**ATI RADEON 7800 SERIES NOW AVAILABLE!!**

[ALXAndy]

Imagine if the HD5850 and HD5870 had come with 2GB of RAM as standard?? It will be interesting to see how well the HD5870 2GB does against the HD5870 1GB in newer games.

It is a shame. However, weren't there 2gb Toxic cards?

I know the Asus Ares busted two lots of 2gb. Certain there was a 2gb Toxic?

I shall search.....

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/reviews/video_cards/sapphire-hd-5870-2gb-toxic-edition-review/

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There was the HD5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 Edition.

 

[ThunderLicker]

Way overpriced! Unfortunately if people are daft enough to buy them at these prices then they're here to stay. Hopefully that won't be the case and they're forced to drop the price to something more reasonable.

 

[djkav]

The 5870 can still hold its own, after most these cards, in the last few years.

 

[KelDG]

Not really

The power consumption is a lot lower for the 7000 series. Over time you will make your money back or vice versa if you went for 6000/500 series. I've seen benchmarks that put 7850 at about 80-90W less under load when compared to equivelent cards.

Stop with this, go and do the maths before you state this as fact.

My 5850 uses 21watts more than a 7850, that increase is only when I am gaming a couple of hours MAX. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to recoup the cost from the upgrade? That is not even taking into consideration the fact the performance increase is bugger all on the games I play at 1080p

 

[413x]

Well, I am hoping the next round of consoles will be that good that this will be my last gaming pc setup.

I love the simplicity of consoles, but just wish they could run 1080 without so many jaggies!

I am too, these new consoles will leave pcs costing twice as much and more for dust with their optimisation, it will be my switch over too, no fiddling with xfire drivers, less faff and more playing, if they could port games like civilization over with a usb mouse that would be amazing, although there arent many CandC/civ games worth getting any more.

these consoles will hopefully be true media PCs, i for one will not be buying any more gfx hardware, everything is practically a port until these new consoles come out anyway, then.. the new consoles will be out so again no need to upgrade.

Has AMD won the GPU battle for the consoles? im not sure, but it could criplle the high end pc market for the other gpu manufacturer

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Stop with this, go and do the maths before you state this as fact.

My 5850 uses 21watts more than a 7850, that increase is only when I am gaming a couple of hours MAX. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to recoup the cost from the upgrade? That is not even taking into consideration the fact the performance increase is bugger all on the games I play at 1080p

Actually it is 34W under Crysis2:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/24.html

The HD5850 1GB consumes around 35% more power at load and according to TPU the HD7850 is around 31% faster,and that is with the HD7850 having 2GB of VRAM.

Either way,my HD5850 1GB is fine for the games I play ATM and it still ran fine off the 450W SFF PSU I had in my Shuttle.

 

[555BUK]

Both new consoles (PS4 & 720) are reported to support Full-HD gaming, latest DirectX, high level AA/AFetc (basically all of the standardised features of latest GPU's). Some rumours also suggest that the PS4 will be a locked down PC-in-a-box, similar to the original XBOX. Whatever they are, both should be as media friendly as a PC.

With three times as many laptops now sold vs desktops, and tablets catching up with laptops, the days of Desktop are numbered. When our kids grow up (perhaps much sooner) desktops will be consigned to museums. Consoles, tablets and smartphones will rule the world and laptops may also have bit the dust. Whatever happens, bye bye desktops and £400 graphics cards.

 

[muon]

Remember to remove the launch premium.

I expect sub £190 and £265 prices fairly quickly for reference(or the cheapest since we don't get reference anymore) cards.

 

[nocturnal1974]

Stop with this, go and do the maths before you state this as fact.

My 5850 uses 21watts more than a 7850, that increase is only when I am gaming a couple of hours MAX. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to recoup the cost from the upgrade? That is not even taking into consideration the fact the performance increase is bugger all on the games I play at 1080p

Really? 21 Watts?

More like 69 Watts if you do the mathematics using these references:

http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f22/amd-radeon-hd-5870-5850-power-consumption-summary-66340/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/24.html

The 5850 requires two additional fuel lines opposing the 7850's additional single fuel line



Bernhard Riemann

 

[555BUK]

Actually it is 34W under Crysis2:

Let's do the math.

*1kW of electricity currently costs about 15p.
*1kW = 1000W
*Lets say that the enthusiastic gamer plays for 3 hours per day (I am being very generous, that is almost one full day out of each week).
*3x 35w = 105W per day.
*365.25 (incl leap years) x 105W = 38.351kW per year.
*38.351 x 15p = £5.75 difference per year.

Given the current ~£80 used value of a 5850, and the £190 purchase cost of a 7850, it will take more than 19 years to break even. A 7870 at £270 will take 33 years. Not many of these cards will be playing games in 19-33 years, and those that do won't do it well.

edit: If people really want to save energy, they are much better served replacing one single 50W halogen lamp with a 5W LED lamp. These only take ~2 years to pay for themselves, and will be much greener than swapping graphics cards. Change 10 of them and save the world single handedly.

 

[nocturnal1974]

You are forgetting about the extra heat, therefore more/faster fans which create the kind of noise I completely hate!

Also idle wattage is higher and many gamers leave their computers running a lot longer than 3 hours per day!

The 7850 is also smaller allowing better airflow.

Its heatsink and fan also don't have to be as large due to smaller wattages!

 

[Surveyor]

Really? 21 Watts?

More like 69 Watts if you do the mathematics using these references:

http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f22/amd-radeon-hd-5870-5850-power-consumption-summary-66340/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/24.html

The 5850 requires two additional fuel lines opposing the 7850's additional single fuel line



Bernhard Riemann

As little as 14W when gaming.

HD 5850 v HD 7850

Johnny Ball

 

[555BUK]

You are forgetting about the extra heat, therefore more/faster fans which create the kind of noise I completely hate!

Also idle wattage is higher and many gamers leave their computers running a lot longer than 3 hours per day!

The 7850 is also smaller allowing better airflow.

Its heatsink and fan also don't have to be as large due to smaller wattages!

Please quit whilst you are losing. The average system will not notice the heat difference unless you overlock and oovervolt, in which case you have voided your energy saving ultra-green goal. I run a GTX580 inside a Sugo shoe box and it really does run cool and quiet. There is not enough space for an ant to take a dump in one of these things, but it all runs fine alongside my 2500K, 3x HDD's and a BD drive. For info, the 2500K is mated to a stock heatsink.

 

[nocturnal1974]

Please quit whilst you are losing. The average system will not notice the heat difference unless you overlock and oovervolt, in which case you have voided your energy saving ultra-green goal. I run a GTX580 inside a Sugo shoe box and it really does run cool and quiet. There is not enough space for an ant to take a dump in one of these things, but it all runs fine alongside my 2500K, 3x HDD's and a BD drive. For info, the 2500K is mated to a stock heatsink.

Do your neighbours ever complain about the noise from it?

Loser

 

[Lokken86]

Looking at those prices, I'm sticking with my 5850 and as soon as it REALLY starts struggling, I'm getting a PS3 or 360.

Jees, there is a faster card on OcUK right now for roughly 70 quid less!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-149-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

Damn AMD, I really loved you guys for the last 5-6 years but I am going Nvidia now.

What would be the point in getting a 360 or ps3? Just turn the settings down and the games will still look better than the console counterpart. Probably even at low settings and with smoother frames...

 

[V F]

There was the HD5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 Edition.

I was thinking of this one. Until I saw the price way back.

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Asus-ARES-Dual-Radeon-HD-5870-4GB-Review/

 

[Bobisuruncle54]

Desktops aren't going anywhere for a long while yet. While you can conjure up conjecture all you want, they will always have their place due to current manufacturing processes.

Not saying that these ridiculous prices aren't helping though, they are not. AMD should have really considered their long term stance here - even if they do start to drastically reduce prices bit by bit over the next 12 months, the initial prices of this generation will still be a damning mark against them.

Why they think it's a good idea to try and screw enthusiasts is anyone's guess, because it is a tremendously stupid and naive move.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Maaan, AMD just cant stop failing...
Pound for performance (thats what we are paying fro right? Not for facelift card design) there is zero progress in this gen. To get the same FPS from the same game its cheaper to buy older card...

What is going on?

Not really

The power consumption is a lot lower for the 7000 series. Over time you will make your money back or vice versa if you went for 6000/500 series. I've seen benchmarks that put 7850 at about 80-90W less under load when compared to equivelent cards.

Stop with this, go and do the maths before you state this as fact.

My 5850 uses 21watts more than a 7850, that increase is only when I am gaming a couple of hours MAX. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to recoup the cost from the upgrade? That is not even taking into consideration the fact the performance increase is bugger all on the games I play at 1080p

Actually it is 34W under Crysis2:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/24.html

The HD5850 1GB consumes around 35% more power at load and according to TPU the HD7850 is around 31% faster,and that is with the HD7850 having 2GB of VRAM.

Either way,my HD5850 1GB is fine for the games I play ATM and it still ran fine off the 450W SFF PSU I had in my Shuttle.

power cost calculations

?? WHY are you telling me this??

I was just pointing out what he was saying as TPU measures actual gaming loads and other websites like Anandtech use system power draws which are inaccurate. Moreover,one chap said 21W and the other bloke said 80+ watts. So I pointed out actual numbers measured under game testing. 34W is nearer to 21W than to 80W or does that need to be spelt out to you?? Moreover it is faster and has more RAM which is another consideration when comparing the card to the HD5850 1GB.

On top of this,I even said I had no need to upgrade to an HD7850 1GB,because that is ultimately how little it will add to my framerates ATM.

In fact lets look what I said to another HD5850 owner earlier in the thread.

I paid more for my 5850 than what the new 7850 cards are being priced at. I must admit i really like the look of both the sapphire and msi models with there better cooling over reference designs. The sapphire looks like it will remove air from the case better going by the design.

I can see why people may go for the next gen consoles due to the price of high end cards on the market but what card could be compared to what the current xbox graphics prossesor uses?

I would wait until the HD7870 drops down in price TBH. If anything,the best thing for you to do would wait until the end of the year.

I think by then prices should have gone down a bit as both companies will be starting to pimp their 28NM refreshes.

If you read what I said,I was running the HD5850 1GB off a SFF 450W PSU in a Shuttle. Let me repeat that for you again - a SMALL FORM FACTOR PSU IN A SHUTTLE. Even the SG05 has a more modern PSU than the one in the SD37P2 and didn't have the flipping inverted PCI-E slot which means,the GPU runs hotter as the cooler is facing the inside of the case. That is how low power an HD5850 1GB is in reality and how much heat it generates.

 

[Final8y]

What would be the point in getting a 360 or ps3? Just turn the settings down and the games will still look better than the console counterpart. Probably even at low settings and with smoother frames...

Up until a year ago a friend was still using my 1800xt 512MB.