I have $700 To Spend On A Vid Card.....

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Jul 7, 2004
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...The question is, should I wait for Fermi, or go for a couple 5870's? Frys electronics is just down the street, and the XFX 5870's are seducing me.

I have a Geforce 9800 gtx+ on the machine its going in. As for the rest of the machine, its a core i7 920@3.2ghz, 6 gigs of ram.
 
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Well, I think that it is likely (all supposition, of course) that two 5870s will beat one Fermi, and if Fermi performs as past NVida card have, 2 of them may be out of your price range. If your 9800 is doing fine now though, no reason to rush and upgrade. That is always what I go by, unless you actually need the power now, don't buy regardless of how good of a card/deal. But if you do 'need' an upgrade now, I'd go 5870(s) as it is unsure how long until Fermi is out in large quantities and no sense waiting up to 3-4 months (worst case) without a full gaming rig.
 
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EXT64 Stated it well. 2 5870's are your best bet for right now if you need them right now. In a few months the 5870X2's will be shipping along with whatever cards Nvidia eventually releases so if you can wait it out until sometime around the holidays you might be able to get a slightly better deal on the 5870's, or pick up a faster new card.
 
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Exactly why do you need TWO 5870's? Do you have a 30" monitor or is that 700 bucks burning a hole in your pocket? Buy one now and wait till prices go down to buy the second. Maybe by that time games might need it.Other wise you're just wasting your money unless you wanna be the local benchmark king.
 
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I have a 28" monitor. No, I dont need it right now. But I do have another computer I'm putting together that doesnt have a vid card. My thought was to get my gaming rid completed, then putting the 9800gtx+ on the other rig.

What I'm going to do is pick one up tomorrow, then wait a while. I'm sure prices will go down within the next few months. Unfortunately they were out of the XFX brand, they have Diamond though. Never owned a Diamond board before. First time for everything I suppose.
 
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From my experience its better to buy a single card you will be happy with and use it until another single card becomes a noteworthy upgrade. Buying a second and/or third video card that is older technology doesn't always pay off.

My 8800GTX ACS3 card I spend 600.00 bucks for was in line to be paired with 2 more of the same cards. Needless to say I wasn't going to spend another 600 x2 to do this so by the time the other two cards came down in price to make sense.

This was my situation:

1st 8800GTX ACS3 600.00 plus tax Microcenter
2nd 8800GTX ACS3 200.00 ebay
3rd 8800GTX ACS3 card 120.00 ebay

totaling 920 bucks

I put these together to only have to get a floor fan to keep me cool as it was super hot with those overheating cards.

I soon replaced all 3 of them with 1 GTX 275 and the performance was the same and it cost me 225.00. It didn't overheat the room at all with the new card.

I have the 780i motherboard by EVGA but I doubt I will ever go SLI again for that reason. I would only consider this if you intend to use that video card until your system dies. Then you might possibly get matching cards for dirt cheap then...

 
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This.

I cannot think of a single case in the history of computers where, if you buy the most powerful graphics card currently available, it will do anything less than operate every game perfectly, as well as any game that comes out for the next year or two. Buying a second card makes no appreciable difference unless you're more hung up on your technical specs than on actually enjoying the fricking game.

Honestly, my most recent machine is a Q9550 with a single HD4870 ... and while that's about a year removed from being cutting-edge, it's more than enough to run anything I want, and it still blows the mind of anyone who's not a gearhead.

I honestly think a lot of questions like this are people who somebody bought them an Alienware system for their birthday and now they don't know what to do with it, but they think they ought to be doing SOMEthing. No. Just enjoy the fact that you have a great system for a year or two, and THEN worry about doing open-heart surgery on it.

I am not directing that at the OP in this thread becuase I really have no idea what his situation is, but I've seen a lot of it on various forums like this.
 
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Go buy a PowerColor card, and then come back and tell me the same thing.

Yeah, in theory, a card is a card is a card, and everything should run at spec as soon as you plug it in. But when your system gets hung up with no video and won't even post for no apparent reason, and you see a couple of flashing red lights that you don't know what they mean ... well, then you'll see how one company does a better job than another.
 
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Personally, if you have an SLI board i would wait for the fermi's and use your old 9800GTX as a dedicated physX prcessor, this is what im going to do with my old 8800GTS card...and probably give/sell the other one to a mate.
 
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from my past experience with Diamond, if your card runs fine, which in most cases it does, everything's peachy. If a situation arises where in you need to consult Diamond Customer Service, thats where hell breaks loose
 
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Seriously, I wonder when people will catch on that having 3 slower cards in your system that use more power, put out more heat and are slower than the new releases are a waste of time? I wish I never bought my 780i motherboard and I will never waste my time to SLI or Crossfire again.

If you are interested in trying to hunt down deactivated cards on ebay to finish your SLI/Crossfire setup then it makes a little sense but still not the best way to go or you can overspend in the beginning and buy all new cards at full price. I will always get a relatively performing single card and upgrade when I see that I may actually need more performance.

Take my opinion for what its worth. I'm only a veteran builder that has spend 1000's on computers that decided to stop wasting money and settle down with my 3,000 system thats now 10% slower than the 1st time builders just now getting an I7.

CHEERS!... 😉
 
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I'll keep your story in mind if I ever want to go three way sli. Right now it just two 9800gt 1gb which means no three way but that does not matter. SLI only really works when you overclock but in your case that wasn't an option.
 
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It applies to two or three way SLI or crossfire in my opinion tbh. Almost any situation I have been in makes more sense to sell the old card and take that money plus what you would spend on another older card and apply it to a single newer faster better performing card.

My 8800GTX ACS3 was king of the hill for over 2 years, that will be hard to see that kind of luck happen again with a 500.00 plus card...
 
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You would think after not getting your message across to some people I would stop trying to make sense. For some reason I just keep on trying to share my experiences with others to try and keep them from making the same mistake. Who needs a lesson here, me or them? Lol...
 
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