Anandtech: AMD’s Radeon HD 5850: The Other Shoe Drops

**jason_jinx** · 10-02-09, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by WileECyte

Originally Posted by jason_jinx

2Gb of vram is a must now days.

Tom's Hardware did an article on this recently.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...4870,2428.html

I am sure you have seen some recent reviews include the game GTA4 as a benchmark. That game is tricky because it automatically detects how much vram you have and auto sets your graphics. The more you have the greater view distance/level detail you will have......
damn see this is what I get for posting even before I read that article.
let me quote it.

We saved the most interesting benchmark for last: Grand Theft Auto IV.

It's the most interesting for our purposes because GTA IV actually reports the exact amount of graphics card RAM it needs for the graphical settings the user chooses, which is absolutely perfect for our purposes. It turns the theoretical into tangible when you can see the actual memory usage impact of choosing higher draw distances, texture resolution, shadow fidelity, and resolution.

We did have to use a little trick to force GTA into allowing us to use more video memory than what our 512MB and 1GB video cards offered. By making a text file called "commandline.txt" that contains the command "-norestrictions," the game allowed us to choose settings beyond the capabilities of the hardware.

In this case, we first ran settings that would use just under 500MB of memory at 2560x1600. We then ran a second run that used over 1GB of video memory
to see what would happen to the 512MB and 1GB cards compared to their 2GB counterpart.

The 4870 is a great card but the 4890 would make more use of the ram.

For the gamer, there are three main factors that have the most influence on how much graphics RAM you'll need: resolution, visual quality detail settings, and AA. For the most part, 512MB of RAM seems sufficient to push one of these factors to the limit, and in most cases, it can handle two of them at once. But if you plan to maximize all three--the highest resolutions, visual quality settings, and AA--then more video RAM than 512MB is a good idea.

A 2GB card is probably only realistically useful for folks who push 1920x1200 resolutions and above, and who demand the highest visual quality settings in conjunction with AA. Since the price difference is substantial, a graphics card with 2GB of RAM is probably overkill for anyone who has a monitor with a native resolution lower than 1920x1200.

2gb is a perfect solution for me
hooray 1920x1200 !

**Kanati** · 10-02-09, 01:56 PM

If I hadn't picked up a 4850 2gig and a 4890 1gig and tri-fired them I'd be eyeballing a couple of 5850s right about now.

**Veovis** · 10-02-09, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by Mcstrange

And whats really insane is you can now get a 4890 for under 200 which is still a hugely powerful card.

Now? I got my 4890 in April (6 months ago) for $185.

http://www.texasteamplayers.com/index.php?topic=59595.0

**Mcstrange** · 10-02-09, 02:22 PM

What do I look like Bing?

**Veovis** · 10-02-09, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by Mcstrange

What do I look like Bing?

You look like a pirate parrot, and pirates are not known for overpaying.

**Mcstrange** · 10-02-09, 02:27 PM

damn straight, we plunder!

**WileECyte** · 10-02-09, 04:57 PM

I'll probably pick up a single 5850 in the next couple months, with plans to get a second when I replace my mobo, cpu & ram next year (Current mobo doesn't support Crossfire.)

**...bigdog...** · 10-04-09, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by jason_jinx

Oh yea its crossfire not SLI. :10

I know damn well what's it's called. Like it's a "copy machine" and not a xerox.

SLI is what it is. Crossfire is simply ATI being a ho about naming it.

What's next? A new name for USB? or SATA?

**jason_jinx** · 10-04-09, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

Originally Posted by jason_jinx

Oh yea its crossfire not SLI. :10

I know damn well what's it's called. Like it's a "copy machine" and not a xerox.

SLI is what it is. Crossfire is simply ATI being a ho about naming it.

What's next? A new name for USB? or SATA?

Thats a good justification but its still called crossfire :9

**Veovis** · 10-04-09, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

Originally Posted by jason_jinx

Oh yea its crossfire not SLI. :10

I know damn well what's it's called. Like it's a "copy machine" and not a xerox.

SLI is what it is. Crossfire is simply ATI being a ho about naming it.

What's next? A new name for USB? or SATA?

From the all knowing Wiki:

Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution

So if you think that Crossfire is a bullshit label, you should discard SLI on the same exact level. Call it what it is, a multi-GPU setup.

And for what it's worth, I agree they're both bullshit... but calling Crossfire SLI is hardly being brand agnostic.