Should I Upgrade?

drwho · Jan 1, 2010, 02:55 AM

Hi Guys

First let me say Happy New Year to you all.

I've decided that I will go with a HD 5870 for my next upgrade. Probably will be able to pick one up next weekend. Just wondering which brand is better, HIS, Sapphire, or XFX?

Optix · Jan 1, 2010, 02:58 AM

Sapphire certainly has one of the best coolers around in their Vapor-X version cards. I do not have any experience with HIS but XFX has a double lifetime warranty that is overclocker and modder (ie. heatsink reseatting/replacement) friendly.

Personally I say go with Sapphire if you can bag a Vapor-X card. If not, go with XFX. At least their tech support/warranty support is in North America.

Happy New Year to you as well.

anonemus · Jan 1, 2010, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moshpit

The other HUGE advantage of the 5870 over a 4870X2 is power consumption is WAY lower at idle. Almost a silly amount of difference in fact.

To really put this in perspective, I replaced a single 4870 with 2 5870's and still use less power on the desktop when not rendering a game. In fact, the funniest part of this most recent upgrade I went through is that the new rig is over 2x more powerful in gaming, yet uses just over half the power when I'm just puttering around on the desktop.

It's really amazing! I'm currently using an X1900XT that needs a 6-pin PCIe power cable when an HD4670 that needs no separate power source will beat my card.

More processing power for less power consumption is always great!

Jan 1, 2010, 02:55 AM	Thread Starter #31
drwho HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posts: 572 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Should I Upgrade? Hi Guys First let me say Happy New Year to you all. I've decided that I will go with a HD 5870 for my next upgrade. Probably will be able to pick one up next weekend. Just wondering which brand is better, HIS, Sapphire, or XFX? __________________