Radeon HD 5000 series

[ChazTheGeek]

I'm just amazed at how these cards seem to stack up against newer cards.
For example: the HD 5870 is supposed to be better than the GTX 660 according to this site: http://www.hwcompare.com
or the HD 5970 (I know it's a dual GPU, but still) has better specs than the 7970 and the GTX 780 and even in some aspects of the Titan.
The 5 series must have been incredible at the time of release...
I'm pretty amazed at how they can still compete against current gen cards.

I also hear they are good for Bitcoin mining too.

[SolMiester]

I'm just amazed at how these cards seem to stack up against newer cards.
For example: the HD 5870 is supposed to be better than the GTX 660 according to this site: http://www.hwcompare.com
or the HD 5970 (I know it's a dual GPU, but still) has better specs than the 7970 and the GTX 780 and even in some aspects of the Titan.
The 5 series must have been incredible at the time of release...
I'm pretty amazed at how they can still compete against current gen cards.

I also hear they are good for Bitcoin mining too.

Yeah...Nah...previous generation high end against next gen crippled bandwidth med end....

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/511?vs=660
Nowhere near!

[inphinity]

For example: the HD 5870 is supposed to be better than the GTX 660 according to this site: http://www.hwcompare.com

Memory bandwidth is not even close to an overall performance indicator. The 660 outperforms the 5870 in pretty much every game that is even remotely taxing (i.e. there's a bunch of older games where neither card will be the bottleneck). The 5970 can't keep up with the GTX680/780 in most situatinos, let alone touch Titan.

[pctek]

I'm just amazed at how these cards seem to stack up against newer cards.

I'm pretty amazed at how they can still compete against current gen cards.
.

Nothing unusual about that.
You have to compare apples with apples, never mind just whatever generation it is.

Here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-7.html

The hierarchy chart - they have always had this, and update it regularly...

[dugimodo]

You'll note the GTX 580 & 480 are both still fairly high up as well, high end cards tend to last a bit longer just because of how powerful they are to begin with.
When you have one the time between upgrades can be a lot longer if you wait until games need more power to play smoothly.

One point though, the newer cards at the same level use much less power for the same performance.

[SolMiester]

Even Toms shows the 5870 well behind the 660....I imagine the 1GB memory is holding it back now!

[ChazTheGeek]

I stand corrected then.

[Chilling_Silence]

You'll also be wanting some dedicated hardware if you want to do bitcoin mining. AMD graphics cards just can't keep up with the latest stuff that's begun showing up!

[SolMiester]

AMD are actually the best at bitcoin mining, however I believe the horse has already bolted on that score.....AMD do have great hardware, its a shame their driver team isnt on the same level. The latest beta frame pacing driver has improved runt frames on resolutions up to 25x16 very well indeed, though those with eyefinity will have to wait along with DX9 games....CFx 7970 is very powerful at a good price.

[Chilling_Silence]

They're the best at bitcoin mining if you're doing it using a GPU, but you're infinitely better off with an ASIC Mining setup, both in terms of cost to setup, ongoing running cost, and speed of return.