New card for £150 - 200 4850 x2 vs 5770hd

simsim · 22 Jan 2010 at 10:46

My 8800gt's video ram just went so i have horrible artifacts everywhere. I am looking for a new card and have settled on either:

SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 4850 X2 - 2 GB GDDR3
or
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1024MB GDDR5

ok so the 5000 series does dx11 but I am worried that its performance won't be good enough to run newer games come xmas.

System is
AMD Phenom 9500 x4
4gb kingstom ram
22" monitor resolution running games + blu ray 1920 x 1080

Essentially I am asking if the 4850 x2 is going to produce a much greater performance than the 5770hd? And should I be worried about the dual gpu driver issues I have seen albeit a while ago?

Regards

simsims

hyperst · 22 Jan 2010 at 10:48

if you can go to £200, get a 5850

simsim · 22 Jan 2010 at 10:50

hyperst said:
if you can go to £200, get a 5850

Is there a big difference between the 5770 and 5850? (i know there is in price)

EGuitarStar · 22 Jan 2010 at 10:52

hyperst said:
if you can go to £200, get a 5850

I agree, the new ATI 58** are better performance cards and use less power and are quieter. Also you still have the option to crossfire at a later stage if required.

If you can spend £200 just put in that little extra it will be more worthwhile.

I know DirectX 11 games are very few at the moment but getting a 58** series will mean you have support for new games as well as a better performance. It will be a far better investment.

EGuitarStar · 22 Jan 2010 at 10:56

simsim said:
Is there a big difference between the 5770 and 5850? (i know there is in price)

There is. I was going to get a 5770 but after looking at benchmarks the difference in performance can be a fair bit. Especially at higher resolutions.

Again, if you can spend up to £200 spend it on a 5850 you will not regret it. I don't have one yet cos I am saving for a 5850 after I decided against the 5770 the difference in price is not too great but the difference in performance is great.

simsim · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:00

Ok so would anyone say there i something inherantly wrong with the 4850 x2? I suppose I have been dazzled by the fact there are 2 gpu cores on it...

rolypolyman · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:04

If your budget stretches to £200 then you should be able to pick up a 5850. It is superior to the 5770 but buy a card based on your needs.

EGuitarStar · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:04

There is not anything wrong with 4850 x2 but don't forget, heat, noise and they use a lot of power. Plus getting a 5*** series means you can reap the benefits of DX11 when more games are made available with it.

I too wanted a crossfire setup because it seems cool

but many people are telling me it is not worth it because some games don't scale too well with crossfire/sli and it is just far better getting a good single card.

Ghengis · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:30

simsim said:
Ok so would anyone say there i something inherantly wrong with the 4850 x2? I suppose I have been dazzled by the fact there are 2 gpu cores on it...

.......... Nothing wrong with it, but is now old-tech, runs hot, generates noise and is very large (tight fit in an Antec 300 - you may have a bigger/better home for it). If you can spend £200 on a card, the 5850 is the way to go.
If you can wait a few weeks you may save a few quid on the 5830 - but you could be waiting a while/may never buy anything with this approach!!!!

'Wes · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:32

5850 is new technology and also comes with Directx 11 support, therefore, it's a more logical choice to go with a 5850.

rolypolyman · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:38

EGuitarStar said:
There is not anything wrong with 4850 x2 but don't forget, heat, noise and they use a lot of power. Plus getting a 5*** series means you can reap the benefits of DX11 when more games are made available with it.

I too wanted a crossfire setup because it seems cool but many people are telling me it is not worth it because some games don't scale too well with crossfire/sli and it is just far better getting a good single card.

There are reviews like this and this which can help with deciding whether crossfire is suitable for your purposes and things are improving as I believe Ati are soon to release profiles for crossfiring games. I'm loving my crossfire setup (my first )and looking forward to some improvements. Both these reviews show some impressive results and some poor results, its a matter of deciding which games you play and if its worth while.

EGuitarStar · 22 Jan 2010 at 11:59

Also check your motherboard's PCIe solts supports x16 on both solts otherwise you will lose performance using a crossfire setup. I know my board is x16 and x8.

simsim · 22 Jan 2010 at 12:24

Thanks for everyones input on this.

I think i will knock the 4850 x2 idea on its head and, for now, go for a single gpu card.

I could actually get 2 5770s and crossfire them for the same price as a single XFX 5850 XXX card, but i don't really want to go £200+.

If i were to get a 5770 now, then a second a month or 2 down the line, I just hope that the single would be good enough for playing at 1920 x 1080 max settings on games such as Far Cry 2, Empire TW.

I could do with something in between eg the 5830, but my screen looks awful at the moment thanks to all of the horrible artifacts and I have no "back up" or old card to replace my 8800gt.

JTrickle · 22 Jan 2010 at 12:43

simsim said:
ok so the 5000 series does dx11 but I am worried that its performance won't be good enough to run newer games come xmas.

Think of the 5770 as a 1gig 4870.

simsim said:
Essentially I am asking if the 4850 x2 is going to produce a much greater performance than the 5770hd?

As most modern games get a boost from crossfire, then yes they will... until you need >512meg. I went for a 5850 instead of buying a second 4850 as an mmo I was playing at the time needed more memory. Ironically I've been largely CPU bound since (3.8 core2).

If you werent running at 1080p and didnt want massive amounts of AA, and already owned a 4850, then a second could be a cheap move. My comp spends a lot of time on not playing games, and I really disliked the idea of the idle power usage from crossfiring 2 4850's.

Until the 5870 benchmarks came in and low release price of the 5850, I was thinking of buying a Nividia 265 or 4890.

rolypolyman · 22 Jan 2010 at 16:14

EGuitarStar said:
Also check your motherboard's PCIe solts supports x16 on both solts otherwise you will lose performance using a crossfire setup. I know my board is x16 and x8.

My setup is 16X and 8X and is absolutely fine. Do not be put off for this reason as there is very little difference in performance from 16\16X.

Meaker · 22 Jan 2010 at 16:40

You can also OC the bus to get a little more out of it (8x setup).

simsim · 22 Jan 2010 at 21:42

Well my PC is likely to be used for gaming or watching blu rays etc and I am not too fussed about the power usage etc.

I've found the 4850 x2 2GB version for a good price and its tempting me back, although I am still concerned about drivers etc.

Would 2 5770HD vapor Xs be a good move? Or would a 5850HD still kill it?

hyperst · 22 Jan 2010 at 21:50

2 5770's in the right games will destroy the 5850, also there on par with 5870 and sometimes beat it, but is your psu up to powering two.
Dont listen to people who say crossfire scales bad in some games, depends really what games you play, should imagine all upcoming games will support crossfire well, as its taken off really well now compared to when it was new tech

rhys216 · 22 Jan 2010 at 22:07

Just get a 5850, it should have better minimum frame rates than 5770's which is what matters most.

simsim · 23 Jan 2010 at 12:22

Thanks once again for everyones advice!

I am going to spend a bit more cash and go for the:

"XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 XXX 1024MB"

I will give it a good test out and *hope* it can play everything I throw at it at 1920 x 1080.