Purchase advice?

[crow305]

Hi all,

Which of these 3 GPUs would you recommend over the others? The attached game for one is nice, but not a deciding factor, and take note of the $60 rebate for the MSI Lightning II. I have a HIS 5850 now.

Gigabyte SuperOC 470
MSI Lightning II 5870
Twin Frozr II 470MSI

Newegg link for all 3 together.

Right now I get a bit of lag in Dead Space, Empire Total war, and a couple of not-so-recent games, so I figured I'd upgrade a hair (these cards have extra cooling, so I'd hope I can overclock them a little more and get more out of them that way, too, while keeping them cool so they last a while). Mainly I'm looking to see if I can sell my current card and with that cash + $150 or so, get a better card with a bit more future proofing.

Ideas? Or at least what should the forerunner be? Keep in mind I dont want to just get another 5850 as that would be an extra $250 or so. If not one of these, what would you recommend? Thanks! Opnions and advice very welcome. Alternatives welcome as well, within the same price range

Sean

EDIT: gaming at 1680x1050, and how will they compare with my current card? (HIS 5850)

 

[crow305]

Edited, added links, sorry about that

 

[rolli59]

For your resolution HD5850 should be plenty.
The HD5870 is the most powerful and therefore might be the best for a small upgrade. Another thing to keep in mind is the size of your PSU since the GTX470 requires a more powerful PSU.

 

[geofelt]

You will be disappointed if you make just a small jump in your graphics card capability. A 5870 is really just a small increase in capability.

There may be other reasons for lagging, such as not enough ram. At the IDF2010 there was a interesting chart purporting to show why a SSD could reduce lagging in games. Interpret it as you will:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-idf-2010-amd-bobcat,2748-4.html

 

[crow305]

I agree, I thought a 5850 would be plenty but it hasn't been so far. I've pretty much narrowed it down to the GPU, and I have the cash to spend now (if I can sell my card) whereas there is a good chance I wont have it later, otherwise I'd wait longer for prices to drop. If all 3 were to cost the same, which would you get for yourself?

I currently have a Antec TruePower New 750, which should handle any of them. An interesting add-on question: which could my PSU handle in SLI? Not a deal breaker, just extra info if you have it. If not, just the original question is fine

 

[crow305]

So far the advice I've gotten from other forums as well has been almost a split between the 470 and 5870. Anyone have a strong opinion either way?

 

[geofelt]

I agree, I thought a 5850 would be plenty but it hasn't been so far. I've pretty much narrowed it down to the GPU, and I have the cash to spend now (if I can sell my card) whereas there is a good chance I wont have it later, otherwise I'd wait longer for prices to drop. If all 3 were to cost the same, which would you get for yourself?

I currently have a Antec TruePower New 750, which should handle any of them. An interesting add-on question: which could my PSU handle in SLI? Not a deal breaker, just extra info if you have it. If not, just the original question is fine

If I had to pick one of the three, I would pick the gigabyte, based on the higher overclock.

That said, I would not pick any of them. They all have coolers that are good at getting heat off of the gpu die, but they just dump that heat back into the case where your case cooling has to deal with it. That increases the cooling air temp to both the gpu AND the cpu. I won't buy a high end graphics card that does not have a direct exhaust cooler.
I would suggest at the same price range, A EVGA GTX470 such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130549
EVGA has a "step up " program that allows you to return your card for the price you paid for it within 90 days which can be applied to a better card.

Your Antec 750w PSU is a fine one, and can run any of the cards being discussed, either singly or in sli.

 

[geofelt]

So far the advice I've gotten from other forums as well has been almost a split between the 470 and 5870. Anyone have a strong opinion either way?

I now have a 5870, I used to have a GTX260. I feel that I liked the driver package from Nvidia better, and my next upgrade will likely be nvidia. There has really been no problem with the 5870 though. Look at benchmarks for the games you play most. Sometimes one or the other will shine in certain games.

 

[crow305]

I mostly play Empire Total War, Dead Space, and a couple of shooters that are several years old, maybe some Bioshock. I havent found any benchmarks for these cards for any of those.

As an aside, how does one determine if a card has direct exhaust or if it dumps heat back into the case?

 

[geofelt]

I mostly play Empire Total War, Dead Space, and a couple of shooters that are several years old, maybe some Bioshock. I havent found any benchmarks for these cards for any of those.

As an aside, how does one determine if a card has direct exhaust or if it dumps heat back into the case?

Direct exhaust cards will have a vent next to the output attachments. The cards will take up two slots. Also, they will have a shroud that covers the whole card so that little heat escapes back into the case. The EVGA card I linked t is direct exhaust; the three you listed are not. Look at the pics and you can tell the difference. Some time ago, I had a heating problem with one of those hot pentium processors. I solved it by installing a oem direct exhaust cooler on my graphics card. It resulted in both my vga card and cpu temps going down by 5c.

 

[crow305]

Hmm ok that makes sense. I just looked at my card and it has the same grill at the end that the MSI 5870 has. There IS a grill, just much smaller than the EVGA card you linked. Which I guess is not enough to make them direct exhaust? Good to know

Now I just need to sell my card... anyone want (or know someone that wants) a HIS 5850 iCooler V? Only been in use for a month or so.

 

[geofelt]

Hmm ok that makes sense. I just looked at my card and it has the same grill at the end that the MSI 5870 has. There IS a grill, just much smaller than the EVGA card you linked. Which I guess is not enough to make them direct exhaust? Good to know

Now I just need to sell my card... anyone want (or know someone that wants) a HIS 5850 iCooler V? Only been in use for a month or so.

Try e-bay. That is where I sell my old cards. It might be a good place to buy a replacement also. Just check feedback and know your seller. If you search for 5850 and go to completed auctions for used cards, you can get a good idea of the market price. In the case of a 5850, it looks like it is worth about $200.

Still, I would wait a bit.
1) A 5870 is too small a jump over a 5850 to be much noticed.
2) ATI is supposed to launch new cards soon. do some research on that.

 

[crow305]

I'll keep that in mind, I'd heard conflicting reports of whether the 6000s would come out later this year or early next year. They'll probably release their highend cards soon, which I wont be able to afford anyway. Still, I'll keep it in mind.

Out of curiosity, I notice that of the 3 cards above, two of them are pcie 2.0, and one is pcie 2.1

Does this affect whether it can run on my motherboard? I have a GB-X58A-UD3R. I figure not, but what is the difference?

 

[geofelt]

pcie 2.0 has more bandwidth than 1.0. 2.1 is the same speed, but with support for some of the troubleshooting type software to be available with 3.0.

Regardless, no current single graphics card can saturate either type of x 16 slot, and there is minimal performance impact on performance in an X8 slot.

Since everything is both forward and backwards compatible it is a non issue.

 

[crow305]

Best answer selected by crow305.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey