GPU for WoW

[ywycbt5609]

Hey guys,

I am growing weary of waiting for the 5850 to be available on newegg from HTC, as it seems to always be unavailable and the price continues to go up. My question is the following:

Would I notice a decrease in performance if I was to opt for crossfire 4870's or 4890's or perhaps 5770's? I do not think that directx11 will be a factor because to the best of my knowledge, WoW will not use it anyway. I would like to be able to run WoW at 75+ FPS in 25 man raids.

 

[ywycbt5609]

Originally it did not, they added some compatibility for it at some point, I am not sure when. But basically from what I have read, it is a minimal difference, usually 10 fps or so. Either way, I was hoping to spend between 300-330 for the video cards, so i figured might as well get two of the cheaper models.

 

[jonnyboyC]

well first off what's your screen resolution

 

[jonnyboyC]

another question what are you currently using as your gpu

 

[ywycbt5609]

1920x1200 i run it on a 24 inch samsung monitor, my current GPU is a 7900GT

 

[jonnyboyC]

I have never play wow and quite frankly know very little about it's specs but looking at the website for recommended video cards, and just from the fact that i know wow isn't that demanding, an 5850 is complete overkill for wow by a long shot, so would 4870's and 4890's in crossfire, one 4870 would probably be able to run this game a well over 100 fps

 

[jyjjy]

HTC? There are plenty of HD5850s in stock on newegg.

 

[ywycbt5609]

there are a few, but most in the 3-330 range are by diamond, his, and other types that I have heard nothing but poor things about, I was holding out for an xfx or asus

 

[jyjjy]

Sapphire, HIS and Gigabyte are all quality brands. Note the HIS card actually has better customer reviews than the ones you are waiting on. The difference between brands is HIGHLY overstated in any case, these are all the same card built using the same parts. Only the cooler varies really.

 

[bystander]

I have never play wow and quite frankly know very little about it's specs but looking at the website for recommended video cards, and just from the fact that i know wow isn't that demanding, an 5850 is complete overkill for wow by a long shot, so would 4870's and 4890's in crossfire, one 4870 would probably be able to run this game a well over 100 fps

WoW used to not be demanding, but since the last expansion, it is very demanding, at least with high settings. A single 5870 with an i7 920, at 1920x1200 struggles a lot at ultra settings with shadows turned down a couple notches.

Granted, you can turn the settings down some, and it would run smooth, but the point is, a 5850 can be brought to it's knees with WoW. It's not overkill, unless you are fine with lower settings.

 

[jonnyboyC]

well nvm then, I had faintly heard of a performance patch, so in that case disregard my former comment, but anyways, cf 5770 4870 and 4890 will have more raw performance than an hd 5850, if cf is supported like you mentioned before

 

[jyjjy]

It depends on how well crossfire scales in that particular game and the HD5850 can be OCed an insane amount if you bump up the voltage.

 

[jonnyboyC]

that is very true in the recent system build marathon they got a 5970 to like 950 core which is kinda ridiculous, like a 30% overclock

 

[jyjjy]

If done properly and you get a good card the HD5850 and HD5870 can get close to 1100mhz.

 

[jonnyboyC]

Wow that is really impressive, i know they were good cards but those are some ridiculous overclocks, actually question about that, do all of the current 5xxx series card have adjustable voltage regulators