How long until an ATI Mob. 5850 runs games on low settings?

Looking at the MSI GX640. How quick will the 5850 become obselete and I'll be running everything on low settings. Note that I play RTS and RPGs

 

You should be fine for at least 3 years.

 

Agreed, that seems about right.

 

Nop....I'd say maximum 2 years.

 

Im quite sure a 7950GTX can still play games and it was released at the end of 2006. And I had an 8800m GTS at during 2008 and im quite sure it can still play games at relatively high settings.

 

5850 is a high end performance card.
It should last at least 4 years ... if not more.

Taking into consideration that games seem to be taking more and more into account consoles and their outdated hardware, I don't think gpu's in the high performance category will be left in the dust rather soon.

Heck ... look at my 9600m GT ... well, 9700m GT
It's perfectly capable of playing most games maxed out at 1280x800 resolution.
Then again, that's enough for my needs, and it will likely hold out for another 2 years or so (for me).

 

i would also say 3 years.

 

Depends on resolution I would think. I expect this HD5870 start to fall behind end of this year and end of next year time to upgrade again.

But we are seeing the trend of console to PC. If Bad Company 2 was a straight up PC game, I'd expect it to be much better than it is, frankly I'm not impressed by this game.

So if this trend continues, then I would agree 3 years.

 

Wow thats good news then. Thanks for the responses. If I can hold out for 3 years with the 5850 instead of the 5870 it will help me a lot.

EDIT: The resolution will be 1680x1050 but when the time comes I won't mind pulling back the resolution for performance.

On the side: Do you think I need the 4 cores of the 720QM for upcoming RTS games (mainly SC2) or will the 620M do the trick?

 

since more games are being ported like prototype, gta4, etc....
which the cpu matters more then crossfire/sli....


as long as you have at less a core 2 quad at 2.5ghz- i7 cpu, you should be good for a while.

 

why not get the msi with the 5870 though. just wondering....

 

I'm an accounting student so I prefer the 15inch for portability (as long as I can get a numpad which the GX640 has), I'm thinking the 2 inch smaller screen will help battery life, and same thing for the 620M over the 720QM

 

then get the sager with the 5870.

the sager NP8690...

 

The Clevo W860CU is as heavy as the MSI GX740 and has abysmal battery life, and is also more expensive.

 

Because according to most ppl the sagers are horrible battery life only getting 1-2 hours max

MSIs (although not tested yet) should be getting 2+

 

that's because it is a wimpy 3 cell battery which if you can switch then it would be good.

 

My 5830 will play L4D2 and other recent but not hugely demanding games at 1920x1080 and decent settings. At 1680x1050, the 5850 should be very fast for a very long time.

 

Personally, I always buy refurbished and sell 1 year from the date I purchase. I even profit from the local sale (or lose very little upon resale), and then upgrade to another refurbished model that way. Consider this approach.

But If you're buying a top of the line brand new expensive 5850, I'd say 3 years until you have to go to minimum. In 1.5 years though, you'll probably have to drop the resolution to ~1280*720/1440*900 and reduce a few settings (medium/high) without AA.

 

sounds great. As long as I can stick around with decent settings for 2-3 (really probably 2.5 until I buy another one) I'm happy.

Any thoughts on 620M vs 720QM for someone who values battery life but plays mainly RTS games? (apparently very CPU intensive)

 

My ATI 1600 mobility is still able to play new games, al beit on low settings, but it's a 3 years old card, and only mainstream card at that, I would imagine that a 5850/5870 mobility would be able to last 3 years at least.

 

A better question would be "when will low in Game X look like high in Crysis".

I keep hearing that mentioned whenever people ask about the futureproofing question. By the way technology is advancing, even low settings in (far?) future games will look awesome.

 

I dunno. Three years is a LONG time for a computer to expect to play games reasonably well.

I would think an HD 5870 with i7-720QM with 4GB DDR3 should last about two years reasonably well, and in that third year would start to get long in the tooth. With my GTX 260m which is a comparable card to the HD 5850, I have to reduce GPU settings a bit with Bad Company 2. But the GTX 260m has already been out for a good almost year now at least, so two more years is even pushing it.

I tend to buy about every 12-18 months, sell my laptop, and buy new, usually costing me $400-$600 for an "upgraded" PC. That's not too bad of a cost really. It's just the initial investment that's hard to swallow. I've had my Sager a good 8 months now, and can see me easily selling it end of this year, beginning of next.

 

Sager/Clevos are far easier to upgrade, though.

Stupid proprietary cards...

 

i say its problee still gonna play the games on high and mem even on 1920x1200 3+ years heck even my old x1900 card which is about 3 or 4years? would still play most of these games on high but problee not 1920x1200 res.


sense on my 4x desktop cards 4850 which still maxes out games and even on 1920x1200 and plays every game out smooth and my current 4890 which is a monster and i had it for a good 10months which maxes everything out on max settings and 1920x1200 even bumping the anti up too 4x and it still smooth.

on bad company 2 i see around 40+ fps its mostly 50s avg and max i saw was 90fps with my desktop quad amd 965 and 4890 that is with everything on max even that one nvidia setting and on 1920x1200 and 4anti


im also getting the 5870 in about 1 day so i expect i should still be using that till the next direct x comes out sense i usely like too keep up on the direct xs. and i usely like too upgrade my desktop every 6 too 12months than if a new socket for new cpus come out build a new desktop.


even my g50vt x5 should last me a good couple years with gaming sense that also even maxes every game out on 1366x768 native res

like bad company 2 on the g50vt fps is mostly in the 30s avg and 40s with all settings on max except anti but ya it can dip in the low 20s sometimes but i just turn shadows down and it still looks good and its mosy allways 30s+



oh and i forgot my old dell 9300/xps laptop which is 5years old
singlecore m1.73 2gb of ram and a 7800gtx which also has a 1920x1200 res 17in screen lol

that also will play all the games out except the ones that need directx 10 pretty decent and sure it cant play on the 1920x1200 native screen but on some new games it can.

 

Agreed. Third year is depend on game

 

the 5850 should be a great card for 2 years if it has GDDR5 and should literally be able to play most games on full settings at 1680X1050... or even full HD res but if its GDDR3 , don't expect much... it would barely be good enough for the 1680X1050 res... therefore a 5870 is ur best choice... get Asus G73 if u can... price a ripp off and although not having an upgradeable GPU like the sager , battery life is better and its only slightly heavier... also u get i7 quad , 8GB ram , ATI 5870 , 2 hard drives etc for $1600...

 

My ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 still marches on so i think your good for at least two and a half year minimum.