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5870 Gaming Life Expectancy
- Thread starter irishtea
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At that small resolution, I would suggest you would be set for a LONG time.
GotNoRice
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It depends more on your expectations than anything really. If you don't care about running at the absolute max settings then I would say 4-5 years wouldn't be out of the question.
cannondale06
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its silly to run 5870 crossfire at that low res. not only is the performance overkill you will have tons of extra cpu overhead dealing with crossfire at such a low res. that means you will never get all the performance a 5870 crossfire setup is even capable of anyway. just get a fast single gpu and then upgrade when necessary. personally I don't see the point in having a high end gaming machine to play games on a tiny 19 inch monitor in the first place.
Well like I said, I plan on upgrading my monitor, and that will likely come at a higher resolution, sure. I just don't enjoy HUGE monitors and multiple monitor setups, ya dig? I'm MOSTLY interested in just being future proof at relatively low resolution for a while, and upgrading later if I really feel like it.So as silly as it might seem, its not as if I plan on sticking with 19". I want one substantially bigger. I just happen to enjoy the one I have while I am only running on a single 5870.
When I get my new 5870 on top of the first one, I WILL invest in more display real estate, as it were.
cannondale06
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future proofing by going overkill on gpus is silly. just buy what you need for the resolution you plan to game at and then upgrade when necessary. by the time you need to upgrade there will be faster cards with newer features for less money.
This is my first gaming machine, and I'm still unsure as to what resolution I REALLY want to game at, you know? I am buying these cards with the idea that I can future proof myself for a little while as I tinker with the finer art of finding the proper resolution and monitor setup for me. I understand and take your point into consideration - for the moment I will only be running on one 5870, which is more than enough power for the moment. But ALSO i plan on getting a monitor that can put better stress on the GPU as well when the time comes to upgrade to crossfire.
YeuEmMaiMai
Extremely [H]
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i still game on a 4870 so that should tell you about how long a 5xxx card should last
Longest I ever used a video card for serious gaming is probably five years, which was my 9800 Non Pro. It wasn't even top of the line, but was current enough for the games I enjoyed during that period. I could've chosen to buy a 9800 Pro for more money, and my gaming enjoyment would've been improved, but it wasn't within my budget at the time. Play with what you can afford, and you won't miss out on any performance because it'll get leapfrogged by the next gpu respin/release within 1-2 years anyways. But with a pair of lastgen DX11 cards you're set for quite awhiles at that resolution, OP.
cannondale06
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yep a single 5870 is still VERY strong at 1920x1080. a single 5870 at just 1440x900 will tear through games with room to spare.
I disagree.
I had ASUS 5870 E6 models in CrossfireX..........on an X58 chipset board at 4.1GHz.
Metro 2033 (sure a tough game graphically) could NOT be run at the highest settings on 1920 x 1200. Now most everything else was fine, but if you upgrade your monitor.....you are going to be wishing for more GPU.
So no, I don't think that sort of set up would be worth it given what's on the horizon.
If you haven't purchased the cards yet, I would strongly reconsider.
Get a couple of the 69xx series cards or a couple of the GTX 580 3 GB models if you
have the cash.
Now, my daughter's rig is a Rampage Formula with a Q9450 at 3.6 GHz and an ASUS 4890. She has a Dell 22" which is 1680 x 1080 if I recall and she has no problem with most everything she plays, and that includes Borderlands, LFD2, COD and recently Crysis2 (yeah,yeah......she wanted to give it a go......she loved Crysis and Warhead.)
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I have a single 5870, and it runs everything fine at 1920x1200. It even copes decently with a lot of games in Eyefinity 5760x1200. I don't think you need a second card, especially not at 1440x900. Better to save that money for a new single high-end card when the next generation hits.
Gorankar
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Surely you would be at or near max settings with at least some AA in the vast majority of games at that resolution until sometime after the the new MS/Sony consoles launch. Almost nobody is really pushing graphics at this point. I imagine they will not until the new consoles launch.
Wow this thread is making me laugh! Forum contributors pulling one way and then the other xD
Let's get down to bare bones here. If what GORANKAR says is true, then I should be set with a single 5870 2GB and just save up for a new monitor and next gen GPU combo in the future, yes?
Let's get down to bare bones here. If what GORANKAR says is true, then I should be set with a single 5870 2GB and just save up for a new monitor and next gen GPU combo in the future, yes?
cannondale06
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IMO yes
Dangman
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Yes. However if your sig is up to date, I highly recommend getting a new PSU: Coolermaster doesn't brand a single good quality 500W PSU. As such, you will definitely increase the chances of system instability or straight hardware death with such a crappy PSU. Something like these should be fine:
$70 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
$70 - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-620 620W PSU
Pretty much. For 1440 a 5770 is a good "match" and that's with eyecandy on. A 5870 will last you until you're tired of it or you get a much larger monitor.
LAiN_OfTheWired
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This statement is not as correct as many think. Just got a second 6870 for myself and installed it today. Still can't max out Metro 2033 and get a minimum frame rate of greater than 15fps in the benchmark (avg 77fps though). Also can't average 60fps in Lost Planet 2 benchmark (53fps avg). Sure, these are benchmarks that push things beyond what the game itself normally demands, but these are 2 solid examples with many to follow as DX11 is adopted by more devs.
Also currently running 1440x900, a 1920x1080 monitor is in my sights for Black Friday.
cannondale06
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who cares about the min framerate in a fly through benchmark? no matter what system you have it will dip down in the type of benchmark. play the REAL games and you will see your performance is just fine. and stop staring at the framerates, praying it does not dip below 60fps and you will likely enjoy your game much more.
that also does not change what I said about cpu overhead at a low res with multi gpus setups. I bet if you could raise your res to 1600x900 that you would likely get the same framerates in many cases.
so a 5870 is more than plenty for any game at 1440x900 unless you are doing something silly. by that I mean trying to use dof in Metro 2033 or run 32x AA in some games that are already demanding.
No worries, I am upgrading my PSU before I even install the new 5870. I'm looking towards an XFX XXX Edition semi modular 80 Silver 750watt to handle all my power needs for a little while for just 40 bucks more.
Dangman
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Cool.
Dude at the resolution you're fine with your 5870. Your system is really designed for a 1920x1200 resolution to be honest. The only big question is Battlefield 3. Most of the people in the Alpha are saying their FPS is great with their last generation hardware. But it is an ALPHA. So they could have disabled advanced options and such. But it runs great for their system. My advice is wait for the hardware to be actually "slow" before you upgrade. I was about to get a 6990+6970 combo this year. But I waited and my "old" 5970 is handling everything just fine at 1920x1200. If this system can handle retail Battle Field 3 fine at 1920x1200, there will be no reason for me to upgrade. But knowing me, I will probabl be getting a southern island this christmas
Seeing how I waited for the 6990 and could have purchased it before the insane prices you see today. Makes me want to buy it at day one Dude at the resolution you're fine with your 5870. Your system is really designed for a 1920x1200 resolution to be honest. The only big question is Battlefield 3. Most of the people in the Alpha are saying their FPS is great with their last generation hardware. But it is an ALPHA. So they could have disabled advanced options and such. But it runs great for their system. My advice is wait for the hardware to be actually "slow" before you upgrade. I was about to get a 6990+6970 combo this year. But I waited and my "old" 5970 is handling everything just fine at 1920x1200. If this system can handle retail Battle Field 3 fine at 1920x1200, there will be no reason for me to upgrade. But knowing me, I will probabl be getting a southern island this christmas
If the southern islands turn out to be as fantastic as I hear, they may become my next upgrade. New PSU willing, of course. My cooler master 500 really sucks, and not in a beneficial fashion. But it's good to hear that currently developing games like BF3 are probably running decently on the 5870ish GPU's, because I don't care about having ALL the eye candy on anyway. I just need a couple decent GPU's to hold me over for a decent while until I can buy the next Nvidia or ATI card generation after So. Isles. Probably even during that next era. I haven't seen a lot of ultra demanding features in todays games, so unless some games start setting the bar REALLY REALLY high, I won't be looking towards new GPU's for a little while, at least. I still play CoD4, for example, and that will run like butter at max settings on a 5870. I tend to get into gaming later in the games lifespans anyway, so I'm usually a generation or two of games behind once I actually get down to playing them. That said, I think my final decision to get one or two 5870's with 2GB ddr5 is a good one for the moment. I guess we'll see how decent the decision turns out to be when BF3 comes out!
ask yourself, when will there be new games? anybody know? nobody knows.
games that need new hardware are still years away because so are the new consoles.
2012 may see new xbox announcement. 2013 may see launch. with some margin, 2014 may see PC ports.
so lets say your video card is good through 2013.
Yakk
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Yup, and Yup. My 5870 is fine at 1920 & I use it at 3 monitor eyefinity too, it's 1GB so I tone down AA sometimes, but good for the most part.
At just 1440x900 I'd say DX12 will be out and ACTUALLY BEING USED before that setup runs into trouble...
KaptainKhaos
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I'm starting to think my launch buy of 5870's was a great purchase Still going strong since Sep 2009, only really cared about BF3 performance in the short term and already RMA'd XFX 6950's back (couldn't believe what a nightmare these where to get running stably compared to the 5870's). I'm agreeing that u will be fine until 2013 at least
Still going strong since Sep 2009, only really cared about BF3 performance in the short term and already RMA'd XFX 6950's back (couldn't believe what a nightmare these where to get running stably compared to the 5870's). I'm agreeing that u will be fine until 2013 at least 
suiken_2mieu
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Well since I run a single 5870 at 4800x2560 and still runs pretty smoothly, I think you'll have a long long time with yours.
EDIT: I also run 7680x1600 sometimes.
EDIT: I also run 7680x1600 sometimes.