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***The Official ATI Radeon HD 5850 / 5870 Reviews and Discussion Thread***

This first lot seem to be poor clockers, mybe ATI are speed binning for the x2.

I'm in two minds as to wait and see if the next batch is better.
 
edgedemon said:
Im still on an BFG 8800GT OC2 which runs pretty much anything I throw at it fine @ 1680 x 1050.
I wont upgrade till next year to take advantage of sata3 and usb3, and I will make a choice then between 5870, 5870X2 or GT300, depending on which is best.
Im not a fan boy, though I rate my 8800GT highly, Im impressed with the 5870 which pushes a dual gpu card from nvidia pretty close in most games on beta drivers - hats off to AMD, prices will fall, and they have brought a great card to market
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Same here, I have a 8800GT and it still plays my games maxed out at 1900 x 1200. (I mostly just play The Witcher and occassionally TF2 and HL2 EP1), so there's no reason for me to upgrade now. I do wonder what you other lot are thinking upgrading from newer cards than mine! The only game I can think of that needs any more power is Crysis, and I doubt you play that every day :p
 
I mostly just play The Witcher and occassionally TF2 and HL2 EP1
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I should hope an 8800GT can play a game maxed out that's based on 3 year old code!

Try something recent like HAWX @ 1920x1200 maxed out then tell us how your 8800gt is doing.
 
These cards look fairly good, but theres not enough of an improvement over my GTX285 to make me bother with upgrading. Especially as these ATI cards seem about £70 overpriced at the moment.
 
Been waiting for these reviews (like everyone else) and its a pity that the 5850 benchies aren't available yet. Thats the one I've got my eye onconsidering I use a 22" screen (1680 x 1050), so I reckon a 5870 would be overkill for my purposes, reasonable price as well, £200 at launch, so after a few weeks it should drop a bit hopefully:)
 
I note that HardOCP are saying Crysis is playable on Very High / Enthusiast settings at 1920x1200 (so long as you don't go crazy with AA). Might actually get around to buying the game once these cards have filtered down into my price bracket
 
my god more new graphics cards ati are going crazy they have not long released the 4890s. another way to take our money
 
Tute said:
Stocks all gone now, but I think that's a good thing for me. I don't like the look of the coolers, I expect i'd have just bought one for the hell of it, but i'd rather wait for cards like the Vapor-X this time around. Also, despite the staff harping away about prices, these are expensive. I have a reciept for a 4870 at launch that was £175+VAT. I guess having nVidia so far behind in terms of launch schedule is causing stupid-o-prices. I can't see how it justifies an extra £100 over what the 4870 was.
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I'm thinking the same and hoping prices will come down aswell, though I unfortunately the big price is due to yields which aren't going to come down within a month or two(maybe they'll wait on the X2 version for better yields to enable it to sneak inside the £400 mark.).

But the simple thing is its down to yields, 5k waifer for roughly 100 cores, if all 100 worked, to break even they'd be $50, add $30 for profit and the rest of the prices go on pcb's, memory, parts, building, shipping, etc, etc.

Thing is thats 100 cores with a $30 profit when sold at $80, which nets them £3k profit for every 100 cards. But when yields hit 50%, you're looking at $100 a core JUST to break even, but then to make the same 3k profit, you now have to double the price increase to get the same profit, so not only are the cores $100 just to break even, to make the same 3k profit per waifer, you add $60 per core. So you've gone from $80 a core, to $160. We're not quite sure where yields are, but they aren't good, likely below 50%.

Now add on $80 to the cost of a 4870, and then because distributors and retailers tend to mark up by a percentage rather than a fixed cost, the price increases yet further. So what should be circa £200 cards, become £270 cards(which at $379 launch price is what we SHOULD be seeing them priced at) then thats basically the entire increased cost explained.

The 5850 won't be as cheap as the 4850, purely because its got GDDR5, and a gig of it, compared to 512mb of dirt cheap GDDR3, but again core cost wise its still £50 above where it should be right now.



Fortunately for AMD and very unfortunately for us, the even bigger core from Nvidia will be even more expensive than the 280gtx at launch considering their even lower yields on 40nm.
 
timaloy said:
my god more new graphics cards ati are going crazy they have not long released the 4890s. another way to take our money
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Heh :)

I can understand people being disappointed with the price, or the performance... But to be annoyed that they even exist?!

No-one is forcing you to buy anything, but now the option is available for anyone that wants a faster graphics solution.

You're not a luddite, are you?!
 
doesn't seem to have the performance or the price value need. It seems only slightly faster than a 285 but yet a £100 more or you can get a 2GB 285 or a 285 with 3d glasses for the same price as the 5870.
 
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AcidHell2 said:
doesn't seem to have the performance or the price value need. It seems only slightly faster than a 285 but yet a £100 more or you can get a 2GB 285 or a 285 with 3d glasses for the same price as the 5870.
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I felt it was more hot on the 295's heels especially since they're only on beta drivers.
 
I've only had time to read one review but from what I've read, if you have a dual GPU set up and game at the most popular resolutions (1680x1050, 1920x1080 or 1920x1200) then you're still better off with two GTX285's over two 5870's, given that your giving away only a couple of FPS but saving c. £200.

I'm quite surprised at that and would have expected Xfire on these to be dynamite. Interested to see what the driver updates do.
 
It's pretty clear having flicked through the reviews that the 5870 is the fastest single GPU card by a clear margin, which is great, but it's too expensive to make me bite.
 
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