Need some input from you ATI peoples

[Electric Wizard]

Alright so I have been reading a lot about the HD 5870 and although ive been skeptical of ATI for years (and I mean years and years and years) I think I might grab one of these however I pose some questions to you guys first see if you cant steer me int he right direction

Right now I have 2 GTX 260 Superclocked: does 1x HD5870 beat the performance of these?

If I do get one what are the good brands right now, from what I see HIS, XFX and Sapphire seem to be good but experienced input would be helpful

How easy are they to overclock? (as compared to my current GPU's if there is any at all difference in the OC process)

If anyone knows is there any plan for a price drop in the nearest future (before xmas)

Anyway those are my current thoughts on this new longing of mine and as I always try I come here to opinions and criticisms before I impulse buy.

Thanks

EW

[Glow9]

What games are you playing and do you plan on buying any of the games coming out that are DX11 this year?
If I can run a 8800GTS and play everything from COD4 to L4D to Borderlands I'm pretty sure what you have in more than enough for whatever your playing. Long story short, why spend big bucks on a 5870 when there won't be any real big releases for a while. I'm all about saving money but thats me. When my 8800GTS doesn't cut it anymore I'll hop back to ATI and grab a 5850. You asked about a price drop so thats my 2 cents.

[Razrback16]

Originally Posted by Electric Wizard

Right now I have 2 GTX 260 Superclocked: does 1x HD5870 beat the performance of these?

Yes

If I do get one what are the good brands right now, from what I see HIS, XFX and Sapphire seem to be good but experienced input would be helpful

They're all pretty darn equal

How easy are they to overclock? (as compared to my current GPU's if there is any at all difference in the OC process)

They are actually easier to o/c as the shader clock is linked to the core

If anyone knows is there any plan for a price drop in the nearest future (before xmas)

Don't know, I'm sure once NVidia releases their card it will push prices down

Answers above in bold.

[Electric Wizard]

Originally Posted by Glow9

What games are you playing and do you plan on buying any of the games coming out that are DX11 this year?
If I can run a 8800GTS and play everything from COD4 to L4D to Borderlands I'm pretty sure what you have in more than enough for whatever your playing. Long story short, why spend big bucks on a 5870 when there won't be any real big releases for a while. I'm all about saving money but thats me. When my 8800GTS doesn't cut it anymore I'll hop back to ATI and grab a 5850. You asked about a price drop so thats my 2 cents.

Right now im playing Crisis, Borderlands, TF2 and anything else that happens to come my way, but I am looking forward to grabbing all the DX 11 games. I do know that what I have is more than enough but I right now is the only time ill be able to afford new PC parts for a long time so im upgrading something that will take me into next years games while I can afford it

[Electric Wizard]

Originally Posted by Razrback16

Answers above in bold.

Thank you for the answers I think I just might have to get me one of these!

[dan7777]

to be honest mate what you have now you won"t see any difference going to the 5870 in performance at all thats like me going from my 295 to the 5870 not worth the jump at all, all you will be doing is just wasting money if you want to do that go ahead man.

[jfer]

My HD5850 has been an hell of a ride! Im coming from a 4890 Crossfire and apart from overcloking it to 1.08Ghz and having blast FPS in every game I think Cat9.1 are as stable as a driver can be. 5000series are best buy right now.

[lutjens]

FWIW, the 4870X2s I have are made by HIS and I've had no problems whatsoever with either of them. As well, given two identically performing cards, one made by ATI and one made by NVidia, I'd choose the ATI one, due to their less restrictive drivers and management philosophy.

My $0.02...

[Glow9]

Originally Posted by Electric Wizard

Right now im playing Crisis, Borderlands, TF2 and anything else that happens to come my way, but I am looking forward to grabbing all the DX 11 games. I do know that what I have is more than enough but I right now is the only time ill be able to afford new PC parts for a long time so im upgrading something that will take me into next years games while I can afford it

I'll trade you my 8800GTS for your 2 GTX 260's Mr. Money bags :P

[Mescalamba]

HIS, XFX, Sapphire.. brands quality exactly in this order. Tough, even if I don´t like them much, I would put ASUS between XFX and Sapphire.. (I´ve had two ATi´s from them, without problems..). XFX and HIS tends to have quite a lot of headroom on their GPU´s. But it won´t matter much for now, as all current graphic cards are manufactured somewhere else and those brands just put them in their own box and with their sticker.. nothing more (except Sapphire with Vapor-X).

HD 5870 should be able to beat that.. but not for too much, tough there is quite significant advantage in having one GPU against SLi/Crossfire system, which is dependant on drivers and optimization. Not mentioning space and heat in case.

[Electric Wizard]

Originally Posted by Glow9

I'll trade you my 8800GTS for your 2 GTX 260's Mr. Money bags :P

lol money bags nothin, just had a good run with my weekend garage sale

[Chickenfeed]

The main incentive to go from SLI 260s to a 5870 would be to increase performance in games with poor to no multi gpu scaling ( which is not many modern games these days ) as well lower power consumption, future DX11 support and potential upgrade room for 2 5870s ( assuming your on a current Intel platform ) As far as it being worth the cost, I will say no. 2 cards would be an upgrade but 5870 scaling isn't amazing at 1920x1200 ( decent but not worth $800+ USD in my eyes, I'd reserve xfire 5870s for 2560x1600 myself)

I will mention though my experience with a single and multiple 260 core 216 55nms was the best I had with ANY gpus over the last 2 years, and I've used nearly all of them in some capacity. They are priced well, quiet, clock decently and I'll take Nvidia's drivers and control panel any day over ATIs.

A better upgrade from 2 260s would be a single dual r870 card ( to be released within the next 3 weeks hopefully ; however it won't be quiet ) or waiting it out for GF100 (however at this rate that would be some considerable *waiting* ). I'd personally stick with what you are using unless you find that they've been disappointing you ( there was only the odd modern game where my 260s let me down ). Honestly the only con (this is my opinion today, this will change when DX11 is more relevant) I'd have over 2 260s vs a 5870 is power usage and taking up 4 slots.

As far as brand, warranty XFX is best hands down. I haven't heard much as far as their actual customer service but they are the only ATI board partner to my knowledge that offers both a lifetime warranty ( double even ) and allows overclocking and modding. I've heard decent thigns about Saphire as well but I haven't dealt with them. If you are Canadian though DON'T TOUCH HIS. They have no support here and don't seem to give two sh1ts about customers who buy their flagship product and leave them out to dry for 6 months.

[Electric Wizard]

Thanks for the input chickenfeed im still on the borderline of deciding what to do and as always the input I get from here helps out a lot, and seeing as ATI does have a dual coming I might just wait for that, a single slot dual card would be nice and it would make my loop a bit nicer.

[aztec]

Originally Posted by Chickenfeed

As far as brand, warranty XFX is best hands down. I haven't heard much as far as their actual customer service but they are the only ATI board partner to my knowledge that offers both a lifetime warranty ...

VisionTek also has Lifetime Warranties:

http://support.visiontek.com/warranty/warranty.html

[Glow9]

Originally Posted by aztec

VisionTek also has Lifetime Warranties:

http://support.visiontek.com/warranty/warranty.html

I want to hit someone over the head with a hammer already. I swear I have posted this like 10 times now. This is a marketing gimmick. "Lifetime" is the lifetime of the product being made/ supply so typically 3 years. Guess what pretty much everyone else has a 3 year warranty too. The only thing that xfx really offers is a transferable warranty. Is that worth paying a extra $20 for most people no I rather spend it on a better cooled model.

[zshadow]

A 5870 does NOT outright surpass 2xGTX260. In a best-case scenario, yes, but those are few and far between, especially with so many titles being Nvidia optimized these days.

I have 2xGTX275 myself and am waiting to see what Nvidia puts out next at least. Nothing stresses my current setup at 2560x1600 res so I really have no reason to switch. The lower power usage is nice but not worth spending $200 (after recouping costs if I sold my 275s). DX11 is a moot point right now, I have yet to see any games use it in a way that makes me say wow, much like when DX10 first came out. Back in the day, SLI setups had major issues, but now almost everything scales quite nicely.

The only real reason to make the jump is Eyefinity IMO. But if you aren't going to be taking advantage of that, I don't see any value in switching over at the moment.

[aztec]

Originally Posted by Glow9

I want to hit someone over the head with a hammer already. I swear I have posted this like 10 times now. This is a marketing gimmick. "Lifetime" is the lifetime of the product being made/ supply so typically 3 years. Guess what pretty much everyone else has a 3 year warranty too. The only thing that xfx really offers is a transferable warranty. Is that worth paying a extra $20 for most people no I rather spend it on a better cooled model.

I was just linking to their warranty. And don't assume everyone has seen what you've posted, no matter how many times you posted it.

[Glow9]

Originally Posted by aztec

I was just linking to their warranty. And don't assume everyone has seen what you've posted, no matter how many times you posted it.

I'm not frustrated with people reading my posts I'm frustrated that people buy into marketing crap like lifetime warranties. People then feel like their product is covered forever but instead they could have gone with another companies card which is just as good if not better and maybe saved some cash.

[aztec]

I hear ya. A lot of crap today is just marketing BS.

[Chickenfeed]

Originally Posted by Glow9

I'm not frustrated with people reading my posts I'm frustrated that people buy into marketing crap like lifetime warranties. People then feel like their product is covered forever but instead they could have gone with another companies card which is just as good if not better and maybe saved some cash.

That aside XFX is STILL the only AMD board partner that allows modding ( thus 3rd party coolers ) and overclocking without invalidating the warranty. The transferable warranty just makes the card retain more resale value. To me personally, that is still much better than most 1 year plain jane warranties and worth a small price premium (if any at all in some cases)

[KingOfsorroW]

Originally Posted by Electric Wizard

Alright so I have been reading a lot about the HD 5870 and although ive been skeptical of ATI for years (and I mean years and years and years) I think I might grab one of these however I pose some questions to you guys first see if you cant steer me int he right direction

Right now I have 2 GTX 260 Superclocked: does 1x HD5870 beat the performance of these?

If I do get one what are the good brands right now, from what I see HIS, XFX and Sapphire seem to be good but experienced input would be helpful

How easy are they to overclock? (as compared to my current GPU's if there is any at all difference in the OC process)

If anyone knows is there any plan for a price drop in the nearest future (before xmas)

Anyway those are my current thoughts on this new longing of mine and as I always try I come here to opinions and criticisms before I impulse buy.

Thanks

EW

As an "ATI man", I can tell from what I see: the single hd5870 beats my old 285s tri sli setup in Stalker call of pripyat. The fps is smoother and there is significally less stuttering and pauses during the game.
In Oblivion the perfomance is about the same, while at some places there is a hint of stuutering. But really, you have to be very demanding in perfomance wise to see this slight stuttering.
These are two games I played for long enough to tell the difference. Note, I was talking about one card vs three cards

[aztec]

Originally Posted by Chickenfeed

That aside XFX is STILL the only AMD board partner that allows modding ( thus 3rd party coolers ) and overclocking without invalidating the warranty.

Technically, don't ALL ATI partners allow overclocking, since ATI Overdrive is built into CCC?

[Chickenfeed]

No they don't unless specified (when you first unlock overdrive it gives you a warning that it isn't officially supported / covered ). However in reality if you RMA a product in serviceable condition, how they'd ever know if you overclocked the card or not is beyond me anyways. However modding (basically changing the TIM and or heatsink ) is something I wouldn't try with any card other than an XFX if you do care about the warranty. Some board makers get tricky and place tamper proof stickers over key screws to make it near impossible to switch the heatsink without their knowledge, in the event of a warranty claim.

[Electric Wizard]

Alright so say I wanted to pull off the plastic and toss a waterblock on it, XFX is the only one whose warranty would cover any damage that would come to it (not water im sure) but any damage that resulted from clocking without the stock fan on it?

[aztec]

Originally Posted by Chickenfeed

No they don't unless specified (when you first unlock overdrive it gives you a warning that it isn't officially supported / covered ). However in reality if you RMA a product in serviceable condition, how they'd ever know if you overclocked the card or not is beyond me anyways.

Well, I didn't see anything that said it wasn't covered when I first clicked Overdrive on my VisionTek. Just a generic caution about o/c'ing. I didn't care anyway, since the first thing I did was toss the stock HSF and mounted the ThermalRight.