4870 versus 5770

[Yeesh]

The 4870 is significantly faster, and significantly cheaper. I assume it's some kind of trap. What gives? Am I really going to pay more to get less in exchange for 3 monitor support (wha?) or DirectX 11 features I won't even notice in the mere handful of games that sport them?

It's got to be some kind of trap, right? Do 4870s leak poison gas or something?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'm going from an 8800GS to a GTS250 myself. Power supply died on my computer and I was able to to get a new power supply with video card for $80 so what the hell. Should be a decent enough upgrade for roughly $40, and hopefully last me until 460s are around $100.

 

[Mangoose]

Might just be a price drop as they're being phased out.

 

[trym88]

The 4870 is significantly faster, and significantly cheaper. I assume it's some kind of trap. What gives? Am I really going to pay more to get less in exchange for 3 monitor support (wha?) or DirectX 11 features I won't even notice in the mere handful of games that sport them?

It's got to be some kind of trap, right? Do 4870s leak poison gas or something?

That's right, but power comsumtion of the 4870 is higher and I remember it's hotter, so I wouldn't recommend overclocking.

 

[MetalCraze]

The best solution for your dilemma is:
Go GTX460, overclock it to 800 MHz and enjoy your games at GTX470 speed

 

[Grunker]

4870 is fucking great. Best and most reliable card I've ever owned. But I don't overclock, so I can't tell you how reliable it'll be there. My friends running a crossfire-setup with 4870's, and his overheated. He might be an idiot though.

Driver support sucks ass compared to GeF though.

 

[Twinkle]

Skyway is right, save for 460.

 

[Yeesh]

Jesus meng, I'm talking about $100 or so, not $200 or so. I do wish I was rich, but I'm the brokest person in the city.

I ended up getting the 5770. Newegg had it for $130 AR, and they knocked another $20 off in combo with RAM I was buying anyway. There was a 4870 for $100, but it didn't come in a combo with anything I needed, and it might (or might not) have required a slightly heftier power supply than what I had.

Thanks for the input. To give you an idea of the economizing I'm all about, I also bought an Athlon II X3 445 and a motherboard for $112 total. Cheap cheap cheap. Because I'm broke.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

The 4870 is significantly faster, and significantly cheaper. I assume it's some kind of trap. What gives? Am I really going to pay more to get less in exchange for 3 monitor support (wha?) or DirectX 11 features I won't even notice in the mere handful of games that sport them?

It's got to be some kind of trap, right? Do 4870s leak poison gas or something?

The 4870's had bonanza price cuts while the R800 was outselling whatever TSMC could make.

 

[Gragt]

I still do not get the hate for ATI drivers. Been a while since I had a nVidia card but since I switched for ATI I had less driver related problems. My new card (5750) had some problems at first with some games, but each was fixed within a month of their appearance.

 

[Sceptic]

I still do not get the hate for ATI drivers.

Fanboyism mainly. The haters still bring up ATI driver problems that stopped existing a decade ago but they seem to forget Nvidia cards blowing up due to driver problems a few months back. That said, while I'm extremely happy with ATI drivers for WinXP ATM, their Win7 drivers suck ass: you can't change the GPU scaling options (it's greyed out for some reason) and forcing Vsync through drivers doesn't work for some reason. There are simple workarounds for both problems, and AFAIK the Vsync problem also exists with Nvidia drivers (so it's probably another Windows idiocy), but there's still no excuse for them not doing anything about them for almost 2 years now.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

ATi are shit, period. Forever waiting for hotfixes, every mother fucker with AA issues in latest games always has an ATi card and no nhancer, £100+ means i ain't never gonna fuck around with a barest of barebones GPU like what ATi i putting out.

Nvidia cards blowing up due to driver problems a few months back.

10.2's were nuking peoples GPU's, how long were grey screens going on for?

their Win7 drivers suck ass:

lol so they're not so fine afterall.

you can't change the GPU scaling options (it's greyed out for some reason)

Since i switched to 7 gpu scaling has been fine...well, scaling is always shit.

forcing Vsync through drivers doesn't work for some reason. There are simple workarounds for both problems, and AFAIK the Vsync problem also exists with Nvidia drivers (so it's probably another Windows idiocy), but there's still no excuse for them not doing anything about them for almost 2 years now.

Download rivatuner and use d3doverrider and forever ignore faffing about with vsync settings, you can suck my cock in gratitude later.

Cheerio.

 

[MetalCraze]

Fanboyism mainly. The haters still bring up ATI driver problems that stopped existing a decade ago

You mean ATi fanboyism?
Fucking ATi - it took them how many years to finally make sound work properly in their HDxxxx series? Only when 9.4 got released the problems more or less were solved.
Add to that that you still need to switch driver every time you want to play a game from a different year because something is constantly fucked up this year in that game.
Unless of course 4670 and 4850 cards are "a decade ago".

but they seem to forget Nvidia cards blowing up due to driver problems a few months back.

In the beta that they removed the same day. Betas aren't stable releases which in ATi's case is just a word. Granted Nvidia drivers are pretty crappy themselves (2D support is fucked up, but so is with ATi) - you don't need to change them constantly - it's a matter of finding the better driver for your card and sticking with it - all shit just works after that.

Thanks for the input. To give you an idea of the economizing I'm all about, I also bought an Athlon II X3 445 and a motherboard for $112 total. Cheap cheap cheap. Because I'm broke.

If the motherboard isn't crap you should try unlocking the 4th core on the CPU.

 

[Melcar]

The Codex cannot into graphic cards.

 

[Twinkle]

Betas aren't stable releases

For the most part the are stable and working, esp. if they come from an official source (non-leaked). WHQL testing is a piece of joke. Thinking about it, the better drivers I've used were betas/hotfixes.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Skyway is right, save for 460.

Yep, skyway is absolutely right. GTX460's are the best value (bang for buck) available right now. Note though the 1GB model is significantly better than the 768MB (it's not just memory size).

I got a 5870 - I need eyefinity 3x monitor support for my sims - with a view to picking up another later for xfire. But now I'm gonna sell it and go with 2x 460's in sli (you need 2 nvidia cards for 3x monitor support and my mobo supports both).

Edit: I wont come in to the ati vs nv debate, as you can see I swing both ways. I havn't had many problems with the 5870, it's been fantastic, although in general, over the years I'd say the nVidia drivers have been slightly more stable and comprehensive.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I used to swing both ways as well, primarily in the direction of ATI. But since my last two ATI cards died (Fan died then card overheated) I got sick of it and went to Nvidia. Thus far haven't had any hardware problems and I've liked their drivers more (Don't know if I'd say they ran better, I just like how they're presented/the interface more) so what the hell. Plus PhysX and shit like that makes me lean slightly more towrad Nvidia too. All adds up to me preferring them now.

 

[MetalCraze]

There is also this little thing that makes NVidia always win vs. ATi in the end

CUDA+PhysX.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

There is also this little thing that makes NVidia always win vs. ATi in the end

CUDA+PhysX.

Yep - native 3D support too - though I very much doubt this would appeal to very many codexers. I'd definately like to give it a shot though, just need a 120hz monitor + goggles.

Edit: Hmm, been checking out the monitors - I really want one now. Apparently even without 3D they are really fucking smooth + almost no input lag.

Shit, no wonder I'm always broke

 

[Twinkle]

There is also this little thing that makes NVidia always win vs. ATi in the end

CUDA+PhysX.

Except that the first means nothing unless you are interested in actual coding and the second is a piece of fail designed to force idiots to buy a second card.

 

[Gerrard]

There is also this little thing that makes NVidia always win vs. ATi in the end

CUDA+PhysX.

 

[Dragula]

6000 is almost out.

 

[Suchy]

CUDA is fucking awesome. And a sweet thing for cracking MD5. On GTX280 I get almost 800 million tries per second, while with CPU only it's less than 200M, (about 50M per core).

╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ BarsWF MD5 bruteforcer v0.8 ♥       http://3.14.by/en/md5 ║
║ by Svarychevski Michail             http://3.14.by/ru/md5 ║
ă───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Â
║    GPU0:  795.53 MHash/sec     CPU0:   47.02 MHash/sec    ║
║                                CPU1:   46.71 MHash/sec    ║
║                                CPU2:   47.14 MHash/sec    ║
║                                CPU3:   46.99 MHash/sec    ║
║                                                           ║
║    GPU*:  795.53 MHash/sec     CPU*:  187.86 MHash/sec    ║
ă───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Â
║ Key: sa1SWu               Avg.Total:  779.33 MHash/sec    ║
║ Hash:d6670a7e79b7373168e41733656ab6d1                     ║
║ Progress:  2.36 % ETC    0 days  0 hours  1 min 11 sec    ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
══ Key is: 2710feE═══════════════════════════════════════════
Press any key to exit

 

[BethesdaLove]

Sadly, BarsWF runs on ATI too. =P
I also expected a much more dramatic increase... =(
Buy 6 TB of storage for 200 bucks and rainbow that shit. =)

 

[AlaCarcuss]

There is also this little thing that makes NVidia always win vs. ATi in the end

CUDA+PhysX.

Except that the first means nothing unless you are interested in actual coding and the second is a piece of fail designed to force idiots to buy a second card.

Umm...no, wrong on both counts.

CUDA is actually utilized in quite a few games and gaming related tasks. For example, it's used by SoftTH to speed up tripple screen access.

PhysX does NOT require two cards, although of course it benefits greatly if you do. Personally, I've found it a great way of extending the life of older nVidia cards when upgrading.

 

[Sceptic]

You mean ATi fanboyism?

How is stating that both drivers have their problems ATI fanboyism?

Add to that that you still need to switch driver every time you want to play a game from a different year because something is constantly fucked up this year in that game.
Unless of course 4670 and 4850 cards are "a decade ago".

4870 actually. And the last time I had to switch drivers was... never. All games I tried from the last 13 years work perfectly fine. Everything older I run in DOSBox anyway. Drivers are about a year old, from when I bought the card.

Granted Nvidia drivers are pretty crappy themselves (2D support is fucked up, but so is with ATi)

Precisely the kind of thing I was talking about.

lol so they're not so fine afterall.

The Win7 one? Did I ever claim they were perfect? They have problems. Incidentally 2/3 of the problems mentioned ITT are also there in the latest Nvidia drivers. How does that support "ATI drivers suck and Nvidia's are great"?

(inb4 "but ur an ati fanboy u said their gr8")

Download rivatuner and use d3doverrider and forever ignore faffing about with vsync settings, you can suck my cock in gratitude later.

For telling me something I already know?

you can't change the GPU scaling options (it's greyed out for some reason) and forcing Vsync through drivers doesn't work for some reason. There are simple workarounds for both problems

(They're EnBtn and and D3DOverrider respectively)
Sorry love but you're gonna have to try much harder if you want to earn that privilege.

 

[MetalCraze]

Except that the first means nothing unless you are interested in actual coding

Huh? I don't need to code anything to let my geforce speed up complex flash animations which it does. Among other things

and the second is a piece of fail designed to force idiots to buy a second card.

I don't need a second card to have all that sweet complex physics in my games so what are you talking about?