Aura Posted September 23, 2009 Report Posted September 23, 2009 Radeon HD 5870 review Newegg's Stock (or lack thereof) I don't know how closely anyone else here follows the desktop GPU market, but for anyone else as intrigued as I am, this card is a BEAST. I am shocked to see it beat the GTX295 in a few game benches, and it runs pretty damn close behind in 3DMark Vantage (about as authoritative a benchmark as you can find). Not since Nvidia's 8 series have I been charged for a new release. I'm also glad to see that ATI is the one to enter the DX11 fray first; Nvidia has clearly been lagging in the aftermath of the 8 series success and it's time they feel the pressure from competition to put out something that is not only capable, but priced considerably better. The GTX series is decent, don't get me wrong, but the GTX285 is priced on par (or slightly below) with the 5870 and will get its ass handed to it in every possible way. Anyone going to adopt early? I plan on waiting for a while, I'd like to see it get closer to $300 but that is probably 6 months away. Maybe 5850?
falkon Posted September 23, 2009 Report Posted September 23, 2009 I really dislike ATI drivers (unless they've changed significantly) so I will not likely buy one anytime soon. This is surprising, though. I've thought ATI was dead in the water since nvidia 8.
Aura Posted September 23, 2009 Author Report Posted September 23, 2009 The drivers seem very love/hate, never in between. And remember, the performance we are seeing right now is with exceptionally early (even beta) drivers, and it is suggested that the card will push further as the it matures. ATi was dead probably from 2900XT through 3870/3870X2. The 4 series has been a success mostly because ATi is just willing to price their cards far better than Nvidia. The exemplar of this is the 4890.
robm321 Posted September 23, 2009 Report Posted September 23, 2009 The 4850 I just bought (I like the mid market since I put my money into audio) not only has better quality, but is faster than Nvidia cards in the price range. I am an ATI fan now. But the drivers and heat are real issues compared to Nvidia.
mirumu Posted September 23, 2009 Report Posted September 23, 2009 Definitely looks impressive. I'm not going to go up to a 5870 just yet myself as I've got a 4890 which isn't really being stressed by any games currently. My card has a Vapor-X cooler so neither heat or noise are much of a problem. I've not seen any driver issues either with any of the games I play although I can understand people not liking the Catalyst Control Center. I think a lot of what gets classified as driver issues are actually bad Direct X installs. For those waiting NVidia does have a new GPU on the way soon too. I think it's due Oct/Nov. ATI has been beating them on price/performance for some time though.
TC_Shadow Posted September 23, 2009 Report Posted September 23, 2009 something to look forward to for black Friday
Aura Posted September 23, 2009 Author Report Posted September 23, 2009 i don't know about that, the 260GTX 216 is cheap and fast. In general, the 4870 beats the 260 for value. It competes with the GTX275 somewhat as well. I would say that the 260 probably has the most value in Nvidia's lineup at the moment.
deepak Posted September 24, 2009 Report Posted September 24, 2009 The 4870 and 4850 are really good values.
deepak Posted September 24, 2009 Report Posted September 24, 2009 no way. the 260 generally mops the floor with the 4870 in performance, and isn't that much more expensive. This review shows the 4870 beating the 260 in a lot of benchmarks. Radeon HD 4870: Better Than GTX 260! : Introduction - Review Tom's Hardware
mirumu Posted September 24, 2009 Report Posted September 24, 2009 no way. the 260 generally mops the floor with the 4870 in performance, and isn't that much more expensive. Is this with newer drivers or something? The two cards were pretty close in all the benchmarks I've seen and if anything favored the 4870 slightly. The 4870 can be pretty noisy with it's stock fan though which would make me think twice about it.
DigiPete Posted September 24, 2009 Report Posted September 24, 2009 I got a 4850 that would not get past POST. Returned it for a second which crashes on 3D apps.... sent it back RMA..... not too enthused by ATI cards right now
Les_Garten Posted November 13, 2009 Report Posted November 13, 2009 I have a 4870x2, a really great card, and have been using ATI cards since the late 90's. Their drivers and software are the best they've ever been. But that ain't saying a lot. To have to occasionally format to fix a driver issue is nuts. The 4870x2 though has had zero issues, and runs Crysis pretty well! The 5870 looks pretty killer, Hmmm X2 version...
TC_Shadow Posted November 13, 2009 Report Posted November 13, 2009 I have a 4870x2, a really great card, and have been using ATI cards since the late 90's. Their drivers and software are the best they've ever been. But that ain't saying a lot. To have to occasionally format to fix a driver issue is nuts. The 4870x2 though has had zero issues, and runs Crysis pretty well! The 5870 looks pretty killer, Hmmm X2 version... What's the size of your power supply? I like to get an x2 card but I don't think my PS can take it. I am running a water-cooled tower on a 480W Antec, with CPU Q6600/8GB mem/NV 9800 GPU all OCed and 4 750G HD.
Les_Garten Posted November 13, 2009 Report Posted November 13, 2009 What's the size of your power supply? I like to get an x2 card but I don't think my PS can take it. I am running a water-cooled tower on a 480W Antec, with CPU Q6600/8GB mem/NV 9800 GPU all OCed and 4 750G HD. I don't have the chip you have or water cooling. I have an OC'd 6850. I do have 6 1TB HDs though. The Power supply is a 1000w CoolerMaster that came as a package deal with the case. The case is a CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evolution. I think a 480w would not work for my card. But a 600w might work.
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