Is there a really big difference

[darkrider01]

Originally Posted by Revs

And even that's debatable. Not had a GSOD yet. In fact I'd say, reliability wise, it's hard to choose between them. nHancer is about the only thing I miss. Both have their niggles.

You need to give RadeonPro a try Revs - I like it better than nHancer, but that's just my opinion.

Also, I haven't experienced any GSOD's myself, and I have had a great experience with the Catalyst drivers since I started using them again when I got my 5970 (10.2's I think it was).

[onmikesline]

Originally Posted by mailman2

lol refresh what? Less power, less heat, great overclockability, great performance... whats the point of refreshing. I've heard they are shooting for 'Southern Islands' in the fall and I have a feeling Nvidia will take a huge hit there since they aren't ready to refresh Fermi.

hmm refresh there stock air cooling? thats really my point.

[mailman2]

Originally Posted by Bah!

Oh really?

Sorry guys but GSODs aren't driver problems, they are hardware. I sold the card to my buddy and he had a few GSODs with it. But he has a second one he bought that was a later card and has had no issues on the same machine. So he RMA'd the one he got from me before he setup CF. To date his one he bought new never GSOD on him. That is 100% hardware problem...not software and certainly not drivers. I had a few GSODs, maybe 6 the entire life of the card.

[JasonPC]

Some people seem to think GSOD was a bios problem but who knows. I've never had one on my 5870.

[Revs]

Originally Posted by darkrider01

You need to give RadeonPro a try Revs - I like it better than nHancer, but that's just my opinion..

I'll be sure to give it a go, cheers

[Intel17]

What the heck games use the power of dual 5870s or 480s? Most of the time, my 470 is yawning at what I throw at it...

[onmikesline]

crysis will put some pain to it. and its future proof

[Amuro]

Originally Posted by mailman2

I came from an OC'd HD5870 to a GTX 480. The GTX 480 isn't as smooth in some games, and as such I'm going to pickup another HD5870 to play with and compare. I'm not all that happy with the 480. Its water cooled as my HD5870 was but runs about 15 deg hotter on average, its summer here and my office really gets hot when that machine is running. Some games run great, others have a hitch or micro stutter to them. Nvidia's drivers really aren't all that great anymore as a lot of people experience BSODs from them. I got one from the 257.21 drivers the day I installed them. I've never had one with this card till the 257.21 came out myself, others with SLI seem to have them more often. The brightness / Contrast settings don't stick in the NV control panel, its always getting reset. In the 6 months I owned the HD5870 I never had a driver problem and I think ATIs drivers are at a level that is much better than Nvidias. Nvidias releases are sporadic and their drivers seem sloppy lately. You can report driver issues right to Terry Makedon through his twitter. The few issues I had I reported and they were fixed in the next driver. I've yet to get any response from nVidia when I reported things.

The only reason I even did it was that a buddy of mine offered me the same money I paid for the HD5870 6 months earlier. So I was able to sell it for what I paid for it 6 months later when Fermi hit the market so I upgraded for the $100 difference. In hindsight, if I could do it all over knowing what I know now I wouldn't have done it.

I'm gonna pickup another HD5870 this week so I see if the smoothness I remember was real or placebo effect.

What games that are not smooth? Just wondering... And I have yet to see a BSOD with my 480s.

[Intel17]

Originally Posted by onmikesline

crysis will put some pain to it. and its future proof

But Crysis is old...it's not like people are playing it all that much anymore (and it runs great at 1920x1080 maxed w/ AA on my lowly 470).

Future proof against what? If everything out there will run pretty well on a GeForce 7800 GTX level card, what're we doing with dual 480's?

[mailman2]

Originally Posted by Amuro

What games that are not smooth? Just wondering... And I have yet to see a BSOD with my 480s.

BF BC2, Assassin's Creed II, Splinter Cell Conviction. Other games play amazingly, there are a few that just won't no matter what I do. The HD5870 should be here tomorrow or thursday. Unless its something with my PSU not being able to supply power when the GPU is full draw with my 4.2Ghz i860. I'd think a CM 1100w UCP (with 6 x 12v rails) would be enough though. I really dont think its the PSU, I feel its the drivers. But I'll be able to get a better idea of which GPU I'll be sticking with soon enough.

The only BSOD I had was with those leaked 258 betas. A buddy of mine that runs SLI always has problems with BSODs. I refuse to do dual GPUs.

[Amuro]

I doubt running dual GPUs is the cause of more BSODs. I had BSODs from time to time when I was using mobos with Nvidia chipsets and an OC'ed CPU, switched to Intel, and no more BSODs.

[Muppet]

Originally Posted by Amuro

I doubt running dual GPUs is the cause of more BSODs. I had BSODs from time to time when I was using mobos with Nvidia chipsets and an OC'ed CPU, switched to Intel, and no more BSODs.

I would think if he is getting BSOD's with dual GPU's, it is more than likely a power supply issue.