6850 vs 5800 series best value

[dog321]

Hey guys, I am new to this forum and I would like to ask a serious question about which graphic card to buy that give the most performance for the money. I'm really tempted to buy the radeon hd 6850 because of new features and low power consumption. But I saw there are other good cards for the same price range and I hope you guys can help me select the best one for me. I'm Looking for something that is the most future proof out of all. Currently Playing starcraft 2 but will be playing games like crysis 2 and dx11 games in the future.

Here is the list of the cards I'm Debating.

Radeon 6850 $160

Radeon 5870 $210
Radeon 5850 $185
Radeon 5830 $130

My current setup
AMD athlonII x4 630 2.8g
4gig ram


Any Input would be appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

do NOT buy the 5830, it uses lots of power and doesnt perform well. Have you thought about a gtx 460? out of the cards you have listed the 5870 is the fastest by far. the 6850 is the best value card on the list by your prices. 5850 is a little faster as a single card, but if using 2 cards in xfire the 6850 would be faster. the 6850, gtx460 or 5850 would be a good match for your CPU without bottlenecking too much. What resolution do you play at. dont go less than a 6850 for 1920x1080 res. preferably the 5870 for that res if you expect to turn all details up and get smooth framerate.

 

[dog321]

do NOT buy the 5830, it uses lots of power and doesnt perform well. Have you thought about a gtx 460? out of the cards you have listed the 5870 is the fastest by far. the 6850 is the best value card on the list by your prices. 5850 is a little faster as a single card, but if using 2 cards in xfire the 6850 would be faster. the 6850, gtx460 or 5850 would be a good match for your CPU without bottlenecking too much. What resolution do you play at. dont go less than a 6850 for 1920x1080 res. preferably the 5870 for that res if you expect to turn all details up and get smooth framerate.

I am playing 1600x1200. So maybe i should go with 6850?
I am also currently using radeon 4850. Will I see a big difference going to 6850?

 

[megamanx00]

Yes it would be a pretty big upgrade going to the 6850. Generally, the 6850 is just as fast or slightly behind the 5850, but thanks to improved tessellation it can actually pass the 5850 in games like metro, though only slightly. Overall the 5850 is worth the extra couple of bucks.

If you can easily afford it, get a 5870 and be happy. It's generally overkill for your resolution but who cares ^_^. If that's stressing your budget, then just get a 6850 or 5850 instead. A 6850 would be just fine for your resolution for some time.

 

[dog321]

Yes it would be a pretty big upgrade going to the 6850. Generally, the 6850 is just as fast or slightly behind the 5850, but thanks to improved tessellation it can actually pass the 5850 in games like metro, though only slightly. Overall the 5850 is worth the extra couple of bucks.

If you can easily afford it, get a 5870 and be happy. It's generally overkill for your resolution but who cares ^_^. If that's stressing your budget, then just get a 6850 or 5850 instead. A 6850 would be just fine for your resolution for some time.

Thanks! I appreciate your input. I am a noob when it comes to these things so this question might sound stupid but I would like to know why The 6850 outperform the 5830 but yet it has lower **** speed and stream processors. I apologize, but I am still learning

6850:
Core Clock 775MHz
Stream Processors 960 Stream Processing Units

5830:
Core Clock 800MHz
Stream Processors 1120 Stream Processing Units

 

[iam2thecrowe]

just like a 3.4ghz pentium4 does not outperform a 2.5ghz core i5. the 6850 has different design stream processors and the way the stream processors are fed the information is more efficient. caches are different, it has more ROP's more texture units the list goes on. there is more to a cards performance than just number of stream processors.

 

[dog321]

I might consider going with a 6950. Would a 6950 bottleneck with my setup?

AMD athlonII x4 630 2.8g
4gig ram
1600x1200