Worth the extra £'s?

[David09]

After some reading and patient waiting, ATI released the 2048MB versions of their 5850 so is it worth the extra, over lets say http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-215-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411 the normal 1024MB versions

Worth noting that this card pretty much sits smack bang in the boundary of a 5870 so doesn't make picking up a 5000 series any easier.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-233-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411


This is the cheapest 5870
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-214-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502

As far as i see it, cooling is very important in GPU's but haveing a 2048MB is needed from the upcoming cards with-in the year.

What are the thoughts on this?

Thanks

 

[bhavv]

Buy neither and wait for the HD 6000s.

THey are too expensive for individual cards IMO. I wouldnt get anything higher than a 1 Gb 5850 right now, as they will be replaced with the new range in a few months time.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Not even close to it, games do not change the amount of memory required, resolution, AA/AF levels are the most important things, 2gb will have zero performance benefit over a 1gb, unless you're running something like a 3 wide eyefinity resolution, the 5850 simply isn't enough GPU, neither is a 480/5870 to run all the top games in a 3 screen wide setup at great framerate at high res. 2gb on a 5850 or 5870, is like putting 1gb of mem on a 7300gts or some piece of poo bottom end card. You can have the memory but its not going to be used, and its as simple as that.

The few situations the 5850 runs out of memory, even with enough memory the framerate you'd be pushing would be so painfully low as too not matter. That won't change within the year, or ever. On a future gpu, when eyefinity setups are cheaper and you have 3 times the gpu power, 2gb will be a minimum, for now, for the majority its a daft choice.

I'd consider a 2gb model if and ONLY IF you will run in crossfire, trifire, or quadfire AND run 3 screens or more.

THe 4870 1gb wasn't even largely faster than the 4870 512mb, as in, there were very few games that honestly ran out of memory, the 4870 1GB was around 5-10% faster at ALL resolutions and ALL settings and in almost all games, it likely had newer and much tighter timing memory that helped simply work better.


Either way £100 more isn't even close to worth it, its pretty much £20 extra memory, paying anything more than £20 would be madness, even then it would be fairly pointless.

 

[rolypolyman]

I too thought long and hard about the same thing, even started a thread, opinion seemed to be that there is no need for a 2Gb card unless you are into eyefinity and multiple screens. I settled for this and should have it tomorrow.

 

[bhavv]

THat version of the 5850 definately isnt worth it either lol.

 

[drunkenmaster]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/amds-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-edition-reviewed/6

Here you go, the only 2 games at 2560x1600, that show any noticeable difference, are Crysis(only minimum framerate) and Stalker, but in those games, to get to a memory limited situation, Crysis is down at 16fps minimum framerate anyway.

So the situation is, to get to a memory limited situation, you end up with absymal performance even with the 2gb memory, though both cards offer the same 26fps average anyway, so its clearly only very short moments that show a difference in minimums.

Frankly, for a more playable framerate you'd drop some settings, or the AA level, and you'd drop out of being memory limited anyway. Same for Stalker, its a fairly fast FPS, while 30-40fps feels smooth in Crysis, you'd be shooting for 50-60 in Stalker. Once you again drop a setting, or AA level, again memory stops being the limitation and you'd get the same performance.

2gb vs 1gb isn't a fight this generation, the ONLY reason for 2gb cards frankly, is so Nvidia can't run around saying "but look we've got more memory". Its a marketing gimmick on all but a 5970 and cards intended for crossfire.

Even triple screen setups on a single card, zero difference between the 2gb and 1gb 5870, http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/amds-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-edition-reviewed/7, none at all.

The one thing you would really want to see in that review, is 6 screen performance, with crossfired 2gb cards, against crossfired 1gb cards, instead they just showed a single and a dual 2gb card setup against each other.

 

[rolypolyman]

THat version of the 5850 definately isnt worth it either lol.

Well I didn't buy it from Ocuk, bit cheaper elsewhere. I read a few reviews that would disagree with you and I'm quite happy I'll get value for money.

I'll probably crossfire in the summer.

 

[David09]

Yea i would agree, the extra money on the 2048mb is pointless especially if people have only a single monitor setup like me. i remember when i bought the ASUS ATI 4850 with the glaciator heatsink it only had 512mb just when they had 1gb versions on 4870/4890 and i was like tbh it serves me very well for today and is such a lovey card.

I can see why some people are paying the extra towards the extra 1gb as they just want to have the expansion and power for years to come. Graphics cards are probably the most versatile component in a PC, like they can sell or keep as a spare part where as PSU's and motherboards are just too cautious to use.

Any one know when the 6000 series will be released for OcUK?

 

[reflux]

6000s are rumoured for beginning Q4 this year (ie October time), but tbh I'm not sure we'll see them until next year if AMD can afford to hold them back whilst Nvidia struggles to compete.

 

[David09]

I am very inerested in the idea of this ASUS GPU http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-225-AS

As always ASUS bring out a nice card with a good cooler and this might of made my decision on what card to get.

One question though, is the bios locked because i would be interested in overclocking as ive never had the oppurtunity to do this with a GPU.

Thanks David

Edit.. it can be overclocked and just found out it has a higher power consumption than the normal ASUS 5850 by about 20 Watts