An ideal upgrade from HD 5870??

[Makaveli]

Batman AC, Metro and BF3 will bring a 5870 under 30 fps at 1080p. I don't consider a 7970 a realistic ugrade path from a 5870. According to ebay the avg selling price of a 5870 is 193 bucks. That's a far cry from 550.

I think the 7970 is a great upgrade because its going to over alteast a double the frame rate the 5870 can provide.

Yes there is a huge price difference but a 69xx series card wouldn't be enough of an increase in fps for me.

 

[xp0c]

Batman AC, Metro and BF3 will bring a 5870 under 30 fps at 1080p. I don't consider a 7970 a realistic ugrade path from a 5870. According to ebay the avg selling price of a 5870 is 193 bucks. That's a far cry from 550.

$193 is awsome for a two year old card. I'm selling mine for $150.

I play BF3 with decent settings and get 40-60 fps with vsync on, but I don't play 64 player servers.
All Ultra accept Shadow, and textures at high, AA deferred off, AF 8x, HBAO on at 1080p

Thats with my card at 950/1250. Now its at 1015/1280

 

[WMD]

Batman AC, Metro and BF3 will bring a 5870 under 30 fps at 1080p. I don't consider a 7970 a realistic ugrade path from a 5870. According to ebay the avg selling price of a 5870 is 193 bucks. That's a far cry from 550.

A 5870 overclocked can easily maintain about 60 fps in BF3 with no msaa and high settings. The image quality difference is minimal. Metro 2033 no problem at all in DX9 high. The graphics still looks amazing in that mode. Batman just needs tessellation turned off

 

[thejunglegod]

I think i'll wait now rather than going for the 7970. I just love the fact that i chose the 5870 more than 2 and a half years ago. If someone would have told me then, that the card will last you for more than 2 years i would've rubbished his claims and considered him an idiot forever. Thanks guys. 5870 FTW.

 

[superjim]

I think i'll wait now rather than going for the 7970. I just love the fact that i chose the 5870 more than 2 and a half years ago. If someone would have told me then, that the card will last you for more than 2 years i would've rubbished his claims and considered him an idiot forever. Thanks guys. 5870 FTW.

Yup, I just sold mine after owning it from launch day, 2.5 years. Longest amount of time I've ever had a single GPU.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Honestly, a 5870 to 7970 is a huge jump, especially if you overclocking the 7970. Once I overclock my 7970 to 1125 1575 it is 50-80% faster than my previous 6970 at stock. And a 6970 is at least 40-50% faster than a 5870. So you will more than double your performance with an oced 7970.

 

[toyota]

Honestly, a 5870 to 7970 is a huge jump, especially if you overclocking the 7970. Once I overclock my 7970 to 1125 1575 it is 50-80% faster than my previous 6970 at stock. And a 6970 is at least 40-50% faster than a 5870. So you will more than double your performance with an oced 7970.

um a 6970 is about 15% faster than a 5870 at 1920x1080.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

At times it is only 10-20% faster, but in some benchmarks it is 30-40%+ faster and in the future the number of such games is likely to go up.

Besides, even if it averages 20% faster. A 7970 oced will still nearly double the dps from a 5870.

http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page10.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page6.html

 

[kalrith]

um a 6970 is about 15% faster than a 5870 at 1920x1080.

According to AT Bench, it's 26% faster at 1920x1200: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=292

I could see it being closer to 15% if the graphics were turned down at that same resolution.

At times it is only 10-20% faster, but in some benchmarks it is 30-40%+ faster and in the future the number of such games is likely to go up.

Besides, even if it averages 20% faster. A 7970 oced will still nearly double the dps from a 5870.

http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page10.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page6.html

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/511?vs=508

According to AT Bench, a 7970 is 55% faster than a 5870 at both 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 resolution. If you overclock both the 7970 and the 5870, the performance difference might shift a bit more in the 7970 direction, but it wouldn't even come close to 100%.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/01-3DMark11-C-Extreme,2933.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/02-Unigine-Heaven-DirectX-11-C-Extreme,2936.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/13-Battlefield-3-DirectX-11-C-Extreme,2969.html

Oc gives 7970 20-25% boost

Mature drivers will give 10% boost to 7970

Newer games will prefer 7970 to 6970 to 5870

The difference will increase in the future especially in titles like bf3, newer titles with some tesselation etc.

 

[WMD]

At times it is only 10-20% faster, but in some benchmarks it is 30-40%+ faster and in the future the number of such games is likely to go up.

Besides, even if it averages 20% faster. A 7970 oced will still nearly double the dps from a 5870.

http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page10.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page6.html

If you only play games with heavy tessellation load then yes its a quite a big increase in speed from a 5870. Otherwise its closer to 30%. OC isn't a good reason though as its not garanteed. Some cannot go past 950mhz on the 7950 overclocking thread.

 

[Makaveli]

If you only play games with heavy tessellation load then yes its a quite a big increase in speed from a 5870. Otherwise its closer to 30%. OC isn't a good reason though as its not garanteed. Some cannot go past 950mhz on the 7950 overclocking thread.

I think the 5870 to 7970 is much larger than 30% it should be 50% at minimum. And he was talking about overclocking the 7970 not the 7950!

 

[kalrith]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/01-3DMark11-C-Extreme,2933.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/02-Unigine-Heaven-DirectX-11-C-Extreme,2936.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/13-Battlefield-3-DirectX-11-C-Extreme,2969.html

Oc gives 7970 20-25% boost

Mature drivers will give 10% boost to 7970

Newer games will prefer 7970 to 6970 to 5870

The difference will increase in the future especially in titles like bf3, newer titles with some tesselation etc.

The percent increases are speculation. If the OP buys a 7970, it might only overclock 10%, and his current 5870 might overclock 15%. We don't know how much mature drivers will improve performance, and we don't know what performance will be like for games that don't exist. Performance probably will lean more towards the 7970 than the 5870, but if that increase jumps from 55% to 65%, is that enough to justify the high cost of the 7970?

That being said, you could be right, but it's still all a guess. If I were the OP, I'd sit with my 5870 for several months before buying. The release of Kepler and the rest of the 7xxx line-up along with some manufacturing time should push prices down and give more upgrade choices. That will also allow time for more mature drivers and more overclocked benchmarks to be released. That will give the OP more information about whether it's worth the money to upgrade.

 

[felang]

The percent increases are speculation. If the OP buys a 7970, it might only overclock 10%, and his current 5870 might overclock 15%. We don't know how much mature drivers will improve performance, and we don't know what performance will be like for games that don't exist. Performance probably will lean more towards the 7970 than the 5870, but if that increase jumps from 55% to 65%, is that enough to justify the high cost of the 7970?

That being said, you could be right, but it's still all a guess. If I were the OP, I'd sit with my 5870 for several months before buying. The release of Kepler and the rest of the 7xxx line-up along with some manufacturing time should push prices down and give more upgrade choices. That will also allow time for more mature drivers and more overclocked benchmarks to be released. That will give the OP more information about whether it's worth the money to upgrade.

Also bitcoin mining will keep 5870 prices up, so even if you sell it in a few months you should still fetch a decent amount.

 

[Termie]

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU: i5 2500K
II. Current Graphics Card:ATI HD 5870
III. Display Resolution:1920 X 1080
IV. Power Supply Unit: Antec Earthwatts 650W :http://www.antec.com/pdf/flyers/EarthWatts_650_flyer.pdf
V. Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D, CPU Cooler Corsair H100

Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Approxiamtely what i got the 5870 for.
II. Cooling solutions: Woulnt mind any of the brands
III. I do not plan to use multi-gpu solutions.
IV. the HD 7970 seems to be a good card.
V. Well obviously all games on high-ultra settings. AA off.
VI. I dont plan to overclock the card.

This whole discussion left out one critical element. The OP was looking for a major performance increase for the same price he paid for his 5870.

The simple answer: there is no such upgrade, other than going crossfire. Also, he said he did not want to overclock.

 

[thejunglegod]

The simple answer: there is no such upgrade, other than going crossfire. Also, he said he did not want to overclock.

Thanks mate. I was wondering why there were so many replies w.r.t. overclocking. All make for a very interesting read though and i didnt know that OCing a 7970 gives a 20-25% boost. That's a lot isn't it?? And with all the competition, prices will definitely drop when Nvidia might finally be able to stand up to ATI with Kepler. Good for all of us. And obviously I'm going to sit with my HD5870 till i see a future winner. Exciting times ahead. Thanks all of you.

 

[lehtv]

+1 for waiting for Kepler.

You shouldn't have any issues in an up to date Skyrim on High settings with object distance turned to 30-50% (I don't even notice this compared to 100%, except as a sizeable frame rate boost). I get constant 60fps in Skyrim with my OC'd 560 Ti.

 

[poohbear]

Batman AC, Metro and BF3 will bring a 5870 under 30 fps at 1080p. I don't consider a 7970 a realistic ugrade path from a 5870. According to ebay the avg selling price of a 5870 is 193 bucks. That's a far cry from 550.

Huh? None of those games bring my 5870 under 30fps (unless u MUST have 4x AA). My 5870 is still kicking ass & playing everything above 30fps @ 1080 with all settings maxed exluding AA.

These young kids nowadays forget that AA was created for low resolutions wherein jaggies are ridiculous,@ 1080 u certainly dont need AA. Guess they dont remember the 800x600 days though.;p

Sent from my Atrix using Tapatalk

 

[Makaveli]

I agree i find AA not needed the higher the resolution.

At 1080p or 1200p I usually play without it or 2x aa at most.

And i find people that must have AA on even at 2560 are just being anal most of the time

 

[railven]

I agree i find AA not needed the higher the resolution.

At 1080p or 1200p I usually play without it or 2x aa at most.

And i find people that must have AA on even at 2560 are just being anal most of the time

I dunno. I game at 1080p and I spot jaggies easily (they bother me.) And yes, I acknowledge I then have put up with shimmeries on my card. Haha.

So, either I deal with crawlies or shimmeries. It is definitely game dependant. Try playing SW:TOR without AA. The game is a jagged mess.

 

[toyota]

I dunno. I game at 1080p and I spot jaggies easily (they bother me.) And yes, I acknowledge I then have put up with shimmeries on my card. Haha.

So, either I deal with crawlies or shimmeries. It is definitely game dependant. Try playing SW:TOR without AA. The game is a jagged mess.

yes some games have horrible aliasing at 1920x1080 on a 24 inch screen. games like GTA 4 and Far Cry 2 look abysmal in many spots without any AA. its the way things like foliage and fences look without AA that bother me more than just edge jaggies.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

On a 27 in screen I get jaggeries even with 4x Fsaa at 19 by 10

 

[MrK6]

I dunno. I game at 1080p and I spot jaggies easily (they bother me.) And yes, I acknowledge I then have put up with shimmeries on my card. Haha.

So, either I deal with crawlies or shimmeries. It is definitely game dependant. Try playing SW:TOR without AA. The game is a jagged mess.

Agreed, it's really game dependent. SWTOR definitely sticks out in my mind as well. Some games like BF3 I don't think it's as noticeable, but now that I have a 7970, why not run 4x AA?

 

[Makaveli]

Agreed, it's really game dependent.

100% agree and forgot to add this to my post some games are worse/better than others.

 

[pelov]

Having bought a 5870 for $150 recently, I can say that at 1080p there really isn't much of an upgrade unless you absolutely require 60+ FPS on titles like BF3. The 5870 is still an incredible card for single-monitor <1080p setups. You'll likely get better tesselation performance from a 69xx card or a 560/570, but if you don't mind dropping AA down a bit I don't see a reason to upgrade at all.

If you're looking to go to eyefinity then a 7970 makes far more sense, but considering your single monitor and current cards at current prices you're better off waiting.