Best card for playing at 1650x1080

[Rustican]

Need some advice for a video card upgrade. I am looking for the best bang for the buck card that can play the following games at 1650x1080 at the highest settings.

Shogun Total war 2
Skyrim
The Witcher series
Guild Wars 2
Batman Arkham City
Fallout

I am currently looking at the HD 7770 and HD 7850. Thanks for the help.

Specs:
Intel Core i7 3770 Ivy Bridge Processor 3.40GHz
•8GB DDR3 1600
•1TB 7200RPM HDD
460W PS

Update 12/11
I saw this card on newegg since most people were recommending the 2Gb 7850.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150609

My only concern was that it doesn't seem to expel much air from the back of the card. Is that going to be an issue? I don't think I can add more fans to my case since it is a stock dell case.


Also the card takes two six pin power connectors instead of one. Does that mean it will use more power than other 7850 cards?
Thanks.

 

[toyota]

you need to list all your current specs in detail.

 

[Denithor]

As long as you have an adequate supporting system you'll probably see more benefit from a 7850. That way you can turn up all the eye candy and enjoy the show.

 

[Rustican]

you need to list all your current specs in detail.

Added. Thanks.

 

[toyota]

7850

 

[Denithor]

Yep. Definitely 7850.

Or if planning to upgrade the monitor anytime soon go for a 7870. Not too much more cash for a fair bit more performance.

 

[Greenlepricon]

7770 might be a little too low powered for what you want but you can probably scrape by. I would say a 7850 if you need to save a few bucks, otherwise go for the 7870. It will keep you happy for a little longer and if you do upgrade to a better monitor as was mentioned, you won't have to swap out video cards.

 

[p_monks33]

7850 is a great card. Especially if you over clock. I doubled my fps going from a stock 7770 to an over locked 7850, and I'm not bashing the 7770 at all, it's all in how much AA you use, it eats the Vram

 

[toyota]

7850 is a great card. Especially if you over clock. I doubled my fps going from a stock 7770 to an over locked 7850, and I'm not bashing the 7770 at all, it's all in how much AA you use, it eats the Vram

there is no way you doubled performance going from a 7770 to 7850 expect for vram limited cases though.

 

[Rustican]

Is the HD 7850 with 1G of RAM enough or are the versions with 2Gs of RAM worth the extra cost?

 

[toyota]

Is the HD 7850 with 1G of RAM enough or are the versions with 2Gs of RAM worth the extra cost?

1gb would be fine for most cases but at this point its just silly not to go with the 2gb model. some games will already utilize more than 1gb of vram at the settings a 7850 can handle so don't gimp yourself from day 1.

 

[OCNewbie]

Assuming you're in the U.S., look for a 7850 on sale for around $150. The 7770 might be just barely "good enough" in some circumstances, but I certainly wouldn't be comfortable with that level of performance when another ~$50 or so would give me "very good" performance, and much better long-term viability.

 

[RaistlinZ]

7850 is what you want.

 

[lehtv]

Agree with above, go with 7850 2GB.

What make/model is your 460W unit?

 

[toyota]

sounds like it might be a Dell pc he has.

 

[Rustican]

Yeah, it's a dell XPS 8500. From what I've read, the 7850 should work with the 460W PS.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

At the minimum a 7850/7870

But if you want to max out the most intensive recent games with min above 60 fps then at least a 7950 or above, that too oced.

 

[Erenhardt]

1gb would be fine for most cases but at this point its just silly not to go with the 2gb model. some games will already utilize more than 1gb of vram at the settings a 7850 can handle so don't gimp yourself from day 1.

Go for 7970 GHz... or 7990 - don't gimp yourself from day 1.

 

[p_monks33]

there is no way you doubled performance going from a 7770 to 7850 expect for vram limited cases though.

Pretty close to double the performance. The 7850 overclocked is equivalent to a GTX 580, the 7770 pretty much mirrors the results of a GTX 460, which people were using in SLI to match 580 performance, so its not just in Vram limited issues, its across the board pretty close to double the performance once overclocked pretty mildly.

7770 vs 7850 stock Anandtech bench

 

[toyota]

Go for 7970 GHz... or 7990 - don't gimp yourself from day 1.

real intelligent comment there. he is asking specifically about the 7850 which AGAIN is capable of utilizing more than 1gb of vram right now in some games.

 

[toyota]

Pretty close to double the performance. The 7850 overclocked is equivalent to a GTX 580, the 7770 pretty much mirrors the results of a GTX 460, which people were using in SLI to match 580 performance, so its not just in Vram limited issues, its across the board pretty close to double the performance once overclocked pretty mildly.

7770 vs 7850 stock Anandtech bench

you can look at reviews to see a 7850 is about 50% faster than a 7700 so no it is not twice as fast when oced mildly or even wildly.

 

[p_monks33]

you can look at reviews to see a 7850 is about 50% faster than a 7700 so no it is not twice as fast when oced mildly or even wildly.

Im not arguing with you, im just curious where these reviews are? I can't find a side by side other than anandtech bench to compare, and I know that the new 12.11 drivers and a few newer games arent available to see in anandtech bench.
my 3dmark11 scores show double the framerate, as does anandtech bench. Thats not 50% that closer to 75-95% increase in all of those games.

Even in the anandtech bench BF3 is one of the closest games in terms of percentage stock vs stock its 42% add a 30% overclock thats theoretically 72% , add in overclock scaling and call it 60%. Like I said im not arguing with anyone, just want people to be aware, you are paying almost double the cost on average for a 7850 over a 7770 for a reason.

 

[toyota]

Im not arguing with you, im just curious where these reviews are? I can't find a side by side other than anandtech bench to compare, and I know that the new 12.11 drivers and a few newer games arent available to see in anandtech bench.
my 3dmark11 scores show double the framerate, as does anandtech bench. Thats not 50% that closer to 75-95% increase in all of those games.

the 7850 is 45% faster than the 7770 at the OP's 1680x1050 res and 50% faster at 1920x1200. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/26.html

 

[raghu78]

the 7850 is 45% faster than the 7770 at the OP's 1680x1050 res and 50% faster at 1920x1200. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/26.html

you forget the fact that the HD 7850 overclocks very well. more importantly performance scales brilliantly because of a 256 bit memory system with 32 ROPs. you can get PCS+ HD 7850 at 1 Ghz and overclock it to 1.15 Ghz and match HD 7870 / GTX 580 perf.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/28.html

1680 x 1050

HD 7770 - 59
HD 7870 - 100

HD 7770 cannot scale like HD 7850 because of a 128 bit memory system with 16 ROPs. also those are perf averages. In demanding games like BF3, MOH Warfighter, Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Sleeping Dogs with MSAA , HD 7850(1.15 Ghz) easily runs at twice (2x) HD 7770 performance. the HD 7770 falls behind badly because of bandwidth and ROP shortage.

here is a review with the latest drivers

http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/page4.html

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Oced vs oced 7850 is twice the performance of a 7770. No doubt. Just compare a gtx 580 to a single 6870.