HD5850 Toxic 1gb vs GTX 460 1gb

[axinian]

Greetings, Tom's Hardware community! This is my first post, I have been reading several articles and posts over the past few weeks and finally made a purchase decision. However, I feel that maybe my decision wasn't the greatest.

I purchased a Sapphire HD5850 Toxic 1GB for $315. I feel like I got a pretty good deal on a great card, but now I'm reading other sites saying that for 230-250$ I can get a GTX 460 that performs JUST AS WELL as the HD5850, notably on Hardware Canucks.

On Hardware Canucks website they do have a review for the Toxic card that was glowing, but it was dated back in February. Their current review for the GTX 460 states that it performs just as well as a reference hd5850.

My question is, should I have gone for the GTX 460 even though I feel like I got a fairly good deal?

Sorry in advance for not scouring the search, as I have to leave quickly. I will be back soon though hopefully with some feedback!

 

[Mousemonkey]

My 5850 performs better by 15 flps in farcry2.BC2,re5 than my friend gtx460.

Is your friends rig exactly the same as yours apart from the graphic card?

 

[Rustyy117]

The HD5850 is the faster card, however in the US the GTX460 is better price/performance.

Don't feel bad about your purchase, you've got an excellent card.

dipankar, I find it hard to believe that a 5850 beats a GTX460 in fail cry 2.

 

[impaledmango]

Don't fret your card is perfectly fine. Though a gtx 460 1gb is a better value it'll performs slightly less then your 5850, but if you really want that $80 back in your pocket try selling or returning your card and getting a gtx 460.

 

[Mousemonkey]

The HD5850 is the faster card, however in the US the GTX460 is better price/performance.

Don't feel bad about your purchase, you've got an excellent card.

dipankar, I find it hard to believe that a 5850 beats a GTX460 in fail cry 2.

Personally I'm more inclined to believe Guru 3D than dipankar2007ind.

 

[impaledmango]

My 5850 performs better by 15 flps in farcry2.BC2,re5 than my friend gtx460.

If I recall the gtx460 beat the 5850 in far cry 2 (it generally performs better on nvidia cards).

 

[Rustyy117]

Personally I'm more inclined to believe Guru 3D than dipankar2007ind.

Yeah FarCry 2 runs great on nVidia. Sorry dipankar numbers don't lie.

 

[Mousemonkey]

If I recall the gtx460 beat the 5850 in far cry 2 (it generally performs better on nvidia cards).

Xbit thought so:-

 

[Rustyy117]

How strange....when the reviews say that the GTX460 is faster in FC2, but dipankar gets opposite results...

You and your friend have the same HDD, Mobo and RAM amount, speed and timings?

 

[AMW1011]

No he has i7 920 2.66ghz while i have Q9550 2.83ghz.maybe my extra speed helped.i got 100flps average in farcry2 ranch small benchmark while he got 85 flps.with ultra setting 4xaa AI DISABLED.His monitor support only 1284'1024 res.So i also tested at that res.

There are too many variables there to form a good comparison or conclusion. This is why the professionals are paid the (not-so) big bucks to do it with the most identical systems possible.

 

[AMW1011]

You have 200MHz on him, but his IPS is a good deal faster so he actually has the better processor.

It will come down to Windows and the installation of the game, his may be a bad installation. It could be nearly anything on a software level, even a faulty driver installation.

 

[Mousemonkey]

His monitor support only 1284'1024 res.So i also tested at that res.

Tell your friend to get a better monitor, at least 16 x 10 but 19 x 10 would be preferable and then run your tests again.

 

[axinian]

The only positive I can take out of this is that they tested the reference version of the HD5850 and not the Sapphire Toxic version, which is much faster stock, and much more easily overclocked than reference models and the GTX 460. I don't know though, maybe it's just a touch of buyer's remorse on my part...315$ is a lot for me right now haha! Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I was not really shocked with the result.i always thought 5850 is faster than gtx460.but now it seems that not the case.Then i think fermi need more cpu speed to stretch its leg as compared to cypress esciaplly at the res we tested.

Ooh, does that mean you now believe that a higher resolution can result in a faster frame rate?

 

[kikireeki]

off topic: The title is really catchy!

 

[AMW1011]

I was not really shocked with the result.i always thought 5850 is faster than gtx460.but now it seems that not the case.Then i think fermi need more cpu speed to stretch its leg as compared to cypress esciaplly at the res we tested.

His CPU is a good deal faster than yours, so that makes no sense. It is 200MHz lower, but the IPC (instructions per clock) is a good deal higher so his CPU is still faster.

 

[Rustyy117]

actually if his Core i7 920 is at default settings then he would have hyper threading and turbo boost so his friends CPU has the advantage.

 

[jyjjy]

If you are really interested in settling this just swap cards for testing.

 

[ogstel]

Hello, I didn't want to make a new thread since I have a similar question to ask:

Will 2x GTX 460 SLI 768MB or 1GB overpower ASUS EAH5850/2DIS/1GD5 PCI-E 1GB GDDR5? In terms of ATI VGAs, which is better - HD 5850 Toxic 1GB or the ASUS model?

 

[jyjjy]

2 GTX 460s are much better than one HD5850. In fact they are better than a GTX 480.
For the HD5850 I would recommend the Asus DirectCU card.

 

[jyjjy]

2x gtx 460 will be equivalent to 5870

Nope, they are much better than that. They are in between a GTX 480 and an HD5970. Closer to the HD5970 actually.

 

[jyjjy]

No he said "2x GTX 460 SLI 768MB or 1GB" and the 768mb cards in SLI will still beat a GTX 480 handily in most cases. Here is a review with benchmarks;
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-sli-review/1