GTX 260 Core 216 SLI or 5850?

[TwwIX]

Well, i waited for the GTX 470 and i can't say that i am impressed after checking out numerous reviews.


I currently have one oced GTX 260 Core 216. I Am unsure whether to get another one or wait a while longer and get a 5850 once the price drops a bit further.

What do you guys think? What would give me the better performance?

 

[Dinnesch]

GTX 260 SLI would give better performance, but at cost of stability(because both cards can fail, additional heat, driver issues) and power consumption.
Also, while framerates may seem good in benchmarks, SLI/Crossfire setups can suffer from Microstuttering, be sure to read this before deciding to go with SLI.

 

[VirusType2]

Well, i waited for the GTX 470 and i can't say that i am impressed after checking out numerous reviews.


I currently have one oced GTX 260 Core 216. I Am unsure whether to get another one or wait a while longer and get a 5850 once the price drops a bit further.

What do you guys think? What would give me the better performance?

If you're waiting for a price drop, you should still keep an eye on the GTX 470 in the coming months. I know perhaps Nvidia doesn't have a reputation for being great with driver updates, but I personally think there is the potential to get ~40% better performance in most games. This is exactly how much they are falling short, and exactly how much ATi improved with driver updates (in the last 6 months).

On one game, Nvidia's new cards are competing fiercely, and in another, they are in a totally lesser class. It doesn't add up.

 

[TwwIX]

Drivers aren't going to improve the power consumption nor the heat they generate.
They may address those issues with a new revision but i doubt that we will see one this year.

 

[VirusType2]

If a $500 card can perform as well as a $650-750 card, then the slight increase in power and heat would be worth it to me. Increasing power draw increases heat, which in turn reduces the potential performance - there's no way around it. I'd like to see ATi's 5970 come way down in price.

One GTX 480 is going to generate a lot less heat and draw a lot less power than your SLI GTX260, I'll assume.

 

[Escaep]

I'd say get a 5850 and you can always add another later down the road.

 

[Krynn72]

I was waiting for the 480 as well, and was thinking about getting a 285 since I was unimpressed. I opted for the 5850. We'll see how that goes.

As for the SLI 260s... nah I wouldnt bother. For one, I've heard SLI 260s dont even perform as well as a 295, which a 5850 beats. Plus it seems like you're concerned with power usage, which an SLI setup will gobble up.

 

[Warbie]

I know people always big up a product they've chosen, but I can't praise the 5850 enough. Mine comfortably clocks and benchmarks faster than a 5870 at stock. The only problem is that the rest of my PC (C2D @ 4ghz) is obviously bottlenecking performance in certain games.

 

[Ren.182]

I recently got a 5850 too and its a damn great card. Again, my PC is probably bottlenecking it (Q6600 @ Stock speeds) but its played everything I've thrown at it flawlessly.

 

[Asus]

Yeah, since ATI went small chips they can OC very well. Nvidia on the other hand has had to disable parts of the chip and downclock to get enough working chips to sell in volume.

What are you playing that you need more than a GTX260? An ATI 58**/Nvidia GTX 4** would be a good improvement though. Just prices are still up there. I like waiting for the refresh on the series for better clocked cards of the same design but on a new process (lower power or better OC).

 

[Schall]

5850, yes!

 

[TwwIX]

The 5850 seems like a very good performer and it's easily overclockable but the lack of PhysX and CUDA is a bit of a downer. From what i have heard, you used to be able to run PhysX on ATI cards with modified drivers but Nvidia disabled that in the latest PhysX drivers.

 

[Asus]

PhysX is not used in many popular games. Havok physics is used in a ton of games. And not all of Havok is done through the CPU.
But game physics are still mostly for visual appeal (rag doll, cloth) rather than game changing (destructible environments). I don't think one type of physics has enough appeal over another to sway GPU purchasing in cases where there is a performance/heat/cost difference from the GPU hardware.

It looks like ATI is looking at physics from code based on OpenCL standards rather than make a proprietary (PhysX) equivalent.

I wouldn't worry about missing CUDA unless you plan to run a specific app that you know uses it. It's Nvidia's way of doing apps on the GPU, aka proprietary.
Some use OpenCL (open standard) or DirectCompute (DX11, MS) which are not limiting hardware companies from adding support. Like Cyberlink is using DirectCompute.

 

[TwwIX]

I plan on getting a XFX card because of their double lifetime warranty. What model should i be going for though? I hear the non reference models, the ones with the fan in the middle, don't overclock as well and they won't let you increase the voltage neither.