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Upgrade from Radeon 5850 - £200-240 budget

Mr Krugga

Mr Krugga

Mr Krugga

Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2009
Posts
8,918
Location
Essex
Thinking of selling my heavily overclocked 5850.

It's the Sapphire 5850 reference model, overclocks to 1GHz on air but I keep it cool at 945/1200 below 60c with the fan on low (bought a Zalman VF-3000 for it).

I'm building a system for someone and can sell the card with the cooler and my old case for £140 all in so adding around a £100 from my own pocket would leave me with £240 budget (so would be enough to get EVGA GTX570 or similar).

The budget has to suffice for the card and the aftermarket cooler (if needed) as I very much prefer silence.

Now I game at 2560x1440 and am satisfied with AAx2 or AAx4 in the most demanding games.

The i5 750 will be overclocked to 3.8GHz or left at 3.54GHz/4.05GHz (Turbo) as it is now, depending on the performance impact.

No Eyefinity/Surround/3D/120Hz/other rubbish, just my trustworthy Hazro 27" :p

The card needs to holds its value until at least the end of the year as I am not excluding the thought of upgrading once again.

My PSU is a powerful Enermax Pro85+ 625W and can handle all single-gpu cards and many dual-gpu configurations so I don't exclude SLI/Crossfire as an option.

I don't mind buying second-hand as the card(s) have to last until the end of this year or the next one only.

No preference towards either Nvidia or AMD (let's exclude ATI cards outta the lot for now ;)).

Enough details?

Graphics Cards Experts, give me your best and I promise a delicious cake at the end of this ride :)
 
Mr Krugga said:
The card needs to holds its value until at least the end of the year as I am not excluding the thought of upgrading once again.
Click to expand...

No graphics card you buy now, whether brand new or 2nd hand, will hold its value for 6months so you might want to reconsider that condition.

Anyway, here are the popular choices for around the £200 ish and up price point when buying new:

Revision 1 6950 2Gb flashable to 6970 £199.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

GTX 480 SE 1.5Gb (do not get the SOC version!) £229.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-078-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750 (has a good non-reference cooler but still has a slightly high power draw)

MSI GTX 570 1.25Gb £239.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-112-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010
(performs about the same as the 480 but has lower power consumption)

To get a rough indication of relative performance between cards use this...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188

Underneath where it says GPU11 Product Benchmarks, choose two cards and click View Comparison.
 
[timko];19162349 said:
No graphics card you buy now, whether brand new or 2nd hand, will hold its value for 6months so you might want to reconsider that condition.

Anyway, here are the popular choices for around the £200 ish and up price point when buying new:

Revision 1 6950 2Gb flashable to 6970 £199.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

GTX 480 SE 1.5Gb (do not get the SOC version!) £229.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-078-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750 (has a good non-reference cooler but still has a slightly high power draw)

MSI GTX 570 1.25Gb £239.99 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-112-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010
(performs about the same as the 480 but has lower power consumption)

To get a rough indication of relative performance between cards use this...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188

Underneath where it says GPU11 Product Benchmarks, choose two cards and click View Comparison.
Click to expand...

Bah, nothing short of what I would advice to anyone :)

I know how to use Anandtech Bench tool, I even posted it on this Forum almost a year ago ;)

I also expect the card to depreciate in price but still want to have something that will hold the most value out of the lot in 6 months.

Thanks for the suggestions, doesn't seem like anything is of any great interest to me.

I'll have a look for a good deal on the 6950 that can be flashed to a 6970.

There were some deals on GTX480s close to £180 not long ago.

HD6870s in Crossfire look like an option too, if I can find them relatively cheap.

EDIT:

Radeon 6870 x2 - £260
GeForce GTX570 - £230
Radeon 6870 x2 - £230
GeForce GTX480 - £200
Radeon 6950 2GB - £190
Radeon 6950 1GB - £170

How do I find out which 6950s unlock to 6970s?
 
Last edited:
opethdisciple said:
It tells you in the product description "ATI Reference Design (Revision: 1) - Flashable too 6970"

Example: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752
Click to expand...

I'm going to shop around to find the best price. OcUK doesn't stock the entire range of the cards and their description isn't much of a help. I hate that they haven't gotten rid of that "o" in "too" yet, even though they were informed a number of times of that silly spelling mistake.

I thought TechPowerUp had the list on their website somewhere but I guess I'll have to resort to comparing PCB on the cards and finding out which sport the reference design or reading up the reviews on specific models.


Stop taking me for an idiot guys and tell me something I don't know :p


I've just checked on TPU and the 6950 Twin Frozr III is supposed to unlock. I could get this card for less than £200 but am worried about contradicting information on the web that the card sports a laser-cut 6870's design. Anyone happen to know which is true?

A sub-£200 card with an aftermarket cooler and ability to unlock to 6970 would sway me in for the upgrade.
 
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Now I game at 2560x1440 and am satisfied with AAx2 or AAx4 in the most demanding games.
Click to expand...

Suggests to me that you want a card with plenty of VRAM. At that price point in my opinion your best bet is to buy a reference 6950 2GB.
 
Is MSI Radeon 5850 Twin Frozr III a good card for £190?

I know that most of them don't unlock (some do) but it is supposed to have good cooling and overclocking capabilities.

Is the difference between a card with locked and unlocked shaders as low as 2%, as others seem to claim? In that case I would not be bothered about unlocking, I guess.

The upgrade would cost me £50 after I've sold my old bits and looks like a sensible way to hold on till the next generation hits the market.
 
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Mr Krugga said:
Is MSI Radeon 5850 Twin Frozr III a good card for £190?

I know that most of them don't unlock (some do) but it is supposed to have good cooling and overclocking capabilities.

Is the difference between a card with locked and unlocked shaders as low as 2%, as others seem to claim? In that case I would not be bothered about unlocking, I guess.

The upgrade would cost me £50 after I've sold my old bits and looks like a sensible way to hold on till the next generation hits the market.
Click to expand...


No!

£190 for a 5850 is way over priced!
 
Mr Krugga said:
Is MSI Radeon 5850 Twin Frozr III a good card for £190?

I know that most of them don't unlock (some do) but it is supposed to have good cooling and overclocking capabilities.

Is the difference between a card with locked and unlocked shaders as low as 2%, as others seem to claim? In that case I would not be bothered about unlocking, I guess.

The upgrade would cost me £50 after I've sold my old bits and looks like a sensible way to hold on till the next generation hits the market.
Click to expand...

Unlocking shaders can cause problems on the card and 2% performance boost is not worth it. £190 for a 6950 2GB card with custom cooler is WORTH IT.

I will be getting that card too and I have read that you get more performance boost from overclocking then unlocking shaders.
 
opethdisciple said:
No!

£190 for a 5850 is way over priced!
Click to expand...

I'm just tired, not being a moron. I obviously meant the 6950, the 5850 was a typo (I'm selling this card since I'm getting pretty good money for what it's worth now).

Was just trying to get some advice from 6950's owners.

arc@css said:
I think he means the 6950, not the 5850. If so, sounds like a good price to me.
Click to expand...

Correct, good sir.

szr01 said:
Unlocking shaders can cause problems on the card and 2% performance boost is not worth it. £190 for a 6950 2GB card with custom cooler is WORTH IT.

I will be getting that card too and I have read that you get more performance boost from overclocking then unlocking shaders.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I guess I'll be ordering it tonight, then.
 
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Have you not considered cross fire on the 5850, get another sapphire for £110 - which has about the same performance as the 6870 crossfire.
 
sHo0sH said:
Have you not considered cross fire on the 5850, get another sapphire for £110 - which has about the same performance as the 6870 crossfire.
Click to expand...

I have considered it indeed.

It doesn't come close to 6870 CF as far as I know and wouldn't help retaining the value of both cards.

I fancy an upgrade and since I game at 2560x1440, a card with more vRAM may become useful in this context.
 
Uploading...








Other pictures need to be rotated so I'll post them later on.

Will clean up my current build and take a picture of the card inside the case.
 
Last edited:
arc@css said:
Nice. :) Looking forward to the pics.
Click to expand...

More to come soon, I've got a ****ty mobile internet atm and it takes some time to upload plus I have to clean up the rig under my desk to take any meaningful pictures :p


Also, this card is on a special deal today at OcUK, only £180 which is almost £10 less than I paid for it! - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18278264


The MSI guy also claims that it unlocks to the 6970 so that should tell you the real value of this bargain :)
 
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