Best gaming graphics card at this time?

[Gerard]

DX11, Eyefinity

For one it'll be a good while before we see proper dx11 games and not games that have had a last minute patch for it. Even at the minute dx9 games are far more in abundance than dx10 and thats almost 3 years after vistas launch.

Eyefinity i can see the appeal for but its pricey to say the least.

 

[Trunks9486]

I am pretty sure that in the majority of games the 58xx will provide better minimum framerates too. Bit-tech's review seems to vofnrim this but i havent searched too much into it. Its a fact that a similarly powered single gpu is better than a dual gpu solution. This is why people bought 8800GTX over 7950GX2 and why GTX280 was seen to be better than 9800GX2.

The extra features help too, if i am gonna buy an expensive card i want to at least have the latest features.

Edit: The 58xx series will also see driver improvements in the coming months, i expect a 5-10% increase in performance. For GTX295 i doubt that drivers will improve performance.

 

[Gills]

DX11, Eyefinity

Name me 1 dx11 game that you can play just now, the previous poster said the 295 was obsolete now not later. Eyefinity obviously as the next gen nvidias are not out yet, and as an educated guess now nvidia knows what ati have done with eyefinity I'm sure they will top it.

I've changed my mind. Right now, nothing is faster than the 295, and for technology that cant be used yet its the 5870.

 

[Rroff]

Eyefinity as hardly a deal breaker... useful tech - but how many people are gonna be running more than 3 monitors at home? - most people find the bezels too distracting for it to be useful for gaming at the moment anyhow.

 

[Gerard]

Eyefinity as hardly a deal breaker... useful tech - but how many people are gonna be running more than 3 monitors at home? - most people find the bezels too distracting for it to be useful for gaming at the moment anyhow.

Well anyone thats tried it seems to think the bezels more or less disappear when playing a game, kinda like looking through a chainlink fence and you're focusing on whats behind the links.

 

[Fenris]

Name me 1 dx11 game that you can play just now, the previous poster said the 295 was obsolete now not later. Eyefinity obviously as the next gen nvidias are not out yet, and as an educated guess now nvidia knows what ati have done with eyefinity I'm sure they will top it.

I've changed my mind. Right now, nothing is faster than the 295, and for technology that cant be used yet its the 5870.

Remember the 295 is faster by at most a small margin and the OP asked for "best", and max FPS is not everything.

The 5870 is a single GPU, is DX11 ready so is future proof, requires less power, is quieter, is for the most part cheaper and as someone above has said has better minimum fps. It also has more connection options.

The 295 is DX10, is dual GPU, runs very hot, requires a small coal fire power station to run it, is louder and is nearly as hard to get hold of as the 5870, the only 295 OC have is over £400 which is an absurd price to pay for it.

Eyefinity is specialist, people shouldn't quote it as a reason to by as 95% of people won't ever use it.


Now I won't deny the 295 is a stonkingly fast card, but it basically comes down to this, do you want to sacrifice future compatibility and newer tech which remember with drivers can only get better, simply for 5 FPS and any problems dual GPUs may have? if yes then feel free to go back to banging two bricks together because you are obviousely easily amused.

 

[wiak]

Tho not for long... stocks seem to be running out...

There is no best GPU for gaming atm due to stock problems and I wouldn't spend money on old tech now.

basicly DX11 HD 5870 and HD 5850 are the cards to get, GTX 295 is pointless atm

i got a 5870 and i have no problems with it

 

[wiak]

For one it'll be a good while before we see proper dx11 games and not games that have had a last minute patch for it. Even at the minute dx9 games are far more in abundance than dx10 and thats almost 3 years after vistas launch.

Eyefinity i can see the appeal for but its pricey to say the least.

add lossless bitsteaming of DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD to that list and LPCM 7.1 lossless out over hdmi

Name me 1 dx11 game that you can play just now, the previous poster said the 295 was obsolete now not later. Eyefinity obviously as the next gen nvidias are not out yet, and as an educated guess now nvidia knows what ati have done with eyefinity I'm sure they will top it.

I've changed my mind. Right now, nothing is faster than the 295, and for technology that cant be used yet its the 5870.

STALKER, Battleforge, dirt 2 is out on 1th of desember

and i forgot to tell that DiRT 2 is included with many Radeon HD 5800 and 5700 series cards! for FREE

 

[D D Danneh]

What can the 5870 do right now that a 295 cant ?

Right now, not much. But tell me, what can the 295 do that the 5870 can't? 5 extra fps in games that make full use of SLI? Woot.

The 5870:
Has DX11
Has Eyefinity
Lower power consumption
More consistent frame rates
Extra performance through driver updates
Future expandability (the 295 is EOL, and the 5870 will come down in price)

The 295:
Slightly faster frame rates in supported games
CUDA

I haven't stated price. The cheapest 295 is cheaper than the cheapest 5870 right now, but none are actually in stock, so I can't say. The only 295 in stock though is a ridiculous price.

Personally, I think you'd be stupid to buy a 295 over a 5870 right now. Then again, I also think you'd be silly to buy a 5870 rather than a 5850.

 

[ballin]

Interesting thread thanks for all the advice. Bearing in mind what people have said, it sounds to me like the one to go for is the 5870, not least for me because of the lower power consumption and heat output.

Believe it or not, what first got me looking at an upgrade was watching COD MW2 over 3 screens on youtube (so eyefinity has me!!)

Why in your opinion would it be silly to take the 5870 over the 5850 Danneh? Price difference not worth it? Bearing in mind I don't want to have to upgrade for as long as possible (like everyone else I suppose)!

 

[Trunks9486]

Bang for bang 5850 is really better. But if you want the best it kind of says that you dont care for bang for bang as much. Personally i would get the 5850 and overclock it, possibly with a good after market cooler.

Anyway, this is kind of moot as both 5850 and 5870 are very hard to find right now. Your chances are higher with 5870 as its more expensive and less people want it.

 

[OCP]

makes no sense to get the 295 to me. Before I bought the 5870 I was considering the 295. Just glad I didn't buy an old gen card and this thing runs cool.

 

[Final8y]

What can the 5870 do right now that a 295 cant ?

Stop being silly with this right now, as if everyone only buys everything for right now.
Its has features right now that the other doesn't & never will have & those features are not a may be use but will be used & soon enough.

 

[TheGamingGeneral]

5970 next week

Will there actually be any though? Depends on the price I guess but I would have thought they rather sell a two 5870s over a 5970.

 

[Shijeer]

Remember the 295 is faster by at most a small margin and the OP asked for "best", and max FPS is not everything.

The 5870 is a single GPU, is DX11 ready so is future proof, requires less power, is quieter, is for the most part cheaper and as someone above has said has better minimum fps. It also has more connection options.

The 295 is DX10, is dual GPU, runs very hot, requires a small coal fire power station to run it, is louder and is nearly as hard to get hold of as the 5870, the only 295 OC have is over £400 which is an absurd price to pay for it.

Eyefinity is specialist, people shouldn't quote it as a reason to by as 95% of people won't ever use it.


Now I won't deny the 295 is a stonkingly fast card, but it basically comes down to this, do you want to sacrifice future compatibility and newer tech which remember with drivers can only get better, simply for 5 FPS and any problems dual GPUs may have? if yes then feel free to go back to banging two bricks together because you are obviousely easily amused.

I agree 100% on all points, this man speaks the truth. Based on the arguments above it would be borderline-foolish to go 295, in fact, the only conceivable reason would be one that has to do with brand loyalty/past experience, and as that is clearly not the case this time, Red is the way to go at the moment despite the recent bump in pricing AND the availability issues.

- Shijeer

 

[ballin]

Thanks again, I'm glad I asked the question.
I will go 5870 as I don't really want to OC the 5850, temperatures are a real issue for me so I would rather not have to stress it over its normal operating temps etc

 

[D.P.]

Its not really a good time to buy high end cards. Nvidia is late to the party and ATI can't produce the goods and seems to be letting QC drop to get cards out, even if they have issues.

Nvidia 295 is the fastest single gfx card available.
ATI 5870 is good if you're lucky. 5850 seems to save a bit of cash for much the same card.


TBH,. I would wait for reliable FERMI benchmarks or dates. I expect we will see benchmarks before christmas.

 

[ballin]

gah now I'm confused again....I've been reading lots of posts in here, and I don't want to pay the premium of the 5870/5850 as I have read that they are currently high priced due to demand - and possibly not actually worth the current prices.
On the other hand, I don't want to have to pay another £200 in a years time just because I saved a few quid now.

Like everyone I am on a budget, but I want to be sensible hence my acceptance to spend more now, for future savings!!!

On the Titan Goliath setup (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-030-OE) what do people think of going with a 5770 or something? Is that still going to be very good (full graphics on current games, and high for a good year or two yet), or any other thoughts? (maybe the nvidia 260)?

It's very confusing :d

 

[Omega]

If you want futureproof then go for the 5870. 5850 can be overclocked to 5870 speeds however its still considered the "mid range" card out of the 58xx series.


5870 will give you the best futureproofing

 

[buttkinz]

I think danneh was referring to the 50% premium for ~20% extra performance, the 5850 can be simply overclocked with the msi afterburner software to be faster than the 5870 by quite a margin.