Graphic Cards 5970 or 5850CF?

A

abtom

Disciple
Hello!
I currently own a HD 4890 1GB and it was doing pretty fine until games like Just Cause 2, Metro 2033 and Battlefielf Bad Company 2 showed up on the scene. All those games a giving quite a hard time to my card. So, I have made my mind to sell this card off and but a HD 5970 or 5850 CF but I'm kind of confused between the 2.

I play games at 1920x1200 and don't want to compromise on the graphics. Which card(s) should I go for?

Thanks :)
 
If you can wait 2~3 weeks, the GTX 480 ll be here. It has many cons like too high power consumption, heats up a lot etc, but is almost as fast as the HD5970.

Or go for 5870 CF. :)
 
5870CF? :S

Isnt that an overkill for the resolution mentioned by the OP?

@ OP : get a single 5870 and then if and only if there is a need for more power, add another one. :)
 
+1 for 5870, if the need is felt then add one more.
GTX480 is 15-20% faster than the HD5870, IMO you could (not really required, still ....)get a factory overcloked HD5870 for slightly less than the price of the GTX480, this would bring the performance GAP to around 5% or lesser, but more importantly you will have a quieter, cooler and efficient card.
 
I am also in the same boat as OP. dont know whether to choose 5970 or 5870CF or 5850CF for my new upgrade, i already own one 5850 atm. according to guru3d review on 5970 overclocking guide, the performance boost already outperformed 5870CF and 5850CF in most of the tested games including Vantage GPU score. any words from 5970 user here?
 
pcgamers said:
I am also in the same boat as OP. dont know whether to choose 5970 or 5870CF or 5850CF for my new upgrade, i already own one 5850 atm. according to guru3d review on 5970 overclocking guide, the performance boost already outperformed 5870CF and 5850CF in most of the tested games including Vantage GPU score. any words from 5970 user here?
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Why dont you and the OP go for 5970CF :p

That should quench you thirst for power and demonstrate what "overkill" is actually.
 
abtom said:
Hello!
I currently own a HD 4890 1GB and it was doing pretty fine until games like Just Cause 2, Metro 2033 and Battlefielf Bad Company 2 showed up on the scene. All those games a giving quite a hard time to my card. So, I have made my mind to sell this card off and but a HD 5970 or 5850 CF but I'm kind of confused between the 2.

I play games at 1920x1200 and don't want to compromise on the graphics. Which card(s) should I go for?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

A 5870 with a 3rd party cooler such as the MSI Twin Frozr II or the Sapphire Toxic should be a notch better than those reference design heatsinks.

Just curious but what processor is it? Since I found BBC2 pretty easy on my system with all settings maxed out with the HBAO turned off. It is only when those explosions turn up, the frames drop a bit.
 
Its useless to get a CF ATI HD 5870. its extra overkill. Tell me at present time which game is getting lag on a single HD5870? i guess crysis. else in every game you will get more than 100 FPS in almost every game.(if you have a good CPU with good core clock). so buddy wait for Crysis 2 to launch, if you feel like its getting too much lag then you can CF your HD5870. And ill say not to go for GTX 470 or 480 they are useless. for just 15-20% boost in performance(not in every game) why should we spend so much on PSU and cooling system. so i suggest go for a single HD5870 or if can't wait go for HD5850 CF not HD5870 CF nor HD5970.
 
Thanks a lot guys for all your replies. I see that most of you have recommended a 5870 but as I said I'll either buy 5850CF or 5970. Not really interested in 5870.

rite said:
What CPU do you have?

JC2 and BC2 run should okay with a 4890 and definitely at 1680x1050.
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I have a AMD Phenom II 955.

Happy Singh said:
Its useless to get a CF ATI HD 5870. its extra overkill. Tell me at present time which game is getting lag on a single HD5870? i guess crysis. else in every game you will get more than 100 FPS in almost every game.(if you have a good CPU with good core clock). so buddy wait for Crysis 2 to launch, if you feel like its getting too much lag then you can CF your HD5870. And ill say not to go for GTX 470 or 480 they are useless. for just 15-20% boost in performance(not in every game) why should we spend so much on PSU and cooling system. so i suggest go for a single HD5870 or if can't wait go for HD5850 CF not HD5870 CF nor HD5970.
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Yeah, GTX480/470 are toasters and grillers and rather useless. Not going with nvidia this time.

When I bought my 4890 back in June 09, I assumed that it would do pretty fine with the new games for at least 2 years but obviously it didn't. I don't really want this to happen with my new card, so I guess I should go for the best card on the market.

Keep the comments flowing in people. I've got a good week with me before I buy the card.
 
abtom said:
Thanks a lot guys for all your replies. I see that most of you have recommended a 5870 but as I said I'll either buy 5850CF or 5970. Not really interested in 5870.

Keep the comments flowing in people. I've got a good week with me before I buy the card.
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You are contradicting your own self. You have already decided what you want. Why wait for others to comment when most of us have concluded on a 5870 ? :S :lol:

Happy wasting money :)
 
Will 5870 max out Crysis on 1920x1200? My main purpose is to buy a card that would run Crysis 2 on high settings with decent famerates.
 
abtom said:
Will 5870 max out Crysis on 1920x1200? My main purpose is to buy a card that would run Crysis 2 on high settings:S with decent famerates.
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What you mean high or very high?? :S and crysis 2 is not yet release how can one comment on its performance

If very high in crysis 1 Your answer is-No- at that resolution you will get lag when heavy effect ill come like bomb exploding on HD5870 with Phenom 2 955....why you just concentrating on one game i.e crysis. its the most heaviest game ever made. i think a i7 950(with max OCed) with at-least 3 HD 5870 will have no lag in crysis(correct me if i am wrong).

Why don't you go through some benchmarks of HD5870 AND HD 5850 CF.
 
|Anish| said:
You are contradicting your own self. You have already decided what you want. Why wait for others to comment when most of us have concluded on a 5870 ? :S :lol:

Happy wasting money :)
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He mentioned very clearly in the opening post that he wants inputs to decide between 5970 and 5850 Crossfire. Its alright to suggest something else, but please don't make stupid statements like he is wasting money just because he does not want to buy what you suggested. :no:

It may seem like a waste of money for you, but it may not be for him. There are a lot of people in world who may find your latest Core i7 and DDR3 RAM a waste of money when you can get a working computer for less than 10k and they would rather blow that 40k on a stupid wristwatch.

@abtom: Currently the most bang for the buck Dual GPU solution is 5850 Crossfire. Check out this review which has 5850 Crossfire numbers.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_5870_CrossFire/

You can also find other reviews if you Google. The difference between 5850 CF and 5870 CF is not too substantial in most cases and 5970 lies somewhere in between the two. 5850 CF costs about 30k, 5970 costs 37k and 5870CF costs 45k. IMO, 6k extra cost for the 5970 is not worth the performance diff from 5850CF, but the advantage with 5970 is that its a single card solution and it doesn't take up 4 slots like a dual card solution does leaving you space for other add on cards like TV tuner or sound cards.

One more thing, don't get a Crossfire solution if you run your CPU at anything less than 3.2 GHz on a quad and 3.5 GHz on a dual core
 
+1 for Lord Nemesis statement. If you just concentrate on crysis performance then even HD5970 is not enough that too with phenom 2 955 (CPU will bottleneck). so eyes close go for Sapphire HD 5850 CF and have happy gaming.

@Lord Nemesis that link is not working.
 
^^ Actually Crysis performance is important because, more than a game, its a benchmark that pushes every component in the system to their limits. If a card can crysis with ease, its fair to assume that it can run everything else with ease till the time some developer manages to make a game more stressing than Crysis.
 
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