Gigabyte 7870 OC good enough for 2560x1440 resolution?

[SickBeast]

But can it run crysis??

 

[3DVagabond]

Amusingly, Metro 2033 is one of the things that I called out as one of the few exceptions to th emax all the things desire.

There are always going to be a handful of things out that even the best hardware cannot max. However, I like to be as close as possible.

Yes, well I suppose then we need to say, depending on games played. Overall, I'd say the 7870 is good enough, if it's cheap enough. If not, then the 7950 is he obvious choice.

 

[RussianSensation]

Most games as long as you disable certain options isn't good enough for me. That is, by definition, almost.

So what setup do you have? GTX680 SLI? And next generation GTX780 SLI and then GTX880 SLI? People have a budget you know. If we all could buy $1000 of GPUs every new generation, we wouldn't even research GPUs. We'd just get the best every 12 months....

A pair of 7870s would rock that resolution in Crossfire.

Ya, but the cheapest comparable 7870 is ~$240; 2 of those is $480.

Not going to bother responding to the dearth of graphs to show what I already know (if you don't care about visual quality, you can get smoothness). This however, is bad. Comparing OC'ed to stock is just silly.

Not it's not silly because OP is looking at HD7870. Those cards are $230-250. The next cheapest upgrade up is HD7950 or 660Ti, of which the 660Ti is terrible for 2560x1440. Going to GTX680/7970 is raising the budget to $430+ and even GTX670 is $350 for the cheapest readily available version on Amazon. Thus, the next level up from a 7870 is the 7950 as the only viable upgrade without blowing through the budget. 7950 OC is pretty fast, and it does beat a reference 680/7970 GE at 1150-1200mhz overclocks. Look sometimes you have to put yourself in the OP's shoes. We all would love to have a GTX690 Quad-SLI but it's not happening. It's still better to play on the PC with settings turned down than to use a PS3/360. Unless you must max everything out, there is no need to blow the budget and drop $800-1k on GPUs unless the person can easily afford that option.

What's up guys, Thanks for all the info. I decided to go with a MSI 7950 (for some reason the gigabyte one on amazon went up to 349.99) and hopefully OC as far as I can without messing with the stock voltage.

That's a good call Jay. 7950 is the best bang for the buck for high resolutions. If you need help, we have many members who have successfully overclocked the MSI 7950 and would gladly help you out max that bad boy out --> Link

GPU-Z (sensor reading tab) / HWInfo64 will display your actual GPU voltage, while MSI Afterburner will show your target voltage. Most 7950 card undervolt due to high ASIC quality which means you are good to go up to 1.175V on that card, subject to your specific noise level tolerance and GPU temperatures.

 

[SickBeast]

Ya, but the cheapest comparable 7870 is ~$240; 2 of those is $480.

Actually I just got an XFX double d 7870 for $195 after a $30 MIR. A pair would cost $380. It would take a $300 7970 to outgun it while bitmining.

The 7870s are starting to flirt with the $200 pricepoint and I really think they're just better overall cards for most people at that price compared to the 7950. Don't get me wrong, the 7950 is great, it's just too expensive IMO.

 

[RussianSensation]

The 7870 is a good deal right now, it's why I bought one. Even for bitcoins, it would take a $300 7970 to be competetive with a $195 7870 at equal clockspeeds. Looking at benchmarks, a pair of 7870s is often over 50% faster than a single 7970 or GTX 680.

I think your math is off.

HD7970 = 2048 SPs x 925mhz x 2 Ops/clock = 3.79 Tflops ~ 550 Mhash/sec
HD7870 = 1280 SPs x 1000mhz x 2 Ops/clock = 2.56 Tflops ~ 370 Mash/sec

To get 550 Mhash/sec, the 7870 would need to be clocked at 1486 mhz.

Also, the 7970 can overclock to at least 1150mhz, so it's really miles apart. If anything for Bitcoin mining the 7950 is what you should have bought. It's going to be 30-40% faster for that task OC vs OC.

Actually I just got an XFX double d 7870 for $195 after a $30 MIR. A pair would cost $380. It would take a $300 7970 to outgun it while bitmining.

Where did you find it for $195? Also, 7950 is really the better value for miners over the 7970

 

[SickBeast]

I think your math is off.

HD7970 = 2048 SPs x 925mhz x 2 Ops/clock = 3.79 Tflops ~ 550 Mhash/sec
HD7870 = 1280 SPs x 1000mhz x 2 Ops/clock = 2.56 Tflops ~ 370 Mash/sec

To get 550 Mhash/sec, the 7870 would need to be clocked at 1486 mhz.

Also, the 7970 can overclock to at least 1150mhz, so it's really miles apart. If anything for Bitcoin mining the 7950 is what you should have bought. It's going to be 30-40% faster for that task OC vs OC.



Where did you find it for $195? Also, 7950 is really the better value for miners over the 7970

First of all, my math isn't off. I went on the bitcoin hardware database and took the mhash/sec for both a 7870 and a 7970 that were running at around 1100mhz each. Then all I did was divided the 7970 rate by the 7870 rate and then multiplied that times the $195 that I paid for my 7870. You don't have to believe me. It came out to $300, meaning it would take a 7970 at $300 to match my card, which also means that it would beat the 7950 as well at $300. My guess would be it would take a $270 7950 to compete, and that's if you can even hit 1100mhz+ on one.

I'm just pointing out some alternatives here. I sense a pack mentality toward the 7950 which is understandable. It's still arguably a better deal with the 3gb of vram.

Like I said, I mostly went with the 7870 because I can crossfire it with my 7850 for what could amount to 50% more performance than a GTX 680.

Basically from my recollection, the 7970 got 650mhash/sec whereas the 7870 got around 422, both running at around 1100mhz (the 7870 was 65mhz faster I think).

The $195 7870 was at NCIX when they had a $20 off $100 deal going.

 

[KingFatty]

What about some kind of performance per dollar for both cards. Since they are both AMD cards, maybe it's more reasonable to try to reduce them to a single metric like that because you'd have similar patters of performance.

Anyway, I'm not sure how you would reconcile that single metric with overclocking, maybe somehow show a plot of the metric as a function of overclock?

 

[RussianSensation]

First of all, my math isn't off. I went on the bitcoin hardware database and took the mhash/sec for both a 7870 and a 7970 that were running at around 1100mhz each. Then all I did was divided the 7970 rate by the 7870 rate and then multiplied that times the $195 that I paid for my 7870. You don't have to believe me.

No, I do believe you. Per $, you get more Mhash with a 7870 but you have to consider a couple things

1) I can't find an HD7870 for $195 to recommend right now;
2) 7950 OC is still much faster than a 7870 is for gaming at 2560x1440;
3) 7950 will have higher resale value, so the total cost of ownership may not be as much as their $100 price difference when both cards are sold for future upgrades;
4) 7950 OC and 7970 OC will make more bitcoins per month over time, which could narrow down the cost or pay for the 7950/7970 (this is more subjective though since we don't know where exact difficulty and price of bitcoins will be in 3-4 months, etc.). But the longer mining operation goes, the more coins 7950/7970 will make, negating some of that price premium.

Your math does look right though if we change it to Mhash per $1:

7870 @ 1200mhz = 440 Mhash @ $195 (your price quote) = 2.25 Mhash/ $1
7870 @ 1200mhz @ $230 (Newegg price) = 1.91 Mhash/ $1
7950 @ 1100mhz = 565 Mhash @ $310 (Newegg) = 1.83 Mhash / $1
7970 @ 1100mhz = 650 Mhash @ $395 (Newegg) = 1.65 Mhash / $1

The 7870 looks the best bang for the buck but at current prices it's 1.91 vs. 1.83 with the 7950. That's not much difference there but a nice performance difference in games.

 

[notty22]

There is a double standard or a disconnect on what represents AVG model pricing. A certain hot deal/and rebate for brand X will be quoted endlessly and not for brand/model Y. Making the argument questionable, IMO.

 

[Anubis]

i run dual Shimians off a 7950 that isnt OCed and i don't have any issues with the games i play. granted im not playing BF3 but you can def game at 1440p without much issue