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ATI 5770/5850

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Just a quicky, i'm on a slight budget at the moment, so thinking of getting a 5770 or 5850Am I wasting my time with my current cpu? I'm thinking of a E8400 but need to spend on other priorities atm :mad:

Running at 1680 x 1050 btw.
 
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Soldato
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If I were you, I'd pick 5770, keep the extra cash and save up to toward either a 2nd hand Q6600 or Q9550/Q9650 (as gaming is shifting toward Quad cores now).

I don't think it would be a good idea to pair up an average CPU with a very fast GPU, as it is meaningless having fast graphic processing power, when the CPU is feeding data to it at a slow rate.
 
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thanks chaps, I think i'll go for the 5770 and i'll have a look around for a quad core.

I should see i reasonable increase in performance, i've got a 1920 X 1200+ Samsung but using it as a tv, my current pc screen is NEC 230wgx2 which I love :D
 
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I don't think it would be a good idea to pair up an average CPU with a very fast GPU, as it is meaningless having fast graphic processing power, when the CPU is feeding data to it at a slow rate.

Not really true...games are pretty much entirely GPU limited at the moment. If he clocks his E6600 to 3.4-3.6GHz it will be totally fine.

A 5770 will give a nice little performance boost but a 5850 will be far more noticeable when moving from an 8800GT
 
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Not really true...games are pretty much entirely GPU limited at the moment. If he clocks his E6600 to 3.4-3.6GHz it will be totally fine.

A 5770 will give a nice little performance boost but a 5850 will be far more noticeable when moving from an 8800GT
It depends on how you look at it and what games you are considering.

Personally I'd prefer a rig with Q9650 oc to 4GHz pair with a 5770 than a rig with E6600 oc to 3.4-3.6GHz pair with a 5850, when considering about the Quad friendly games that are on their way.

Also, faster graphic card benefit only better frame rate in game, but faster CPU benefit not only in boosting the frame rate, but the PC as a whole for doing everything else as well.

There's no reason paying £80 extra to get 5850 instead of 5770, if the 5770 is already capable of running the game smooth max out on prefered res.

Faster is better I agree, but it would cost more as well.
 
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Soldato
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...sorry but no it doesn't depend on how you look at it or which games you are considering. A 5850 + E6600 will ALWAYS be FAR FAR faster than a 5770 + Q9650 provided it's clocked above 3.4GHz or so.

Games are GPU limited, and for those that aren't...like Source games and UT3 based games, you'll be getting FPS in the hundreds regardless.
 
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Thanks for the info, i'm starting to think a 5850 is more suitable now.

After a 2 year stint on Wow i've been doing some catching up.

I'm playing Fallout 3, Dawn of War2, LOTRO at the moment. Got Borderlands but i'm finding it's running a bit choppy. Not tried the last 2 CODs yet, want Bioshock 2 but not until i've upgraded.

Quite a few other games i've missed and a few new ones due out this year
 
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I did try when I first bought it but had trouble getting it to run without random crashes and I couldnt be having that when playing Wow :/
That was on my old asus p3n32-sli though. Not actually sure if my current mobo is a good overclocker, I bought last year as my other mobo died.
 
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Not so sure the speed of the cpu is so vital after reading this review, as long as its a decent cpu and not too old. This also shows how capable the 5770 is even at 1920 X 1080. And the price difference between 5770>5850 is more like £100.:)

Oh and 5850\5870 if money dont matter.
 
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Not so sure the speed of the cpu is so vital after reading this review, as long as its a decent cpu and not too old. This also shows how capable the 5770 is even at 1920 X 1080. And the price difference between 5770>5850 is more like £100.:)

Oh and 5850\5870 if money dont matter.
5770 is definitely a great performer for its price, however CPU speed DOES matter (well, not so much for 5770). The reason that the result in that review Core i5 750 2.66GHz (stock speed) vs 3.8GHz with a 5770 is almost identical is because the Core i5 750 at stock speed (2.66GHz) is already fast enough to use 5770 to it max capability, therefore overclocking the CPU further would not increase the frame rate any further.

However if you look at the following:

Test kits: HD5870, 4GB Corsair 800Mhz DDR2, 4GB Corsair 1,600Mhz DDR3
Crysis (DirectX 10, 64-Bit, High) at 1,680x1,050

[email protected] (stock speed)=12-35fps
Q6600 [email protected]=24-45fps
[email protected] (stock speed)=19-36fps
E8400 [email protected]=27-48fps
Phenom II X4 965 BE (C3 stepping) @3.4Ghz (stock speed)=23-46fps
Phenom II X4 965 BE (C3 stepping) [email protected] =29-52fps
Core i5 [email protected] (stock speed)=20-50fps
Core i5 750 [email protected] (stock speed)=33-57fps

(source: Custom PC Issue 078 March 2010, p41)

This clearly shows the CPUs are in fact not keeping up with 5870, otherwise the frame rate would remain the same even with faster CPU speed, just like in that review where the frame rates of Core i5 750 2.66GHz vs 3.8GHz on the 5770 remaining identical.

I'm not saying it is completely pointless to get an 5870 or 5850 to pair up with an average CPU, but if comparing a person that uses a Dual-core at 3.8 GHz to a person Quad-core at 3.8GHz, the person using the Dual-core CPU would effectively only be using only half the capability of the 5850/5870 comparing to the person using Quad-core of the same speed in games such as Battlefield Bad Company 2. Just have a look at the following test result, and look at the result for Battlefield Bad Company 2:
http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/659536-contagion-review-dual-core-vs-quad.html
(Just a reminder a 4870x2 is roughly around the same speed as 5850/5870).

So let's say we compare E6600 to Q6600, both at 3.6GHz...with a 4870x2/5850/5870 in Battlefield Bad Company 2...if E6600 get 35fps, then Q6600 would be getting like 70fps- because of the extra 2 cores.

Which bring me to the point that...you are paying full amount for 5850/5870 as everyone else, but comparing to people that got Quad-cores, you'd only be getting half the performance in return in the current and future games that are designed with support for Quad.
 
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C64

C64

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I'd wait it out you can currently get a 5870 for £267 so god knows why the current 5850 prices.Would wait for a 5850 price drop.
8800 GT to 5770 is not a worthwhile upgrade it's like going from 4850 to 5770 what you need to be aiming for is solid 60 fps on bad company 2 @1680-1050.
It's no good looking at 5770 benchmarks when they are using it on a corei7 or a 775 quad need to find some benchies with a dual core at @ 3.2-3.6 ghz.
 
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Soldato
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Thanks for that.

Think may pick up a quad core as well:D
Just a final clarification...if you overclock your current CPU to 3.6GHz, it can probably be able to use the 5770 to may be 90-100% of its max capability, so using a Quad with it will not boost performance to exceeding 100% capability of the 5770 in games like Battlefield Bad Company 2.
5770 should be more than capable to provide you with high enough frame rate for smooth gaming at 1680x1050 at highest settings.

Although Dual-core will only be able to use 5850 to 50% of its capability, it would still be about 50% faster (minimum and average frame rate figure wise) than the 5770 (but the price also cost 50% more). But in terms of actual gaming experience wise, you would not notice huge difference in terms of smoothless at 1680x1050.

So if it is for meeting your current requirement, overclocking your CPU to 3.6GHz and grab 5770 would suffice at a cost of around £120.

However, if you are thinking ahead about moving onto 1920X1200 in the future, you should upgrade in the follow order:
1. get the 5850 instead of 5770 (cost around £200)
2. upgrade to 1080p monitor (cost around £100-£150)
3a) upgrade to Quad (cost around £100-£270 depending on model/new or 2nd hand)
3b) upgrade to Core i5 750+motherboard+4GB DDR3 RAMs (cost around £330, but then the 4GB DDR2 RAMs can then be sold at least £40 (if it is 800MHz) to recover some of the money)

Hope this would help you decide how to spend your money wisely.
 
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