Question: GTX 285 vs 5850

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XamediX

2[H]4U
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Oct 27, 2003
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So I was wondering. With the current set of drivers for nVidia (257.21) and Ati, what is the performance difference of these two cards in a nutshell? Let's have a target resolution of 1680x1050

If one had the choice of a $200 used 285 vs a $300 new 5850, which one would be the better option?
 
get the 5850... its newer tech and you can get them for just under $300 actually
not regretting mine at all, and i spent $320 on it at frys when they were impossible to find
 
Thank you for the response but would you be able to throw a ballpark figure of the overall delta? Would you say 20% faster? More? Less?
 
There's this site I like to visit when comparing GPUs
http://www.gpureview.com/
When comparing the two cards
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=614&card2=605
I'd say they're fairly even, but the 5850 wins on 4 accounts when comparing 2 new cards: price, heat, power usage, and Dx11/OpenGL. The site's Superlatives (best of...) section says the 5850 is $40 cheaper and on par with the 470.

But with the 285 being used and cheaper I think a few more questions need answering: Can you take the heat of the 285? Will you be playing games where you want Dx11? Are you going to overclock? What kind of motherboard do you have (SLI/Crossfire)? What kind of PSU do you have? Do you want to save money now and wait for a better card later or not?

For most games today at 1680x1050, the only thing I think that will change performance is 5850's DX11.

Edit: Strong emphasis on ~~games today~~, I think the 5850 is more future proof.
 
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The heat from the 285 is barely noticeable on my end. I don't plan to overclock the GPU. I havent noticed a real need to go DX11 since it hasnt really offered much more than prettier tesselation in two games I dont even like. (Metro 2033 / AvsP) My current gaming needs are Bad Company 2, Just Cause 2, Crysis 2, and one more I forgot.

I have an SLI mobo but I dont plan on going SLI ever. I have a 650w PSU. I came from an 8800GT.

Worthy of note, I already got the 285 after doing some resarch(googling) but I wanted to hear the opinions of [H]'ers since those > google results x 10.

It seems to basically come down to for an extra $100 I coulda got the 5850 or the 470 as they are both within the same price range nowadays given your latest deals floating around.

I plan on buying a brand new card in about 2 years or so. I used to upgrade every 6month product cycle back when the companies foolishly stuck to it. My old 8800GT lasted me the longest of any GPU i ever had dating back to the Riva TNT card.
 
I went from a 4870 512GB to a 5870 6 Eyefinity edition on my e8400 machine. The speed increase was definitely noticeable. Sorry I can't give you a real comparison. I have also have an i7 920 PC with SLI GTX285s. I notice similar gaming performance between the two playing the same games. I'd recommend getting the newer card. My 285s get hot and they are loud when the fans ramp up.
 
Well actually if you are not going to upgrade in another 2 years, I'd sell the 285, spend an extra $100, and get the GTX 470.
 
Cat 10.5-10.6 with the 5850 is about ~15% faster on average than a 285. Some games, it is 20%+, some it is only 10%.
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. This has been very useful information. The [H] never disappoints.
 
I'd go with the 285. It's 50% more for the 5850, and I just don't see the value. Furthermore, you may be able to get a 285 for cheaper than that used. I know I picked up a 216 core 260 for 130 shipped about a month ago.
 
I don't see a reason to not get the 5850, and you will also get DX11 support.
 
285's are way overvalued, if it was 150 then maybe....

for 200, its better just to get a 5850
 
I always go nvidia for the better drivers. ati's have the flashyness but ive found them to have driver problems that crush performance in certain circumstances.
 
XamediX said:
The heat from the 285 is barely noticeable on my end. I don't plan to overclock the GPU. I havent noticed a real need to go DX11 since it hasnt really offered much more than prettier tesselation in two games I dont even like. (Metro 2033 / AvsP) My current gaming needs are Bad Company 2, Just Cause 2, Crysis 2, and one more I forgot.
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In just about all the games you mentioned ATI video cards currently perform better - BC2, JC2, and Crysis. I can't say for sure about Crysis 2, but if it's based on the same engine as the first Crysis, Radeons consistently outperform Nvidia video cards. And sorry to break it to you but a GTX 285 is going to struggle in any new game, whether it be Crysis 2 or Metro2033 unless you dial down the settings a bit.

I see you already decided to get the 285. For $200 it's not a bad deal, but it's new money on old tech with is usually a bad deal unless you got a real bargain price on it. But as long as you are happy with the performance you get, that's all that matters. Just saying it's certainly not the fastest card you can get for your money by any means.
 
I traded my 8800GT + $120 for the GTX 285. I used $200 as an avg selling price I saw on the forums of a couple F/S sites. So i think I got a really good deal.

Right now I can run Bad Company 2 maxxed out with full AA/AF at my native res where before I had to turn off alot of stuff and run the res at 720p to get playable framerates. The advantage I tend to think I have is the fact that I only have a 22in LCD so I am running at a max res of 1680x1050.

The last time i spent $300 on a video card was when the Geforce 3 came out. Nowadays I'm a cheapskate and I noticed that I only buy new cards every 2 generation leaps, and even then I wait till the new stuff gets released so I can get a deal on the "old" stuff.

What I didn't realize was how many factors the 5850 has going for it. Thanks to you guys I now know. Based on the $200 price point for the 285, I dunno if another $100 is worth 10-20% more performance. I dont really notice the heat even though I have yet to do any real monitoring of it.

My basic reasoning is that I am overclocking my Phenom II, and when I put in this card, i havent noticed any heat related issues. This is with about an hours worth of bad company 2 playtime. At some point I'll actually take temperature readings but I have a nice case with a side exhaust fan positioned right over my GPU, so I can be lazy about it.
 
They're about equal in performance, I wouldn't even consider the 5850 a card I'd use for Direct x11, frame rates for the most part would be unacceptable to me.
 
Decko87 said:
They're about equal in performance, I wouldn't even consider the 5850 a card I'd use for Direct x11, frame rates for the most part would be unacceptable to me.
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The 285 is not equal in performance to the 5850. The 5850 is on average about 10-15% faster than the 285 in terms of performance. Any review, from any website will reflect this. The 5830 and Gtx 465 are approx on par with the 285 in performance.

Another words, get the 5850. To choose the 285 over the 5850 for gaming is a bad choice.
 
edifyingkarma said:
The 285 is not equal in performance to the 5850. The 5850 is on average about 10-15% faster than the 285 in terms of performance. Any review, from any website will reflect this. The 5830 and Gtx 465 are approx on par with the 285 in performance.

Another words, get the 5850. To choose the 285 over the 5850 for gaming is a bad choice.
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10-15% faster for 50% more, what a steal.:rolleyes:
 
Paying 200$ for old technology, what a bargain. :rolleyes:

You can find a brand new 5850 for around 250 after bing cash back before July 31.
 
XamediX said:
I traded my 8800GT + $120 for the GTX 285. I used $200 as an avg selling price I saw on the forums of a couple F/S sites. So i think I got a really good deal.
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So was this actually a good deal?

dopee123 said:
Paying 200$ for old technology, what a bargain. :rolleyes:

You can find a brand new 5850 for around 250 after bing cash back before July 31.
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Could you link me to a site with that deal?

This deal is dead, but oh boy I woulda been upset if I didn't get in on this.
 
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I don't think a GTX 285 for $200 is necessarily a bad deal, I just would never buy old tech, especially paying $200 for it. DX11 is here, more games will be supporting it, and if you're going to keep a card for another two years, why not have a card that supports it? The other thing people don't mention is the GTX 285 isn't anything special as an overclocker whereas the 5850 is. I think the real comparison is a GTX 285 @ 750 core vs. a 5850 at 1GHz core, and obviously the 5850 is much faster.
 
Mr. K8 I didnt pay $200 for the card. I just used that as a reference number for my original question. My deal actually involved a trade up from an 8800GT + $120 as I said in my earlier posts.
 
XamediX said:
Mr. K8 I didnt pay $200 for the card. I just used that as a reference number for my original question. My deal actually involved a trade up from an 8800GT + $120 as I said in my earlier posts.
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The value you traded for it was still ~$200. You could have sold that 8800GT and used the money towards a 5850 too. In the end, it still comes down to a common exchange medium, money. Sorry, I should have been clearer on that.
 
I would say 5850 all the way, unless you wants some performance crown, GTX 480 that is :D

There isn't a reason for you to get 285 unless you are short on budget.

And the games you mention, they all runs better on ATI hardware, and some shows significantly better.
 
Judging by all the next gen card's metro 2033's benchmarks, none of them do that well in dx11, why can't they max it out? You are certainly paying alot for the tech. And IMHO dx11 really doesn't make games look at that much better at this point. Maybe as games come out we'll see how dx11 can truly be used. I sold my 8800gt one year ago in june for 50. Nobody and I mean nobody wanted it. If you recently traded that card + the meager sum of 120 for a 285 I'd say it was a good deal. I had a single GTX 280 and in metro 2033 with dx 11 options off and no AA (I think) I was able to get great performance. The thing is dx9 is still around, and microsoft has that policy of theirs where you have to upgrade the OS to upgrade the directx version. I believe dx9/10 will be around for a long while yet, and even at 250 for a 5850 compared to the 120 you paid for the 285, I would still choose the 285 every time. The performance increase at this point in time just doesn't justify the cost.
 
5850 does DX9/10 too, only better. Not to mention it's brand new with warranty.

Tigerdirect's bing cashback is up to 13.2% by the way.

It's true you got a good trade for the 285 though.
 
valuing the 8800gt at 80$ is a big overestimate, i'd say 40 tops and then you loose money to shipping so say 30$ profit. I'd look at it more like you payed at most 150 for the 285 which is a good buy compared to 300 for a 5850 imho
 
Guess you went with the 285, so we should expect you to ask this question, in what...another 6months? Get the best "newest" tech you can afford & it seems you could have found a way to get the 5850, but get what you want in the end. You're the one using it after all.
 
LustForBlood said:
Get the 285, the extra $100 is in no way justified.
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Exactly. You can buy an extra couple of games instead and get what, 10% the preformance difference? People keep whinning about DX11, it'll be another 2 years before you see DX11 being "common" in games.

When people start saying idiot things like "old tech" it's because they are playing fanboy cards and don't have any good reasons. Why pay 50% more for 10% of increase in preformance? Because zomg it's "new tech!" You got a decent deal, now go enjoy your graphics card.
 
vengence said:
Exactly. You can buy an extra couple of games instead and get what, 10% the preformance difference? People keep whinning about DX11, it'll be another 2 years before you see DX11 being "common" in games.
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10-15%. People gladly spend $100 more for the 5870 over the 5850 for about the same performance delta. The difference here is that the more expensive 5800 consumes more power and isn't any newer than the less expensive option and offers no additional features --- here we have the exact opposite phenomenon. The GTX 285 is hotter and older than the 5850, consumes more power, and just doesn't overclock as well. Sure, it's $100 cheaper.. but there's a reason for that.

The decision made in this thread was not [H]ard.
 
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