Nvidia 9800GTX 512mb video card vs ATI 5850 -5870

[crowdx]

Hi all,
so looking forward to the release of Cataclysm next month I am wondering will I get any benefit from upgrading my video card. I only play Wow and so I have stuck with a 9800GTX for the last couple of years.
So apart from the extra memory on the newer cards, will I get a lot of extra horsepower with the newer cards when playing in the higher quality modes? I have noticed the game is a lot less smooth when I put everything on ultra mode, yet cpu is sitting at 30%, is it all video card bottleneck?
Any advice welcome

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Overall scores in the Tom's Hardware benchmark gamut:

• 5870 1GB = 2790
• 5850 1GB = 2394
• 9800GTX 1GB = 1139

Now, that's overall, which includes some benchmarks that stress some more modern applications and will necessarily cause older technology (like the 9800) to look disproportionately bad. WoW isn't a very hardcore graphics app like some of the FPS games are, so YMMV. For WoW, somewhere in between the overall score and the 3DMark06 score is probably a better gauge of performance you can expect.

3DMark06:

• 5870 1GB = ~23500-24000
• 5850 1GB = ~22000
• 9800GTX 1GB = ~15500

So seat-of-the-pants averaging says you should see roughly a 50% increase in FPS when going from a 9800GT 1GB card to a 5850 1GB card. If you run your settings at Ultra, you might see a bit higher performance.

On a related note, something I notice is that my old 8800GT 1GB card actually performs better in WoW in zones with a lot of smoke/fog effects (like Ember Clutch in Howling Fjord) than my 5850 1GB card does. ATI just does not seem to handle smoke/fog effects as well as NVidia, which has been my experience for as long as I can remember.

[crowdx]

Are there any apps which can tell me how often my current card is maxed out?
I have been reading reviews and now I am torn between the 5850 and the 6850, it seems the later gives a couple of frames less in some games
Anyone on the forums made the move from a 9800GTX to one of the new cards? Thoughts?

[crowdx]

Well it looks like an ATI 6870 may actually be the better choice here, price wise it is very competitive and seems to perform between the 5850 and the 5870.

[Svpernova09]

Isn't the 9800 at least one or two generations behind the 5700? I love.my 5770 though.

[Sajuuk]

Isn't the 9800 at least one or two generations behind the 5700? I love.my 5770 though.

Actually I think it's three, architecturally speaking. The 9800s were rebranded tweaks of the 8800 G92 series (I think, not entirely sure)

[crowdx]

I believe my card is between 2 - 3 years old and honestly only playing WoW ( I get motion sickness from FPS games) it is only with the 4.01 patch that I can finally get the 9800GTX to show it's age. Up in Icecrown in spots my fps drops to less than 10fps.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I been likeing this for my next upgrade, not bad for $209 for the 1G (get at least 1G with yur new card).


http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparm...&_sop=15&_sc=1



This is what I am getting to upgrade my 5 non main computers to, I really like the no fan (I have 3 of them now), ya the 9800 is long in the tooth for sure but I play full sceen no tile so I dont stress my card much.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GIGABYTE-nVidia-...item3f0430a2a8

[crowdx]

Well I took the plunge, got a Diamond 6870 at the local Frys store. So far pretty happy. I checked out places where my previous fps was dropping to sub 10 fps and now they are above 35fps (check out the place just down from K3 overlooking the valley below Dalaran).
So I suppose % wise I am getting a huge jump (300% on the above example). As for boxing it seems a little smoother too and I am now able to have shadows enabled on my main screen, whereas before the upgrade it killed my fps.
Excited now for Cataclysm
Thanks all for the input.