Need help on chosing Ati 58x0 card

[bgb272]

Hi, I currently have a nVidia 275GTX and I was planning on getting an new graphics card. I was thinking in the direction of the 5850 or 5870. The question I have is, if the 5870 is worth the extra cash and if it will last longer.

 

[flyinfinni]

Generally I would say the 5850 is the better buy, but for you, coming from a GTX275, the 5870 is probably the better buy as it will give you much more of an upgrade from the GTX275. They are both great, and will be solid upgrades from where you are now, but the 5850 may not show you as much improvement as you might want.

 

[rolli59]

They are going to last the same but you would hardly notice the upgrade to HD5850 except if you are running DX11 games. I would say 5870 no question.

 

[bgb272]

Thanks for the quick response. the question I still have though is how long the card will be able to keep up with current games and how long will directX11 last?(I know its difficult to judge)
Oh and is an intel i5 ok for such a card?

 

[megamanx00]

Well, thinking reasonably I don't think the 5870 is worth the extra money over the 5850, but of course I threw that out the window when I got my own 5870 . Anyway, yes the 5870 should last you a little longer compared to a 5850, but it's kind of like comparing the longevity of a GTX 275 vs a GTX 285. Anyway like flyinfinni said, a 5870 makes more sense for you simply because it is a more significant upgrade for you. While a 5850 is still a decent upgrade, I'm don't know that it's justified in your case.

So yeah, if you're gonna spend big bucks then may as well go all the way with a 5870 .

 

[flyinfinni]

They'll last for a while, but its really hard to say, and depends on game developers and lots of other things. A system with an i5 and a 5870 should last and play games at least at reasonable settings for a couple of years. I know guys who are playing the latest games OK and are still running 8800GTX's they got like 3 years ago.
An i5 would be very good for such a card- its gaming performance is as good as most other chips, and will not bottleneck, especially if you OC it to something like 3.6+ GHz like they can easily do.