EVGA 560 Ti 448 @$220 or Asus 7850 @$250?

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Only thing that sucks about Kepler is that nvidia has effectively killed overclocking on it.

That's what pretty much turned me off completely about Kepler. Forcing us to have to use a core and memory speed offset and having the card itself and software set voltage instead of letting us do it kills the enthusiast factor. It also signifies NVIDIA wanted to lock down on what we can do with our cards.

I think I'll go with an HD 7950 3GB this round, when they come down to under $350. Overclock and undervolt that sucker for good efficiency and low temps and power consumption. :thumbsup:

Getting back on topic, the HD 7850 is a steal if you're overclocking. I mean really, with a bit of an overvolt you can be doing 1150-1200MHz from the stock 860MHz. That's almost 40%, with an increase of 30-35% in FPS so it has good scaling to back it up.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Waiting for 7xx or 8xx tbh.

 

[FalseChristian]

The GTX 680 does not offer enough performance increase over a GTX 580 so forget about that. Grab a 7850 and you'll be glad you did and this coming from a GTX 460 1GB SLI fanboy.

 

[Upgrade_Itch]

I think I'll go with an HD 7950 3GB this round, when they come down to under $350. Overclock and undervolt that sucker for good efficiency and low temps and power consumption. :thumbsup:

HD7950 has dropped $80 to $100 already......I doubt you'll see another price cut for a long time. AMD will soon cut the 7800 series as the 7870 isn't selling well.

 

[blastingcap]

Street prices for AMD cards, from launch to present:

7970 - over 550 -> starting at 450 w/ free games
7950 - over 450 -> starting at 380 w/ free games
7870 - over 350 -> starting at 330 w/ free games
7850 - over 250 -> starting at 240 w/ free games

Keep in mind that more cards are shipping with free games and the Three for Free promo will probably begin in earnest in May, so that's sort of a price cut, even if you didn't want the games since you can sell them.

 

[toyota]

there was a 7950 at $349 that came with Dirt 3 but I guess it was just a temporary sale.

 

[jacktesterson]

7850 is best bang for buck card out there.

I'd try to get the Asus or MSI Models (3 heatpipes and 2 Fans)

Sapphire would be the 3rd best option available. (2 heatpipes and 2 Fans)


From my own research and results after, the Asus is the best model, but is getting harder to find in stock. Also to note, its by far the longest 7850 due to its oversized heatsink. (10 inches long)

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

HD7950 has dropped $80 to $100 already......I doubt you'll see another price cut for a long time. AMD will soon cut the 7800 series as the 7870 isn't selling well.

I'm in no hurry, my man.

When I upgrade the graphics card I'll also upgrade my monitor for a Dell U2412M, so I'll need to save up. I'm planning to upgrade by the end of the year, and by then I'm pretty sure the HD 7950 will be priced lower than $350 because of competition from the GTX 670 (Ti) and the deals that typically happen then.

For now, my factory OCed GTX 460 (850MHz Core) will do for 1680x1050 + 4x AA. Not bad considering I got it exactly a year ago for $160 BNIB.

 

[blastingcap]

OP by the way use the template in the forum sticky please. Hard to make recommendations without knowing more about things like resolution (impacts VRAM need), PSU size, etc.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

7850 is best bang for buck card out there.

Best of the worst you mean, right?

 

[Dark Shroud]

Best of the worst you mean, right?

No he meant what he said, the Nvidia cards aren't out yet.

 

[blastingcap]

7850 is best bang for buck card out there.

I'd try to get the Asus or MSI Models (3 heatpipes and 2 Fans)

Sapphire would be the 3rd best option available. (2 heatpipes and 2 Fans)


From my own research and results after, the Asus is the best model, but is getting harder to find in stock. Also to note, its by far the longest 7850 due to its oversized heatsink. (10 inches long)

It's not clear to me that the ASUS model is best cooling despite the 3 heatpipes. I am unable to find out what size those ASUS heatpipes are. Whereas the Sapphire ones are nice thick 8mm ones that extend both ways away from the GPU. In practice I suspect they are about equally good, but it's very difficult to say just based on photos and measurements. (Also need to consider things like noise levels; maybe equalize noise levels at a certain decibel level, else one card might claim to cool better than the other but only because it's much louder.)

See: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33342365&postcount=12

 

[postmortemIA]

both cards have to come down in price. 560 ti will make your utility bill bit bigger.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

7850 is a no brainer with a strict sub 300 budget

 

[Don Karnage]

Best of the worst you mean, right?

Find me a card at 250 dollars that beats this score

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3259696

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Find me a card at 250 dollars that beats this score

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3259696

A $209 gtx 480.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Heh, two 470s for $200 total :sneaky:


480's a bit slower I think.

 

[Silverforce11]

You guys are dissing over a few bucks difference...

When one OC card uses 200W more. Do you not pay bills, ever?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

No, actually I've never really paid any bills /\

 

[postmortemIA]

You guys are dissing over a few bucks difference...

When one OC card uses 200W more. Do you not pay bills, ever?

parents must be paying bills

but you are correct sir, one 470 takes 100W more under load. insane.

 

[Don Karnage]

A $209 gtx 480.

480's are heat pumps that you don't want especially with summer coming

 

[BallaTheFeared]

480's are heat pumps that you don't want especially with summer coming

Whew indeed, like those 7970s... Chug a lug.


I don't pay any bills, but I did check the rates. 100w extra really adds up, assuming I play 2 hours every other day for an entire year the cost difference in my area is a staggering $2.52 a year.

I dunno what anyone makes these days, but back in my day you could buy a farm with that kind of cash.

I figured I'd find out what kind of power we were talking for things like web browsing and youtube/netflix/Hulu Plus videos which I probably spend most of my time doing.

7850 draws 40w during blu-ray playback, while the 470 draws 45w.

I figued in 6 hours a day, everyday, for one year, the cost difference between the 7850 vs the 470 was a staggering $0.72 a year.

I'm just glad I don't pay any bills, the same site I got my info from shows some pretty power hungry appliences which makes my entire setup look trivial.

 

[KingFatty]

Don't forget to account for other incidentals when considering power efficiency.

Like sweaty balls. If your computer is under your desk, a power guzzling card might have a direct correlation to the amount of ball sweat. And crack sweat too.

Summer is coming...

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Sweat cools though, and the fans run faster so you should have more airflow over your sweaty nether regions allowing for more efficient cooling.


lol

 

[Don Karnage]

Don't forget to account for other incidentals when considering power efficiency.

Like sweaty balls. If your computer is under your desk, a power guzzling card might have a direct correlation to the amount of ball sweat. And crack sweat too.

Summer is coming...

Hard to get ball sweat when its 68 degrees in the house.