Scrap the 5870 and just overclock the 5850?

You could overclock the 5850 but you would never reach the same performance you would get out of a 5870. The 5870 has 1600 stream processors, while the 5850 has 1440 stream processors. In general, the 5850 performs a little better than the GTX 285, while the 5870 performs a bit lower than a GTX 295. So if possible I would try to go with the 5870.

5850 will save you some money...
And the resolution at which you play, the 5850 will perform beautifully.
So I will suggest a 5850.

You can CF anytime.

It's stricly a measure of what numbers you wanna get versus what you want to spend. Comparing the cost of the cards is a fool's errand as the card increases the performance of the entire machine. SO while £100 seems significant, it has to be looked at really as, for example, a £2100 box versus a £2000 box.

A 5870 will always be faster than a 5850....yes, eou can OC a 5850 to near 5870 specs but by the same token you can OC a 5870.

And before XMas we'll see Revision B hardware which perform a bit betetr than the Revision A cards out now. Then the manufacturer's will also be releasing non reference designs which will be faster than what you can buy today.

And the 5870x2 will be out as well as nVidia's offerings. It's the "Neverending Story" all over gain. I used to subscribe to an audiophile magazine called the "Absolute Sound" which covered hi end audio. It came out quarterly and I used to call it the "Obsolete Sound" cause whatever they called "State of the Art" in say the Fall issue, was oft determined to be "unlistenable" in the winter issue. The PC industry is pretty much the same albeit with a bit more bleeding on the "bleeding edge".

So you just gotta do one of the following:

a) Bite the bullet, pick one and lock "buyer's remorese" in the closet.
b) Wait till each generation reaches the end of it's run (ATI's 4870x2 or nVidia's GTX 295) buy a month after it hits the streets and then sit pretty for 6 months knowing you have the "top dog" .... well at least till the next generation starts the process all over again.

Ever?


You could get the 5850 now... and if in the future you need more horsepower, whack another in



I assume you are not intending to change your monitor in the next year or 2 either?

So what you will be getting/

To me it's all about how long you're keeping it?

Until Fermi or the AMD Heck-weird-name-core thing comes out next year ?

The 5850 will play with the 5870 when overclocked and when even both are overclocked... for now IMO.

It's somewhat similar, but not as bad as, the GF8800GTX vs GTS, where if you OC'ed the GTS-640 or even 320, you could get very similar performance in the then primarily DX9 SM2.0 some SM3.0 game landscape, but over time there was little overclock that could keep the GTS competitive as the games got more demanding.

Increasing memory clocks beyond spec usually increase errors, and gets you diminishing returns. And as was mentioned the HD5870 can OC too, and sometime you get better parts on some too.

If you're buying short term with an intention to replace/refresh mid-late 2010 then I'd say 5850 will be fine, but if you're planning on pushing well into the DX11 and compute future, then the 5870 will start to show its legs once the two are stressed and the advantage of more cores and faster/wider memory give it a bit more spread.

Right now I'd say we haven't been stressing them hard enough to make a difference, and they will distance themselves from the competition and each other over time.

And I say this also because money seems not to be an issue (the Irish & German in me) , but don't like to waste it (the Scottish & Dutch [Frisian] in me).

£100/$150 is alot, so it's still a few beers or a few game titles, so nothing to sneeze at, but I'd say it would become worth it, the longer the life in the rig (of which OCing tends to shorten).

Also remember that the resale will also be slightly better when/if it's time to sell, but probably on £25 difference or so at that time.

Crossfire 5850's, single 5870.

Upgrade cycle is yearly. I understand your maths but I really do not like having a two card solution. It's double the noise, double the heat and double the power consumption. Oh and microstuttering!

I would sya the HD5850 would be fine then, and that if you're renewing in about a year's time one the HEck-a-Core thing comes out, the LRB question is better revealed and Fermi/G3xx is clearer then the HD5850 is really a good short term solution that doesn't have major MAJOR titles coming out soon that I would be worried about (even CryEngine3 was playable on multi-monitors so that's somewhat reassuring that you won't be locked out, just maybe drop a setting at worst).

If you were looking for a 2 year build I would say HD5870, but nearer term the 5850 is a good investment of money and you can put that 100 pounds towards the next generation and worry less then hopefully, or at the very least buy alot of suds, which is always a good thing.