Can't find that ATI 58XX....so now what?

[patrickastan]

Building my own system for the first time and was shocked to see the availability (or lack thereof) of the new cards ATI (5850/5870) my friend recommended. He picked his up for ATI 5850 for $250....now prices for the 5850 in the 300's yet they are still really difficult to find.

My new plan is to go with a sub 100 card (or 2 cheap cards in crossfire/sli) until these prices get in order...or until Nvidia releases there new flagship cards.

So my question is what would you guys go with if you were in my position and you knew you wanted a nice graphics card but just could not find it at the moment? I can stomach running things on a lower setting until I get something nicer. I'm hoping to take advantage of cyber monday. Anyone see something that is a good value that I can use for a few months?

thx,

pat

 

[OvrClkr]

Yea the 5850 and 5870 are no longer considered bargins since they did go up in price quite a bit. You might be able to get a 5850 on e-bay for 375.00$ plus shipping but that is a rip-off in my opinion. Have you looked at the 5770's?

 

[patrickastan]

I took a brief look at them but I was thinking I can just go for the best value card I can find right now until the prices get back to a manageable level OR the new Nvidia cards come out. Then I can make the upgrade. I don't want to spend 200.00 then turn around and spend 300 in a couple months time.

 

[OvrClkr]

Well Nvidia aint releasing anything until March/April of next year so it will be quite a wait.... You can either get a 4850 ot GTS 250 until the newer cards are released.

XFX HD-485X-YDFC Radeon HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150337&cm_re=4850-_-14-150-337-_-Product

EVGA 512-P3-1150-TR GeForce GTS 250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130468&cm_re=GTS_250-_-14-130-468-_-Product

 

[JofaMang]

I was going to suggest a 4870 to hold you over, but the 4870 1gb cards are running so close in price to the 5770, it is really hard to recommend it these days. A few months ago NE had many 4870s as low as 130, but now only a few models in stock, starting at 155.

I think the 5770 is one of the best value cards available right now. Take into consideration their very efficient scaling so that crossfire performance matches or beats a 5850, and perhaps buying one now and adding another crossfire in the future might be an option for you.

 

[patrickastan]

I can hold out 4-5 months with crappy settings. Thanks for the recommendations. Looks like the Geforce might be just the ticket for the short term.

 

[patrickastan]

The 5770 still has value? I figured with the lack of 5850's all the 5xxx models would have risen.

Is a 5770 priced at 180.00 a good deal at the moment??

 

[Bluescreendeath]

For the price of two 5770s (~$340-$380 depending on the model), you might as well just get a single 5850 ($260-$300) or even a 5870 (~$400).

A 5770 priced at $180 is not a good deal. It performs the same as a 4870, which costs $30 less. For $180, you can get a 4890 which performs 15-20% better.

 

[microterf]

I just ordered a 4650 for my parents for under $60 from the egg.

I'd recommend something cheap like that until they start making the darn 58** cards again, and supply goes up. No point in throwing away too much money if you know you're going to get a higher card anyway.

 

[OvrClkr]

The 5850 is 309.99 + shipping, and that is if you are willing to hit the refresh button more than 1 million times the day they go back in stock. If you purchase it off e-bay it will be around 400.00$ shipped... IMO that is RIDICULOUS, the only option would be buying 2 5770's for a CF setup or buying a last-gen GPU....

Same goes for the 5870, 409.99$ + shipping or 500.00$ off e-bay =)

 

[patrickastan]

Aghh...even the 5770's aren't a great value right now. I guess there is no such thing as good value right now in the gpu world....I picked a bad time to build my first computer.

Alright then. Looks like I have to dial it down quality wise for a few months until things get better.

 

[patrickastan]

Oh and thanks for the replies everyone. I had a sneaking suspicion this is what I would end up doing.

While I'm thinking about it....does anyone know what would happen if I crossfire a low end gpu with a high end one? IIRC, I heard the stronger card ends up lowering some settings to match the weaker one....if thats the case in some instances is it better to just swap out cards instead of putting 2 together??

 

[JofaMang]

5770 for $160 with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161310&cm_re=5770-_-14-161-310-_-Product

I understand your concern for buying this sort of tech right now. Also of consideration is that a second one in a few months may be substantially cheaper. That the 58xx prices have gone up is not surprising, considering their supply issues. Looking at your inferred budget from my POV, this would be the only option for me. We won't see fermi until well into the next year, and investing in DX10 tech is a bit of a loosing battle, imo.

If you really just want a basic card to do some gaming on the cheap until fermi lands, or the 58xx supply chain is full, then you probably can't go wrong with a 4670, as mentioned above. It is a great card for a cheap price, and buying anything more expensive when DX11 is obviously important to you, would be throwing money away.

 

[JofaMang]

Oh and thanks for the replies everyone. I had a sneaking suspicion this is what I would end up doing.

While I'm thinking about it....does anyone know what would happen if I crossfire a low end gpu with a high end one? IIRC, I heard the stronger card ends up lowering some settings to match the weaker one....if thats the case in some instances is it better to just swap out cards instead of putting 2 together??

When you have two different GPUs in crossfire, the faster card will be downclocked and crippled to the same specs as the slower one. Just remember that the cards have to be in the same family to be crossfired, as shown in this chart:
http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/charts.html

If they don't line up in this chart, then you won't be able to crossfire the two cards at all.

 

[OvrClkr]

Aghh...even the 5770's aren't a great value right now. I guess there is no such thing as good value right now in the gpu world....I picked a bad time to build my first computer.

Alright then. Looks like I have to dial it down quality wise for a few months until things get better.

Not really, dual 5770's scale pretty well, and will get better as we get more mature drivers. I built a PC not too long ago with dual 5770's and they surprised me. In some games they perform up to par with the 5850 and 5870.

Paying 350.00$ (shipped) for 2 5770's is actually not that bad considering the performance.

http://guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/18

 

[JofaMang]

Not really, dual 5770's scale pretty well, and will get better as we get more mature drivers. I built a PC not too long ago with dual 5770's and they surprised me. In some games they perform up to par with the 5850 and 5870.

Paying 350.00$ (shipped) for 2 5770's is actually not that bad considering the performance.

http://guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/18

$320 for 2xHIS 5770 (free shipping). I am looking forward to see where the 5770 prices are in January, when I plan on my next build. Was hovering between 2x or 3x 5770, but am leaning now for trifire, since 2 of them scale so efficiently, I hope a 3rd won't take a massive hit in scaling efficiency. But if by some miracle the 5850s are close to their launch price by january, 2x those is an option, but am not optimistic that this will be the case.

 

[OvrClkr]

$320 for 2xHIS 5770 (free shipping). I am looking forward to see where the 5770 prices are in January, when I plan on my next build. Was hovering between 2x or 3x 5770, but am leaning now for trifire, since 2 of them scale so efficiently, I hope a 3rd won't take a massive hit in scaling efficiency. But if by some miracle the 5850s are close to their launch price by january, 2x those is an option, but am not optimistic that this will be the case.

What mobo will you be using for TRI-Fire? The only way I would use 3 of those cards would be with an X58 mobo that can provide 3 x16 lanes....

 

[JofaMang]

My current choice for Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363&cm_re=790_DDR3-_-13-131-363-_-Product

I have read a few 2x5770 user accounts around the web on x8/x8 mobos that show performance very close to the x16/x16 benchmarks that proliferate the reviews on this set up. I am extropolating the success of those x8/x8 rigs and hoping that running trifire 128bit cards over x8/x8/x8 will not be crippled too much, in theory anyway.

 

[notty22]

I built a new computer this month, went with the 4770. With a 20 inch monitor, I'm limited to 1600x resolution. If I leave AA off I get 50 fps in nfs shift, 70 in RE5. I paid 110 dollars. It o/c's well and runs cool has the small die as in the new 5 series cards. O/C it get 20% better performance.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

On the egg, its better to use the very listing, instead of the multi card listing, as the multicard, say for all 5870s is often behind the specific listing.
Specific listing is live, vs the later updating on the 5870 page, this may help any looking for these cards

 

[patrickastan]

ah ha....so crossfire would be a bad idea if one of the cards were low end. Glad I asked, i was def'n going to attempt pairing a high end card that I would buy in the future with whatever low end card I buy now.

Time to look for some 5770's then, thanks for the newegg link, it was lower then the one I was looking at before.

 

[OvrClkr]

For that price I would rather get a Crosshair III, of course it only has 2 GPU slots but it is superior to the deluxe in many ways....

But if you are inclined to get 3 GPU's then I say go for it =)

 

[JofaMang]

ah ha....so crossfire would be a bad idea if one of the cards were low end. Glad I asked, i was def'n going to attempt pairing a high end card that I would buy in the future with whatever low end card I buy now.

Time to look for some 5770's then, thanks for the newegg link, it was lower then the one I was looking at before.

Have fun with your new hardware, and don't be afraid to report back with your experiences with it. We all like to hear about people playing with their toys.

For that price I would rather get a Crosshair III, of course it only has 2 GPU slots but it is superior to the deluxe in many ways....

But if you are inclined to get 3 GPU's then I say go for it =)

Yeah, if the 5850s are in supply and anywhere near their 260 launch price, I will probably go with the crosshair III, as I have no interest in trifiring 5850s, heh. That is one of the variables I am assessing as I go along.