In another thread Fikusan was interested in this card, the topic spiraled here and their etc.. instead of necroing / trolling his thread I'll toss my own up I have about 180 total (that is including tax and shipping) for a new card, found this http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-ATI-Rad...o_TV_Cards&hash=item1e68e27a20#ht_2936wt_1224 A few people in Fikusan's thread claim it is still a top notch card and well worth getting, before I throw the $ can any one confirm and ease my mind? Should I look for something else in my price range that trumps this card? Thanks! -Trice
I got mine like a week ago, plugged it in and loved it. It definitely upped my gaming experience at least 10 fold (for the games I do play). That being said, I do notice it's average temperature lurks around 70-75C which is twice what I had with my old card. This card was worth it just for the eyefinity alone. I'm sure a lot of people are gonna say to wait for the next round of cards to come out so prices drop though.
It will be a GINORMOUS upgrade from my Nvida 8800 GTX 512MB Never used ATI / AMD before, always been a Nvidia fanboi .. this is uncharted territory for me.
It is a great card for the money, best in that price range if you can find it. I dont think youll be able to afford a good card with 2GB of memory on that budget and you wont be able to afford any of the new gen cards coming out very soon either, so the 5870 is probably the way to go. Hopefully you can find it around $125. I think they do make a 2GB version of it so if you can find that then definitely get it. Games down the line will make use of the extra mem. Im surprised your 8800GTX lasted this long. It came from a time where Nvidia was using defective silicon. Most people I know who have cards from then had them die within the past couple years now.
Mines still kicking and I play SWTOR as well as BF3 with it *LOL* The 2GB versions I have found sell for 300+ on ebay, BULL EFFN SH!T!!! I'll stick with the 1GB unless I can magically find a cheaper 2GB one.
Yup, I was running the 8800GTX for a while until the thing killed itself. I am currently running ATI Radeon HD 5850 and it is a fantastic card. Had no real problems with it and as long as ATI are making cards of this quality I don't see myself switching back to Nvidia products any time soon.
Well I tried to order that 5870 on 1/5/12, payment went through even got a 'item shipped' from the seller. Checked UPS tracking over the weekend and the item never hit there local UPS facility. Fired off an e-mail to seller Sunday with no reply, after some digging and checking my CC company I noticed the seller effn refunded the money without notice! Wonder why I hate e-bay, so many shotty sellers. anyways, effn that clown! can someone kindly explain the diff here same exact card and specs, just one is Double D for 10$ more .. what gives? what the hell is Double D (keep your perverted minds at bay please) -Trice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102959 Don't eat lunch one day and buy this.
The Double D has a custom cooler on it with two fans. Double D stands for Double Dissipation. Also the cards were shown off by Double D models (supposedly, they dont look it to me)
only + for that card is the 2GB vram.. if I read the specs right it is a lesser card to the 6870. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I'm no Enigma but, Apps and Games aren't choking on processing power, what they really need is more memory.
Yes it is a lesser card. It has less shader processors and less core speed. The 6850 can be overclocked pretty easily to around 1GHz while the 6870 usually can OC to around 1050 core. Also the 6870 has an additional 8 TMU's Which help with the loading of textures and texture filtering (anisotropic settings). So the 6870 is a better card, but kinda sucks that is has 1GB of memory. Id go with one of these 3 cards depending on what you can afford: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161389 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102959 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150583 Since you have only $180, it might be best to get the 6850 2GB if you plan to overclock and just do that to bring it up to 950-1GHz
Not sure I need that extra 1GB of vram, not doing eyefinity at super large resolutions or anything drastic. The only taxing (if you can even call it taxing) apps being ran will be SWTOR and BF3. Is it really worth the extra ~$40 ???
Well games on high settings are using around 1GB of video memory now, so as time goes on high will start to use 1.5GB, then closer to 2GB. If you want to be able to play on high quality texture settings for the next few years then you will want the extra memory. Just get the 6850 and overclock it. Leave the voltage at default, turn the speed up to 925MHz to be extra safe, and set the fan to manual speed of somewhere between 50-60%. That will keep the card around 50-60 degrees while gaming and probably around 40 degrees when not gaming. Those temps are really good and you wont have to worry about shortening the lifespan of the card since the speed increase is easy for it and you are keeping your temps well in check and not pushing any extra voltage to it at all.
Hard decision, never felt comfortable OC'ing anything. Might be able to suck another ~$40 into the budget so I can spring for the ~219 2GB version, the ~224 might be pushing it. Yah $10 does not seem like much, but with a family of 5 and the one paying all the bills / food etc.. its a mega crap ton.
http://www.windstreampower.com/Human_Power_Generator.php *Don't look at the cost* 6 bodies powering your house, while you play BF3... Save $40 on electricity, each month. Profit.