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

[aardvark]

so what sort of power requirements and how long is the 5850 card? - they are the main reasons i've not upgraded from a 8800gt. anything longer than a 8800gt is too long and i only have a 460w psu.

thanks

 

[Deleted member 66701]

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.

I think mine will be fine in my airy LianLi V2000B Still going to water cool them though

5800 series don't have separate clock speed domains like the GeForce cards do.

Yes they do.

 

[Duran]

I think it has rendered the 295 obsolete hasnt it?

It's generally cheaper, has close performance to the 295 beating it sometimes, DX11 and most important of all you don't have the faff with multiGPU.

Unless the price was significantly different who would buy a 295 over a 5870 now?

I'm not knocking the 295 and I'm sure owners of it are very happy.

you missed the point my friend. was it pointless to buy a gtx 295 back then? not at all. 9 months after its still the top gpu and imagine all the fun owners had all this time. many people were claiming that the gtx 295 will become obsolete in 2-4 months after its release.

i agree with you though that nvidia needs to drop the price of the gtx 295. if that happens it wont be pointless at all as it will hold its value until more dx11 games come out and nvidia releases its own dx 11 gpus.

P.S how come there are no real reviews of the 5850?

 

[RavenXXX2]

so what sort of power requirements and how long is the 5850 card? - they are the main reasons i've not upgraded from a 8800gt. anything longer than a 8800gt is too long and i only have a 460w psu.

thanks

From ATI.

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)

I would suggest a branded PSU with 40AMPS on the 12v rail. card length is 28 cm/11 inch

 

[aardvark]

From ATI.


I would suggest a branded PSU with 40AMPS on the 12v rail. card length is 28 cm/11 inch

thanks - are you sure that is the length of the 5850 and not the 5870?
i only ask 'cos the pics on the shop site suggest the 5850 might be reasonably short, and 28cm is pretty long.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Yeah sorry, I was quoting for the 5870..doh, anyway the 5850 is the same PSU wise and the length is 9.5"/24 cm.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Absolute stonkers imo, a single card thats up with the 2x card 295 on early beta drivers, can't really see how anyone can't be impressed with that.

 

[MoRT489]

How come there are no 5850 reviews yet?

 

[wolvers]

probably because they are about a week behind.

 

[antipacker]

no doubt its a good card.

but the price is just a little steep.

hd4890 all maxed out @ 1920x1200 runs very smoothly

i just cant see any reason to upgrade to a 5870 i dont think i will see any real gains.

 

[manic111]

From ATI.


I would suggest a branded PSU with 40AMPS on the 12v rail. card length is 28 cm/11 inch

Should be fine with my Corsair HX520 then

 

[nutter]

Very clear the 5870 is no value at all when compared with 5850. Unless the price comes down, then im defo getting a 5850 in my system, the 5850 looks a STEAL at £200.

 

[Jay_t]

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.

£230 for a release day card?

Yes, these aren't much more than 300 bucks in the US after rebates and last time time I looked the dollar/conversion rate wasn't 1:1.

Don't get me wrong, I don't blame retailers for milking the early adopters, but these cards will likely be around £230 before christmas. Just look how quickly the 4890s came down.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Should be fine with my Corsair HX520 then

Yeah should be no probs, or for me, vx550w

 

[Raikiri]

Try something recent like HAWX @ 1920x1200 maxed out then tell us how your 8800gt is doing.

1920x1080, everything on/high, 4xAA - 58fps Average 124fps max

 

[PakJai]

Wow I'm truely amazed at the price. It's a steal imo!
Look at NV295's price in comparison to the 5870.
9month old tech that doesn't perform as well being £50+ more is just wrong in my book.

 

[mjones1]

The only thing stopping me from getting this card is the noise.
I know it's sd not to buy a pc part just because it's loud but if i spend £200 i want it to be perfect.

 

[r0cky]

Should be fine with my Corsair HX520 then

I hope so, as that's my PSU as well.

 

[Tom|Nbk]

Competitor just got my hard earnt for a sapphire looking forward to it

 

[kablooey]

What is the best way to get rid of my Nvidia drivers without re-installing windows (Vista 64) and which ATI drivers should I be using?