5850, still rockin on.

[Tarvaln]

I've been wondering how far behind the curve I am with my 5850. I found this article and I'm not sure if I should be happy that my 5850 still competes so well with todays x800 series or sad that it's been two years and it still competes with AMD's x800 series.
I just though this was funny.
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/36269-amd-radeon-hd-7850-vs-6850-vs-5850-clocks/

 

[blastingcap]

Eventually you may be forced to upgrade if only due to the 1GB VRAM limitation, but enjoy your card until you hit that limit. (If you don't use anti-aliasing and game at 1080p, it may be quite a while before you hit that limit.)

 

[AnandThenMan]

The 5850 should actually be compared to the 7950 because AMD moved their naming/performance levels around. The 5850 was AMD's second fastest single GPU card at the time, as is the 7950.

 

[Blitzvogel]

I'm still rocking the 5850. Can't believe its a three year old graphics card, hell I can't believe my PC is three years old lol.

 

[Durvelle27]

The 5850 should actually be compared to the 7950 because AMD moved their naming/performance levels around. The 5850 was AMD's second fastest single GPU card at the time, as is the 7950.

the HD 5850 gets man handled by the HD 7950 lol

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/512?vs=550

 

[Tarvaln]

Eventually you may be forced to upgrade if only due to the 1GB VRAM limitation, but enjoy your card until you hit that limit. (If you don't use anti-aliasing and game at 1080p, it may be quite a while before you hit that limit.)

Yea, I feel the 1GB VRAM limit in some games like Skyrim. I use SMAA in as many games as I can. It does help a lot and I recommend it to everyone. There are a couple of topics on this forum about it.

I guess "luckily" since most PC games are ports from console and consoles specs are so old, that most games run well with 2x or 4x AA enabled.

I will say the two things I notice that kill my card are shadows and v-sync. I always use none, light or med shadows. Never heavy and never with a high filter.

The other thing and I don't know if the main culprit is my vid card, monitor, or the game but I always get heavy tearing without v-sync. Yet, v-sync eats my fps. In some games like Dungeon Defenders it cuts my fps by half at times. I use Direct 3D Overrider to force V-sync/triple buffering in games that don't support it if I can't stand the tearing.

I do like the "Frame Limit" option in "Sleeping Dogs". It gives me great near constant 60 fps without tearing. Though there is some shuddering if the fps falls too much say around 45 fps.

Does anyone know of a program that can force frame limiting in games instead of v-sync? I'm pretty sure this is a in game thing only but I just wanted to ask.

 

[Termie]

Interesting article, and proof that the ball has not moved forward much in terms of what you get for your dollar/pound. It was, however, the results in Batman:AC, which I'd seen in many other reviews, that convinced me to sell my 5850s for a 670: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/36269-amd-radeon-hd-7850-vs-6850-vs-5850-clocks/?page=5

To those suggesting a comparison to the 7950, that would only make sense on a product line level - it does not make sense at all in terms of pricing. And alas, this is because AMD vastly increased its prices for the 7000 series, only to retreat (in disgrace?) over the past month, bringing the 7950 closer to the original launch price of the 5850.

Another thing to consider - a 5850 at 860/1200 is within 4-5% of a 5870, so the results of this review could in fact have been guessed just by looking at the 5870 numbers that were included in most 7850 reviews, which of course showed it neck-and-neck with both the 7850 and 6950.

 

[AnandThenMan]

And alas, this is because AMD vastly increased its prices for the 7000 series, only to retreat (in disgrace?) over the past month, bringing the 7950 closer to the original launch price of the 5850.

In disgrace? What kind of crap is this? :| Commanding and getting a premium price for a premium product is what I call success for any company. They dropped prices because of competition and because the product has been in the market for some time, shocking I know.

 

[WMD]

My 5850 reference at 975c 1290m still running all my games fine at 1050p. I play Crysis 2, Witcher 2, BF3, Skyrim and Diablo 3. The only thing I miss out is tessellation effects in crysis 2. The 5850 cannot run crysis 2 well with it. Will upgrade when I encounter a game that cannot run well at enjoyable graphics settings or when the 7950 drop below $350 in my country.

 

[toyota]

The 5850 should actually be compared to the 7950 because AMD moved their naming/performance levels around. The 5850 was AMD's second fastest single GPU card at the time, as is the 7950.

the HD 5850 gets man handled by the HD 7950 lol

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/512?vs=550

the 5850 was released at $279 where as the 7950 was released at $449. the 7950 is only 65% faster than the 5850 which is a joke for a card released over 2 years later at much higher price point. at launch prices for both cards, the 7950 actually offered less performance per dollar than the 5850. that's some piss poor progress right there.

 

[KingFatty]

I'm using a 5850, and I'm going to be doing a little modifying to the cooling in a bit, just waiting on some parts from ebay to come in.

Then I'll overclock it so bad, try to ring its neck. If it breaks, I'll throw it away and go to the wife with the excuse that I need to upgrade. Then, once I have the new card, I will of course need to get a 2560x1440 new display to take advantage of it...

 

[Maximilian]

Yup im still rockin a 5850 too :thumbsup: Flashed the bios so its now at 850/1175, stock voltages.

Theres nothing i play that would benefit enough from an upgrade.

 

[Smoblikat]

Rocking GTX 470's still, the only reason id change is to get a quieter system. But I can always just put some aftermarket coolers on them, which is what ill probobly do. I get GTX 680 speeds out of these bad boys.

 

[WMD]

the 5850 was released at $279 where as the 7950 was released at $449. the 7950 is only 65% faster than the 5850 which is a joke for a card released over 2 years later at much higher price point. at launch prices for both cards, the 7950 actually offered less performance per dollar than the 5850. that's some piss poor progress right there.

And that 65% is largely due to the abysmal tessellation front end on evergreen. Without tessellation it's actually around 45 - 50%.

 

[poohbear]

the 5850 was released at $279 where as the 7950 was released at $449. the 7950 is only 65% faster than the 5850 which is a joke for a card released over 2 years later at much higher price point. at launch prices for both cards, the 7950 actually offered less performance per dollar than the 5850. that's some piss poor progress right there.

yes but the 5850 price was pushed up to $300-$320 after release due to yield issues and supply & demand. The 7950 has settled at $300-320 now that there's actually fierce competition from the 6xxx series. The initial release price of $449 was simply because there was absolutely no competition at the time of release.

Also, the 58xx series was a hall of famer type card, it's rare to see a card last so long. Hopefully with next gen consoles being released next year we'll see hardware development pick up, otherwise we're simply not gonna see that much development happen as they'll be held back by the 7-8 year old consoles.

 

[Piano Man]

yes but the 5850 price was pushed up to $300-$320 after release due to yield issues and supply & demand. The 7950 has settled at $300-320 now that there's actually fierce competition from the 6xxx series. The initial release price of $449 was simply because there was absolutely no competition at the time of release.

Also, the 58xx series was a hall of famer type card, it's rare to see a card last so long. Hopefully with next gen consoles being released next year we'll see hardware development pick up, otherwise we're simply not gonna see that much development happen as they'll be held back by the 7-8 year old consoles.

I got my 5850 for 259.99 on day of release. Yes, it went higher for a long time after that, but it still released at that price, and that is what it was intended to be. And yea, it is a "hall of famer", but the 7xxx were a "hall of shamer" because of their price point until a couple weeks ago.

 

[Silverforce11]

5850s was known for its great OC, running ~950 to 1ghz, or a 30-35% OC.

7850 just carries this tradition, with 40-50% OC so its even better. The power use difference is also signifcant, especially OC since 5850s OC really suck the juice whereas 7850s OC only consumes 20-30W more.

But the performance delta isn't big.. which is why i went with a 7950, OC vs OC, its a significant jump in perf worthy of an upgrade.

 

[sxegloxx]

5850 Owner Here. Bought in @ 300$ price point which really hurt at the time but nvidia's next generation was no where in site and I wanted to play Bad Company 2.

I game @ 1680X1050 so an upgrade is a LONGGGGGGGGGG time coming

 

[Ventanni]

5850 owner here, which I picked up for $150 like a year or so ago. I never spend more than $200 on a GPU, but this one has been probably the best purchase I've ever made.

 

[Smoblikat]

I paid 100$ for BOTH (not each) of my 470's

 

[KingFatty]

I paid 100$ for BOTH (not each) of my 470's

Cool, but how can you also rock a 5850 with both of those 470s?

 

[Sureshot324]

Got my 5850 like 2-3 years ago and was going to upgrade when the 7000 series came out but now I'm going to wait for the 8000 series. It still plays everything maxed out at 1920x1200.

 

[Keysplayr]

Not bad OP. I still have a GTX280 that does quite well.

 

[FalseChristian]

My 2 1GB GTX 460s still chew on and spit out any game out there at my res of 1680x1050. When I got my i5 2500K and overclocked it to 4.5GHz my games almost doubled in speed!

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Hell my GTX260 works "good enough" for anything. I'd love to replace it but there's nothing compelling in the $150-175 range. The added cost of this Gen has been depressing.