OC3D Review: XFX HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCIe Graphics card

[Bungral]

Now you're condoning spending that much money on the more expensive card as long as in hindsight it makes sense??

Post before, you said it's not worth getting a card if it's pumping out silly fps, but then you say those who bought the 8800GTX can laugh at those who upgraded each time?

Would you have it that nobody buys an expensive card AND that nobody upgrades each round of releases?

Maybe just use integrated ay

I know you're not just talking about FPS but that's what most people want. They want to be able to play their favourit game on a big monitor with as much eye candy turned on. The main thing that would stop them, would be low FPS.

 

[Rastalovich]

The trick I guess is catching those significant advances.

For a one-off card that is significant, I thing paying crazy cash is fair enough. It's the "oo 10 more fps" and spending another £100 that'd be the issue.

Post before, you said it's not worth getting a card if it's pumping out silly fps, but then you say those who bought the 8800GTX can laugh at those who upgraded each time?

Yeah. Prior to the 8800GTX u had.. 7950 ? or 7950x2 at best ? (whatever they were) - these were Dx9 cards.

Would you have it that nobody buys an expensive card AND that nobody upgrades each round of releases?

It'd depend on ur priorities I guess. I do notice reading threads about cards that on the one hand spending £400 on a gfxcard is fround upon, but buying a value for money £100-150 card every so many months is ok. Buying a 2nd value card for twinning, then selling the 2 to buy another value card and so on.

It's almost like getting ur graphics by installments. Either u save and spend the cash on a 1-off expensive purchase, or buy the cheaper card for lesser quality and make meger sub purchases on little increments as the months go by. When u get to ur limit, u notice another £400 is being released and ur cycle continues.

The days of pure fps were numbered after Dx9, the launch of the particular generation of consoles of quality, Dx10 saw nothing in fps terms particularly with Dx9 being the majority still.

Fps has reached it's level imo. If ur chasing fps, u'll be worried about ur gfxcard, other people's gfxcards, for a long time to come. There's nothing in it. A new card does 300fps, what does that really mean ? They like the card cos it does 300fps ? in fairness they need fps spelt out for them and read up on what it actually means to the human.

 

[Bungral]

I guess it does depend... The 8800GTX was a big ol jump in performance of which we haven't seen the same since. If that were to come along then it would be a solid purchase I should think.

Thing is that some people actually make the buying expensive cards but upgrading regularly work for them... I'm actually on a profit since my first 4870X2 which was swapped for 3X GTX280's which I sold and bought a GTX295 which I sent back (fooked on arrival twice) and then bought another X2.

It all depends on monitors, resolutions and how much wedge someone has spare I guess. Oh yeah and if they bench.

Before that was an 8800GT and before than a FX 5900 Ultra!!!!

The trick I guess is catching those significant advances.

For a one-off card that is significant, I thing paying crazy cash is fair enough. It's the "oo 10 more fps" and spending another £100 that'd be the issue.

Yeah. Prior to the 8800GTX u had.. 7950 ? or 7950x2 at best ? (whatever they were) - these were Dx9 cards.

It'd depend on ur priorities I guess. I do notice reading threads about cards that on the one hand spending £400 on a gfxcard is fround upon, but buying a value for money £100-150 card every so many months is ok. Buying a 2nd value card for twinning, then selling the 2 to buy another value card and so on.

It's almost like getting ur graphics by installments. Either u save and spend the cash on a 1-off expensive purchase, or buy the cheaper card for lesser quality and make meger sub purchases on little increments as the months go by. When u get to ur limit, u notice another £400 is being released and ur cycle continues.

The days of pure fps were numbered after Dx9, the launch of the particular generation of consoles of quality, Dx10 saw nothing in fps terms particularly with Dx9 being the majority still.

Fps has reached it's level imo. If ur chasing fps, u'll be worried about ur gfxcard, other people's gfxcards, for a long time to come. There's nothing in it. A new card does 300fps, what does that really mean ? They like the card cos it does 300fps ? in fairness they need fps spelt out for them and read up on what it actually means to the human.

 

[Rastalovich]

I guess it does depend... The 8800GTX was a big ol jump in performance of which we haven't seen the same since.

U hit the nail on the head there.

I find it very hard to advise people atm to outlay £100s on cards when we haven't seen the next generation from the other camp.

At that point, I can ask what they're looking for.

I'd feel pretty bad advising a 5870 right now, to some1 who wants the best with a large budget, only for the GTX380 to be another big ol jump.

Some1 on the forum recently asking advice on a build.

 

[w3bbo]

Bye for the now imo. No matter how long you wait, there will always be something better on the horizon. There aint much a 5870 can't handle, even at high res so why bother waiting? Like you said, it's not all about FPS.

 

[Rastalovich]

If I advised u to buy a HD28xx, or the renamed Radeons 9xxx (that interestly nobody complained about ati doing), shortly b4 the 8800GTX/Ultra came out (which u could afford both) u wouldn't be upset ?

We're meant to be talking about a similar step up in tech listening to the incomprehensible arguments out there. And to be fair, the whitepapers are out and only 1 place I know of has linked to them.

I'd much prefer to take a more educated lean once all the cards have been played.

We're not talking about w8ing for a variation of a G8x/G9x kind of release. If that were the case, I would tend to agree. The fps would certainly be in a similar ball park and it would be a question of get what's out now.

Their next release is meant to contain types of architecture that doesn't exist at present.

 

[w3bbo]

Point taken but the 8800GTXwas a huge leap in performance to anything else there was around at the time. Can you honestly see the 380 being a massive leap over a 5870?

 

[Rastalovich]

Point taken but the 8800GTXwas a huge leap in performance to anything else there was around at the time. Can you honestly see the 380 being a massive leap over a 5870?

You could have asked the same question in November 2006 when the architecture changed then.

I would have said no then and been wrong.

 

[w3bbo]

But even if the next line of GPU's from NV are faster, how long will it be before ATI release something faster still and then NV again...and again...and again. Chasing the dragon always has its risks, sometimes you get it right, sometimes not.

 

[Ham]

Bring back the days where when the number in front of the card went up, it was worth buying...

(eg the 6800->7800->8800)

 

[w3bbo]

....but then what would NVidia do with all those surplus chips?

 

[FarFarAway]

Eat them

 

[Ham]

Melt them down and make them into better ones!

 

[tinytomlogan]

Id love an Nvidia wall - just covered in GPU's

 

[w3bbo]

:ar:Fanboi!!!!

 

[tinytomlogan]

ATi fanboy yeah best place for an Nvid is on a wall..... OR folding

 

[Rastalovich]

But even if the next line of GPU's from NV are faster, how long will it be before ATI release something faster still and then NV again...and again...and again. Chasing the dragon always has its risks, sometimes you get it right, sometimes not.

Took a good few releases.

ATi fanboy yeah best place for an Nvid is on a wall..... OR folding

Or in a quality build