7850 or 6850cf or 570 or ??

[StarvinMarvin22]

I just recently upgraded my mobo and cpu, but am still holding on to my old video card.

I have a budget of around $300 and game at 1080p. Awaiting the release of D3, maybe planetside2, and I need to get into my backlog of steam games - shogun2, dragon age, and i might pick up skyrim. Do I...

1. Keep my 4850 foreverzz or until prices settle and maybe gtx600 series comes out
2. Buy a 7850
3. Buy 2x 6850 right now and crossfire
4. Go green and get a 560ti? or 570?
5. Wait as long as it takes to get a 7870 for $300

I can wait, but would prefer to make a purchase in the next month. I like my system quiet, so pretty much all blower style heatsinks are out.

 

[Silverforce11]

Wait a bit and see how prices settle.

78xx are good but ~$50 too expensive, imo.

 

[RussianSensation]

I just recently upgraded my mobo and cpu, but am still holding on to my old video card.

I have a budget of around $300 and game at 1080p. Awaiting the release of D3, maybe planetside2, and I need to get into my backlog of steam games - shogun2, dragon age, and i might pick up skyrim. Do I...

Diablo 3 won't be demanding.

Dragon Age 2 @ 1080P = $360 GTX580 is as fast as an HD7970

In Shogun 2, HD7870 beats GTX580 at your resolution:

In SKYRIM, HD7870 beats GTX580 as well:

I'd say HD7870 is the better card for those games, especially if you plan to do SKYRIM mods (2GB VRAM > 1.5 GB VRAM in that case).

I'd prob. rule out GTX570 at this point. If you plan to keep your card for a while, then get one with at least 1.5-2GB of VRAM.

I am not sure HD7870 will drop to $300 any time soon though unless AMD does price drops on the entire lineup. The performance of HD7850 is really weak in some cases. Seriously a $250 card that sometimes loses to a 15-months old GTX570? Not impressed.

I actually think there might be some $300 deals on GTX580 with rebates involved. I'd be there is a chance to see a GTX580 at $300 before HD7870 falls to $300.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

Waiting is going to be the best thing to do for you. There may be Kepler releases at lower price points in April and/or May.

 

[kalrith]

I'm in a similar situation with a 4870 512mb. I'm waiting to play games like DA2 until I get a better video card. I'm probably going to wait a few months for at least one Kepler card to be released and for some better deals to hopefully arise.

If I had to buy now, then I think the 7850 and 7870 are the best choices, especially because I like low power consumption and heat. However, all signs point to the GTX680 being released VERY soon. That might shake up the market a bit.

In response to the 6850 crossfire, I wouldn't go for that. There are too many reports of microstuttering and other problems with a crossfire setup. I wouldn't consider it unless you're going to crossfire two higher-end cards (i.e. two 7870s).

 

[aaksheytalwar]

The 7870 gains 20%+ performance with overclock. Even at the same price point, it should be preferably to a GTX 580.

 

[StarvinMarvin22]

I feel pretty good now about waiting for a little bit and I think the choice is narrowed down to either a 7870 or gtx580.

First one I find below $350 and I might just buy it.

 

[RussianSensation]

The 7870 gains 20%+ performance with overclock. Even at the same price point, it should be preferably to a GTX 580.

GTX580 also gains 10-20% through overclocking. So your point is moot.

I'd still take the 7870 overall since it consumes 100W+ less power, has 2GB of VRAM for more or less similar performance. But HD7870 at $350 isn't as a slam dunk as it should have been. The price of $350 is simply too high for an HD6870 successor. It's even worse considering AMD sold HD6950 2GB that unlocked in 10 min into an HD6970. On average HD7870 is barely better than a $250 HD6950 @ 6970 from 13 months ago. That's a fail and a half since it costs $100 more.

I think it's the worst time to buy a new generation 28nm card right now. Right now the consumer is just subsidizing the high cost of 28nm adoption. Using 15 months old 40nm technology to justify the pricing of brand new 28nm tech is just not logical, especially not when GTX480s were going for $210 for weeks. A $350 28nm card should make all last generation $250 HD6950 @ 6970 look like fairy dust. HD7870 should cost no more than $299 since it replaces HD6870.

 

[wand3r3r]

GTX580 also gains 10-20% through overclocking. So your point is moot.

I'd still take the 7870 overall since it consumes 100W+ less power, has 2GB of VRAM for more or less similar performance. But HD7870 at $350 isn't as a slam dunk as it should have been. The price of $350 is simply too high for an HD6870 successor. It's even worse considering AMD sold HD6950 2GB that unlocked in 10 min into an HD6970. On average HD7870 is barely better than a $250 HD6950 @ 6970 from 13 months ago. That's a fail and a half since it costs $100 more.

I think it's the worst time to buy a new generation 28nm card right now. Right now the consumer is just subsidizing the high cost of 28nm adoption. Using 15 months old 40nm technology to justify the pricing of brand new 28nm tech is just not logical, especially not when GTX480s were going for $210 for weeks. A $350 28nm card should make all last generation $250 HD6950 @ 6970 look like fairy dust. HD7870 should cost no more than $299 since it replaces HD6870.

Couldn't agree more, and it goes across the lineup. Simply bumping all the prices up a bracket doesn't fool most of the sheeple they are trying to fleece.

 

[StarvinMarvin22]

There seems to be some knowledgeable people posting in here, what are you opinions on me scooping up a used 6950 ? in the 200-225 range, just make sure its a 2GB model?

The more I think about paying $350, it's crazy... my cpu + mobo cost way less

 

[chimaxi83]

There seems to be some knowledgeable people posting in here, what are you opinions on me scooping up a used 6950 ? in the 200-225 range, just make sure its a 2GB model?

The more I think about paying $350, it's crazy... my cpu + mobo cost way less

I think it's a great idea, especially if you buy mine

 

[Silverforce11]

I honestly don't think this generation will even come close to touching the perf/$ of 6950s. If you can grab them at $200, they overclock to 6970 speed or beyond, you just got yourself a bargain.

 

[RussianSensation]

There seems to be some knowledgeable people posting in here, what are you opinions on me scooping up a used 6950 ? in the 200-225 range, just make sure its a 2GB model?

The more I think about paying $350, it's crazy... my cpu + mobo cost way less

What games do you intend to play?
What's your gaming resolution?
What's your PSU?

I think you should wait a week to see if GTX680 forces any price drops on HD7000 line-up. It might not, but it doesn't hurt to wait.

If you are buying new, HD7850 is a better card at $250 than a used HD6950 imo. The reason we think it's overpriced is because at stock speeds it basically offers the same performance as a card that's more than 1 year old. If you are buying new though, HD7850 isn't a terrible deal from what's available, but it doesn't quite move the performance/$ from HD6950.

I personally think $350 for HD7870 is too much. GTX680 launches this week for $500, which may mean $50 price cut across the entire HD7000 line. Maybe.

If you are playing WOW, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, then HD6870 for $160 is a great card (even HD6850 will suffice). If you are playing Battlefield 3, Witcher 2, Crysis 2, Shogun 2, then a used HD6950 is prob. the minimum I'd look at. The problem is at stock speeds HD6950 isn't that much faster than the HD6870.

Just look at these charts:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/...70-und-hd-7850/5/#abschnitt_leistung_mit_aaaf

HD6870 is the best bang for the buck right now if you are willing to tone down some settings and don't mind upgrading in 2 years. It's just 16% slower at 1080P than a $260 HD7850. Not bad, especially if you don't care to mess with overclocking, etc.

Here is a personal tip:

I tend to buy $175-250 GPUs and upgrade every 2 years rather than choosing to buy a $350-550 GPU and keeping it for 4-5 years. I have found this strategy gets me more value over time (especially since cards get much faster 2-3 years out while a brand new $550 card is too slow in 3-4 years). In that regard, it's better to get a $160 HD6870 today (put aside $190), keep it for 2 years, and then get a new $200 card in 2014 rather than to buy an HD7870 for $350 today and keep it until 2016. If you can find a used HD6950 2GB for $180-190, also good deal to start your path. Alternatively, there are used HD6870s too.

However, this can't work if you need to max out every game all the time, play at 1600P, game on multiple monitors, want the best features that new cards have, want the benefits of lower power consumption of newer cards, need to have the latest and greatest, etc. This is my personal budget approach that I find has worked well. Some other people on our forum get $500+ cards and try to sell them before they plummet in price significantly right before the next generation $500 card is out. This requires very tricky market timing and constant reselling. This can also work if you do it right but if you miss the timing your card may plummet hundreds of dollars in a matter of months if not weeks.

Just to give you an idea a $500 GTX480 came out March 26, 2010 and Newegg had a sale on it for $210 just this month, and last year it was on sale for $175-200 on Newegg as well.

 

[StarvinMarvin22]

What games do you intend to play?
What's your gaming resolution?
What's your PSU?

-Nothing super intensive, but my 4850 struggles in shogun2. I haven't started playing skyrim yet - It seems AMD cards do better in skyrim.
I have no intention of playing battlefield 3... maybe planetside2 later but I dont think that will be crazy gpu taxing. Diablo 3 shouldn't be too bad either. Any other games I play I'm unsure of now.

-All will be played at 1920x1080

-I have an antec hcg-750 psu, so plenty of juice for anything really.

I think you should wait a week to see if GTX680 forces any price drops on HD7000 line-up. It might not, but it doesn't hurt to wait.

If you are buying new, HD7850 is a better card at $250 than a used HD6950 imo. The reason we think it's overpriced is because at stock speeds it basically offers the same performance as a card that's more than 1 year old. If you are buying new though, HD7850 isn't a terrible deal from what's available, but it doesn't quite move the performance/$ from HD6950.

It makes me feel like I'm in the market to buy a card at a terrible time... 7850 @ $200 and I would have bought it already. This is what makes me think waiting a week or 2 is best.

Here is a personal tip:

I tend to buy $175-250 GPUs and upgrade every 2 years rather than choosing to buy a $350-550 GPU and keeping it for 4-5 years. I have found this strategy gets me more value over time (especially since cards get much faster 2-3 years out while a brand new $550 card is too slow in 3-4 years). In that regard, it's better to get a $160 HD6870 today (put aside $190), keep it for 2 years, and then get a new $200 card in 2014 rather than to buy an HD7870 for $350 today and keep it until 2016. If you can find a used HD6950 2GB for $180-190, also good deal to start your path. Alternatively, there are used HD6870s too.

However, this can't work if you need to max out every game all the time, play at 1600P, game on multiple monitors, want the best features that new cards have, want the benefits of lower power consumption of newer cards, need to have the latest and greatest, etc. This is my personal budget approach that I find has worked well. Some other people on our forum get $500+ cards and try to sell them before they plummet in price significantly right before the next generation $500 card is out. This requires very tricky market timing and constant reselling. This can also work if you do it right but if you miss the timing your card may plummet hundreds of dollars in a matter of months if not weeks.

Just to give you an idea a $500 GTX480 came out March 26, 2010 and Newegg had a sale on it for $210 just this month, and last year it was on sale for $175-200 on Newegg as well.

Solid advice, I've been eying the 6870/50 as potential temp cards... should be easy to sell without too much hassle, and are cheap to buy right now. It's too bad the 7770 offers such terrible value compared to the 68xx. I saw those 480 for $210 but can't do the blower design on a card that hot, I hate hair dryers in my case...

I'm torn again, between 6870 to feed my upgrade itch... or wait. Part of me is afraid that the 68xx will be erased from the pipeline like the 69xx was and that the best deals on it are right now... but the 7850 could also drop in price once gtx6xx comes out.

I appreciate your help in this thread, I'm going to sleep on it and see how I feel when I get home tomorrow

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

-Nothing super intensive, but my 4850 struggles in shogun2. I haven't started playing skyrim yet - It seems AMD cards do better in skyrim.
I have no intention of playing battlefield 3... maybe planetside2 later but I dont think that will be crazy gpu taxing. Diablo 3 shouldn't be too bad either. Any other games I play I'm unsure of now.

-All will be played at 1920x1080

-I have an antec hcg-750 psu, so plenty of juice for anything really.



It makes me feel like I'm in the market to buy a card at a terrible time... 7850 @ $200 and I would have bought it already. This is what makes me think waiting a week or 2 is best.



Solid advice, I've been eying the 6870/50 as potential temp cards... should be easy to sell without too much hassle, and are cheap to buy right now. It's too bad the 7770 offers such terrible value compared to the 68xx. I saw those 480 for $210 but can't do the blower design on a card that hot, I hate hair dryers in my case...

I'm torn again, between 6870 to feed my upgrade itch... or wait. Part of me is afraid that the 68xx will be erased from the pipeline like the 69xx was and that the best deals on it are right now... but the 7850 could also drop in price once gtx6xx comes out.

I appreciate your help in this thread, I'm going to sleep on it and see how I feel when I get home tomorrow

I wouldn't expect the 7850 to drop in price unless the 6xx from nVidia blow away the ATI stuff. I doubt that will happen though, so I'd try to find a good used 6950 that you can unlock to 6970 and be good for 2 years or so with $200 spent

 

[aaksheytalwar]

A gtx 580 doesn't get the same increase per unit clock increase. Besides 15% would probably be the max for a stock cooler with 580. For a 7870 that is like 25-30% and thus it ends up being at least as fast if not a bit faster than an overclocked 580. Not much performance increase or decrease but at the same price point the gtx 580 has nothing in its favor. For sub $300 the gtx 580 may be a bit better

 

[StarvinMarvin22]

Just to update, I couldn't play the waiting game...

I picked up a 6870 for $160AR. It's a solid price for what it is, and it's a performance increase of about 100% over my old 4850. As a plus, the MSI twin frozr heatsinks are nice and quiet.