5850 and future DX11 games

The 5850 and 5870 are effectively the same card, just with different clock speeds, and I know they are the best single card solutions on the marker atm, (nvidia gtx480 eventually?) but exactly how "future proof," are they? I'm not interested in 3 years down the line, just the next 18-24 months. I've seen how these cards handle demanding DX10 games like crysis, and some DX11 features in Dirt 2, but what about The Witcher 2, fully DX11, or Dragon age 2, if that is going to be DX11? Will they still be fluent then, spring 2011? Or will they already be medium setting cards?

 

The 5870 should be able to survive "on the high end" of the GPU line for 2 years. Saying anything more than that is just pure speculation.

 

But not the 5850? I'm stuck between the sager np8690 and the MSI GX640. I'm order in the next week, and just can't decide XD

 

You can overclock the 5850 to 5870 clocks.

 

I recently bought the Sapphire 5850 Toxic Edition (pre-oc'd) for my main gaming desktop. It replaces an HD4890. I will be happy, and it's my intent, if the card lasts me at least a full year of service as far as gaming tech ability goes.

 

If you are talking about the mobile versions then the 5870 is somewhere between the desktop 5770-5750...not a bad card, but not the greatest either.

I honestly dont see it doing DX11 that well in the future...just not enough power there. Now maybe at lower resolutions, no AA/AF, and medium-ish details...but I dont see it playing DX11 games at high-highest settings like a year from now, she just doesnt have the speed required.

 

The 5850 can be overclocked, as someone said already.

Differences between the np8690 and the gx640
np8690 pros:
5870, awesome cooling (dual fan setup)
5870 overclocked will perform better than a 5850 overclocked...
np8690 cons:
bigger chassis, heavier, a bit more expensive than the gx640

gx640 pros:
lightweight, looks cool (imo), 5850 can be overclocked to 5870 clocks, and you can get it as cheap as $1100 from amazon...
gx640 cons:
single fan cooling solution...


Conclusion:
For me, i think I'd need a dual fan cooling solution given that I live in tropical climate where we sweat all day, kosti @ the MSI forums has proven that the temps on a gx640 can be VERY maneagable... runs VERY cool, honestly... gives room for that 75mhz needed to convert it into the 5870...

If you have the money... $300 more will get you the 8690 with i7, full hd screen... but if you dont have the money, buy the gx640, you wont be let down...

 

I reckon DX11 will be more of a success than DX10 where everyone just opted for the DX9 modes as they ran like crap.

 

Agreed.


....

 

A lot of this had to do with game consoles...all game consoles = DX9, so it was just easier to ignore DX10 and just port console games to PC.

 

5870 isn't capable of handling dx11 games on maxed out settings. I tried running metro2033 and it ran like crap. So i went back to dx9

 

BFBC2 in DX11 is beautiful though, IMO even more realistic than Crysis. Even though it runs at 20+ FPS.

 

I'm running Bad Company 2 on the highest settings with the exclusion of Anti-aliasing on x1 at 1920x1080 resolution under Dx11 and I'm getting around 32-44 FPS avg.

 

Well, if there's nothing on I could get those frame rates as well, but during heavy firing fights it will definitely drop to 20+, which could be kind of annoying.

 

I agreed but IMO what set crysis apart from other games are the live physic of trees/brushes/grass/etc. In B2BC everything is static which make the game look better (think of it at in-game screenshot) but lack the near realism that crysis is trying to offer. However the frostbite's engine is a lot more optimized than the cryengine.

 

Yea when it comes to engine building DICE know's its bidness.

 

That too but from what I've played/seen of DX10 computer games, they played far better in DX9 mode.

 

That's the problem with new standards and tech. It's all marketing. A card can be "DirectX 11 compliant" but that doesn't mean it'll run Dx11 fast. I had a Toshiba netbook with the HD 3200 that was DirectX 10 compliant but running anything Dx10 would cripple it severely. Early Dx10 cards were disappointing too. They could run Dx10, but not very fast.

The HD 5870 is a great card, wish I had one. But it's at the forefront of Dx11. I don't see it handling Dx11 for future games for very long. In the laptop world, you're lucky to get two years out of any GPU for gaming without sacrificing resolution and/or detail significantly.

 

18-24 months won't be an issue, if you're below 1080p. Like was said, the Mob. 5870/5850 are at best going to give you desktop 5770 performance. Good, but not top tier.