GTX 470/480 vs ATI 5850-70

[Detale]

Well now that the new fermi cards are out I was thinking of getting one. but from what I have read the ATI cards that have been out are still faster than them. Not to mention run way cooler and use less power. What do you guys think.

[Snee]

Not looked at many benchmarks recently, but from what I understand, you still want nvidia if you do a lot of out of game computing with your rig. So for folding and stuff, nvidia might be worth it (or if you can't live without physx and cba to add a second card). Otherwise I'd still go ATi (or possibly wait for better nvidia cards).

The new Ares 5970 looks very tempting, for one thing. It's what I'm getting if I have money to spare later on.

Other than that, I've been running a pair of 5770s and am pretty happy with them, apart from the @%#£$! driver-level powerplay 'feature' screwing with my deskscapes, currently. The 5000-series is pretty nice, all round, and the way they scale in CF is brilliant, so two cards work really well.

Also, I think the current best bang for your buck is either the 5850 or the 5830. At least if you mainly get it for games.

[Detale]

Do you happen to know if I can run crossfie on my EVGA p55 FTW mobo??

[Snee]

Looking at this (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p55-pci-express-scaling,2517.html), I'll hazard a yes.

Actually, I think the p55 has a lot in common with the x58, which runs cf beautifully, as far as my experience goes.

The only difference is that you'll run 'em in 8/8 lanes, whereas I get 16/8 (I've got a third card using another pcie slot so it's 16/8/8 really, else I could run two in 16/16), which, when looking at that article, doesn't make much of a real difference in performance.

Something interesting you might want to think about, if considering cf, is that the cards don't have to be perfectly matched. You can do a 5870 + a 5850 or a 5770 + a 5750 (the first and second digit do have to match), for instance. Not sure how well those exact combos work out, but it may be worth looking at.

[Detale]

A consideration I am looking into is upgrading my PSU as well. My Corsair 620 HX has been awesome but I'm not sure if i can pull the wattage needed to run 2 cards. I'm looking at a reasonably priced PSU with about 1000w. Checking out Jonny Guru he gives this one an 8.5 wich is good enough for me I think
KINGWIN Lazer LZ-1000 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121068)

[Snee]

I dunno if you need that.

Supposedly, that 620w:er should be able to handle two 5770s or 5750s without a problem. I looked into it a while back, when I was trying to halp my little brother with some stuff, and he has the same psu. Two 4870s is just about on its limit, from what I understand, and those tax the PSU a lot more.

A 750w should cope with stuff like 5770s in trifire, iirc. I was also looking at dual 5850 with one of those.

I'm currently sporting an 850w:er, though (the 750w didn't break, I just sold it off for cheaps, when another of my brothers was building (mostly for his benefit)). From what I gather, the odds are fairly good that my current one will do ok with double 5870s/one 5970 and another card for physx, if I keep the physx card a gt240 or something, as I do now.

For PSUs I've only done Corsair for ages now*, though, so dunno much about the one you linked.

This is fairly typical (http://www.overclock.net/ati/580791-power-supply-needed-5870-cf.html) as threads about 5870 CF PSU reqs go.

And this:


Power consumption

The Radeon HD 5870 for what it is producing in terms of performance, is a card with a great power specification. Placing two cards in CrossfireX definitely doesn't require you to have a kilowatt PSU.

One of the better accomplishments of the series 5800 graphics cards is the enhancement in its power design, the implementation of voltage and clock regulation is very dynamic. So if we look purely at the Radeon HD 5870 now the maximum wattage consumed would be as follows:
GPU Radeon HD 5850 Radeon HD 5870
TDP 1 GPU 170W 188W
TDP 2 GPUs 340W 376W
TDP 3 GPUs 510W 564W

Now that's only the graphics card power requirement, you need to add the rest of your PC as well.

Radeon HD 5870
The card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit at minimum if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 40 Amps available on the +12 volt rails.

Radeon HD 5870 CrossfireX (2-way)
A second card requires you to add another 188 Watts. You need a 700+ Watt power supply unit if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 55~60 Amps available on the +12 volt rails.

Radeon HD 5870 CrossfireX (3-way)
Here's where things get a little tricky, reserve 600 Watts for the GPUs on the +12 volt rails, another 250 Watts for the processor (we assume you are overclocking) and then add another 100W for the regulars.

Really, we say... go with a proper kilowatt PSU here, as next to a decent safety margin you also need a PSU with enough 6/8-pin power connectors for the graphics card.

...is from here (http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5870-crossfirex-test-review/3)


Also, from ATi:



Here are the official power requirements for the brand new ATI Radeon HD 5850 and HD 5870 video cards.

ATI Radeon™ HD5850 System Requirements:

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended

600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode


ATI Radeon™ HD5870 System Requirements:

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended

600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in • dual mode

The power supply recommendations are for an entire pc system.

Before purchasing a new psu you will need to decide whether you will eventually have a pc with one or two video cards.

Note that the given wattages there are probably exagerrated, to account for really shite brands of PSU with dodgy measurements on the label.

*Since 2008, the builds I've been involved in have one TX650w, one HX620w, one CX400w, one HX750w, another HX750w and an HX850w in my own rig. Asking me what to buy is probably not advisable unless you want the answer to be 'Corsair'.

EDit: Also, I've heard that at least the 5700s bomb horribly in trifire, to the extent that they might even get beat by two of them in regular CF in some benchmarks. Tri-fire with one 5970 + a 5850/5870 still does ok, though. No idea about 3x5870. Just in case that got tempting, all of a sudden.

[edgee]

For GTX480's power consumption is very high.
I would recommend ATI5870.
Link:
centralcomputers.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=73698

[Detale]

I'v had Corsair PSU's for ages now as well. I have 4 of them spread throughout the house as of now. But the 1000w modular is about $300 and the one I pointed out is only about half that. I still may get the Corsair one depending on what I do with the video card. It's looking like I may wait as I don't really "need" one. I may also do as you mentioned and get a lower end card (9800 or something) for PhisX but I really don't know much about it yet. Basically I still don't understand how to get that to work, do I need a SLI bridge or what?

[Snee]

The cards running in CF need CF bridges. But those generally come with the cards. The Physx card isn't in the loop that way, so isn't connected to the others.

It's only useful for games with hardware Physx support, and requires you to patch the nvidia drivers with an unofficial patch, or run older, from before nvidia started attempting to block physx when there's an Ati card present, drivers.

It also usually needs you to either fake the nvidia card being connected to a monitor, or actually have it connected to one (but if there's more than one input connector on one of your monitors, it works fine connecting the nvidia card to that).

[lucaslee]

the nvidia is better:) the view is good

[bpchia]

i'm going for an ATI as I'm building an HTPC

[Spamming]

Gtx pwns it dude

[yann3804]

Do you happen to know if I can run crossfie on my EVGA p55 FTW mobo??

8x/8x scaling, it doesn't mean that it will be slower, but expect a FPS limitation.

[lued_00]

i always go with nvidia, so im with 480

[aoc27t]

ATI Radeon HD 5870 is a good card.

Link (http://www.centralcomputers.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=73698)