5770 vs 5850

[zephyr948]

I'm doing a new build but I'm stuck on the gpu. I can afford to crossfire 2 5770's or get one 5850. I can always buy another 5850 later on down the road to crossfire that as well. What would be the better option here?

 

[Frizzo]

depends what the rest of your system is.

 

[zephyr948]

amd 955 or amd 965, 4 gigs of ram. You need anything else?

 

[Frizzo]

the phenom quad? as long as that ram isnt like bottom barrell 1066 and you have it on a decent motherboard, would definitely get the 5850. the 5770 is like what id put into an old timers box to make them think they are cutting edge.

 

[zephyr948]

ram will be 1333 or 1600. As far as mobo it's an 870 chipset.

 

[razzor03]

try to get 5850. if u cant, u have to do with 5770. 5770 is good enough to run most games at 1680x1050 at high quality.

 

[Onus]

A HD5770 will run many games at 1920x1080. You may need to lower a setting or two, but it is a powerful card that does quite well and sips juice.

 

[zephyr948]

Ok, I'm probably just going to use a single card right now. I can probably afford a 5850 I just gotta figure out if the cost difference is worth it right now.

 

[nativeson8803]

Go with the single 5850. Prices will drop soon and you'll be in a position to crossfire those.

 

[zephyr948]

Ya, that's what I was thinking plus I'd be in a better position for future games as I wouldn't have to upgrade as soon.

 

[surda]

i have an i5 750 with 5770, its a good card, i run CODMW2, UT3, left 4 dead and gta4 at highest settings on 1680x1050 with no lag, so if you already have a 5770 then go with another one and do a crossfire, if you dont and wanna get one then i suggest getting nvidia gtx 460 as they are very powerful cards and scale up to 98% when doing sli.

just my 2 cent.

 

[aznshinobi]

Like all of the opinions I'd go with the 5850. Remember though all the prices are dropping. The 5850 you really want to look at are the reference designs or the Asus DirectCU or Mayyybeee the MSI twin frozr.

The reason for those specific 5850s is because the Asus DirectCu 5850 and reference design 5850's have unlocked voltages. The reason unlocked voltage tweaking is so useful is most people who have a 5850 that can tweak the voltages can OC the 5850 to 1000 core clock which at that point it scores 18125 on 3DMark Vantage (I know this because I've tested it). The reason I wouldn't choose the Twin Frozr is because although it is somewhat cheap, it actually runs hotter than the reference design.

Asus DirectCU 5850 TOP review: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/35922-asus-radeon-hd-5850-1gb-directcu-top-review-15.html

There is the version without the "Top" which is a lot cheaper, the only difference is the TOP is factory OC'd a bit, but still either the model with TOP or not the DirectCU is a best as it is very cool.

 

[spentshells]

5850 I have the 5770 @ 1080P it's just a little shy of the performance I wanted
mind you its been 8 months since I purchased it

 

[zephyr948]

Thanks for the input. I will end up going with the 5850 now I just have to figure out cooling.

 

[aznshinobi]

What do you mean figuring out the cooling?

 

[zephyr948]

well I'm building a whole new system, so I had to figure out what's going into it to know what type of cooler and such to get.

 

[megamanx00]

I say go with a 5850 now and add another one latter.

 

[aznshinobi]

Ohh, But cooling like how so? Like case fans? Or like CPU Heatsinks? or like which 5850 cooling system?

 

[zephyr948]

mostly the heatsink

 

[zephyr948]

Best answer selected by zephyr948.

 

[mischieffrk]

2 5770s are enough to run any game pretty well in hd(probably not for long though whith crysis 2 coming soon) but are about the same as one 5850, so 2 5850s would be alot beter than 2 5770s and more future proof but use more power. Totaly cool to go with 2 5770s if you just want to settle for "enough"