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Radeon HD 5850 black edition vs HD 6870

Jamestee

Jamestee

Jamestee

Associate
Joined
24 Dec 2011
Posts
16
Has the title would suggest i was just wondering was it a good idea to replace my 5850 black edition with 6870?

I put the black edition on eBay and with 2 days to go it is already 60 odd quid which got me wondering why on a 2yr old card, so i goggled it and ive now realised its a limited edition card with life time warranty and to be honest i guess the new 6870 isn't much better, or is it?

Need advice please!
 
The 6870 has fewer TMUs, and 8 fewer SPs (280 vs the 288 of the 5850).

The ONLY reason it does slightly better in benchmarks is because it is clocked at 900mhz compared to the 725mhz of the 5850.

Once you clock the 5850 the 6870 is no longer a contender as the 5850 can clock up to 40% faster from stock, and you will be lucky to get more than 11-12% on the 6870.
 
So your saying keep the 5850? I know the card is all ready o/c from stock straight out off the factory and I did look into get it further o/c but it was over my head, thought a newer, higher clocked card would be better, I see why there's so much interest on eBay now, so I guess it's not all about bench scores.
 
keep it if you can or upgrade to a better card than the 6870 . you will see no difference in games . clock it , my saphire goes up tp 1032/1225 and i can get over 5000 in 3d mark 11 .
cheers
edit : download trixx its easier than afterburner .
 
muppet said:
keep it if you can or upgrade to a better card than the 6870 . you will see no difference in games . clock it , my saphire goes up tp 1032/1225 and i can get over 5000 in 3d mark 11 .
cheers
edit : download trixx its easier than afterburner .
Click to expand...

what volts you using? mines currently at 930 by 1200
 
Thanks for all your replies, really dnt know what to do now, it's on eBay at the mo for 80 quid with loads of watchers, shoukd I keep it or leave it on. O the dilemma
 
keep it mate. I have two in crossfire and honestly can't bring myself to sell these (someone offered me £95 each recently but I declined).

reason is - two of these in crossfire and I would have to spend at least another £120 (on the premise i get £180 for these two) to get the same amount of power!.

Not many cards out there can beat two 5850's in crossfire without silly amounts of money.
 
atomic7431 said:
what volts you using? mines currently at 930 by 1200
Click to expand...

How you going about overclocking it mate? - I've never OC'd graphics cards but with BF3 think I might have to lol.

Presume your using afterburner? Last time I gave it a brief try I couldn't up the clocks at all :(
 
dave_beast said:
Wrong, i'm running my 6870 24/7 at 1010/1210 and can run 1050/1250 for benchmarking so 16%
Click to expand...

Which isn't the norm.
I can't get 1GHZ on mine, which is in-line with Gurusans percentage.

The 5850 is the better card in all honesty, as you can clock the card a higher percentage, yielding better results.
 
5850 is a cracking card, more so, if you have 2. I have been running a pair for a while now and i don't think there has been a game to date which i cannot run maxed out. BF3 in multiplayer uses ultra settings and lag only is high with a lot of players and if AA is on.

Just last night i got skyrim and today i cranked up everything to ultra and maxed out sliders etc. In game i get between 45-55 fps which is not bad at all considering how old the cards are now.

As people have suggested, i would say stick another 5850 to tide you over and wait for a better card to come out and by that i do not mean the 7900 series.

P.S. installed good old crysis again and my word that game still packs a punch. Everything maxed out with AA but no more slide show, 55fps +:p.
 
Cheers for all your comments, didn't realise what a good card I had, no wonder I've had so many bids on eBay, got till late tomoz to pull it off sale and here's me buying a 6870 the other day thinking it was a better card, even the bloke a scan showed me a bench results on Internet and says the 6870 was bout 20% better. Feel robed now .


Plus I wouldn't know where to start with over clocking gpu, I've done my system nice but not a clue with a graphic card, but u can up the 6870 a little tho.
 
Last edited:
dave_beast said:
Wrong, i'm running my 6870 24/7 at 1010/1210 and can run 1050/1250 for benchmarking so 16%
Click to expand...


Wrong? 1010Mhz is exactly a 12% increase :confused: ....and the 1050mhz is for benchmarking which I assume you mean is not stable.

Anyhow, at stock clocks the 6870 is around 3-7% faster than the 5850, yet it's clocked 24% higher than the 5850. So, for example, for a 6870 to maintain that 3-6% lead over my 1GHz 5850 it would have to be clocked over 1200MHz at least.
 
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