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Replacement for 5870, recommendations?

dacsf50

dacsf50

dacsf50

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Joined
30 May 2008
Posts
4
My 5870 has gone and given up the fight a whole month outside its warranty period :( - I've spent the last 3-4 hours reading through threads on here, various reviews and looking at all the cards on offer but I've only managed to confuse myself with all these performance figures so I could really do with the expertise of you guys.

The 5870 has done well for what I've used it for; iRacing (5760x1080), rFactor (5760x1080) and more recently BF3 (1920x1080 - the fps died if I attempted to use 5760x1080 :()

A friend recommended CF 6950s, which I can get for £135 each; the power supply I have is more than capable of running a CF setup, so it's definitely an option, but I've never really looked at CF before and so have been leaning more towards the new cards from both ATI and Nvidia.

However, I noticed with the new ATI cards that there is only 1x DVI output which would mean I would have to replace the adapters I have currently with Mini-DisplayPort > DVI which would add another £40 or so.

Budget wise, I don't really want to spend anything over £300, but could stretch it to £350ish if it was worth it.

Any recommendations/feedback would be greatly appreciated :)
 
At the resolutions you state this card would be great for http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-182-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294 also would run BF3 extremely well doubt you can get better for £300 brand new.

Also CF 6970s for £270 is a steal, go for that if you want that's of course if you do not mind the extra noise/heat but the performance would be very good however a single GTX670 should be well enough.

Actually ignore what i said about the CF 6970s didn't realise they've dropped so much in price!
 
Don't go crossfire, get a GTX 670 like Sycho suggested.

To give you some perspective I went from a 5870 to my current 6950s (Twin Frozer IIIs) last year and I regret making the purchase decision as the added driver issues (mainly crossfire problems), noise and heat isn't something you will like coming from a 5870. Your best bet is to go for a decent GTX 670, something with a factory overclock and an aggressive boost function like this. That should give you near enough GTX 680 matching performance and will still be a nice quiet card to boot with plenty of overclocking headroom should you decide to go for more performance.
 
^

I could say the exact opposite!

I have nothing but good things to say about my 6950>70's, they have served me that well, they are staying put this gen anyway, no reason whatsoever for me to upgrade this gen!:D

I wouldn't get a 670 either, for that kind of money, 2x7850's would be calling my name and I would clock them silly!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-MS

Best bang for buck by a country mile!
 
I had two 5870's and I've recent moved to a GTX 680. Previously I couldn't use both cards in crossfire and play games on triple monitors (5870x1080) as it used to constantly keep disconnecting the DP. Anyway I thought I'd get a little FPS increase however I was very surprised at just how much of a boost I actually got. I was running BF3 1920x1080 at medium graphics (high textures) I was getting around 40-50 FPS now I'm getting between 70 - 90 FPS on ULTRA forcing FXAA too.

^__^ Worthy upgrade.
 
tommybhoy said:
^

I could say the exact opposite!

I have nothing but good things to say about my 6950>70's, they have served me that well, they are staying put this gen anyway, no reason whatsoever for me to upgrade this gen!:D

I wouldn't get a 670 either, for that kind of money, 2x7850's would be calling my name and I would clock them silly!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-MS

Best bang for buck by a country mile!
Click to expand...

Best bang for buck? Not at stock it isn't. A 7850 is about as fast as a 6950, while a GTX 670 is knocking on the door of a 6990. A 7850 is only the best bang for the buck *if* you overclock the **** out of it, even then it can't surpass a GTX 580.

Plus you may not notice micro-stutter, but for anyone that does it completely ruins the gaming experience. As for problems, it is well known that 6900 crossfire has had many issues since the cards have been released with old and newly released titles. Just off the top of my head it has had issues with: Saints Row 3, Battlefield 3, GTA IV, Dirt 3 and Crysis 2. These were also ongoing problems that weren't fixed with a quick hotfix either, and GTA IV scaling is actually negative.

The rule is: never go for a multi-GPU setup if there is a single GPU based solution that offers similar or better performance. You're also asking dacsf50 to go with a solution that is not only more prone to problems, produces more heat and noise, but is also beyond his budget.

OP If you want to stick with AMD go for a 7970, they can be had for a similar price, but the Gigabyte GTX 670 I linked to is a quality product and should offer a very nice jump in performance without having to worry about multi-GPU issues.
 
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Just a couple weeks ago I went from a 5870 to a windforce x3 670. The performance increase it literally double the FPS, and I gotta say it was well worth the money for me. So that would be my suggestion :)
 
What about the MSI TF III 7950 on one week only at £299? It will overclock well enough on stock volts to match a 670 and it has a decent and quiet cooler. A lot of people have sent stock cooler 670s back due to noise - they use a really cheap heat sink.
 
I also went from a 5870 to a Gigabyte Windforce 670 and it's a great improvement, I also prefer the Nvidia control panel for changing video card settings.
 
Bobisuruncle54 said:
Best bang for buck? Not at stock it isn't. A 7850 is about as fast as a 6950, while a GTX 670 is knocking on the door of a 6990. A 7850 is only the best bang for the buck *if* you overclock the **** out of it, even then it can't surpass a GTX 580.

Plus you may not notice micro-stutter, but for anyone that does it completely ruins the gaming experience. As for problems, it is well known that 6900 crossfire has had many issues since the cards have been released with old and newly released titles. Just off the top of my head it has had issues with: Saints Row 3, Battlefield 3, GTA IV, Dirt 3 and Crysis 2. These were also ongoing problems that weren't fixed with a quick hotfix either, and GTA IV scaling is actually negative.

The rule is: never go for a multi-GPU setup if there is a single GPU based solution that offers similar or better performance. You're also asking dacsf50 to go with a solution that is not only more prone to problems, produces more heat and noise, but is also beyond his budget.

OP If you want to stick with AMD go for a 7970, they can be had for a similar price, but the Gigabyte GTX 670 I linked to is a quality product and should offer a very nice jump in performance without having to worry about multi-GPU issues.
Click to expand...

I never said at stock though did I?

There is quite a few of them flying@580 speeds, and my air cooled setup goes past air cooled 6990's, 7970's and 680's@1080p:p.

Very uninspiring gen of gpu's in my case.

I even put up a video of early release performance on BF3 playing totally fine, no hiccups and fantastic scaling at release!

Some games might have a hiccup but the only ones in that list that did for me was Crysis2 it took about 3 weeks for a profile from AMD, but hey, I managed to make my own with Radeon pro!


As I said, you might have had a bum deal with CrossFire, but I didn't, hence no need for me to 'upgrade' to a slower single gpu solution and happy to use it again!
 
Having to buy adapters to run at 120hz is a huge kick in the teeth IMO. Although the same could be (and should be) said of nVidia's 3D Vision Kit which is a rather large expense on top of a monitor and GPU to be able to play in 3D!

Anyway slightly tangential point aside I would buy a Gigabyte Windforce GTX 670.
 
Rusty0611 said:
Having to buy adapters to run at 120hz is a huge kick in the teeth IMO. Although the same could be (and should be) said of nVidia's 3D Vision Kit which is a rather large expense on top of a monitor and GPU to be able to play in 3D!

Anyway slightly tangential point aside I would buy a Gigabyte Windforce GTX 670.
Click to expand...

Precisely, the lightning would have been a great buy for the op although slightly over budget, but to not have any DL-dvi's is :eek:.

Fantastic 3D support is a bit hard on the price you pay to get the gear for Nvidia, £50 for the kit would be much an easier pill to swallow and much more desireable.

Any of the windforce 670/7950 would be a great choice of card too.

Some of the 7950's are cracking clockers!
 
tommybhoy said:
I never said at stock though did I?

There is quite a few of them flying@580 speeds, and my air cooled setup goes past air cooled 6990's, 7970's and 680's@1080p:p.

Very uninspiring gen of gpu's in my case.

I even put up a video of early release performance on BF3 playing totally fine, no hiccups and fantastic scaling at release!

Some games might have a hiccup but the only ones in that list that did for me was Crysis2 it took about 3 weeks for a profile from AMD, but hey, I managed to make my own with Radeon pro!


As I said, you might have had a bum deal with CrossFire, but I didn't, hence no need for me to 'upgrade' to a slower single gpu solution and happy to use it again!
Click to expand...

As the OP didn't mention it, I didn't assume that the OP will overclock, so the 7850 shouldn't be recommended for that very reason. It is also not guaranteed to reach GTX 580 speeds either and I'm afraid some users are over exaggerating their claims that it does. This is also forgetting that it just about catches up to a bog standard 580, if you overclock the 580 as well then the 7850 has no hope of keeping up. It's a decent overclocker but its performance does not make it trade blows with the high end GPUs when you overclock it 30%. It's a great card if you're on a budget, but it's not a high end replacement, it just bridges the gap, which is something it should have been able to do a stock for the price it commands. Let's not forget that the 7850 (at stock speeds) should have been a £150 card at launch. IMO I think many people are forgetting that now that they are becoming accustomed to the 28nm generation's ridiculous pricing structure.

What you said works both ways too: just because you haven't had problems doesn't mean other people that play different games won't. As I said, if there's a single GPU alternative it's better to get that. Since you haven't mentioned micro-stutter either I'm going to assume you don't notice it, but it's an immediate deal breaker for some. It's great you have had a relatively hassle free time with crossfire, but many users don't.
 
psychodil said:
How are you getting on clocking it? I've got mine but not had the chance to install and mess with it yet :-(
Click to expand...

So far had it up to 1200 core /6000 memory @ 1.225v nice and quiet and cool too, the cooling works extremely well. I reckon it'll do higher no probs, just haven't bothered trying yet. Scored 2004/ 79.6 fps in heaven :)
 
Bobisuruncle54 said:
As the OP didn't mention it, I didn't assume that the OP will overclock, so the 7850 shouldn't be recommended for that very reason. It is also not guaranteed to reach GTX 580 speeds either and I'm afraid some users are over exaggerating their claims that it does. This is also forgetting that it just about catches up to a bog standard 580, if you overclock the 580 as well then the 7850 has no hope of keeping up. It's a decent overclocker but its performance does not make it trade blows with the high end GPUs when you overclock it 30%. It's a great card if you're on a budget, but it's not a high end replacement, it just bridges the gap, which is something it should have been able to do a stock for the price it commands. Let's not forget that the 7850 (at stock speeds) should have been a £150 card at launch. IMO I think many people are forgetting that now that they are becoming accustomed to the 28nm generation's ridiculous pricing structure.
Click to expand...

tommybhoy said:
^
I wouldn't get a 670 either, for that kind of money, 2x7850's would be calling my name and I would clock them silly!
Click to expand...

Your pricing argument is way off though, if the 7850's are £25-£35 overpriced, what does that make the 6's and 79's?

Bobisuruncle54 said:
What you said works both ways too: just because you haven't had problems doesn't mean other people that play different games won't. As I said, if there's a single GPU alternative it's better to get that. Since you haven't mentioned micro-stutter either I'm going to assume you don't notice it, but it's an immediate deal breaker for some. It's great you have had a relatively hassle free time with crossfire, but many users don't.
Click to expand...

My reference was simply countering the other side of using dual cards, I'm under no illusions that it's not for everybody.

By all means if there is a single gpu solution that's available for the money, carry on, it's definately easier to live with, but when you want the absolute best bang for buck, sometimes dual is the way to go, the same money can get you extra performance sometimes.

For one that doesn't enjoy the experience, there will be others that get on fine.

Twice I've done it, once with SLI and now with CrossFire, both times have left me willing to do it again if need be.
 
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