Worthy upgrade from a 280gtx

[bakes0310]

Basically i dont wanna spend no more than £500 and as far as i can tell heres my options:

1) buy Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5970 at £499 bang on budget
2) wait until nvidias card are out to see if there better, or if not hopefully lower the 5970 price.

Number 2 is the obvious choice, unless its been sourced somewhere the results of nvidias cards at being worse than the 5970.

 

[alex24]

No harm in waiting to see. I find my GTX280 very capable.

 

[rhys216]

Number 2 is the obvious choice, unless its been sourced somewhere the results of nvidias cards at being worse than the 5970.

If you believe some rumours, the GTX480 is about only 5% faster than standard 5870, so probably not going to be as fast a as a 5970.

 

[rhys216]

No harm in waiting to see. I find my GTX280 very capable.

That's what people were saying in september.

 

[DeadMan]

I would replace it with a 5870, then later down the line you can add another one.

 

[bakes0310]

I would replace it with a 5870, then later down the line you can add another one.

I'd rather have one awesome card rather than two good cards

 

[mr griffin]

A 5970 is 2 cards in one! and 2 x 5870 is a faster option. I would choose 2 x 5870's over a 5970 every time, unless limmited by the motherboard to do so. From what people have show results wise though I would just get 2 x Asus 5850's and clock the nuts off them and use the pocketed £200 for something else, maybe a nice ssd or monitor or even a couple of good nights out. As for what Nvidia have to offer if rumors are true its not looking too good for them, shame really because for no other reason than I just do I actually prefer an Nvidia card in my pc + competeion is always good for us the consumer.

 

[The_au_viper]

a gtx280 is ok, but really the 5870 spanks it every way. Features(dx11, eyefinity etc), value, speed, performance and potential.

Nvidia's cards? well who knows, they could take months to get here and still be only 10% faster for more money.

Grab a 5870 then eventually 2, they are currently the single fastest GPU money can buy and at a reasonable price.

Personally i think nvidia are in deep trouble. Their cards a promising a lot of perforamance and features but you can get all that right now from ATI. Months before nvidia, and thats even if they can deliver on promises which im starting to doubt

 

[mame]

Well I'm planning on keeping my year old £140 GTX 260 untill there is a DX11 card 30%+ faster for £140-£160ish

Ask yourself, are you thinking of buying the £500 card because it's just what you want or because really there is no worthwhile upgrade and you want to upgrade. Stop reading graphics card reviews and play some games for a bit.

 

[bakes0310]

I really am leaning towards getting 2x5870 im sure they will be a beast.
Questions though:
1) 1000w psu enough
2) 5870 will they fit in a akasa 62 eclipse
3) crossfire is it easy to setup, is in your drivers?
4) the crossfire bridge thing does that come with the graphics card cause i didnt get one with the motherboard.

 

[Frozennova]

I'd wait till the end of next month now nvidia have announce the cards will be unveiled on the 26th march. No point spending £500 and finding their 4 series cards spank the Ati stuff and if Nvidia are still behind with the times then pick up an ati card or two.

Theres no harm waiting, but there is harm buying hardware that is close to end of life

 

[bakes0310]

I'd wait till the end of next month now nvidia have announce the cards will be unveiled on the 26th march. No point spending £500 and finding their 4 series cards spank the Ati stuff and if Nvidia are still behind with the times then pick up an ati card or two.

Theres no harm waiting, but there is harm buying hardware that is close to end of life

Yead im waiting till nvidias cards come out just so they lower ati's prices

 

[bakes0310]

I really am leaning towards getting 2x5870 im sure they will be a beast.
Questions though:
1) 1000w psu enough
2) 5870 will they fit in a akasa 62 eclipse
3) crossfire is it easy to setup, is in your drivers?
4) the crossfire bridge thing does that come with the graphics card cause i didnt get one with the motherboard.

anyone

 

[OrphanBoy]

Haha
1. Yes, definitely - this sounds like overkill to me
2. No idea
3. Yes - I did this for the first time a few days ago: you plug in your cards, let Windows detect them, turn the machine off, connect the Crossfire bridge, turn the machine back on - done. You can then toggle Crossfire on/off through the tray icon, no reboot necessary.
4. You get a Crossfire bridge with each card purchased.

 

[bakes0310]

when you got two cards in your pc, which graphics card do you put the vga/dvi connector into?

 

[Marine-RX179]

I would say wait. Not only you could see what nvidia Fermi has to offer, but ATI 5890 and 5990 as well which are said to be launched in first quarter of this year too:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=183470

I really am leaning towards getting 2x5870 im sure they will be a beast.

I think 2x5870 could be overkill. May be the 5890 would meet your expectation and doesn't cost as much as close to £600 I think?

 

[thevet]

wait for fermi to be released before you buy any gpu

 

[neblemak]

Ask yourself, are you thinking of buying the £500 card because it's just what you want or because really there is no worthwhile upgrade and you want to upgrade. Stop reading graphics card reviews and play some games for a bit.

This man speaks a lot of sense.