GTX 470/480 Listed on NewEgg

$50 more for a general 5% performance, but more costs through heat/power. Not to mention that an OC'd HD5850 (even without voltage adjusts) will beat it. A 2GB HD5850 for $350 would be on-par.

Im looking at both those cards and I dont know which way to go. Some say the 470's are more future proof. Even at $379 for the 2gb 5850, I would buy it. I just dont know which would be more futureproof.

There is just about 6 months difference between the release of these cards... so in terms of future proofing they both have a long way to go. I would say go for the HD5850. Not only do you save on purchase price but also on the cost of ownership as well in terms of power and cooling cost...

The Nvidia cards also combo with heat and noise. You wouldn't want that. I mean some nvidia fans might lie to themselves but anyone would get annoyed by a loud graphics card.

So do you guys think getting a 2gb card would be a good buy?

Yes. Especially if you plan on OC'ing.

I totally agree with this statement. I love to OC, but if it gets to the point where it distracts me, I don't do it. I would never run a fan at 100% or even close just to cool it. I'd buy a new cooler before I did that, and with that the aftermarket coolers are so expensive you may as well get the next best card.

If the Nvidia cards weren't SO hot, and sucked SO much power, I'd be totally down with them. How do you overclock a card that already hits mid 90C on load?

You don't. But nvidia fans will say that Stock vs Stock nVidia's better, which is true. However, ATI has its edge in overclocking. Even with a voltage increase, a 30% increase in clocks is amazing. I'd like some reviews comparing a 1,000core/1,300mem HD5850 to a GTX470 OC'd, and an HD5870 OC to a GTX480 OC. Leaving the shaders at stock, because that's cheating.

Even if you leave the GTX series at stock, the HD5K OC will use less power too, probably.

Thanks for the help guys, I think Ill try and snatch a 2gb 5850 when it becomes avail? Do you think the ATI cards will drop in price when the Fermi's come out?

Fermi is already out, and ATI hasn't dropped a dime. Though there's an HD5850 for $280, and an HD5870 for $400. They used to be $340 and $440, which some still are.

interesting read
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1263/1/

XFX is not even bothering to release any 400 series GPU. Their double lifetime warrenty might have been used too much with the GTX400's maybe?

I'm sure there decision was based on financial reasons, but I don't think the warranty is the reason at all. They recently partnered with ATI, and their infrastructure is probably only so big. They have 1000 employees world wide, claim to have a big presence in Europe than any other company. Looked up their financials.

XFX has sold a TON of ATI cards since they have started making them, what almost 2 years now? It doesn't surprise me that they are sitting this one out. I am sure if/once the 400's take off they will get onboard, but they may be a little iffy on the lifetime warranties for a card that runs so HOT and has had so many problems. XFX is not run by dummies.

You guys need to read the reviews. Just because it runs hot at the current fan settings doesn't mean you can't over clock it.

The GTX470 overclocks fine, reviewers OCed it by 120MHz without voltage changes. The temperature remained within limits and all it took was some minor fan changes.

GTX4x0 already has problems? I thought that during the time nVid delayed the card they also worked on drivers¿

XFX has been selling ATI cards for a little over a year.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1444



Care to elaborate or are you getting your companies mixed up ?

I think the high temps make me more nervious than anything. I will just sit back and wait for everyone else to get one and report in.  

minor fan changes means what? another 10 db over the already insane 61+db coming from this card? Not to mention this card is already pulling 100Watts over the 5850 at stock.

Estimate purchase price and add the additional cost of running this card for 1 year over the cost of the 5850, its quite a bit more expensive when thats figured in. Nvidia was right when they named these cards Fermi, you could definatley run some power turbines with the heat these things give off. Nvidia has in the past had problems with chips cracking due to over heating, not to mention thier drivers frying cards. I think I'll pass

The temps sure scare me. I would expect it (actually not even as high as Fermi) on dual GPU cards but I cant believe Nvidia is pleased with the thermal and power specs on this generation. the 480 numbers are almost embarrassing. I anticipate a couple of revisions if they haven't already went back the drawing board on their next gen.

nVidia is stuck between a stone and a hard place. They definitely needed more time to fine tune this supposed to be flagship product. But they already delayed the launch several times so they are damned if they launch and damned if they don't.

For XFX to sit this one out on Fermi is quite the statement....

I was hoping that would happen, but if anything, the prices on ATI's cards are jumping way up again. This could be attributed to a couple of things, including the generally lukewarm response to Fermi's launch, and the known supply shortages that are going to happen once the cards go to retail. There's good reason to believe that sales of the 5xxx cards will spike a bit in the next month or two, and card prices are hiking as a result. The 5970s have jumped back up into the $700-800 range again in the last few days, and the 5850s and 5870s are seeing increases as well.  

I noticed most of the companies offering the 470/480's have 9 year warranties if they arent offering lifetime so Im not sure why XFX is sitting this one out.

I'm pretty sure companies lose money every time a card under warranty is sent back in. nVidia certainly won't replace them.



Am in response to:

XFX is probably playing the safe card, they have ATI cards making them money hand over fist. EVGA has no choice and has traditionally had lifetime warranties. The only one I saw with a 9 year warranty was ASUS. ASUS just likes to be different. Normally they have a 3 year warranty and maybe they are trying to encourage people to buy their cards because alot of the nvidia brands have lifetime warranties.

Currently at Newegg these vendors
5870
xfx
powercolor
HIS
Saphire
Gigabyte

5850 + above
VisionTek

GTX 480. 470~ ECS is another Nvidia AIB-no Fermi yet.
PNY
Asus
evga
MSI
Zotac
Gigabyte

Gigabyte has a 9 yr warranty too. Makes you wonder why they are extending their warranties so far?

To reasure people afraid of the cards bricking.

I don't keep a card more than 3 years let alone 2 or sometimes 1. I bought my 5870 hoping it keeps me happy longer than a year, which has been the case the last 3 video cards I've owned. Anything over 3 years doesn't concern me. I do like the ability the transfer a warranty that XFX has. It came in handy when I sold my old 8800GTS/512.

+1

Just too hesitant to make the leap with the power consumption/heat specs being what they are. I have had a lot of problems with my GTX285 2GB so I was really hoping that all the propaganda would turn out ot be incorrect. I quite possibly could be heading over to the red team's corner soon depending on the feedback from the "Fermi Guinea Pigs". I shall sit and wait.

My buddy has a gtx285 and was waiting on these and is SO mad that they have disabled cores. He said he may just wait until they figure our their fab and come out with a 512 core version or if they make a new model, like GTX 490 or something with all 512 cores. Maybe even work on the heat issues. You know they will to.

I moved over to the Red team once they released their 4xxx series cards, in price/performance terms, i figured it foolish not to, but that is not to say i would never go back to Nvidia if their prices justified the price/performance...

hehe, Nice avatar, mister "red team"

and it's the same story with me.....

Haha yeah i was going to say... As said above "mr. red team". I am in the same boat. I has an 8800GTS and then moved to a 4870, now to a 5870. Which ironically had to be sent back because it was artifacting at higher temps. I'm back to an 8800 for a temp card. But you know what it still works great for Bad Company 2. I just have to turn off AA, AF, and HBOA. Otherwise it runs everything fine.

My quote under my avater was different, it once read "The re-rebrander"