4870 VS. GTX 260 VS. 5770 VS. 5850

[seerwan]

Dear Toms Forums Dudes,

I currently want to upgrade my VGA card, but I can't decide:-

1. NVIDIA GTX 260
2. ATI HD 4870
3. ATI HD 5770
4. ATI HD 5850

I currently game at 1280x1024, but I’ll be buying a new monitor that’ll maximum go to 1680x1050 (beyond that on a monitor with 20-so inches is costly and utterly unnecessary, IMO).

My current specs are:-
• Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 @ 2.8 Ghz
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• Hard Disk One 500 GB
• Hard Disk Two 250 GB
• ASRock G31M-S Mobo
• 400 Watt PSU (though with a new card I will of course upgrade to 550 Watts)

What do you say? The power savings on the 5770 are incredible, and I am an ATI supporter, but I would buy an NVIDIA if there’s better performance at the same price point...

Thanks.

 

[Maziar]

5850>4870~=GTX 260>5770.
5770 is a good card and performs well but it loses to HD 4870 in most games however it has DX11 and eyefinity,but if you can get the 5850 then go for it and don't look back

 

[xaira]

looks good, go 5770 or 5850

 

[jebie]

5850 very good price/performance for me compare the others! personal opinion...good luck...update us once you decided and test the performance

 

[marney_5]

Definatly 5770 or 5850!

 

[Aro2220]

I've heard that 5000 series ATI cards work in crossfire better than previous models. The power savings are pretty good, too. Compared to the GTX 260, I think the 5770 is almost half the energy cost and only marginally slower.

However the 5850 takes the cake but it's nearly impossible to find right now and even if you do, prices are high due to demand. It'll be like that until after Christmas.

 

[bob_rivets]

Honestly, if you're even contemplating about buying a 260 and you really want one.. Buy a 9800 and just put a 260GT sticker on it..

That's quite honestly what super markets did to sell theri old 9800's -- basically.. there's no difference between them..

5770 would be a great card to buy for AU$212 (xFx OC edition) -- Will be great in crossfire (as the previous comment stated)

 

[invisik]

^ There is a great difference between a gtx 260 and 9800gt.

 

[rolli59]

For 1680 x 1050 on vista or 7 I would go with HD5770.
On XP I would go with HD4870/90

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

HD5850 best long term, HD5770 best for price/performance heading forward.

And depending on the quality of the 400W PSU you might be fine with just that if it was a very good quality one with a 6 pin PCIe connector for the HD5770, but expect to get a new one for any card if it isn't, and the other cards definitely not.

 

[srikar123]

well this is an indirect reply ,but think it shld be helpful

http://pcgamersera.com/2010/01/a-faster-dx-10-card-or-a-slower-dx-11-card/

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Your E5300 at stock will bottleneck a 5850 by a noticeable amount (and still bottleneck if OCed). I wouldn't recommend going above a 4890 or GTX275 for even an overclocked E5300.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469-16.html


Your best option is to get a 4870 1GB or 5770 and also overclock your cpu. A GTX260 performs the same as those two but costs $30 to $40 more.

 

[spentshells]

too little to late Im sure
but if you overclock to 4 ghz your not going to be bottlenecking anything in that list by any terrible amount

 

[sedaine]

too little to late Im sure
but if you overclock to 4 ghz your not going to be bottlenecking anything in that list by any terrible amount

You'll bottleneck HD 5850.

 

[SKL_H]

I would say go for GTX260 it is a performer well I guess I am saying this cause I am using it and I can play just about any game including Batman: Arkham Asylum with everything to the max and crysis

 

[nedbenj]

I know this is an old thread, but the person who said a GTX260 is basically the same as a 9800 is talking utter rubbish. The GTX260 has 1.75 times the pixel fill rate, nearly twice the memory bandwidth (111.88 GB/sec as opposed to 57.6 GB/sec) and a bus width of 448 bits instead of 256 bits, 714 GFLOPS instead of 336 GFLOPS, 192 shader processors rather than 112, and so on.... the GTX260 performs considerably better.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey