For anyone wondering which review to read (I'm assuming you don't want to read six, 10-20 page reviews) I recommend TR. Scott Wasson is a great writer and I think he did an amazing job on his review. All of those sites look pretty good though (aside from PC Perspective, never heard of them). I'm sure you'll get what you need to know from all of them.
Although HD5870 does not beat GTX295 as I was expecting based on the speculation before release, it is still the best single-GPU card with a good distance ahead. Some of the reviewers state that the price is high but, remembering the release price of GTX280, I don't agree. The price is very good for the top card. It is ATI's turn to charge the premium for the highest end.
I'm so excited for these parts I can barely contain myself. My problem becomes 5870 or 5850? A 5850 at $259 overclocked may provide me with everything I will reasonably require for gaming in 2010. God the numbers on the 5870 are appealing though, and when you consider the potential in crossfire later?
Oh Decisions, Decisions.
I will add this though. I am a little heartbroken by the Crysis numbers, I was really hoping to run Crysis full out at 1920X1080 without breaking a sweat, and its still not there. Hopefully they have some future driver optimizations up their sleeve.
Otherwise you can just go crazy, crank everything in just about any other game and have blazing frame rates, I just wonder how well the 5850 core will overclock, and if a simple core overclock will get you so close to 5870 performance that it will make the $259 price tag look like a no brainier.
I know what you mean, cliff. Do I go with a 5870, or do I jump in with dual 5850s crossfired? In either configuration, is my Q9450 going to be able to keep up with the cards? This graphics series opens up a lot of questions.
Don't worry about your Q9450, bean; I'm sure it will do fine. If I weren't already happy with my HD 4850 I'd probably wait a couple months for prices to drop a bit. The HD 5850 is looking great though. Hopefully we'll get some reviews out quick.
I know what you mean, cliff. Do I go with a 5870, or do I jump in with dual 5850s crossfired? In either configuration, is my Q9450 going to be able to keep up with the cards? This graphics series opens up a lot of questions.
I don't see your Q9450 presenting any sort of a real world bottleneck. Where it becomes interesting is in how future games are going to benefit from Direct X 11 to better balance the computing load where you have the processing power available.
Either way, I don't think a Q9450 is going to choke any graphics configuration you select.
Don't worry about your Q9450, bean; I'm sure it will do fine. If I weren't already happy with my HD 4850 I'd probably wait a couple months for prices to drop a bit. The HD 5850 is looking great though. Hopefully we'll get some reviews out quick.
Techpowerup has the HD 5850 results (quoting) "simulating the performance of the HD 5850 by taking HD 5870, reducing the clock speeds and disabling two SIMDs, which results in exactly the same performance as HD 5850."
Check this video out, at the end a custom vapor x cooler from Saphire. Having used vapor X coolers for their quiet operation and improved temps, its so hard to just go buy a referance card today, though I do want one.
Thrax
🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
Comments
For anyone wondering which review to read (I'm assuming you don't want to read six, 10-20 page reviews) I recommend TR. Scott Wasson is a great writer and I think he did an amazing job on his review. All of those sites look pretty good though (aside from PC Perspective, never heard of them). I'm sure you'll get what you need to know from all of them.
Oh Decisions, Decisions.
I will add this though. I am a little heartbroken by the Crysis numbers, I was really hoping to run Crysis full out at 1920X1080 without breaking a sweat, and its still not there. Hopefully they have some future driver optimizations up their sleeve.
Otherwise you can just go crazy, crank everything in just about any other game and have blazing frame rates, I just wonder how well the 5850 core will overclock, and if a simple core overclock will get you so close to 5870 performance that it will make the $259 price tag look like a no brainier.
Its good to be a computer gamer right now.
I don't see your Q9450 presenting any sort of a real world bottleneck. Where it becomes interesting is in how future games are going to benefit from Direct X 11 to better balance the computing load where you have the processing power available.
Either way, I don't think a Q9450 is going to choke any graphics configuration you select.
Techpowerup has the HD 5850 results (quoting) "simulating the performance of the HD 5850 by taking HD 5870, reducing the clock speeds and disabling two SIMDs, which results in exactly the same performance as HD 5850."
I'll wait to see what NVIDIA will lauch to compete against that monster but i could buy one sooner than later
Check this video out, at the end a custom vapor x cooler from Saphire. Having used vapor X coolers for their quiet operation and improved temps, its so hard to just go buy a referance card today, though I do want one.
ohhh, decisions, decisions....