Converting To Your Side After 10 Years. What Card(s) Should I Get...?

The only card that would come close to the 260SLI setup you had would be the 5870. Even then it won't really be that much more. The 5970 would kill it, but its over $500. You probably should have kept them.

If you have a crossfire ready board, then get 2 5830s, that will give you a decent upgrade over the dual GTX 260s. If you are using an SLI only board take your cards off of ebay.

Get a 5890 and call it a year.

Edited some of my op to make it more clear. Also jacked the price up a hundred bucks. Thanks for your replies so far guys.

If you can swing $600 a couple of 5850s would work. It would be like having two GTX280 cards in SLI. While its a set up, not sure its worth $600.

What resolution are you playing at?

Dual 5850s, a no brainer. Get these quick!

You only have one more day on this great price for a 5850 with a better cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

4745454b,

1920x1200 on a 26" Vizio lcd.

As 4745454b & AMW1011 said - two HD 5850s would be a very good choice. GTX 260s in SLI perform slightly better than an HD 5870 I'd say, but two HD 5850s would outperform GTX 285s in SLI or perform the same as a stock HD 5970. With HD 5970 performance, you'd be able to max out ANY game (except Crysis with 4x AA, and MAYBE Shattered Horizon) on a 1920x1200 monitor.

Don't forget Metro 2033.

Lol yeah, forgot about Metro. Their system requirements are outrageous lmao, not only because of how high they are, but how they ask for either a GTX 260 or a 4870x2. I hope they know the performance differences between those two. Those requirements kinda remind me of the extreme TWIMTBP Last Remnant - the perf. between nVidia and ATi cards were just...
IIRC, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky also poops out at 2560X1600 on 4XAA, but, 30" monitors are another story.

Looks like the 5850's are in the lead so far. And as far as brands go, I assume XFX is the first one to took at? Build quality and warranty are a factor as well. I've never tried cards of what I've always considered as "off brands" like Sapphire, VisionTek, Diamond, etc.

Best warranty and support = XFX

Best quality cards = HIS iCooler V and Sapphire Vapor-X series.

 

You realize XFX is based in Europe right? I suspect they have the same warranty over there.

Sapphire produces best Radeon cards (especially vapor-x)

If your computer case can take a 13inch card, get a $600-$650 5970, which performs equal to two 5850s.

If not, get two 5850s for $300 each.

A 5850 performs better than a GTX285, so two 5850s will be a good upgrade over two GTX260s.

they dont give the double lifetime in the uk so likely not in europe

Odd:
http://xfxforce.com/en-gb/Home.aspx

Primary website is the English Europe site.

Move quickly on the 5850's .....ATI dropped the price for nVidia's launch weekend.

*Double Lifetime Protection only available in North America (United States and Canada). Applies to select graphics cards products only. Restrictions and qualifications may vary based on state or region. See XFX Support section for more details on the Limited Warranty for XFX-branded products in North America. Warranty terms for other regions vary.

Mactronix

Just measured inside. It looks like the max length for a card which has power connnectors in the rear would be about 11.5 inches. If they're on the side, then I have a little more room to play with. I had no idea those 5970's were 13" long.


I'm thinking of hold-offing maybe until next weekend at the latest. ATI's prices might drop a tad more, a few days before Nvidia releases the GTX400 series.

Yeah, 2 HD5850s is the way to go.

Prehaps a 5970, it's like 2 non-crippled Cryprus chips that have been downcocked, as opposed to the 5850, Wich is both cripled and downclocked.

It also costs $100-$150 more than dual 5850s.

Is this it: Now I know your address MUHAHAHAH (JK)

http://cgi.ebay.com/x2-EVGA-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260-216-...

I can't seem to find 5970's online under $700, which is ridiculous but obviously supply/demand is a big factor on that. My 3 local TigerDirect stores and 1 Microcenter store are out it unfortunately.


LOL. No my listings don't look that sloppy.   My cards have only been up for a day and they're almost at that guy's price anyway.   Here's my link: http://shop.ebay.com/cargeek33/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_f...

Not really, they can easily be clocked like 5870s and are more or less 2 5870s on one board, and 2 5870s are $840 so its not a terrible deal but its definitely overkill for your uses.



Good luck, I hope they get bid up.

Ewww...

Why buy this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2903...

lol. I have 2 of them setup in a striped RAID 0. They're fast (and it was cheap), but not as quiet as Seagate drives.



Update: After spending the past few hours researching and going through all of your recommendations.....I ended up taking AMW1011's advice.   They're just below my price range, which I'm happy about.

I purchased 2 HD5830's for only $479.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I'm getting this next.....

ASUS P5E3 Pro motherboard ($133) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Lastly is some DDR3 memory, which will take me a while to go through because Asus boards are picky from what I remember.

Faceplam at buying 2 5830s.

My god.

You sniffed out the worst ATI cards you can buy now, like a pig sniffing for truffles.

You couldve bought two of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

well one only and probably find another one for the same price. Regardless you couldve gotten allot better then 2 5830s....

After all the talk about the 5850's, 5870's and even a 5970, you decide on two 5830's.....

If money was an issue or a concern, then you should have stated that in the beginning or during the discussions. No one here will 'laugh at you' for not having big cash load to buy anything you want, but putting a $600 limit and then buying a pair of 5830s is confusing.

Anybody buying 2 5830s in confusing to me.

Yeah, poor choice. At least OC them.

Yes, two 5850's for a total 600$, which is your limit, would be a much better deal. The 5830 is not that much faster than a GTX 260. Unless you really want to enjoy games at DX11 settings right now, I would have kept the GTX 260's for a few more months. Looks at it this way, Nvidia has already released the GTX 480 and 470 and they're not looking too good, so your GTX 260's haven't devalued that much and probably won't in the next months, so you could afford to wait to buy a better deal.

Did OP even read a review on the 5830?

I would have bought two 5770s in that case. Perform almost the same, and would have saved a lot of money.

And used less power and heat.

This is clearly a troll attempt, he's gonna say Jk in a day.

Nobody is that moronic.

Relax, no reason to be hostile if he really did make the mistake. Try to see if you can return them or cancell the order. If not they are still good cards that will easily outperform a 5870.

Are you people dense!?

Obviously, the most he could afford was likely $500 and he couldn't manage $600 after all.

Guess what is the best value setup for $500 or under? Dual 5830s.

They aren't terrible cards, they are 4890s with DX11.



The 4890 is only 8% faster and I'm more than willing to bet that some new drivers lowered that lead.

If all you can afford is $500 or less, dual 5830s are the best you can do even if dual 5850s are much better. And I'm willing to bet he isn't a dumb ass but knew what he was doing...

Dude, look at your list. He just spent $400+ to get what increase? What card is 6% slower then what he has now? He basically just flushed $450 down the drain. Getting the GTS280/275 or the 5850 was the only real way to get an upgrade.

He didn't spend that much, he is selling his GTX 260s and should get at least $250 for them so thats only a $200 loss for about 10-20% of an improvement with DX11. That isn't horrible, but I see your point. My point was that he obviously just couldn't afford anything better. Besides there are NO worthwhile upgrades available to him with his previous cards, even 2 5870s wouldn't be much of an upgrade for the money.

By that math he could have got the two 5850s, and sold the GTX cards to keep it around $400ish. I just can't see the point of spending that much money, to only get another 10% or so. Not much of an upgrade. DX11 will be nice, but can't really use it now. (unless you love Dirt 2 or AVP.) I still say I would have waited, for games to come out or prices to fall.

Um, yes, yes it is. Also the HD5830 isn't $225 , right now they start at $247.50 on newegg and that's for Powercolor, make it $10 more for a respectable brand. So that a $265 loss, not $200.
Alternative #1: 2 HD5770s would've been $50 more than what you figure the GTX 260s can be sold for, so there's your DX11. So basically they just spent $215 for a 15ish% boost in performance.
Aternative #2: $100 more for 2 HD5850s would be an actual worthy upgrade instead, 43% according to that chart, and that's at stock. If you bump up the voltage and OC the HD5850 over 1ghz the difference will be much larger.

1.) No, I'm not a "moron" but thanks for the compliment.  

2.) Yes, I did read reviews on the 5830's. ALL except for 2 were very positive.

3.) No, I'm not trolling here. I thought putting up my hardware on eBay was a dead giveaway, but.....?

Now here's the deal.....maybe I should have worded my op less enthusiastic and left out "cards that will blow my 260's out of the water", as I can see how some of you took that judging by your reactions. I'm excited to get into a new line of hardware and there's nothing wrong with that.

And like I said before.....I have NOT tried out an ATI card in a long time, so these "really crappy 5830 cards" seemed like a good entry point. I don't see any harm in that.

Also, I originally thought $600 just for the cards would be fine, but then after looking at motherboards and memory, I decided to go the cheaper route. ANY of you seasoned builders know things can get out-of-hand quickly, while geeking-out over new hardware. Can I afford $600 for 2 cards? YES, but did I WANT to after looking at the other hardware I needed to buy? NO.

I like how passionate everyone seems to be. And for those who couldn't help to be smarta**es....usually the ones who say the least, know the least....but anyway....everyone is different and this experience has been enjoyable so far.

Totally!!!

Well if money is the concern HD5770s or a single HD5850 would've been the way to go. Not really an upgrade but you would get DX11 and use MUCH less power than the GTX 260s. The HD5830s are a marginal upgrade in any case; one that isn't nearly worth $200 more than the other options. Seriously, everyone except one person is telling you it's a poor choice to the point that some believed it was a joke. I would cancel the order if at all possible. If not then read up on overclocking those cards because that is the one aspect that may make them semi-palatable at their current price.