Debating on upgrading to Radeon HD 6870

[Windows i7 920]

Specifically, I'm looking at buying this. Currently I have a PowerColor Radeon HD 4890. Would I notice any significant performance increase by buying this?

 

[Corpsecrank]

To soon for 6000 series cards. You would see better results going with a 5000 card right now. Price is kind of weird too. 5000 cards cost more then 6000 cards for no apparent reason. Still your money is better spent on a 5000 series right now.

 

[Windows i7 920]

I'll probably wait a year and see what's out then. I might be better off with that because the Radeon HD 4890 cost me about $200 and runs almost every game I throw at it at max detail without lag. Temps aren't horrible either. Under load it seems to run at around 50 C.

I might also buy a Radeon HD 4870 x2 and Crossfire it with the 4890. I've heard that this is possible because the two cards are essentially the same architecture. I've seen 4870 x2s on eBay for $110 - $200 in great condition.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

To soon for 6000 series cards. You would see better results going with a 5000 card right now. Price is kind of weird too. 5000 cards cost more then 6000 cards for no apparent reason. Still your money is better spent on a 5000 series right now.

Check again. There's nothing wrong with the pricing actually.

HD 5850's are now in the low $200's (~$220 IIRC), while the more powerful HD 6870 can be found for as low as ~$250.

And to the OP, how much are you willing to spend?

EDIT: a HD 6870 would be ~25% faster than a HD 4890.

 

[smarteyeball]

I might also buy a Radeon HD 4870 x2 and Crossfire it with the 4890.

You'd probably get better mileage out of another 4890 instead. Slightly less headaches.

Cat drivers and the 4870x2 haven't been getting along to well for quite a while now. (2nd GPU 3D clock issues) It's not a priority series, let alone card that gets much attention now.

Plus Tri-Fire scaling is pretty poor and bugger all games will show much improvement.

 

[Solarstarshines]

As a proud owner of a 6870 i can tell you it rates right up there with the 5870 it is slightly slower by 7 to 8 points in benchmarking

besides that 6870 has eyespeed technology check out the scores between the 5770 and the 6870 this should give you a idea of what it is like

 

[BugMeister]

a reduction in temperature as well, I notice..

will 2 6870's run in crossfire - I can't find confirmation of this..?

even though the GFX cards look as though they have the crossfire tabs
the XFX version appears to indicate that crossfire is not an option (- via their site)..

- odd?

 

[Solarstarshines]

it should it comes with a crossfire bridge

also for xfire you need 4x6 pin adapters this card takes two

 

[zipsi]

I recently purchased a sapphire 6870, I'm very happy with it, for price-performance ratio its the best. Drivers seem to be s*** at the moment though - cant use more than 8x anti aliasing while the card supports 24x and a few more minor issues. Demanding games such as Metro 2033, AvP or crysis all work smooth on maximum settings.

 

[kemo]

I don't exactly understand ATI's new cards. according to CPU mag, they are slower than the 5 series. Sounds kind of bass ackwards to me...

Drivers seem to be s*** at the moment though

ATI drivers are ALWAYS that way off the bat. They take time to get them dialed in.

will 2 6870's run in crossfire - I can't find confirmation of this..?

There are plenty of vids on youtube showing it.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

I recently purchased a sapphire 6870, I'm very happy with it, for price-performance ratio its the best. Drivers seem to be s*** at the moment though - cant use more than 8x anti aliasing while the card supports 24x and a few more minor issues. Demanding games such as Metro 2033, AvP or crysis all work smooth on maximum settings.

No it's not.

The GTX 470 is without a doubt the best performance/price card out there right now.

It's ~5% faster than the HD 6870 and like ~$20 cheaper.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

I don't exactly understand ATI's new cards. according to CPU mag, they are slower than the 5 series. Sounds kind of bass ackwards to me...

Drivers seem to be s*** at the moment though

ATI drivers are ALWAYS that way off the bat. They take time to get them dialed in.

will 2 6870's run in crossfire - I can't find confirmation of this..?

There are plenty of vids on youtube showing it.

It's because the new HD 6800 series cards weren't supposed to replace the 5800 series cards (although the HD 6870 is faster than the HD 5850).

Think of it this way:

HD 6800 series cards = new HD 5700
HD 6900 series cards = new HD 5800

 

[kemo]

I don't exactly understand ATI's new cards. according to CPU mag, they are slower than the 5 series. Sounds kind of bass ackwards to me...

Drivers seem to be s*** at the moment though

ATI drivers are ALWAYS that way off the bat. They take time to get them dialed in.

will 2 6870's run in crossfire - I can't find confirmation of this..?

There are plenty of vids on youtube showing it.

It's because the new HD 6800 series cards weren't supposed to replace the 5800 series cards (although the HD 6870 is faster than the HD 5850).

Think of it this way:

HD 6800 series cards = new HD 5700
HD 6900 series cards = new HD 5800

Weak, I'll stick with Nvidia. Although, I haven't gamed on the puter since... well GTAIV. Not much of a fan of what is on the market these days. GT5 is the only thing I've been waiting for since Doom 3. I know I know... that's a PS3 game, but it's the only reason i bought a PS3. Shoot, my last console was a PS1

 

[SlackerITGuy]

I don't exactly understand ATI's new cards. according to CPU mag, they are slower than the 5 series. Sounds kind of bass ackwards to me...

ATI drivers are ALWAYS that way off the bat. They take time to get them dialed in.

There are plenty of vids on youtube showing it.

It's because the new HD 6800 series cards weren't supposed to replace the 5800 series cards (although the HD 6870 is faster than the HD 5850).

Think of it this way:

HD 6800 series cards = new HD 5700
HD 6900 series cards = new HD 5800

Weak, I'll stick with Nvidia.

Why is it weak? hahahaha.

Would it really be that different if they were named 6700s?

I have 0 problems with the new naming scheme.

 

[kemo]

I went the ATI route, got sick of the drivers (BSOD's), moved back to Nvidia when the 200 series was new. Nothing has changed in this puter since then, well except the processor.

If ATI wants to "confuse" people, let 'em have at it. Usually a bigger digit would lead everyone to believe that the 5 series was replaced by the 6... as they have done on every other series in the past.

Oh I'm sorry... AMD! I didn't even notice the change.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

I went the ATI route, got sick of the drivers (BSOD's), moved back to Nvidia when the 200 series was new. Nothing has changed in this puter since then, well except the processor.

If ATI wants to "confuse" people, let 'em have at it. Usually a bigger digit would lead everyone to believe that the 5 series was replaced by the 6... as they have done on every other series in the past.

Oh I'm sorry... AMD! I didn't even notice the change.

Although I'd agree that it probably confused a number of people (like yourself lol), the new naming scheme has a reason behind it.

The new HD 6800 series, while released to replace the 'old' HD 5700 series cards, were aimed @ a much higher price/performance baseline (as a direct result of the enormous success of the GTX 460 series cards). The 'old' HD 5700 series cards debuted in the ~$130/$170 price range IIRC, while these new cards debuted in the ~$200/$250 price range.

 

[kemo]

heh, their 6900 series better be bomb. Hopefully they get their drivers finally figured out!

 

[SlackerITGuy]

heh, their 6900 series better be bomb. Hopefully they get their drivers finally figured out!

Their drivers are not as bad as advertised my man.

I had a HD 5770 not that while ago, and their drivers were rock solid for me.

Much better than NVIDIA drivers to be quite honest.

There... I said it lol.

EDIT: BTW I have no doubt in my mind that Cayman (HD 6900 series cards) will be a HUGE success.

 

[kemo]

I frequently had BSOD when I had my ATI's. wouldn't crossfire on my M3A79T deluxe. Just somethin with Sapphire cards and ASUS 790FX boards. Anyways... after sorting through 2 doa's... I finally got one to boot... the entire time I had it, there wasn't one particular month that it didn't bsod on me (Vista at the time). And when I was still in college, all of our pc's we built in class had ATI hd 3200 integrated. Even with strictly onboard, the drivers led to BSOD on our puters( GA-MA78GM-S2H ).

There was also hybrid crossfire... but of course that never worked with a card any higher than a 37xx series! The concept/idea was great though. Just wish it worked!

But I give ATI/AMD credit... a year later (after the system was built), the computer is finally stable!

 

[BugMeister]

As a proud owner of a 6870 i can tell you it rates right up there with the 5870 it is slightly slower by 7 to 8 points in benchmarking

besides that 6870 has eyespeed technology check out the scores between the 5770 and the 6870 this should give you a idea of what it is like

- just ordered a pair of these from OverclockersUK, to replace my 2x4890's
- the twin XFX4890's are absolutely brilliant in crossfire - really smooth and fast

- hoping for some DX11-style advances with the 6870's
- will report back sometime in the week with results..