Wait for Nvidia's Fergie or go with 5800 series?

What are you going to do?

  • I'm waiting for Fergie.

    Votes: 154 23.8%

  • I'm buying 5800 series card, or plan to.

    Votes: 247 38.2%

  • Waiting for prices to come down.

    Votes: 145 22.4%

  • Who Cares, pick your own.

    Votes: 100 15.5%
  • Total voters
    646
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I thought about waiting for the the new nvidia series, but then I heard that they wont come out before march, or later than that, so now I am considering buying a 5850. Should be best performance/price, huh?
 
KVW said:
They only have those two brands in stock and I have the patience of a 2 year old when these kinds of things get in my head. Hence me willing to eat restocking fees if need be. :p
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I ended up getting the Asus since it was 15 bucks cheaper than the Sapphire for some reason.

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000177.jpg

The only difference I could find between the two really was Asus has a 3 year warranty where the Sapphire only has 2. Both come with a Dirt2 "coupon". Asus seems to come with alot of their own software utilities which will probably suck as Asus utilities always do. :rolleyes:

They also had two or three 5970s both Asus and Sapphire for $6xx... can't remember the exact price.

Welp time to uninstall my Nvidia drivers and try and shoehorn this card in to my case. I'm looking forward to seeing this "single gpu smoothness"...
 
Good luck on your new card.


P.S. You don't actually sit that close to that monitor do you?
 
Kowan said:
Good luck on your new card.


P.S. You don't actually sit that close to that monitor do you?
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Thanks!
I do actually. I know it seems crazy but once you get used to it, everything else seems too small. Like even my 24" monitor at work seems too small. Before this I was using a 37" LZ800 as my display, and before that, several years ago, I was using a 32" Olivia display so I've been progressively getting bigger and bigger, lol. You really can't beat it though when it comes to immersion. Once you get used to it, you can't go back.

I've already hit my first snag. PS3's warning was right. It IS too large. :eek:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000181.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000179.jpg

Gunna try some dremel ideas but i gotta remove the mobo first. Don't want metal dust coating everything giving me a unpleasant surprise when i power the thing on finally.

Here we go... :eek:
 
Hansen said:
I thought about waiting for the the new nvidia series, but then I heard that they wont come out before march, or later than that, so now I am considering buying a 5850. Should be best performance/price, huh?
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Like SicKlown42012 has said, if you can find one for around the $300 mark then go for it. It will match or outpace a GTX285, and Newegg has them for $379 and up. Whereas the cheapest 5850 boards are coming in at $309.
 
Alrighty. I was thinking about waiting until mid January to see if the price will be closer to MSRP.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
Like SicKlown42012 has said, if you can find one for around the $300 mark then go for it. It will match or outpace a GTX285, and Newegg has them for $379 and up. Whereas the cheapest 5850 boards are coming in at $309.
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I just got my sapphire 5850 for $299 installed it last night. It is a big card but it just fit in my case. It was actually that much longer then my 8800gt but the bulk of it was huge.
 
KVW said:
...I've already hit my first snag. PS3's warning was right. It IS too large. :eek: Gunna try some dremel ideas but i gotta remove the mobo first. Don't want metal dust coating everything giving me a unpleasant surprise when i power the thing on finally.

Here we go... :eek:
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So last night I did indeed get that damn card in my case.

I had to move over my hard drive bay a 1/2 inch like so:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000183.jpg

To do that I had to dremel out these stupid rivets:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000184.jpg

Then I had to bend the shit out of this tab:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000189.jpg

And finally the end result was this:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/kinhwilliams/P1000192.jpg

LOL! So take note Nvidia folks, if your case barely fits a Geforce, you're going to have to modify your case to fit this beast.

Of course I couldn't just end the night with that, I had to play around with it some. Downloaded the latest Catalyst drivers (9.12 i think) and started off with a synthetic benchmark 3dmark06. I forgot to upload the screenshot but the result was that it was *nearly* the same speed as my mildly OC'd SLI'd 260s. It beat out the 260s in SM 2.0 but fell short on SM 3.0 but the overall score was very close. Like 26k vs 25k. This is with the 5870 at stock speeds and being pushed by a 4.2ghz i7 (HT on) in Win7 64bit.

One quick observation, it seems as though ATI is using some sort of AA while in windows. the text is not quite as sharp as nvidia and up close, the pixels look like they have a convergence issue - weird. And yes, this is with HDTV scaling set to not overscan, first thing I set in CCC. Windows ClearType is on too. Will have to research this more later. :confused:

Next Crysis Warhead. Sure enough, the same CRAP that discouraged me from using ATI a loooong time ago is STILL an issue. That issue is, full screen DX10 games using an HDTV's 24hz as it's max refresh rate capping out your frame rate at 24fps when Vsync is on. You have to have vsync on with HDTVs, the tearing is UNBEARABLE - worse than on monitors for some reason. This occurs on Nvidia but a nvidia has long since been giving end users a hellva lot more control in tweaking and you could set a custom resolution like 1920x1080p @ 60hz and you're good to go. The "custom" resolution will be used and only the Hz specified - problem solved. This has been one of the main reasons I've stuck with Nvidia for so long.

But look! Ati allows DTV custom resolutions too (had to find it in that custerfuck of an interface of CCC). Awesome, set custom resolution 1080p @ 60hz, oh but look, since it already detected that resolution from my EDID, that custom resolution is discarded. Argh!!! After scouring the net for god knows how long thinking this HAS to be fixed by now for the red team, I found this forum:

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagev...d=98024&STARTPAGE=6&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

Apparently, this has been and still is an issue for the boys in red which is pathetic really. :rolleyes:

But i'm determine to give this a try and I was met by some encouragement finally before the night or morning was over (yes i'm bored at work on 3hrs of sleep, trying to stay awake, lol). If I create a custom resolution that's just sliiiightly different than 1920x1080, like 1920x1076, guess what, the custom resolution sticks! Sure I lose 2 lines on top and 2 lines on bottom but it's not noticable and doesn't seem to be doing any scaling so the image is still crisp.

Load up Crysis, whatya know! There she is at 60hz with vsync on although I did encounter this dreaded issue here with Vsync on:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035096723&postcount=40
But that's not ATI's fault as the same thing happens with a single geforce 260. Maybe it's a win7 issue I dunno, BUT if I turn vsync off, the tearing occurs but for whatever reason, so frigin minor that it's a non issue (maybe the custom res changes something else to make tearing not as bad)! FINALLY, I can actually play test this damn card out... :eek:

And off the bat, dare I say before sufficient testing, it does seem smoother than my dual 260s. Even though my overall framerate is slightly less (crysis seems to favor nvidia), panning the screen seems subtly smoother and overall responsiveness actually *feels* different. It makes Crysis *feel* more like playing quake3 back in the day, which crysis never has, which in turn makes me a better player. The predictability of sudden "flick" movements with the mouse seemed improved making my shotgun shots more dead on. This, I have to admit brought a smile to my face. :)

Also another observation in Crysis is I no longer have these rather lengthy 1 sec pauses that would occur as I advanced through the levels (like every 5 mins or so). I used to get these pauses which at first I thought they were hard drive caching but after seeing hardly any HD light activity, I chalked it up to it flushing/filling the Vram with more data and it was more of a nature of the beast sort of thing. This is no longer.

So it would seem as though there might be some truth to this single gpu smoothness. I have yet to test other games, but I'm really interested in seeing Oblivion (still my favorite game to this day) but ever since I installed win7 & wiped out xp64, I have to reinstall it which is an extremely long and meticulous process (talking hours here, lol!) because of how many god damn "must have" mods I run with that game. :p
 
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Nice build KW. ***Refrains from posting the coolermaster elite matx money shot(see "cramped matx build thread" in the case mod gallery section) that fits the 5870 with no mods.*** - dam that was nerdy.

That case wouldnt' fit all those hard drives though :p

Your issues seem minor. I always use vsync due to tearing. Games also seem smoother to me when leaving vsync on. I've past both crysis games twice...it's a great benchmark game but I am surprised people actually play it for fun still! Still a good game though, was definitely blown away playing it for the first time when it first came out.
 
PS3 said:
Nice build KW. ***Refrains from posting the coolermaster elite matx money shot(see "cramped matx build thread" in the case mod gallery section) that fits the 5870 with no mods.*** - dam that was nerdy.

That case wouldnt' fit all those hard drives though :p

Your issues seem minor. I always use vsync due to tearing. Games also seem smoother to me when leaving vsync on. I've past both crysis games twice...it's a great benchmark game but I am surprised people actually play it for fun still! Still a good game though, was definitely blown away playing it for the first time when it first came out.
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Shoot me a link. I can't seem to find it in the gallery. You know, Crysis is still relatively new to me because I took several years off from PC gaming a couple years back so there's like a 4 year gap of where I didn't play anything! Right when half life 2 was about to come out. this is great because I get all these great "legacy games" on the cheap or free hand me down from friends. And it's a new content to me and my hardware is overkill for it so i get to enjoy it at it's best (besides crysis of course) :p
 
Good job getting it to fit. :D
As long as video cards don't get longer than 18inches, my Antec 1200 would only need 4 thumb screws removed to fit em. :p
 
Looks like i will never own a 5870, my gtx260 just fits....but i do give you props for getting that bitch in! I could never see myself doing that much work to get a gpu into my case...but i do see a 5850 or two in my future if the prices ever come down to retail.
 
Unfortunately Nvidia is out of the question due to having to get an SLI supporting chipset which gives you less choice. I gotta go with ATI for Crossfire upgrades in the future.

Waiting for prices to cool a bit.
 
The X58 and P55 support both CF and SLI without the N200 chip.
 
I can't wait for the 'Wait for ATI's 5800 refresh or go with Fermi series?' thread...;)
 
Why does the only conversation about the next generation video cards from Nvidia have to be in a thread where the op wasn't even bright enough to spell it correctly?
 
Rebel44 said:
I am sure AMD would love to release refresh same day as NV release Fermi :D

Click to expand...

Why I don't see AMD releasing refresh this soon, I can see them releasing a very limited specially binned chip running about 10-15% faster clocks. Remember the X800XTX P.E.?
 
Kowan said:
Good job getting it to fit. :D
As long as video cards don't get longer than 18inches, my Antec 1200 would only need 4 thumb screws removed to fit em. :p
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I believe my old Antec 300 case would actually have been able to fit this card just barely without modification but I fell in love with this case when I saw it at microcenter and just had to have it. Why? Cuz it has a sturdy handle on top, nice and centered. My computer is unbelievably heavy, like I dunno if it's the powersupply or just the combo of everything but I never thought I'd have a computer this heavy. The handle is the beez knees. :)


LeninGHOLA said:
Crysis has a good mod community too, check www.crymod.com. There are some really cool tools and maps, some total conversions.
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Thanks, I'll check that out! I love Crysis and I love well made total conversions and mods. Hence my everlasting Oblivion addiction. :cool:

l3uLLDoZeR said:
Looks like i will never own a 5870, my gtx260 just fits....but i do give you props for getting that bitch in! I could never see myself doing that much work to get a gpu into my case...but i do see a 5850 or two in my future if the prices ever come down to retail.
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Ha thanks, I wasn't going to let my case hold me back from testing this card out, the curiosity kills me and i figure it'll just give me expandability for the future if this is the new standard for gfx card size. I don't think the 5850 is smaller though, I would imagine they'd use the same metal back which is what extends it longer than Geforce cards.
 
In a way the 5850 is about the same size as the 5870, because the 5850 has the pcie connector on the far end, and the 5870 has the pcie connectors on the side.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
Why I don't see AMD releasing refresh this soon, I can see them releasing a very limited specially binned chip running about 10-15% faster clocks. Remember the X800XTX P.E.?
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in March, It would be 6 months since the 5870 has been out.

Perfect timing for a 5890 refresh :)
 
DASHlT said:
in March, It would be 6 months since the 5870 has been out.

Perfect timing for a 5890 refresh :)
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it's actually horrible timing IMO, if AMD releases another card right when the GT300 is released, it's going to keep prices high right out of the hole and they'll stay that way longer.
 
RADEoN said:
it's actually horrible timing IMO, if AMD releases another card right when the GT300 is released, it's going to keep prices high right out of the hole and they'll stay that way longer.
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How do you figure that? The Fermi card would have to be at least competitive with the new ATI refresh and the older cards in the 5 series would drop in price. The high ends would also drop in price, due to competition.

Competition between suppliers is always a win for consumers.
 
RADEoN said:
it's actually horrible timing IMO, if AMD releases another card right when the GT300 is released, it's going to keep prices high right out of the hole and they'll stay that way longer.
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I disagree. Price on whatever happens to be the fastest may remain high, which is always the case anyway, but prices on everything else (5850/70) will likely drop.
 
Sad thing is once fermi comes out, amd is going to need two gpus to try and keep up with fermi's single flagship gpu.
 
PS3 said:
Sad thing is once fermi comes out, amd is going to need two gpus to try and keep up with fermi's single flagship gpu.
Click to expand...

That is exactly AMD's strategy. They believe it's easier / cheaper / saner to build the GPU that the masses want and then double or triple up to hit the high end.

The "old way" was to build the GPU that 0.1% people want and use binning / gimping to hit the lower price points.

Nvidia still does it "the old way" so of course their flagship will be 2x AMD's.

I barely pay attention to GPU's and I know that much.
 
PS3 said:
Sad thing is once fermi comes out, amd is going to need two gpus to try and keep up with fermi's single flagship gpu.
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Why exactly do you believe that "Fermi"(GTX380?) will be as fast/faster as the 5970? Aside from your "source"(which I've already given my opinion on), what is your basis for these claims?
 
PS3 said:
Sad thing is once fermi comes out, amd is going to need two gpus to try and keep up with fermi's single flagship gpu.
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Errrr... isn't that exactly what's happening with nVidia now? I would certainly hope nVidia's flagship (whenever it sees production) will be faster than AMD's 6 month+ old chip. There is absolutely nothing sad about that, in fact, sad is what's happening now with nVidia and it would be down right depressing if nVidia wasn't able to beat the 5870 when their chip does come out. Your misguided fanboyism isn't painting nVidia in a better picture I'm afraid.
 
I wish Nvidia would hurry up so there'd be some competition </contentless post>
 
RamonGTP said:
Errrr... isn't that exactly what's happening with nVidia now? I would certainly hope nVidia's flagship (whenever it sees production) will be faster than AMD's 6 month+ old chip. There is absolutely nothing sad about that, in fact, sad is what's happening now with nVidia and it would be down right depressing if nVidia wasn't able to beat the 5870 when their chip does come out. Your misguided fanboyism isn't painting nVidia in a better picture I'm afraid.
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Wrong.

And my 'misguided fanboyism' bought a xfx 5870, put it in his rig, and loves the performance :D. Seriously dude, I do not defend either camp, it's just reality, if fermi is going to be a single gpu faster than the 5970, it will be an awesome victory for Nvidia regardless of how long it takes them to do it.
 
PS3 said:
Wrong.

And my 'misguided fanboyism' bought a xfx 5870, put it in his rig, and loves the performance :D. Seriously dude, I do not defend either camp, it's just reality, if fermi is going to be a single gpu faster than the 5970, it will be an awesome victory for Nvidia regardless of how long it takes them to do it.
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And you are speculating. If you already put an xfx 5870 (Which you stated you had a 5850 before), this thread needs to close.
 
Wrong? Enlighten me then, who exactly does NOT expect Fermi to be faster than when AMD currently has?

Wrong? Doesn't nVidia currently need a dual GPU card to compete with the 5870?

There is definitely some wrong in this thread, but it's all authored by yourself.

I still call BS on your 5870... What happened to not buying one because they are over priced? What happened to your 1 year hiatus from PC gaming? What happened to your xbox with better graphics?
 
RamonGTP said:
Wrong? Enlighten me then, who exactly does NOT expect Fermi to be faster than when AMD currently has?

Wrong? Doesn't nVidia currently need a dual GPU card to compete with the 5870?

There is definitely some wrong in this thread, but it's all authored by yourself.

I still call BS on your 5870... What happened to not buying one because they are over priced? What happened to your 1 year hiatus from PC gaming? What happened to your xbox with better graphics?
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Lots of people here apparently.

No.

There is no BS surrounding my XFX 5870. What do you have against the 5870 now? :rolleyes:
 
PS3 you are saying the GTX285 is as fast/faster than the 5870?

Also, I don't think you've ever owned a 5870 in your life.
 
RADEoN said:
PS3 you are saying the GTX285 is as fast/faster than the 5870?

Also, I don't think you've ever owned a 5870 in your life.
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It's in my Rig my Bro. I'd post a pic of it but I'd better not. I'll just link the pic. Nm, i'll just post it in the cramped atx thread in the case mod gallery, since that is more on topic.
 
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