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Which 5850 video card?

H

Hulk

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
6,279
I finally decided to pull the trigger on a 5850 over a 5870 due to my processor being the bottleneck (Q8300 @ 2.5Ghz). My question is which brand should I go with? I don't plan on OC at all. Some people say that I should go with a 5770 and maybe I should but I really don't want to end up getting the 5770 and being disappointed with it. I plan on playing mostly BC 2 and Mafia 2 on a 22" 1680 x 1050 monitor.
 
While I can't speak from an expert point of view. My 5870's from Sapphire have been awesome!!!! The warranty is decent, but these cards has been rock solid. No issues what so ever on my end. Everyone I know who has a Sapphire card have always been satisfied.

The 5850/5870 has always been the sweet spot from the ATI cards this go around. Best performance for your buck depending on monitor resolution. I would def say Sapphire or XFX as my old 8800 GTX's were really good cards too. The one RMA return I had went very smoothly.
 
If you're ordering from NewEgg, I'd go XFX as they have excellent warranties, great cards, and sometimes come with a free game like AVP
 
One question though...You are have an Intel Q8300 as a processor. Have you tried to OC to 3GHz? That should def get you some better results from your 5870. Or maybe a used Q9650? I know it is not a core i7, but it will def increase your base framerates. Also the bigger cache memory is also benificial. Some can be found on ebay for as little as a $150. You could squeeze another year out of your current platform unless youplan on upgrading for another year.

Good luck on your choice.
 
ScottALot said:
If you're ordering from NewEgg, I'd go XFX as they have excellent warranties, great cards, and sometimes come with a free game like AVP
Click to expand...

+1
I Love my XFX 5850 Black Ed. Make sure you register as soon as it's delivered so that it's covered under warranty. I run it with Eyefinity as well.
 
I think this Gigabyte is hard to beat. The overclock isn't that spectacular (same as every other 5850) but the cooler works much better and it runs quieter. I'm just waiting for it to go on sale.

Edit to add: I don't know if your proc is the choke point on your current system. If you bump your C2Q to 3ghz or add a 5850 you will see an increase in frame rates, but at 1680x1050 you're talking about going from, say, 95fps to 120. Are you going to notice that difference in gameplay? Probably not. For what your eyes tell you, a 5770 would probably work as well as a 5850 at that resolution in those games.

But are you going to keep this monitor for the next couple of years that you have this video card? If you replace this monitor next year, are you going to stay at 1680 or bump up? I think that's the question you need to answer before you decide on a new video card. If space or budget means you're going to stay at 1680, you might as well go with the 5770 now, save $120 and add a second card later if a new game demands it. But if you're going to go up to a 1920x1200 monitor, buying a 5850 would be a good investment.
 
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don't get the xfx egg cooler one. i'm on my second one, runs hot, and has multi screen flicker problems.
 
Which of the XFX 5850's can you unlock the voltage in MSI Afterburner? I have a HD-585A-ZNFC and was looking for a match for it. It's the first card they put out; bought it from the XFX rep on these forums.
 
af22 said:
don't get the xfx egg cooler one. i'm on my second one, runs hot, and has multi screen flicker problems.
Click to expand...

The multi screen flicker problems are a symptom of the power saving feature on semi-current and current ATI cards (my 4850 does the same thing). The problem is that while on the desktop, the video card automagically bumps the core and memory clocks down by a couple hundred MHz. It can be fixed by manually editing your Catalyst Control Center profile.

Google around, you can find instructions fairly easily...just don't go reflashing the BIOS, as suggested around the Internet. It's an unecessary risk.
 
Looks like I'll be getting the GIGABYTE version, the ad claims that it runs 27% cooler while being OC? Is there any truth in that?
 
Hulk said:
Looks like I'll be getting the GIGABYTE version, the ad claims that it runs 27% cooler while being OC? Is there any truth in that?
Click to expand...

It does run cooler, but that version does not give you voltage control. I recently got an Asus 5850 DirectCu, it also runs very cool (and very quiet) compared to reference cards, and does allow voltage control....
 
What does controlling voltage do, meaning what are the benefits/risks?
 
Hulk said:
What does controlling voltage do, meaning what are the benefits/risks?
Click to expand...

Voltage control allows you to overclock higher. The downside is that the chip (probably) won't last as long, but there's no telling when it'll die. Generally, the card will last longer than it's useful life.
 
your playing resolution is so low it seems like the 5850 would be overkill anyway. go the cheaper route and save your money for a full-system upgrade later.
 
5770 is poop on a pcb. Ugh newegg prices suck on HD 5850's same with TD. Hold out or garb a used HD 4890/GTX460. markets in a bit of a flux with the new Nvidia release HD 5850 should be dropping soon. agreed with the above post cranking out more than 150-200 on a card would be a waste of money at that resolution.
 
raymondbeautrix said:
your playing resolution is so low it seems like the 5850 would be overkill anyway. go the cheaper route and save your money for a full-system upgrade later.
Click to expand...

The resolution may be lower than what most people use, but it's not so low. :rolleyes:
 
Honestly. Unless you OC your Cpu, youre gonna still be bottlenecking a 5850. My q6600 @ 3.0 GHz bottlenecked my 280 GTX. Id suggest going to 3.5+ to bring out the full potential of the 5850. Also, I had the 5770 before my 280 GTX, which then I eventually moved to a 5850. I believe the performance is around the level of a 4870.....Little lower than the 260 GTX.
 
The thing is I have a Dell Inspirion that I bought for $300 with the above spcs from original post. I'm not sure if I would be happy with a 5770 in there because I've read a few reviews and I don't know if I can live with those kind of frame rates. A lot of people are saying that a 5850 would be bottlenecked by the 2.4Ghz processor and I agree, but my question is how much?


If a 5770 and a 2.4Ghz average 45 fps in a game and a 5850 and a 2.4Ghz get 60fps in the same game than how is it not worth it to get the 5850? I understand that a 4.0Ghz and a 5850 in the same game might pull 100fps. I'm just trying to figure out how much the bottleneck would be. Does anyone have any experience with this?
 
Id say youd be bottlenecking and using about 75-80% of the cards potential? But thats just my experience with my 280 GTX and my q6600.
 
Hulk said:
I'm just trying to figure out how much the bottleneck would be. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Click to expand...

Hulk, on a 2.6Ghz FX-60, my CPU was the bottleneck on a 4870. (Yes, a 4870...)

Looking at:

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/405043.page

You can see they get 45fps @ 2.66Ghz, but 70fps @ 4Ghz. So, the CPU's limiting the GTX275 card to ~64% of its potential. They also show @ 4Ghz the 5870 can do 95fps, so with the 64% factor, maybe you can do 61fps, that's low settings though.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/his-radeon-5850-icooler-v-turbo-review/10

These benchmarks are on an i7 @ 3.7Ghz, which is already faster clock-for-clock than your CPU. So, let's put the margin at 64% again.

The 1920 & 1600 benchmarks are nearly identical, so just look at the 1920 comparisons:

The 5870/5850/5770 benchmarks are: 51/43/28. That's only going to get worse on your CPU.

You never mention what settings you are using.

But from what I see, if you're using low settings, you're hitting ~50fps regardless of which card you buy. If you use high settings, the 5850 may give you ~40fps, and the 5770 ~30fps.

And, again, either card with high settings the best you are going to get is maybe 40fps. If that's too low and you need to turn the settings down, again, it won't take much before you're just hitting the CPU bottleneck anyway and maxing ~50fps... I don't see you hitting 60fps at all...

Remember: my 2.6Ghz dual-core CPU bottlenecked a 4870... Took buying a 4870x2 and having no framerate improvement to accept I needed to upgrade my entire system...

But I'm seeing the 5850 as costing $100 more than the 5770. The only thing the 5850 will let you do is turn up the filtering a little more. With high settings you're going to see maybe 10fps improvement, and low settings your CPU is the bottleneck, so both cards are equal.

Go with the 5770 and turn your settings down just a tad is my suggestion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018

If you need a new PSU, there's a $60 AMIR 700W PSU...
 
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