5870 or 5850???

[el Kuarlos]

Running;

125 watt amd 965 3.4gig, 4gb ripjaw, latest chipset £80 board...out putting to a 22 inch samsung synchmaster rose monitor.

Would a 5870 be epic overkill for gaming? My heart tells me to spend the extra and enjoy but my head is saying that the power just will not be necessary and that a 5850 is the sensible choice...

Opinions?

 

[jordan282]

5850

 

[OCP]

what res do you play?

oops just saw your monitor, 5850 will be more than enough.

 

[Cooper]

Simple maths really....

5870 is 60% more expensive, but only 20-25% quicker.

seeing as your only on a 22in monitor (1680x1050)..?....a 5850 will be more than enough.

not that you can buy one anywhere....

 

[Leg]

With the monitor you are using a 5850 will be fine.

 

[drunkenmaster]

5850, far better value, wait till around the 15th for stock to be more widely available, stock should drop prices back down to the initial launch prices(15th is when AMD have batches to go out, figure up to a week or two for that to actually get to store shelves, thats when I'd order if I wanted one.

But the 5850 seems to overclock just as well as the 5870, with the right bios or if you buy the right card to start with(asus I guess). Not kept quite up to date in the last month but afaik, flash a new unlocked bios onto a 5850 and you can get up to the same overclocks with identical performance as the 5870, the extra shaders don't help a bit, only the clock speed which the 5850 is still capable of.

It's a better value card at stock, and overclock a 5850/70 to its max and the 5850 will just extend its value and offer the same end performance anyway, so 5850 is the only card to buy to be honest.

 

[Naff8000]

The only problem I ran into on a 24" was 8x aa on far cry warhead. Everything else runs great at max settings

 

[el Kuarlos]

Yea, think you guys are right, to be honest i m starting to notice games petering out on the graphics from right now. My 9800 makes things look pretty even now so 5850 it is...as for overclocking it and flashing bios, gonna have to look at that, dont want to buger up two tons worth of tech-

link anyone?

 

[straxusii]

5870, 5850 is by far the better bang for the buck though.

 

[reiyushin]

Overkill indeed, 5850