, which 5850s have been able to OC to. He then doesn't need an SLI capable motherboard if he doesn't have one ;)

Also don't need any special adapters if you have monitors with DP.
 
kllrnohj said:
Yeah, that would be about 5870 performance, which 5850s have been able to OC to. He then doesn't need an SLI capable motherboard if he doesn't have one ;)

Also don't need any special adapters if you have monitors with DP.
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Did you even look at his sig or read the OP?

He already has a SLI motherboard.

And he doesn't have a DP monitor.

Go with 260 SLI rather than wasting money on an adapter for the ATI card. It's a safe bet that 260 SLI will outperform a 5850 in Surround; the 5850 is definitely not as fast as two GTX 260s, because a single GTX 470 isn't faster than two GTX 260s.

Especially now that you can get new GTX 260s for $130 or less (after a year of inflated prices) it's a great value.

DX11 doesn't mean shit right now.

When it does, you can switch out for 2 GTX 460s, or whatever superior part is released based on the GF104 chipset.
 
Matrices said:
Did you even look at his sig or read the OP?

He already has a SLI motherboard.
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Yes, I read the OP - doesn't mean the OP knows whether or not his motherboard is SLI capable.

As for his sig, he lists a P55-CD65, which as far as I can tell, doesn't exist. There is a CD53, which doesn't support SLI, and a GD65, which does support SLI, so the question would be which board does the OP actually have? There are several MSI P55 boards that support CFX but *not* SLI because SLI *still* has a bunch of stupid chipset restrictions.

And he doesn't have a DP monitor.
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I'm about to buy two more LCDs, and I'm not sure which way to go
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He only has 1 monitor currently. Since he is buying 2 monitors, he could get 2 with DP.

DX11 doesn't mean shit right now.
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Of course it does. I have a half dozen games that use DX11. You can argue all you want that it isn't significant, but that doesn't change the fact that it is used, it does improve IQ, and in some cases does improve performance over DX10. He already has the 5850, so why bother with GTX 260 SLI that will be slightly faster after the 5850 is OC'd but with lower IQ?
 
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Why would he buy two monitors that are different from his current monitor? That is just stupid if he plans to use it for the purposes he says he does. Like most people, he doesn't have a DP monitor.

And no, DX 11 currently does not mean shit. I stand by that statement. My gaming experience has been improved 0% by DX 11 implementation, which exists on maybe three games that anyone cares about, and by "exists" I mean you might be able to tell it's there if you used a microscope in most cases.

And your comparison between 260 SLI and 5850 "OC" is a silly and obvious blunder. Why are you comparing OC vs. non-OC? 260 SLI will be at least 25% faster than a 5850, I guarantee that.
 
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he could just get two more 24 inch monitors......many people use mixed monitors with eyefinity.....
 
Not with bezel correction. Eyefinity without bezel correction looks retarded. It's possible to do bezel correction with mixed monitors in Surround, but far from guaranteed.
 
Matrices said:
Not with bezel correction. Eyefinity without bezel correction looks retarded. It's possible to do bezel correction with mixed monitors in Surround, but far from guaranteed.
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can't say i agree. love my eyefinity w/o bezel correction. to each his own.
 
wadec22 said:
can't say i agree. love my eyefinity w/o bezel correction. to each his own.
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I don't use bezel comp either. Something about things being hidden bothers me.

As for the OP: People make a big deal about memory and triple wide. Keep in mind the 260's have 768 mb. So if the 260's in SLI are ~ 5870 on a single screen it might not be true for 3 screens.

Also, just from using my xfire setup and from my roommate's gtx 480 sli surround setup, I would personally much rather use a slightly slower single card than two cards. For nvidia, if a game doesn't work with SLI, it doesn't work with surround, period (for example: mirror's edge, this has been bugging my roommate ever since he got his setup).
 
Matrices said:
The 260s have 896MB, actually.
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My bad, could never remember the odd RAM amounts for nvidia. Either way, I don't think the performance delta is large enough to warrant more heat, game specific issues, power, etc. I've owned both SLI and Xfire setups and unless it's the highest end stuff I don't see a reason to get a slightly faster dual card setup over a single card, ever.
 
Maybe you're right. If he already had a single GTX 260 it'd be easier to recommend.
 
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