Sapphire 5850 Toxic 1GB or 2GB

Hi all,

The time has come to upgrade my old 9600 GT. It's a venerable card that's served me well but I want to get something faster now. I want it to be as futureproof as possible as I keep my cards for 2-3 years before upgrading.

I'm gonna go for a 5850 Toxic edition from Sapphire but can't decide on the normal 1Gb or to spend the extra 60 quid for the 2Gb version. I was under the impression that unless you game an mega resolutions the extra memory would not really be used.

Currently I game at 1680x1050 so 1Gb is probably fine? However that is not to say I won't upgrade to a bigger screen at some point. I'm unlikely to go Xfire and neither will I go dual display (my mrs would probably kill me lol :angst:)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-S...-DVI-I-DP-HDMI

It will be going in a SFF case (see my sig) so was drawn to this as it features a decent aftermarker cooling solution which is also allegedly quieter than the stock ATI cooler.

Also what are ATI's drivers like these days? The last 3 cards I've had have all been from the green team and I haven't had a Radeon card since AGP days (which was an X850pro - great card!)

Thanks all :rockon2:

Drivers - great. Updates usually improve things without breaking other things, unlike the green team.

1Gb will be fine for the foreseeable future - certainly HD res which looks to be the next standard after 1680x1050.

nice card should be fine and also matches high end nvidia in crossfire

I've had my powercolour 5850 1GB for a few months now and its fine for 1920x1200 for pretty much anything. Any bottlenecking I get will be from my CPU I reckon, but looking at your sig, that shouldnt be a problem. I cant really see 2GB being needed unless textures etc get a massive hike in games, or you run lots of AA. Drivers wise, I think the control panel could do with a nicer interface, but performance and stability-wise, the 10.3 and 10.4 that I have used have been rock solid.

I cant wait for the 5850 to come down in price in a gen or so, then I'm definitely going to crossfire them. Never thought I would, but the performance is there now (and I actually have a PSU that can cope now!).

Let us know how you get on once you get one.
JP

Thanks for the comments all! Will get a 1GB I think :)

Roll on Pay day :bowdown: