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New ATI cards upgrade advice

abercromb

abercromb

abercromb

Associate
Joined
27 Aug 2009
Posts
67
Hi all

I know these cards have only just started shipping and very little is known about what there real life performance is going to be yet.

But thought I would ask some of you what is the minimum type of rig that could run a 5850 and 5870. From what I have read then run cooler and with less power than some of the other high end cards.

I'm currently using a GTX260 that I upgraded from a 8800gtx.
The motherboard is a Azus P5kr, running a Q6600 and 8 gig of ram. Nothing is overclocked at the moment and I'm using stock case fans, so no additional cooling is in place. If I remember right my power supply is 550w although it could be 650w (need to check) and I'm pretty sure its not modular as it came with the rig when I bought it as a system just over 2 years ago. The screen it will be powering is 22".

The question is will my system run a 5850 or 5870 without any changes?

My longer term plan is to build a new set up and the new card would be a part of that. But if I can get away with running one of these cards for a few months while the options open up for I5's that would help.

Thoughts?
 
A couple of the reviews in the main 5870 thread have total system power consumption as part of the test, but I can't remember which ones.

Check out the contents [most of them have drop down page selection, look for Power in the listing] and see what you can find, although knowing the Amps required is more important.
 
Dauthi said:
The 5800's appear to draw around the slightly less power then the 4800's at load so should be fine. Size may be an issue.
Click to expand...

The 8800gtx was a monster of a card and due to how my hard drives are set up there was still plenty of room length wise in the case. Is the length of the card what you ment by size?
 
"550W or 650W" PSU doesn't really tell us anything; the regulation of advertised wattage is very poor. For example, a 650W Q-tec would offer only a fraction of the performance of a 650W corsair or enermax PSU.

If you post the exact model of the PSU we can give you a more definite answer. That said, if you can run a GTX260 it's unlikely you would have any problems with a 5870 or a 5850.
 
Wait those few months out in my opinion, chances are by xmas prices might drop or better version might come out for the same price. ur current card seems fine until then.

On subject if its running your current card, i can't see why it won't run the new 1. Although as mentioned already, we need more details to clear that up.
 
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