EVGA 8800 GTS Dead - Sapphire Radeon 5870 Replacement?

[dai]

Hey guys,

My Nvidia Cards producing error code 43's and failing to be identified as an nvidia card unless i re install drivers. Then when i launch games it hangs my machine so looks like the card is shafted.

I ordered one of the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 cards from here last night to replace it.

However I'm a bit concerned and have two main questions;

1. Anyone running one of these on an Abit ip35 pro mobo aas I know Abit have gone under and offer no further support for thier boards.

2. Have I made the right choice in card? I clock my Q6600 to about 3.4 gig so I'm aware theres prob going to be a small amount of bottleneck there. However i will be looking to pick up an I7 and new mobo shortly (assuming my Corsair hx620 psu can handle it all) so wanted to get something with bang for buck for now and a couple of months down the line. With that in mind is this the best choice of card around the £250-£340 mark...

 

[UKDTweak]

The card should run just fine on the Abit, I have an Abit IP35 Pro with my 5850 running happily on it

As for bottleneck... would not worry, at 3.4ghz, it will still out perform the gts your replacing

 

[scorchisio]

ut the card on a baking tray in a preheated oven to 200c, take off the fan first. give it ten mins, take it out let it cool for an hour put the fan back on and it will work.

You should have just got a 5850 i reckon

 

[dai]

The card should run just fine on the Abit, I have an Abit IP35 Pro with my 5850 running happily on it

As for bottleneck... would not worry, at 3.4ghz, it will still out perform the gts your replacing

Excellent; That puts my mind at rest anyhow

put the card on a baking tray in a preheated oven to 200c, take off the fan first. give it ten mins, take it out let it cool for an hour put the fan back on and it will work.

Ok Will try that after my replacement arives; Cheers.

You should have just got a 5850 i reckon

Yeah I was temted but for the extra £50 I paid I thought it would be a good investment with me looking to go i7 and new mobo route in a couple of months, question I guess is; Is the extra £50 outlay now worth it for extra performance of a 5870 over a 5850 2-3 months down the line?

 

[UKDTweak]

IT should be, although the 5850 is better value for money, the 5870 out performs it at stock... you could OC a 5850... but then you can OC a 5870 too and if your going to get an I7 later, then the 5870 will perform even better

 

[dai]

Brilliant;

Thanks a lot, it's my first ATI Card hopefully the switch over wont incur driver hell and the card itself will impress.

 

[UKDTweak]

Make sure you use the windows uninstaller to remove the NV software, shutdown and remove the NV card then put in the ATI and boot up.. and install the ATI driver software... should be trouble free...

 

[dai]

Ahh ok; Thanks will do.

 

[setter]

Also, when you do move to i7, your hx 620w will be perfectly fine on the new rig.

 

[dai]

Also, when you do move to i7, your hx 620w will be perfectly fine on the new rig.

Well thats even better; Means I only need to find around £600 for a tri-channel I7 setup.

 

[RavenXXX2]

5850 is the one to get...and clock it.

 

[iv-tecman]

I recently had the opportunity to test a 5870 with a range of CPU’s thanks to me upgrading and sending my second hand parts to my brother..

I did actually try a Vapor-x 5870 with –

Intel E6600 @ 3.0ghz
Intel Q6600 @ 3.2ghz
Intel i5 750 @ 3.6ghz

I ran benchmarks with Dirt 2 and Batman Arkham and to be honest wish I’d took notice of the results a lot more….

Of the top I do remember the E6600 coming out the worse (to be expected) Batman managed on average 42fps. Whereas the Q6600 was right up there 58fps, and the i5 I’m currently running manages something under 70fps…

This was 1920 x 1080 everything max’d out and forcing 4 x AA in the ATI CCC – if this made any difference or even worked.. Dunno, but Dirt 2 was similar… As I now play all my games with v sync on, the i5 tends to max out with the 5870 at 60fps, so to be honest I have no idea what to make of the figures…

It would appear to me that the Quad cores are comparable however the overclocks weren’t the same.

The E6600 was 200Mhz less then the Q6600, and the i5 is 400mhz more then the Q6600, so it would appear to me, and this is obvious, the more you overclock the CPU the less it bottles the 5870… So in my mind, a quad, overclocked with a 5870 should and will give you a rather fantastic gaming machine….

Seems upgrading from a Q6600 etc to an i7 isn’t the best choice for Gaming performance increases. Overclocking an existing Quad past 3Ghz and upping the GPU to a 5870 for example will give a fantastic performance boost..

I also have, well my brother has it now. A 8800GTX and I did a comparable test, again I so wish I’d jotted all the figures down, instead of just pratting around..

I do remember Batman at the same settings, on the Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz was way less then 58fps average… think it was less then 30fps.. That’s around a 50% performance increase… If I’ve remember correctly.

Basically put your mind at rest. Your Q6600 with a 5870 and if you clock the Q6600 past 3ghz (which you have done) then you’ll see a huge improvement over the 8800GTS.. Enjoy your new purchase..

 

[dai]

Excellent if there's no need to upgrade the rest of my rig quite yet then I'll just hold off; Assuming ofc I get close to an average of 60fps with a 5870 on my current rig.

Means I can hold off on cpu/mobo/memory upgrades till things drop in price and the next big thing appears (Then have a bit more to spend at the time hopefully)...