5770 or 5870

Other than 250 dollars, what's the big difference between these two cards? Would it really be worth while to save double the cash?

I mostly know nVidia cards, anyone care to shed light on equivalencies between these and nVidia cards?

Obviously this is in ref. to Ultra Mode.

The 5770 is equivalent to the GTX 275. Give or take of course. A quick search on Google should find you some comparisons between the 2 cards (The GTX 275 and the 5770). You could also read some comparisons between the 5770 and the 5870

We'll see....

Well a GTX275 should fair fairly well for Ultra Mode, and the price is certainly right on the 5770's. I might go that road.

Ah, no. The HD 5770 is a little less powerful than the GTX 260, NOT the 275.

The HD 5850 is around the same performance to slightly faster than the GTX 285. The HD 5870 is faster still.

Then there's the power issue. The HD 5xxx series does use less power than nVidia's high end cards. The HD 5770 maxes out around 115 watts of 12 volt power, the HD 5870 around 212 watts. Considering the HD 5770 GPU is essentially half of a HD 5870 GPU (800 SP Vs 1600 SP) this sort of makes sense.

General performance in games, we're looking at 60-70% faster.

If value is a consideration, you honestly need to look at a 5850. Faster than any previous-generation card, a snip at £215 if you shop around. I'm eyeing one of those up.

'Course, I'm waiting until Fermi hits. I'm not a betting man when it comes to two hundred quids.

*sigh*

my power supply is a piddly 250 watts

So Father Xmas, what's your opinion on the 5850, is the 5870 that much better, or is that a worthwhile sacrifice?

Edit - Hmmm... looking at pricing the 275's and 5850's are all in the $325-375 range, which is in my 'save up until July' category, so it looks like either way I'm waiting. I don't want to go with something 260 quality, seems like a band aid solution to me. If I'm upgrading might as well get nearer to the top.

Here is a nice review/comparison of the 5000 series cards.

Is the HD 5870 worth the $100 over the cost of a HD 5850? I don't think so.

X-Bit Labs has an review comparing the HD 5850 to the HD 5870 (and the GTX 285). The summary page has four charts at the bottom showing relative performance of the HD 5850 when compared to the HD 5870, two resolutions, with and without AA/AF on, across 15 games at stock clock speed, OC to the same speed as the HD 5870 and maximum OC. For a card that costs 25% less than the HD 5870, they are seeing roughly 15% less performance at stock clocks.

I am looking to get an ATI Radeon 5850. That seems to be the sweet "bang for the buck" spot for me.

Of course, I am going to put together a nice AMD Phenom system to go with it as well