5850 vs 470 which one?

470 is gonna be a faster card, but unless your PSU is a really good quality one, I'd just go for the 5850. Either one is a pretty solid choice.

Do you have any sources on where your get this information?

I've seen benches on Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and BFBC2 on sites(hexus, anandtech) that show the 5850 superior

Please respond

Uber

Toms, hardwarecanucks, Most of the review sites.

Just check out all the popular sites. The 4xx series really shines in DX11, and when AA is turned on. The cards take very minor hits from AA, where as the ATI's take a significant hit. Some games play out differently and it's always going to be like this.

It generally seems to go 5970>480>5870>470>5850 as far as general performance go, but the 5850 still seems to be the best bang for buck card.

You're gonna see arguments for and against on both sides. Fanboys are everywhere.

The general consensus after reading TONS of reviews/forums is that between the 2, the 470 has better performance, especially with AA turned on, at the cost of heat and power (some places say noise but I and MANY other actual owners have found in real life gaming this is simply not true) as well as a slighty higher cost, although this depends on which brand 5850 you're looking at.


I think either card would be pretty good in your system, but if you're worried about your PSU, just grab the 5850. Can't go wrong either way.

Thanks for your replies

I was thinking the same thing...its always good to have more than one opinion

Thanks

Uber

Can't go wrong with either, both have their Pro's and Cons, so it really depends on the buyer at the end of the day.

I'm sure you already know the pros and cons of both the cards so its just down to you.

Thanks

I just like others peoples input


Better to see two sides than one  

Uber

OC an HD5850. Especially if you bump up the voltage it will spank a stock GTX 470 while still being fine for your current PSU.

Thanks for your reply

One problem tho

I am terrified that me OCing my gpu will fry it

Im not experienced with overclocking other than OCing my Q8400 2.66 to 2.97, but i put it back down in fear of frying something or having too much heat production

How would i safely over clock a gpu and will it hurt the card

Uber

HD5850!

Once educated on the limits of your hardware, you can OC with confidence. Speed doesn't kill hardware: Volts and heat do. Know the max power to feed the hardware (an integral part of overclocking is increasing volts with speed for stability) and use monitoring software to keep track of your temps.

Use the search function on toms, or google, and find out about your hardware, and what you might be able to do safely. only once you understand the limits and risks, can you enjoy the sweet sweet free performance of OCing a gaming rig.

Got a 38% OC on my 5850 (725 - 1000Mhz Core) but I have got it under water so no temp issues. All you have to do is increase the Mhz slowly, say by 10Mhz at a time, then use a demanding benchmark like Crysis benchmark tool and run that 10x or use a program like Furmark to test for maximum temps and also for stability. You can monitor your GPU temps with a program called GPU-Z, just make sure none of the temps exceed 90C. As long as you keep the temps below 90C and don 't go crazy with the voltage then your card will be absolutely fine.
The stock cooler is pretty good, and good enough for a mild overclock, but if your going for an extreme OC, then I'd recommend an aftermarket cooler or water

I've seen tons of people getting it over 1000mhz on the stock cooler. Is there a reason you stopped there considering you have water cooling?

Yeah its certainly not differcult to get 1Ghz core on a HD5850, There's 3 small reason's why I stopped at 1000/1200

1) I just like nice round numbers, just like having a 4Ghz CPU.

2) If I want much more than 1000Mhz I have to increase the voltage quite a bit, and its a bit like a CPU overclock where you get to the point of diminishing returns.

3) I tryed and tested 1250Mhz mem Vs 1150 and 1200 and there was a fair bit of improvement from 1150 to 1200Mhz, but from 1200 to 1250 I actually lost FPS. Mem must have been unstable at 1250.

Temps arent a problem at under 40C load but there's really no need to push it any higher.

the only thing that is better about the 470 is tesselation performance, physx, cuda and those things. if you dont care about dx11 tesselation, physx, cuda etc. go for the 5850  

Yeah, the ram on the HD5850 is error correcting. You wont lose stability if you put the speed higher than it can handle, frame rates will just start to go down.