GTX 460 vs HD 5850 ?

[Antonio Huerta]

OK, so after many upgrades for my Windows XP computer, I finally
decided to build a new gaming PC. The reason was I wanted (i) play the
games with PhysX; (ii) play games in DirectX 10 &11. The games I was
looking forward to play were Metro 2033 (DX11), Stalker: CoP (DX11),
Mirror's Edge 2 (PhysX).

Now I am thinking what video card should I choose. When I moved from
nVidia 7600GT to ATI HD 3870, I noticed the improvement in the image
quality: firstly, the heavy banding disappeared, and secondly, the
pictures became more bland, however the richness in the tones
appeared. I was totally sold on ATI. So that I decided my next card
should be HD 5770, or, better, HD 5850. The latter is sold for 350 in
the local dollars. It is a bit dear in terms of productivity vs.
price, and I think the price will halve in the next year or one and a
half.

A cheaper card ($275) is nVidia GTX 460, and it is slightly less
productive (by 10%) which is OK for me, and it has a very good
productivity/price ratio. And, as a bonus, it has a PhysX capability
inside, so that I do not need to buy an nVidia card ($50) as a PhysX
card... and the driver support is better. This seemed to me to be
attractive, so that I convinced myself to get a GTX 460. The local
shop was sold out of it today.

And then a doubt occurred to me. I decided that I would still want the
best of the best as I always do, and that I want the colour palette of
an ATI/AMD card. So, I am torn. Can the gamers please share their
anecdotes, which would help me to decide which card ?

 

[Antonio Huerta]

I also wanted to mention that to my knowledge, there is nothing about
the color palette of ATI cards that would be any different from
nVidia, so I would guess the differences you saw were simply default
driver settings or something similar.  At least, I have never heard of
an image quality advantage between vendors from the magazines that
benchmark these things side by side on a daily basis.

Once upon a time, 7 or 8 years ago I think there were some cases where
ATI's anti-aliasing algorithm had a slight advantage?  But I don't
think that's true these days.

I am not going to start a holywar NVidia vs ATI (otherwise the
moderator will persecute me). However, I will tell you that I perceive
the difference between the image quality of nVidia and ATI. I perceive
there is a finer breakdown of tones in ATI.

Thanks for the link in the other posting. HD 5770 turns out to be
roughly twice as fast as HD 3870. This makes me choice tougher for me,
between those three cards.

 

[rms]

Thanks for the link in the other posting. HD 5770 turns out to be

roughly twice as fast as HD 3870. This makes me choice tougher for me,
between those three cards.

I'd consider the 5770 marginal for 2011 games, just looking at this
page:
http://www.guruht.com/2010/04/hd5850-vs-hd5770-vs-gtx-275260.html
Framerate in 2033 at 1280x1024 barely hits 30fps, and I suspect you'd be
disappointed with the purchase. Most likely you'd end up backing off the
settings to DX10 or even DX9. Checking forums, it looks like DX9 would give
you >60fps, but why spend money on a new videocard for that?

I'm playing CoP at 1920x1200 dx11 max settings on this gtx470, and am
very pleased. Haven't fired up Metro2033 at all yet, but I'll try it for a
bit later this weekend to see.

rms

 

[Benedict]

I also wanted to mention that to my knowledge, there is nothing about
the color palette of ATI cards that would be any different from
nVidia, so I would guess the differences you saw were simply default
driver settings or something similar. At least, I have never heard of
an image quality advantage between vendors from the magazines that
benchmark these things side by side on a daily basis.

Image comparisons in magazines and no websites tend to focus on things like
AA and AF
and when people talk about ATI image quality being better that's not what
they're talking about.
When I compare cards (and I've had plenty of both Nvidia and ATI) I see that
the Nvidia card tend to produce a slightly more saturated look whereas ATI
has more muted colours (bland as Antonio phrased it) but the ATI image is
more detailed and clear as a result. Its a subtle difference and purely a
matter of taste but its there.

As for which card to buy - currently the sub £150 choice would be a 5770 -
£150 to £200 would be a GTX 460 and then next would be the 5850 if your
budget can stretch that far. Pricewise the competition for the GTX 460 is
the 5830 and the clear winner is the 460.

 

[Benedict]

I'd consider the 5770 marginal for 2011 games, just looking at this
page:
http://www.guruht.com/2010/04/hd5850-vs-hd5770-vs-gtx-275260.html
Framerate in 2033 at 1280x1024 barely hits 30fps, and I suspect you'd be
disappointed with the purchase. Most likely you'd end up backing off the
settings to DX10 or even DX9. Checking forums, it looks like DX9 would
give you >60fps, but why spend money on a new videocard for that?

I'm playing CoP at 1920x1200 dx11 max settings on this gtx470, and am
very pleased. Haven't fired up Metro2033 at all yet, but I'll try it for
a bit later this weekend to see.

rms

My GTX 460 does CoP in Dx11 High preset with ease but Maximum gets a bit
choppy.
Metro 2033 includes extra DX11 stuff like Depth of Field that taxes even the
top cards.

 

[noman]

A cheaper card ($275) is nVidia GTX 460, and it is slightly less
productive (by 10%) which is OK for me, and it has a very good
productivity/price ratio. And, as a bonus, it has a PhysX capability
inside, so that I do not need to buy an nVidia card ($50) as a PhysX
card... and the driver support is better. This seemed to me to be
attractive, so that I convinced myself to get a GTX 460. The local
shop was sold out of it today.

And then a doubt occurred to me. I decided that I would still want the
best of the best as I always do, and that I want the colour palette of
an ATI/AMD card. So, I am torn. Can the gamers please share their
anecdotes, which would help me to decide which card ?

Between the two HD5850 is a far more capable graphic card, especially if the
GTX460 you are looking for is not the 1GB model. GTX460 is cheaper, to
account for the performance difference.

I'd recommend going for HD5850 and then buying a cheap $30-40 GT240+ card if
PhysX is a must-have requirement for you. You may need the second card
anyway, as the dedicated solution does give better performance, than what you
get by putting graphics and PhysX on the same card.

You can also buy GTX460 now, and then get a second one later for use with
SLI. Currently GTX460 SLI is definitely better than HD 5850 Crossfire.

 

[rms]

I'm playing CoP at 1920x1200 dx11 max settings on this gtx470, and am
I tried it a bit tonight. Screen resolution makes a big difference,
DX11 veryhigh is playable (30s-40s framerate) at 1440x900, dx11 high at
1650x1080, 1920x1200 needs dx9. a 5770 would be say 10fps lower.

rms

 

[Man-wai Chang]

OK, so after many upgrades for my Windows XP computer, I finally
decided to build a new gaming PC. The reason was I wanted (i) play the
games with PhysX; (ii) play games in DirectX 10&11. The games I was
looking forward to play were Metro 2033 (DX11), Stalker: CoP (DX11),
Mirror's Edge 2 (PhysX).

The current GTX 460 uses two 6-pin power input... I think 5850 is using
only one?

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
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[Man-wai Chang]

And then a doubt occurred to me. I decided that I would still want the

best of the best as I always do, and that I want the colour palette of
an ATI/AMD card. So, I am torn. Can the gamers please share their
anecdotes, which would help me to decide which card ?

If you could wait...

Rumors said that AMD was going to release successors to 5xxx series
(Southern Islands) no later than this Christmas...

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.35.2
^ ^ 19:07:01 up 1 day 21:19 0 users load average: 0.00 0.00 0.00
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[Antonio Huerta]

If you could wait...

Rumors said that AMD was going to release successors to 5xxx series
(Southern Islands) no later than this Christmas...

Yeah... I checked the news, and it appears that the chip for 6XXX will
be released this October, and the prices for 5XXX will drop...

On the other note, somewhere else I was told to check out HD 5830. Our
popular stores do not stock this, so that I have not considered it as
an option... but it appears that the card performs on par with GTX 460
and has similar price... and it is ATI... so that I have to do more
reading about it (HD 5830, that is)...

 

[Man-wai Chang]

On the other note, somewhere else I was told to check out HD 5830. Our

popular stores do not stock this, so that I have not considered it as
an option... but it appears that the card performs on par with GTX 460
and has similar price... and it is ATI... so that I have to do more
reading about it (HD 5830, that is)...

Or you might take a look at Radeon 5770 which has quite a good
price/performance ratio.... Not a top-notched card, but good enough for
average gamers.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.35.2
^ ^ 20:36:01 up 1 day 22:48 0 users load average: 0.00 0.00 0.00
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[Benedict]

Yeah... I checked the news, and it appears that the chip for 6XXX will
be released this October, and the prices for 5XXX will drop...

this review may help since it contains 2 games that depend more on graphics
power than CPU -
STALKER and Crysis - STALKER favours ATI and Crysis runs better on Nvidia.
The 5830 uses 2 power cables
as does the GTX 460.