Imminent upgrade: Current AMD/Nvidia options

[Actin]

Well just the fact that any card he might be settling on now is likely going to accrue a price drop in the next couple months is reason enough to be slightly patient. If he is looking to future proof a bit more, a few months will get him a better option and gives him time to save up more for the price difference.

But then in january I can wait for the april releases because then the new cards will be cheap, and then I can better wait for the october releases etc.

The new ones come to quick to actually bother with waiting. But that's just a matter of opinion anyways.


I did see at a dutch vendor of several acronyms behind the names. Stuff like:
- HD
- (HD) SC
- SOC
- OC (overclock I guess)
- DirectCUII

Also one card does have 2.5Gb instead of the 1.28Gb, but does that card really use it or is it just useless extra memory?

 

[Colt .45 killer]

That's not a bad option at all, but the way I see it, in terms of future proofing your setup, it's better to get a single card. The two HD 6850's cost about the same as a single GTX 570 and they out perform the NVIDIA card by a significant margin.

That said, the 570 can most likely run all the new games on max settings anyway, so one doesn't really need more power. Once the single 570 starts becoming a bottleneck, there's always the option of getting one more and SLI'ing them. By that time the price of the 570 should be somewhat lower as well.

I have had that future proof mindset before, the problem is like I just personally discovered in my own upgrade searching. By the time you get to wanting a second one of those expensive, but somehwat less expensive cards, they are often no longer stocked in retailers so your buying second hand. And it is cheaper to buy a new video card that outperforms those two in SLI/Xfire.

That isnt always the case, but if your future buy of a second card is exepected to happen more then 1 year afterwards, chances are is you wont be able to find that second card, or if you can, there will be better perf /$ in buying new.

edit:

yes extra video memory is always good.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

/fixed
As for the reliability, do you have any statistics for that? I'm not saying you're wrong, just would like to see some solid proof.

i heard it from some people who have computer stores. Although this problem was most severe a few generations back with the G80 chip generation(8800)

AMD here is definitely better price/performance wise over here in the netherlands. Here an 6950 is just as expensive as a gtx560ti while the 6950 is faster. The video card with of nvidia with performance similar as the 6950 would be the gtx570 which is 80 euros more expensive here.

 

[Actin]

I have had that future proof mindset before, the problem is like I just personally discovered in my own upgrade searching. By the time you get to wanting a second one of those expensive, but somehwat less expensive cards, they are often no longer stocked in retailers so your buying second hand. And it is cheaper to buy a new video card that outperforms those two in SLI/Xfire.

That isnt always the case, but if your future buy of a second card is exepected to happen more then 1 year afterwards, chances are is you wont be able to find that second card, or if you can, there will be better perf /$ in buying new.

edit:

yes extra video memory is always good.

Thanks for the input.
Wasn't sure if the memory thing would add anything

i heard it from some people who have computer stores. Although this problem was most severe a few generations back with the G80 chip generation(8800)

AMD here is definitely better price/performance wise over here in the netherlands. Here an 6950 is just as expensive as a gtx560ti while the 6950 is faster. The video card with of nvidia with performance similar as the 6950 would be the gtx570 which is 80 euros more expensive here.

At the store I usually buy my computer stuff the 560TI is significantly cheaper than the 6950. But that will change depending on store.

The link LightsabeR gave also says the 570 performs a lot better than the 6950. Although I am not an expert to interpret those comparisons.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

i checked hardocp the other day and they gave the gtx570 a slight edge in some games, in quite a few the difference was pretty nonexistant.
And yeah find/order your stuff on the net, you almost always pay less. I mean several stores here kept on selling antique 3d cards till very recently for very high prices.

 

[Oldih]

As for the reliability, do you have any statistics for that? I'm not saying you're wrong, just would like to see some solid proof.

I presume he means reliability more as in compatibility and reliability on grounds of that you can expect (almost) everything to work without any real issues. You can have Radeon and play say 5-10 year old game usually without any major issues while modern Nvidia cards have bigger odds of crapping up in some way. It's hard to find solid evidence for that kind of stuff other than anecdotes of personal experience and drawing some conclusions from those.

Example: try running CMBB\CMAK with Nvidia card. The odds are you'll find very mixed info about can they run it ok or is it downright unplayable and compare the same with Radeons. You're going to find that Radeons may have visual glitches\needs a small bmp fix but besides that they (usually) run the game fine, for Nvidia it's usually the complete opposite even though it really variesh eavily on the series and card type itself. Some GTXxxx for example can run them, some can't.

 

[Flogger23m]

My advice:

Get more than 1GB of video RAM. Both Rise of Flight and ArmA 2 can push over 896MB of RAM on my GTX 260. As a result I turned down ArmA 2 from 1680x1050 (to the next lowest res, 1440x900?)and now it gets to 750-800MB usage depending on what area I am in. In Rise of Flight if I turn to all of the texture settings it will display that it will use "170%" or something of video RAM. Loading the game will result in a crash. I read that BF3 uses a lot of video memory, but I never checked myself.

I check video RAM usage in EVGA Precession and Nvidia Inspector.

 

[Actin]

My GF handed me her computer and it cannot even fit the 5850. So maybe it will be another 5850 next to the current one anyway

She's considering a new comp though (for skyrim), fingers crossed.

Thanks for the tips btw, it's really informative

Edit:
I was just looking for alternatives. The 5850 is really rare these days, most webshops doesn't even have them in stock.
Also the price is far higher than the new 6950 which is actually better.
What would you guys think of having a 5850 and a 6950 in Crossfire?
Is it even possible?

 

[Colt .45 killer]

sadly actin AMD only supports 58XX and 68XX crossfire, so any 6870 and 6850 etc can be xfired, but not a 58XX and 68XX.

Hydralogix motherboards support crossfiring any two video cards, but that technology is still a bit rough around the edges.

 

[LightsabeR]

My GF handed me her computer and it cannot even fit the 5850.

Get her a larger case, they're not too expensive.

 

[Actin]

sadly actin AMD only supports 58XX and 68XX crossfire, so any 6870 and 6850 etc can be xfired, but not a 58XX and 68XX.

Hydralogix motherboards support crossfiring any two video cards, but that technology is still a bit rough around the edges.

Thanks for the info. Since I am not going to buy a new motherboard or something this option will be discarded.

Get her a larger case, they're not too expensive.

I know. My brother bought a new PSU when he crossfired his cards so he had a spare one, so in a minute I go and try to fit everything in it.

The bad thing is, that I don't want to transfer all parts of the pc. Especially motherboard/processor is tricky since I never handled them before.

Verdict:
Well I just managed to crap my 5850 in my GF's pc. I have never seen such a small box with that much power (it barely fits). I now have a temporary nvidia 7800 until my new card has arrived.

I decided on a single card so I can put in a second one in a year or two. So having that in mind I decided to get the nvidia 570 (2.5Gb version). It's the same price as the high end AMD (6970) but performing better. Also having heard all the experiences and tips of you guys I think that is for now the best choice (albeit just by a small margin).

I want to thank all of you for giving me all the info and insights. I really appreciate it