Fermi NDA ends today

[drunkenmaster]

Why is the 5870 a pointless card to the enthusiast?

Just on price, the 5850, overclocked as far as it will go, and the 5870 overclocked as far as it will go are within 1-2% of each other really. The shader drop turns out to be an incredibly small difference as its clearly not shader but more bandwidth and ROP limited. Clock a 5850 up to default 5870 clocks and they are all but identical in performance.

So with the 5850 you're buying a core capable of the same clocks and the same performance with lower stock clock speeds, for 66% of the cost. I'd never in a million years buy a 5870, likewise the 5970(at some point soon) will drop back down to RRP, which at £420-430 again offers HUGELY more value for money than a 5870. The 5870 is just priced badly for everyone but AMD, the top cards often are.

Unlike previous gens though, and probably unlike a lower end Nvidia part, the bottle neck is not in the shader number, while thats the only thing you're losing in a 5850. Previous gens something was done so that the lower end core at the same clock speeds would NOT offer the same performance, the 4850 clock for clock was significantly slower than a 4870, 260 to a 280gtx. For the first time in a long time clock for clock AMD's offerings are basically identical so theres no reason at all to spend more on a 5870. The 5850, as its priced now, is a damn good card for the money.

 

[Darren1967]

I think the GTX 380 or whatever it'll be called with be worth waiting for myself. If it's more powerful than the HD5870 and costs a little bit more then I'll be happy because I just want the fastest single GPU card available when it comes to upgrading. I don't care about SLI or even Crossfire because they're problematic and depend too much on regular driver updates.

Right now, my GTX 280 is still a power house for games at 1920x1200 with AA and all settings maxed except for one game, ArmA II, which if I'm being honest wasn't really my cup o' tea anyway. Most games I play even run at 60 fps except for Crysis/Crysis Warhead (30 fps average) so there's not much motivation for me to buy an HD5870 at this point in time. DiRT 2 looks awesome in DX9 and a fast racing game really is not the best showcase for DX11 in all honesty.

The new NVIDIA cards being delayed from my point of view has been a good thing because there's nothing tempting me to rush out and buy a new card at this point in time. The HD5870 seems like a nice card at a good price (well perhaps not here in the UK) but I find AMD's drivers weak and I'd have to forgo PhysX and game profiles. By the time the GTX 380 arrives in late March I'll no doubt be ready for a new card to play Assassin's Creed 2 and Aliens vs. Predator (DX11 enabled I believe) on.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Unless its massively faster than my 260 SLI setup I won't be jumping on it - until either games I play start using worthwhile DX11 features or 2nd revision of the hardware.

My bet would be over 260's in SLI(assuming the faster version of 260's) the top end version which most people think won't be available will be 10-20% faster, a 448SP version would be very very close indeed, probably trading blows in various games, and if the 448SP does take a pretty big clock hit, your 260's might end up being slightly faster, except they'll take either be noticeably slwoer in DX11 games that only use dx11 for speed, or an IQ drop compared to DX11 games that use all the eye candy and a lot of Tesselation.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Well i expected more than that.

 

[=VTA=MANFACE]

Well if getting people to hold off their ati purchases was nvidias intention in releasing this info, it's certainly working.

Was planning to get a 5870 next week but not sure anymore.

You are joking ?

 

[TaKeN]

You are joking ?

I bloody hope so hah, they could have released some photos of dog crap and I'd be more impressed!

Not what you expect at the end of NDA.... extreme lack of info!

 

[wolvers]

DiRT 2 looks awesome in DX9 and a fast racing game really is not the best showcase for DX11 in all honesty.

Have you played it in DX11? Malaysia is like rallying through the crysis island at 60fps! Car detail is way better too.

 

[titaniumx3]

Why would I be?

While I don't agree with some of nvidias business practices I have no doubt in their ability to make hugely powerful cards and it's almost certain that their new cards will beat the Radeon 5800 series.

So hopefully in a month or two I may just opt for a GTX380/360 or (more likely) pickup a 5870 for significantly less than it is now. I'm sure my 4890 isn't going to grind to halt any time soon, plus it's all perfectly timed for BF:BC2.

 

[nikebee]

nvidia.... =/

That is all.

 

[Rroff]

My bet would be over 260's in SLI(assuming the faster version of 260's) the top end version which most people think won't be available will be 10-20% faster, a 448SP version would be very very close indeed, probably trading blows in various games, and if the 448SP does take a pretty big clock hit, your 260's might end up being slightly faster, except they'll take either be noticeably slwoer in DX11 games that only use dx11 for speed, or an IQ drop compared to DX11 games that use all the eye candy and a lot of Tesselation.

Personally I think Fermi cards will be a bit faster than that... my 260 are 216 SP cards running almost 30% overclocked compared to a stock 260.

 

[MoRT489]

Just on price, the 5850, overclocked as far as it will go, and the 5870 overclocked as far as it will go are within 1-2% of each other really.

Really?! Link plz, if true i'm sold right now!! especially at £218 with Dirt2

 

[thebandit]

At 3bn transistors, big power requirements and big cooling I doubt Fermi will have much effect on 5850 / 5870 pricing because it will cost way way more than the ATI offerings. I doubt it'll be a price threat to ATI at all.

 

[hohum]

I can't see Nvidia doing so well out of the gate with this new architecture. It's really impressive stuff for sure, but already the potential problems with the first iteration of this chip are starting to outweigh the good.

Already we're hearing it's going to be power hungry, run hot, be in short supply, and be expensive to boot. Yes, it'll be a bit faster than the 5870 (which isn't exactly slow anyway), but does that really matter when you'll be lucky to even see one any time soon after launch, let alone buy one? And assuming you do somehow manage to buy one, you can bet you'll be dragged through the cleaners for the privilege. I doubt ATI will feel the need to change their prices at all, because even though they'll have a slower card... it'll probably still be significantly cheaper than Nvidia's offering in March (and more readily available at that).

Besides which, the driver situation after release has the potential to be dire. ATI have struggled recently with driver issues on their new range of cards, and that's with chips that are effectively based on older chips with DX11 features tacked on! Nvidia have a whole new chip design to provide driver support for, so I'd be pretty surprised if their software isn't riddled with frustrating bugs for a good few months after launch.

In the long term this chip design will probably pay off for them due to it's sheer capabilities, and I can't wait to see what they'll offer for the mainstream market in the future. Early adopters (of which I'm sure there are plenty on here) are potentially letting themselves in for a world of hurt though. Just my thoughts.

 

[Rroff]

Drivers shouldn't be a major issues - they've had a lot of time to work on them while waiting for manufacturing issues to be sorted out so its just polishing things up and making sure features actually work as intended - so minor debugging.

 

[CreAtiv3]

So the NDA has ended and yet nothing has been disclosed that we were not already aware of... *sigh*

Like everyone else has been saying - no competition is bad for the consumer, hurry it up nVidia!

 

[Greebo]

Personally I think Fermi cards will be a bit faster than that... my 260 are 216 SP cards running almost 30% overclocked compared to a stock 260.

Doesn't that put them at gtx 285 performance or slightly more each?

In which case I'm sure it was posted the fermi is 20% quicker than two gtx285's in SLI so there's your answer.

Of course you can overclock the Fermi but by how much, nobody knows yet.

 

[DavyBoy]

I'm still happy enough with my GTX280 tbh, I've recently bought a 2nd one as well, so these will last me for quite a while yet..

 

[Greebo]

I'm still happy enough with my GTX280 tbh, I've recently bought a 2nd one as well, so these will last me for quite a while yet..

Bargain and great performance. If I had an SLI mobo I would have gone with a 2nd gtx260 for £90 like Rroff.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Any of you guys with your marvelous 200 SLI setups care to run the crysis bench with 8xAA, you guys should smoke the 5870 by all accounts..

 

[wolvers]

Bargain and great performance. If I had an SLI mobo I would have gone with a 2nd gtx260 for £90 like Rroff.

Even better, get another 5850!