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Red Vs Green Solo Setup

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maverick786us

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I just came across this artical where Green has an edge over Red But that is the case if you are using SLI and XFire. But in case of single card, which one out of these 2 cards will perform better?
 
Depends on if you just want the better performer or if you want the one with better price/performance. If it's the first one, 5850. If it's the second, GTX 460. Personally, I think the GTX 460 is the better choice at the moment unless you can find a good deal on a 5850(sub $250).
 
3 Things that I really Admire about Galaxy 460

1) It cool and quiet even at maximum load and its power consumption is less
2) It can be overclock like a monstor
3) Its price, at 200 bucks you don't get to see such a high perfomance card

But how good its perfomance will be at 1920 X 1200 resolution, if we compare it to 5850, while playing games like crysis in that resolution?
 
Stock it seems the 460 will loose, but OCed up pretty close.
 
I never tried to OC my current GPU. Most of the games that require heavy graphics like Crysis are sensitve to OCing and crash in the middle.
So Galaxy at stock speed is no match for 5850?
 
GTX 460 needs to be overclocked to realize its full potential. And overclocking gpus is very easy these days, just move a slider, so there's really no reason not to. If you want the highest stable OC, you need to do a little work to find the optimum point where you have a stable OC and highest clock speeds. If you're going for just modest overclocks, those are quite easy to pull off. I believe most 460s will hit between 800-850mhz core easily.
 
5850 is faster than a GTX460 if you have the extra money to spend. As long as you get a decent model they can both be overclocked so that point is rather meaningless. My stock GTX460 happily went to 850MHz without touching voltage, but likewise you'll be able to push a 5850 up a bit without too much worry.
 
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_460_1_GB/31.html

GTX 460's aren't as good for higher resolutions. Look at the performance chart here and you see it starts to fall behind more and more at higher and higher resolutions, against a HD5850. This is even more true for the 768MB version of the GTX 460.

Also, HD5850s are also good overclockers so you could overclock both of them. It's pointless to compare an oc'd 460 against a stock 5850, because the stock 5850 can simply re-widen its lead with its own oc.

maverick786us said:
3 Things that I really Admire about Galaxy 460

1) It cool and quiet even at maximum load and its power consumption is less
2) It can be overclock like a monstor
3) Its price, at 200 bucks you don't get to see such a high perfomance card

But how good its perfomance will be at 1920 X 1200 resolution, if we compare it to 5850, while playing games like crysis in that resolution?
Click to expand...
 
blastingcap said:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_460_1_GB/31.html

GTX 460's aren't as good for higher resolutions. Look at the performance chart here and you see it starts to fall behind more and more at higher and higher resolutions, against a HD5850. This is even more true for the 768MB version of the GTX 460.

Also, HD5850s are also good overclockers so you could overclock both of them. It's pointless to compare an oc'd 460 against a stock 5850, because the stock 5850 can simply re-widen its lead its own oc.
Click to expand...

especially since it's a downclocked HD5870 with a disabled SIMD (out of 20) :p
 
Tudz said:
5850 is faster than a GTX460 if you have the extra money to spend. As long as you get a decent model they can both be overclocked so that point is rather meaningless. My stock GTX460 happily went to 850MHz without touching voltage, but likewise you'll be able to push a 5850 up a bit without too much worry.
Click to expand...

blastingcap said:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_460_1_GB/31.html

GTX 460's aren't as good for higher resolutions. Look at the performance chart here and you see it starts to fall behind more and more at higher and higher resolutions, against a HD5850. This is even more true for the 768MB version of the GTX 460.

Also, HD5850s are also good overclockers so you could overclock both of them. It's pointless to compare an oc'd 460 against a stock 5850, because the stock 5850 can simply re-widen its lead with its own oc.
Click to expand...


Thats pretty obvious that if I select 460 I will go for 1GB version. I only once overclocked my 4850 using ATI Overdrive, but games that require a lot of Graphics like crysis happened to crash. So I had to restore it to default settings.

Since nVidia cards are claimed to be much better in handling physics, so will they produce the same result while OCing?
 
maverick786us said:
Thats pretty obvious that if I select 460 I will go for 1GB version. I only once overclocked my 4850 using ATI Overdrive, but games that require a lot of Graphics like crysis happened to crash. So I had to restore it to default settings.

Since nVidia cards are claimed to be much better in handling physics, so will they produce the same result while OCing?
Click to expand...

OCing is pretty safe, unless you start cranking up the voltage too. Then you may fry your card or shorten its lifespan. Some cards are better at OC'ing than others. 5850s and 460s have good reputations for overclocking; you could probably overclock at least 20% for both of them (and keep it at 20% if you don't feel comfortable going higher). You can't really go wrong with either the 5850 or 1GB GTX 460, but stay away from the 768MB GTX 460. 460 1GB's go for $230. 5850s vary a lot, but they had a sale a while ago for $250 (XFX egg cooler version) and $260 (overvoltable MSI version that supposedly overclocks better). If you can find prices like that, then it becomes a tossup.. at 1680x1050 or less, if 5850s are going for more than ~$260 I'd go for the 1GB GTX 460. At 1920x1080 or more, I think I'd rather just stick with the 5850 unless the price difference gets to be $40 or more.

PhysX only works for a lot of mediocre games and a few good ones. For the good ones, only like two of them (Mirror's Edge and Batman AA) see any significant difference. So it's not worth worrying about.
 
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blastingcap said:
OCing is pretty safe, unless you start cranking up the voltage too. Then you may fry your card or shorten its lifespan. Some cards are better at OC'ing than others. 5850s and 460s have good reputations for overclocking; you could probably overclock at least 20% for both of them (and keep it at 20% if you don't feel comfortable going higher). You can't really go wrong with either the 5850 or 1GB GTX 460, but stay away from the 768MB GTX 460. 460 1GB's go for $230. 5850s vary a lot, but they had a sale a while ago for $250 (XFX egg cooler version) and $260 (overvoltable MSI version that supposedly overclocks better). If you can find prices like that, then it becomes a tossup.. at 1680x1050 or less, if 5850s are going for more than ~$260 I'd go for the 1GB GTX 460. At 1920x1080 or more, I think I'd rather just stick with the 5850 unless the price difference gets to be $40 or more.

PhysX only works for a lot of mediocre games and a few good ones. For the good ones, only like two of them (Mirror's Edge and Batman AA) see any significant difference. So it's not worth worrying about.
Click to expand...

Yes OCing upto 20% is always safe. But just like Crysis, how many games are there which are sensitive to even 0.1% OCing and will crash in the middle?
 
maverick786us said:
Yes OCing upto 20% is always safe. But just like Crysis, how many games are there which are sensitive to even 0.1% OCing and will crash in the middle?
Click to expand...

Wrong. Overclocking is only safe with good cooling.
OC'ing is always a gamble. And because of the manufacturing process there are bound to be duds, and chips that just barely make the stock cut.

It's not wise to buy a card based on it's overclocking potential alone.
 
With a CPU you can use good 3rd Party cooling but with GPUs, 3rd party cooling device is not available
 
rUmX said:
Ehh?

There are a number of companies that make custom GPU coolers. Thermaltake, Thermalright, Arctic Cooling to name a few. You can even add a custom water block if you want water.
Click to expand...

But is Custom GPU heat sink something that people (specially enthusastics in this messageboard) don't use quite often? Is it more complicated than using CPU Heat Sink?

Mostly GPUs come up with their stock heat sink. So replacing their stock heat sink with customized one means tempring with it, which might end its warranty agreement.
Will it?
 
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The better companies let you upgrade your HSF on gpu without voiding warranty. Some allow OC too. Be sure to do some research. Evga has two different warranties for some products. Gotta pay attention.
 
Almost all video card manufacturers don't allow modification of the cooling solution under warranty, I believe it's EVGA that will with a certain warranty, you need to double check, obviously.
 
rUmX said:
Wrong. Overclocking is only safe with good cooling.
OC'ing is always a gamble. And because of the manufacturing process there are bound to be duds, and chips that just barely make the stock cut.

It's not wise to buy a card based on it's overclocking potential alone.
Click to expand...

Okay not ALWAYS but if you buy a decent card it should be fine. Even if you have to manually crank up the cooling. Also, if you look at the context of what OP and I were talking about, I meant safe as in, it won't fry the card, not as in, it will not crash your computer because it's a dud.
 
rUmX said:
Wrong. Overclocking is only safe with good cooling.
OC'ing is always a gamble.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for the 5850 as I dont own one, but the GTX460 stock cooling is pretty damn good (mine uses the reference cooler). At idle the temperatures are only a few degrees above my room temperature and at load it is only 50-54C with the fan at 40% (the minimum), overclocked to 850MHz its goes a bit above 60C with the fan at 40%, but drops back below 60C if I raise the fan a bit.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
Almost all video card manufacturers don't allow modification of the cooling solution under warranty, I believe it's EVGA that will with a certain warranty, you need to double check, obviously.
Click to expand...

Your right, I was wrong. Evga seems to be the only one. They do allow mods to cards, but read the fine print. I thought XFX and others were following suit, but I looked into them, and couple others, and they don't.
 
It's almost impossible to hurt hardware simply be changing the clockspeeds alone. Too much voltage can potentially hurt hardware (ahhhh, see what I did there :D), but any overclocking done while using your head is very safe.
maverick786us said:
Yes OCing upto 20% is always safe. But just like Crysis, how many games are there which are sensitive to even 0.1% OCing and will crash in the middle?
Click to expand...
Absolutely none. I play Crysis at 1000MHz/1200MHz on my 5850, which comes out to a 38% overclock on the card, and it's perfectly stable. Like any hardware, you have to make sure you overclock is stable otherwise you'll have issues.

In regards to your question, the 5850 is about 17% faster than the GTX 460 at 1920x1200, and they are both really good overclockers (always something to consider when buying a card). I'd personally go for a reference-design 5850, but it's up to you if you want to spend the extra money or not.
 
maverick786us said:
I just came across this artical where Green has an edge over Red But that is the case if you are using SLI and XFire. But in case of single card, which one out of these 2 cards will perform better?
Click to expand...

single cards the 5800 is obviously better, not necessarily the best bang for the buck though. consider the GTX480 and the 5870, the GTX480 offers only slightly better gameplay in a single card setup.

and as for OC value they are pretty well on par, they both do really well. so its more of a question of the price point your buying.
 
blastingcap said:
Okay not ALWAYS but if you buy a decent card it should be fine. Even if you have to manually crank up the cooling. Also, if you look at the context of what OP and I were talking about, I meant safe as in, it won't fry the card, not as in, it will not crash your computer because it's a dud.
Click to expand...

I was thinking cooling in general. There's probably some people out there that probably put a 480 in a case with little to no air flow and went and overclocked their card... That is what I meant by good cooling. And the other part that overclocking will increase temps.

Tudz said:
I can't speak for the 5850 as I dont own one, but the GTX460 stock cooling is pretty damn good (mine uses the reference cooler). At idle the temperatures are only a few degrees above my room temperature and at load it is only 50-54C with the fan at 40% (the minimum), overclocked to 850MHz its goes a bit above 60C with the fan at 40%, but drops back below 60C if I raise the fan a bit.
Click to expand...

The GTX460 appears to be a good overclocker based on what we have seen. Most people are comparing the 460 to the 5850 instead of the 5830, which is reasonable, no complaints.

But someone going out to pick up the 460 in the hope they can overclock it to beyond 5850 performance will be disappointed if the card just doesn't happen to OC well.
 
Im gonna put the vote in for the 5850 as well...ive got mine at 1000/1200 with a tweaked fan profile and it works amazing...im close to 5870 framerates, but the 460 does have the better tessellation engine...might work out better in future games, but hard to tell now.
 
rUmX said:
The GTX460 appears to be a good overclocker based on what we have seen. Most people are comparing the 460 to the 5850 instead of the 5830, which is reasonable, no complaints.

But someone going out to pick up the 460 in the hope they can overclock it to beyond 5850 performance will be disappointed if the card just doesn't happen to OC well.
Click to expand...

I wasn't referring to that you should be comparing an overclocked 460 to an unOCed 5850. But you said OCing was only safe with good cooling and I'm saying the GTX460 does have really good cooling. Can't speak for the 5850 as I dont own one.
 
Sikkyu said:
I like blue

red and green are so cliche
Click to expand...

Unfortunately,blue isnt a random color, its Intel, which anyone who wants to actually do anything will avoid :p

You should go for like.... Magenta. It's so much better than anything else.
 
Tudz said:
I wasn't referring to that you should be comparing an overclocked 460 to an unOCed 5850. But you said OCing was only safe with good cooling and I'm saying the GTX460 does have really good cooling. Can't speak for the 5850 as I dont own one.
Click to expand...

I own a reference 5850 and it has good cooling. The whole "460 OC's well" argument is moot when comparing it to a 5850 or 5870, because 5850s/5870s OC well too, with the possible exception of the cheap XFX egg cooler 5850. Plus I've heard that not all 460s are created equal and that only Gigabyte has a decent 1GB 460 out right now... the other 460s have bad fans, cooling-wise or noise-wise or both.
 
blastingcap said:
Plus I've heard that not all 460s are created equal and that only Gigabyte has a decent 1GB 460 out right now... the other 460s have bad fans, cooling-wise or noise-wise or both.
Click to expand...

The Galaxy and EVGA external exhaust varieties are noisy. The reference design is cool and quiet, as is the Gigabyte one. Haven't read about the Palit/Gainward/Asus ones.
 
FighterAce124 said:
Unfortunately,blue isnt a random color, its Intel, which anyone who wants to actually do anything will avoid :p

You should go for like.... Magenta. It's so much better than anything else.
Click to expand...

<3 the integrated graphics
 
I personally have always had bad luck overclocking graphics cards. But I have a 5850 and am not terribly happy with ATIs drivers. My uncle 460 seems to be a much more stable card. Then again ATI has always had terrible drivers...
 
fishrule said:
I personally have always had bad luck overclocking graphics cards. But I have a 5850 and am not terribly happy with ATIs drivers. My uncle 460 seems to be a much more stable card. Then again ATI has always had terrible drivers...
Click to expand...
Of course, it's the company and not your ability :rolleyes:
 
fishrule said:
What does my ability have to do with driver stability?
Click to expand...

funny but I actually replaced my last card (GTX280) due to its crappy drivers. Of course a lot of people never had an issue one with them, just as I am not having an issue one with the ATI drivers. There is always someone that is going to complain about drivers, usually after having an issue with them. but the truth is that there is plenty of crap on both sides here. and the vast majority of people they will both work fine for. to say green or red is better then the other is just loosing perspective. both have strong and weak points
 
True, but I've gone between ATI and Nvidia several times over the past 10 years, and in general I find myself troubleshooting less with Nvidia than ATI.
 
fishrule said:
True, but I've gone between ATI and Nvidia several times over the past 10 years, and in general I find myself troubleshooting less with Nvidia than ATI.
Click to expand...

I have had the opposite experience. then again I have owned more Nvidia cards then ATI.
 
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