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

kkbigal said:
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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TechPowerUp did an average of all the tests and came up with this as a fairly decent comparison of all the tested cards across the board, including their 'emulated' 5850, which they underclocked and killed some stream processors to 'create' from the 5870, to the spec of the 5850:
perfrel.gif


Says it all really - the 5870 is as powerful as the 4870x2, is usefully quicker than the 285.

The 5850 is the shocker though, being so close to the 5870 for so much less.

HTH.
 
I'm surprised that the 5870 only just about matches the 4870 X2, actually. I never realised crossfire was just as efficient as doubling up the resources in the core. :p
 
wolvers69 said:
It's worth bearing in mind they didn't actually test a 5850.
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I mentioned that in my post - they softmodded it to the published 5850 spec in terms of GPU/RAM speed and shader count [as far as I can tell, the only differences between the boards], so it should be a reasonable estimate of it's performance.
 
StevenRaith said:
TechPowerUp did an average of all the tests and came up with this as a fairly decent comparison of all the tested cards across the board, including their 'emulated' 5850, which they underclocked and killed some stream processors to 'create' from the 5870, to the spec of the 5850:
perfrel.gif


Says it all really - the 5870 is as powerful as the 4870x2, is usefully quicker than the 285.

The 5850 is the shocker though, being so close to the 5870 for so much less.

HTH.
Click to expand...


As I posted earlier, I saw this comparison with the 5870 versus the 5850, and across a good few games the 5850 is fairly close to the 5870 (I think so anyway) and a good £100 cheaper, its why the 5850 is the one I'm going for (subject to pukka benchies that is, ati "might" limit the performance somewhat to widen the gap between these two cards, probably not, but you never know)
As said, the 5850 could be a shocker, especially if it clocks to near or further than a stock 5870, theres only the 166 less stream processors left to lower the performance.
Heres hoping.:)

Edit: if I'm not mistaken (please correct me if I am) but I think I read somewhere that the 5850 is shorter than the 5870 so less chance of having to replace me case as well.
 
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I've heard it's closer to 9", but I haven't seen a source for that, only posts on here.

But yeah, a straight 5850, and an OC 5850 on the benches would be extremely interesting.
 
StevenRaith said:
I mentioned that in my post - they softmodded it to the published 5850 spec in terms of GPU/RAM speed and shader count [as far as I can tell, the only differences between the boards], so it should be a reasonable estimate of it's performance.
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Sorry, didn't read that bit. :o

I agree it's a reasonable way to gauge the performance.

pieman109 said:
Edit: if I'm not mistaken (please correct me if I am) but I think I read somewhere that the 5850 is shorter than the 5870 so less chance of having to replace me case as well.
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You probably read a few posts up that it's 9.5"!
 
danceMB said:
What is the comparison like between the HD5870 and the GTX295?
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Trading punches really, they are quite close overall, but the 5870 is a single GPU device [whereas the 295 is dual GPU] so less power used, no SLI/CF game profiles to worry about, lower power usage, for overall similar performance and price.
 
Originally Posted by StevenRaith View Post
I mentioned that in my post - they softmodded it to the published 5850 spec in terms of GPU/RAM speed and shader count [as far as I can tell, the only differences between the boards], so it should be a reasonable estimate of it's performance.
Click to expand...

It'll be a bit slower than the emulated 5850 as well though as the simd/rops/alu units are down clocked as well compared to a 5870. I'd imagine the 12% perf difference to turn into something nearer 17/18% or bang on the 285 speed.
 
I am waiting for the 5870X2 before i purchase anything, but looking at these prices it might be £550+ which i am not ever going to pay for a graphics card.
 
Wierd - it makes a 4870x2 look interesting again!
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Interesting if you can find one for sale that is - I bet everywhere is out of stock, esp if the cards are sub £280.

But why go dual gpu with all the inherent problems that comes with that setup when there is a single gpu card out that's better?

I am waiting for the 5870X2 before i purchase anything, but looking at these prices it might be £550+ which i am not ever going to pay for a graphics card.
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Prediction of the day - I bet it comes in at £499.
 
As I put in the other thread..

There seem to be heat concerns with these new cards if you have a cramped box, I think I'm gonna wait until we get some aftermarket coolers or one of the name brands changes them about e.g. a vapor X type affair.
 
Hmm. At £300 it's a bit more than I was hoping, though not unexpected. Personally I'm going to hold off for the 5870X2 and hope that it isn't much more than £400 (which seems less likely now). However, I don't want to wait too long as my processor is being largely wasted at the moment.
 
amigafan2003 said:
It'll be a bit slower than the emulated 5850 as well though as the simd/rops/alu units are down clocked as well compared to a 5870. I'd imagine the 12% perf difference to turn into something nearer 17/18% or bang on the 285 speed.
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We simulated the performance of the HD 5850 by taking our HD 5870, reducing the clock speeds and disabling two SIMDs, which results in exactly the same performance as HD 5850.
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Why? They reduced the clock speeds to match the speed of the 5850, too, and the 5800 series don't have separate clock speed domains like the GeForce cards do.
 
D13 said:
damn that looks cool, i hope that we see custom coolers before the end of the year
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Yeah looks nice, just a shame the power connectors are on the end, as the buggers are long enough already, be about 12-13 inches with them there, ridiculous, should have put them along the side like the references.

I hope we get some other custom cooled ones with the power connectors on the sides like the refs, as ill never fit one if not, and im not getting a WERRRRRRRRRR, they went out with the arc them bloody things, had the buggers since the x1800's, jesus just get em changed ffs :/
 
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