5870 Dying, 6870 a Worse Replacement?

Jodou

Jodou

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So the fan on my 5870 started whirring this morning, prompting me to shut down as I had to get to work. I could RMA it but unfortunately I need something sooner with TOR just a week and change away. Usually when cards start to go bad it's generally a better option to just replace the unit altogether, but I'm finding the reason they (probably) discontinued the 5870 was so it wouldn't compete with the 6870. Seems they may have screwed the pooch and put out a product that would remain competitive with my current card, so it gives me pause.

In any case, I don't really have a choice but thought I'd see if anyone has more insight. Oh yeah, the reason I'm not looking at 6970 is because it bumps one of the power connector pins to 8 and I'm not looking to swap/adapt the PSU as I might as well just build a new PC if I get into all that (rather, it's too tempting heh). That and we're talking double the price for minimal performance increase.

One final note: Sapphire seems to have a good price (same as Newegg) after MiR and offers two DVI ports straight out the box. Any comments on quality/RMA process before I commit?
 
[quote name='Jodou']So the fan on my 5870 started whirring this morning, prompting me to shut down as I had to get to work. I could RMA it but unfortunately I need something sooner with TOR just a week and change away. Usually when cards start to go bad it's generally a better option to just replace the unit altogether, but I'm finding the reason they (probably) discontinued the 5870 was so it wouldn't compete with the 6870. Seems they may have screwed the pooch and put out a product that would remain competitive with my current card, so it gives me pause.

In any case, I don't really have a choice but thought I'd see if anyone has more insight. Oh yeah, the reason I'm not looking at 6970 is because it bumps one of the power connector pins to 8 and I'm not looking to swap/adapt the PSU as I might as well just build a new PC if I get into all that (rather, it's too tempting heh). That and we're talking double the price for minimal performance increase.

One final note: Sapphire seems to have a good price (same as Newegg) after MiR and offers two DVI ports straight out the box. Any comments on quality/RMA process before I commit?[/QUOTE]

I dunno about Sapphire, but I bought a Powercolor 6870 for 150 after MIR and it's been working working pretty well. I think it's down to 140 now after MIR on Newegg. The 6870 cards aren't too bad, about on par with the 5850 from the previous gen. They scale great in crossfire too.

Here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131378
 
[quote name='docvinh']I dunno about Sapphire, but I bought a Powercolor 6870 for 150 after MIR and it's been working working pretty well. I think it's down to 140 now after MIR on Newegg. The 6870 cards aren't too bad, about on par with the 5850 from the previous gen. They scale great in crossfire too.

Here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131378[/QUOTE]
I really should keep up with hardware even when I'm not looking to build heh. Never heard of powercolor before but as for being on par with 5850 that's pretty disappointing. Ugh, such bad timing. Could be worse though and happen on the 15th, so I guess I'll just bite the bullet this time and ride the new card for another two years or so when I'm ready to build a new PC.

Ooh, just looked at the design for that one and I don't like it at all. Having the power connectors in front like that means the cords would be awkwardly arranged and block airflow to an extent. Much prefer the open face jet-stream design most cards follow.
 
[quote name='Jodou']I really should keep up with hardware even when I'm not looking to build heh. Never heard of powercolor before but as for being on par with 5850 that's pretty disappointing. Ugh, such bad timing. Could be worse though and happen on the 15th, so I guess I'll just bite the bullet this time and ride the new card for another two years or so when I'm ready to build a new PC.

Ooh, just looked at the design for that one and I don't like it at all. Having the power connectors in front like that means the cords would be awkwardly arranged and block airflow to an extent. Much prefer the open face jet-stream design most cards follow.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what you mean. You mean the way you connect it in the back of the card?
 
[quote name='halfbent']Sapphire has a MUCH better brand behind it as well.[/QUOTE]

They kind of all seem the same to me, but I honestly haven't had to use the Powercolor warranty yet, and warranty service seems to be where the cards all differ. I know I won't be buying Gigabyte again specifically because of this.
 
[quote name='docvinh']I'm not sure what you mean. You mean the way you connect it in the back of the card?[/QUOTE]
You mean the front, but yes. Most manufacturers place the power connectors on the side so as to not block the mouth at all. Think of it like this: take a breath of air, then stick two fingers in your mouth and repeat. It's different, no? ;)
 
[quote name='Jodou']You mean the front, but yes. Most manufacturers place the power connectors on the side so as to not block the mouth at all. Think of it like this: take a breath of air, then stick two fingers in your mouth and repeat. It's different, no? ;)[/QUOTE]

Haha, gotcha.:) I haven't had much issue with it, I know it runs cooler then my xfx 6870, but that could be because it's a reference design vs the Powercolor nonreference.
 
Any reason you're not looking at the 6950? Unlike the 6970 it only uses 2-6pin PCI-e connectors and it should be a bit of an improvement over the 5870.
 
[quote name='Mid Boss']Any reason you're not looking at the 6950? Unlike the 6970 it only uses 2-6pin PCI-e connectors and it should be a bit of an improvement over the 5870.[/QUOTE]
Now you're entering $250 range, correct? If I could, I had wanted to straight up replace my old 5870 but the 6870 appears to be the only comparable buy right now. Hell, ideally this would have come when I had nothing to play and could just RMA it but since I've taken off work for TOR, there's no way I can wait.

~$100 is not worth the performance boost when the 6870 is adequate until I build a new PC. Me even looking at the top line right now was more musing for the enthusiast in me hehe.
 
[quote name='Mid Boss']Whoa, I didn't realize the prices were that far apart yet. 6870 is definitely the way to go then.[/QUOTE]Yeah, after doing some more research since you piqued my interest, I found that after MiR the difference would be closer to $50. That's with XFX being the only choice, though. That card also got lesser reviews with more issues, so it may be a product of rushed delivery or just XFX doing a poor job on QA. Either way, my 6870 already shipped last night so it was more of an informational review.
[quote name='AK85']http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3067-7.html

According to Tom's Hardware the 6870 will actually be a bit of a downgrade for you, but with it only being 1 tier down, probably nothing you would notice much anyways.

Might think about checking here before dropping $180 on the 6870[/QUOTE]
Been there, done that. ;)

It's the reason I was questioning it in the first place. What was putting me off of nVidia cards was the under load draw seems to be higher in most cases. That and I'm extremely pleased with the stability the 5870 had. In two years, I had one BSOD and that was an issue with a bad build from FireFox.

Thanks for all the input guys!
 
radeons are generally a better deal, though SLI microstutter is less of a problem than Xfire. I have had a good experience with Zotac, they replaced 2 cards that have died on me and I think they still have a limited lifetime warranty.
 
[quote name='runsongas']the price went back up 20 bucks, it was live yesterday

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3679856[/QUOTE]
Lol dammit, looks like the deal lasted all of six hours. This was an even better price than the XFX was back in August (but that came with Deus Ex among other games). Oh well, I'll just be happy to have my PC back up and running for some Killing Floor.
 
So to add some closure, popped in the new card last night and updated the drivers. Overall, very similar performance but noticeably fewer FPS than the 5870. What I find very odd is that loading/closing games now takes much longer. I'm no hardware guru but it's interesting to me that this would be the case given the architecture is almost identical to 5870, but with higher core clock. I can't say for sure, but I believe it has less stream processors so that would make sense from a dedicated pipeline perspective. At any rate, it does the job and I'm happy to be reunited with my precious. =)
 
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