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GTX260 SLI to HD5870 'worth it'?

oweneades

oweneades

oweneades

Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2005
Posts
9,801
Hi all,

I am pondering moving from my Factory overclocked GTX260 SLI setup (~ GTX295 performance) to a single HD5870 (or maybe even a HD5850).

I know reading reviews that I can expect similar performance (if not better as SLI doesn't work all the time) and my power consumption (both load and idle) should drop.

I know from a pure financial point of view this isn't really an upgrade but I quite like the idea of something new to play with (not to mention a play with Dirt 2).

I was really looking for your opinions on the switch, would you bother and why?

Cheers
 
The plus is dx11 but it won't be as powerful as your current set up. Whether you'd notice the difference is another thing. Iirc the 295 doesn't have a big lead over the 5870.


Personally I wouldn't bother at this time.
 
Be curious to hear the answer to this myself, as I'm debating getting another 5770 or selling the one I have towards a 5870. I guess the main benefit for you is DX11 though, which will become more important with later game releases so you might as well make the switch and get more back for your 260's now.
 
I woudnt bother imo, you would see a drop in performance moving to a 5850 and well 5870 i would expect only a slight increase if any.
It wouldn't be worth the dolla.

I would wait for fermi, by then im assuming you'll have more money and prices may decrease or fermi will be good enough to step up to.
 
I ant used a gtx 260 in sli but if you got the money to spend I would go with the 5870 or if you don't mind it the 5850, and later down the line crossfire.. for the direct x 11 and lower power consumption.. I have a sapphire 5850 and it max'es everything out, even crysis at 1920x1200 at around 33fps I think it was.. There brill cards
 
arc@css said:
The plus is dx11 but it won't be as powerful as your current set up. Whether you'd notice the difference is another thing. Iirc the 295 doesn't have a big lead over the 5870.


Personally I wouldn't bother at this time.
Click to expand...

As far as i can tell from reviews the GTX295 and the HD5870 trade blows with the latter being more consistant (the lack of requiring SLI/CF no doubt helping there).

I keep thinking, I don't need to change (like you say the performance change probably won't be noticable) but at the same time I keep thinking 'new toy'.... :rolleyes::p
 
Devrij said:
Be curious to hear the answer to this myself, as I'm debating getting another 5770 or selling the one I have towards a 5870. I guess the main benefit for you is DX11 though, which will become more important with later game releases so you might as well make the switch and get more back for your 260's now.
Click to expand...

Your last point is also a point I have been considering. Changing now means maximising the return for the GTX260 cards (circa £100 each).

But then I keep thinking there won't be any point and argh..... hence the thread, its nice to hear other peoples opinions (unless of courseyou venture into the motors forum.... :eek:)
 
Sell the 2 gtx260 and get a 5850. Then all you need to do to get the performance is overclock the 5850 to 1000 core and whatever you can get on the memory. This way you get pretty much the same performance with all the benefits of a single card setup and you may not even lose money. The 5850 should hold its price pretty good plus you have dx11.
 
oweneades said:
As far as i can tell from reviews the GTX295 and the HD5870 trade blows with the latter being more consistant (the lack of requiring SLI/CF no doubt helping there).

I keep thinking, I don't need to change (like you say the performance change probably won't be noticable) but at the same time I keep thinking 'new toy'.... :rolleyes::p
Click to expand...

Hehe, yeah it's always nice to order something else off the menu so to speak. :) Just had a thought that the OP might find running a single gpu a tad smoother than with a two card set-up but I expect it's already smooth enough anyway. Still, no reason to change imo. Tis already a great combo.
 
i have just bought a 5870 to replace my gtx295 for the same reason as you :)
i cant tell you what i think of it because it wont be here until tomorrow but from what i have been reading the performance drop will hardly be noticable so ill be gaining dx11, lower power consumption & a more even level of performance from all games

seems to have higher minimum framerates too from what i have been reading and it will be nice to see the back of microstutter
 
2x 5770's crossfired give very similar performance to 1x 5870. A single 5770 is approximately 20% slower than a GTX260 216SP. I would estimate the single 5870 will be on average ~10% slower than your current setup. Some games may play better on the 5870, but many will give higher FPS on the SLI'd GTX 260's. By the time games are fully optimised for DX11, better cards (and probably DX12) will be available. Games designers are not overly bothered with DX11 when 95% of gamers still own DX10 or DX9 capable cards. Heck, I find it hard to spot the difference between DX9 & DX10, and DX11 will probably supply a similar lack of noticeable gains over DX10.
 
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arc@css said:
Hehe, yeah it's always nice to order something else off the menu so to speak. :) Just had a thought that the OP might find running a single gpu a tad smoother than with a two card set-up but I expect it's already smooth enough anyway. Still, no reason to change imo. Tis already a great combo.
Click to expand...

Oh don't get me wrong my setup is fantastic, I just fancy a change (the HD58XX benefits are obviously advantageous).

TBH I know I won't notice a drop / improvement in performance unless its drastic.

I like the idea of a single overclocked HD5850 (I love playing around with clocking my setup), it would certainly save me a bit of money - pleasing the wife :p
 
I went from gtx280 Sli to a 5870 and noticed the performance drop and im saving for a second to crossfire. If you are used to an Sli rig get a 5850/70, you'll still feel the performance drop but at least you can always add another later
 
also brace yourself for a few issues you're not used to, things still arent peachy driver-wise yet on the red team but its early days and eyefinity is just awesome so they get a pass from me for doing something different and cool
 
oweneades said:
Hi all,

I am pondering moving from my Factory overclocked GTX260 SLI setup (~ GTX295 performance) to a single HD5870 (or maybe even a HD5850).

I know reading reviews that I can expect similar performance (if not better as SLI doesn't work all the time) and my power consumption (both load and idle) should drop.

I know from a pure financial point of view this isn't really an upgrade but I quite like the idea of something new to play with (not to mention a play with Dirt 2).

I was really looking for your opinions on the switch, would you bother and why?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Read: I currently have the best bang for the buck system, however I find myself with too much money in my bank account and want to jump onto the 58** bandwaggon, so I can enjoy 1 game. b.t.w. not concerned with all the grey line issues with the 58** what do you think?


I will let you guess what I think, and yes I am biased as I also have 260 GTX SLi.
 
Stay with what you've got. At worst you can upgrade when the 5890 / Fermi come out - if you really want tessellation. Right now there isn't much of a need with those cards. I guess one exception would be if you have some OpenCL / DX Compute use already....but that is unlikely.
 
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