5850 now or wait?

[Xarick]

Running an 8800gts 320
Should I get a sapphire 5850 now? (amazon has them in stock)
Wait on an XFX which are out of stock everywhere.

or even wait until we see what nivida has. I have always been a big fan of nvidias drivers.

 

[error8]

The general idea is that most of us are waiting for Nvidia to release their cards, but there just aren't to many signs of this to happen any time soon. If you have the itch to get it, I would wait a bit for 2-3 weeks to see these cards being more available and probably because of that, getting a little bit of a price drop, nothing to important though.

 

[KingstonU]

What error8 said. Buy when the demand drops and supply is plentiful: ~1 month from now or shortly after the windows 7 upgrade frenzy dies down. Or buy in ~4 months when Nvidia releases GT300.

 

[SlowSpyder]

There is always something new on the horizon, I wouldn't wait just because of that. I'd decide whether to wait or to buy now based on your current card, how is it doing for you? Are games struggling, or are you getting by ok? If things are chugging a long, I'd upgrade now and be done with it. If your current 8800 is still 'fast enough' for you, then wait a while.

 

[crazylegs]

If you buy a 5850 now, i dont imagine you'd have any reason to upgrade in the next 18 months or so

If you wait *insert random number x months* for NV alternatives to be readily available. The general consensus is that they wont blow ATI away. So at best you'll save a few $$ IF ATI decides to drop prices. But then this saving will be offset by the fact that u have had *X* number of months of use out of a top of the range card.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

If you're wanting to upgrade soon, just go with the 5800s. Just a couple months ago people were asking "should I upgrade to a 4890 now or wait?" and most were told to wait to see what the 5800s were going to be like. Now they're here and people are being told to wait on GT300. Once those are out, there'll be something else to wait on. If you keep waiting, you're never going to upgrade, so just bite the bullet and jump in. Especially since there's little indication NV is going to have cards out before the end of the year.

I'd buy the XFX now, once you can find it that is. Their warranty is way too good to pass up, in my opinion.

 

[Xcobra]

Originally posted by: ScorcherDarkly
If you're wanting to upgrade soon, just go with the 5800s. Just a couple months ago people were asking "should I upgrade to a 4890 now or wait?" and most were told to wait to see what the 5800s were going to be like. Now they're here and people are being told to wait on GT300. Once those are out, there'll be something else to wait on. If you keep waiting, you're never going to upgrade, so just bite the bullet and jump in. Especially since there's little indication NV is going to have cards out before the end of the year.

I'd buy the XFX now, once you can find it that is. Their warranty is way too good to pass up, in my opinion.

QFT

 

[nitromullet]

No reason to wait for NVIDIA, but I would wait until you can get hold of an XFX. The cards are all the same right now, but XFX is clearly the most sought after brand because of their warranty and the ability to transfer the warranty to a second owner. This is going to help your resale value down the line, so IMO it's worth waiting for.

 

[Genx87]

If you have the absolute itch to buy something that is brand new. Then you have to look at the cards in the channel now. If you can wait 2-3 months. Then you can evaluate what Nvidia brings to the table with their new cards.

I am personally waiting because the i5\i7 CPU's really didnt blow me away. And I was going to wait to see what Nvidia is bringing to the table as well as the 5800 series from ATI is a nice upgrade, but also didnt blow me away.

 

[cbn]

I would buy the ASUS "Voltage tweak" HD5850.

 

[hectorsm]

Xarick

If you don't need the card now than I suggest that you wait. Cards will probably be cheaper later and if you wait until the gt300 is released then you have another choice to pick from.

 

[Xarick]

8800 gts 320 is really showing its age in a lot of games. Mostly I think it is the 320 ram more than the card.

 

[nicnas]

Originally posted by: Xarick
8800 gts 320 is really showing its age in a lot of games. Mostly I think it is the 320 ram more than the card.

Do as most users advise you: wait a month (or less) until prices drop a bit and you can get that XFX or ASUS card they are recommending.

I will personally do something similar to retire my old 2600XT. It is struggling to drive my new 1920x1080 monitor! Right now I see 2 retailers in my country that have Powercolor and Sapphire 5850s in stock for approx. ?220 (keep in mind 4890 is ?210 here) ... can you feel the itch?

 

[Isura]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
No reason to wait for NVIDIA, but I would wait until you can get hold of an XFX. The cards are all the same right now, but XFX is clearly the most sought after brand because of their warranty and the ability to transfer the warranty to a second owner. This is going to help your resale value down the line, so IMO it's worth waiting for.

XFX has quality control issues imo. They seem to think a lifetime warranty is an excuse to release crappy quality cards.

 

[Tempered81]

I agree with Isura, but the advantage to buying XFX at this point in time is that all 5850's are reference. Takes time to skimp out on the card's parts, so its going to take a pcb revision, aftermarket cooler, non-reference model design before QC issues come around.

So you get ATI reference quality + double lifetime warranty.

 

[Red Storm]

Originally posted by: Tempered81
I agree with Isura, but the advantage to buying XFX at this point in time is that all 5850's are reference. Takes time to skimp out on the card's parts, so its going to take a pcb revision, aftermarket cooler, non-reference model design before QC issues come around.

So you get ATI reference quality + double lifetime warranty.

Double lifetime warranty is absolutely key for me, as I frequently sell my current card and use that money towards upgrading. I have not experienced any issues with XFX and I've bought from them 6 times so far.

 

[v8envy]

Also remember when the HD2900 came out and was underwhelming the midrange and better NV cards went UP in price. I'd also advise hanging back until Black Friday if you can, there may be some deals to be had.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Tempered81
I agree with Isura, but the advantage to buying XFX at this point in time is that all 5850's are reference. Takes time to skimp out on the card's parts, so its going to take a pcb revision, aftermarket cooler, non-reference model design before QC issues come around.

So you get ATI reference quality + double lifetime warranty.

Yep, I always like to buy cards at launch for this very reason. They are all NV or ATI reference, and the AIBs haven't had the opportunity to come out with their cherry picked OC models. You get a reference card for MSRP that actually has the possibility of being a decent overclocker.

Our own resident BFGTech employee confirmed what I had already suspected after noticing that every time I bought a second card for SLI it was a craptastic OC'er compared to the launch card...

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

Originally posted by: Zap
BFG GeForce GTX 285 PCI Express
This is what I currently use. Why do I call it "best?" Because it is! Besides sometimes using better components, BFG also bins cards for various factory overclocks. My card is air-cooled, but was pulled from the liquid cooled bins which are higher clock. Not only that, I personally had asked one of the guys doing the binning to push a bunch of passed cards harder. I took his top 10 cards and personally tested them, and purchased the best one. Thus, I literally have the ONE best card out of thousands.

...really makes you wanna run out and buy a vanilla BFG card doesn't it? Although in BFG's defense, I've noticed the same from EVGA cards. I'm sure they all do it, and the cards have always run at their advertised clocks.

 

[Tempered81]

I remember everyone getting super excited over the 55nm refreshed gtx260's and 216's, but after their release, ocing was so-so "meh" on them. I bought a cheap 192sp 65nm original 260 zotac after the 55nm release on the cheap, and it OC'ed like mad. Much higher than the 55nm parts on the new pcbs.

 

[Kraeoss]

why do they call cards and mobos "vanilla" ?

 

[Tempered81]

it's a reference to plain ice-cream having a vanilla flavor. plain reference design graphics cards and plain mobos vs. Vapor-X 2gb, rampage III extreme, etc.

 

[hectorsm]

Originally posted by: Xarick
8800 gts 320 is really showing its age in a lot of games. Mostly I think it is the 320 ram more than the card.

I think the G80 chip in general is starting to show it's age. I have the same card but with 640MB vram. Even with the extra vram it struggles in games at 1920 X1200 resolution.

I have been tempted by the 5850 as well but I have decided to wait until the gt300 is released to compare price/performance and features.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Kraeoss
why do they call cards and mobos "vanilla" ?

I've never heard a mobo referred to as "vanilla", but with a video card it means reference design and stock clocks. Calling something "vanilla" just means it is basic or ordinary.

Originally posted by: Xarick
8800 gts 320 is really showing its age in a lot of games. Mostly I think it is the 320 ram more than the card.

IIRC, the 320MB ram was its weakness way before the G80 core starting showing its age. Especially at any resolutions 1680x1050 and up. The 8800GTS 640 (G80) and 8800GT (G92) were really close at the time the 8800GT launched, but the 320 had fallen behind.

 

[gorobei]

cypress is nice, but i'm waiting for juniper. die shrink after kinks have been worked out of the architecture is when i usually buy. Though i'm curious what the 6port displayport model will bring to the game when it arrives.

would early junipers also be reference?

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
There is always something new on the horizon, I wouldn't wait just because of that. I'd decide whether to wait or to buy now based on your current card, how is it doing for you? Are games struggling, or are you getting by ok? If things are chugging a long, I'd upgrade now and be done with it. If your current 8800 is still 'fast enough' for you, then wait a while.

QFT. in the hardware industry, this is always the best advice.

and dude, upgrading to a 5850 from an 8800 320mb is gonna be more than double the fps jump. U just can't go wrong.