GPU Upgrade: 7850 versus GTX 570

[Udgnim]

I'm planning on upgrading my current GPU (4870 512) to a more modern GPU and after becoming familiar with current pricing tiers, it looks like the 7850 or GTX 570 are in the $250-$300 price range I'm willing to shell out.

I'll be primarily playing Diablo 3 & League of Legends. CPU is an E8500 @ 4.05GHz and resolution is 1680*1050. I could play at 19*10 on the HDTV, but I rarely do that.

I plan on overclocking the GPU.

Doing some research, it looks like the GTX 570 is superior than the 7850 at stock, but how do they stack up when they are both OCed? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SickBeast]

It's a close call performance wise whichever one you get, but:

- the 7850 has more vram
- the 7850 will consume way less power (probably 100w+)
- the 7850 will *probably* overclock quite a bit better
- the GTX 570 has CUDA, PhysX, and arguably better drivers
- depending on what games you play, one card or the other might be "better" for you

 

[ShintaiDK]

The GTX 670 coming very very soon should knock prices down btw.

 

[Udgnim]

The GTX 670 coming very very soon should knock prices down btw.

I think the GTX 670 will possibly impact 7970, 7950, and possibly 7870 prices. I don't think its impact will really trickle down much to the price bracket I'm looking at.

 

[Don Karnage]

1200 core 7850 pulls more fps then a 580 in BF3.

Ultra settings, 1920x1080


Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
16974, 300000, 25, 92, 56.580

 

[3DVagabond]

The GTX 670 coming very very soon should knock prices down btw.

I don't think the 670 is going to be priced anywhere near enough to ~$250 to effect these cards. Depending on $/performance everything from the 7870 up could take a hit, and needs to IMO, but there's a lot of space before it impacts the 7850's price range.

Sickbeast has it about right. (Except the drivers, but he did say "arguably".) I assume that you don't need CUDA or you wouldn't be asking in the first place. Why buy old tech if it's not giving you something you need to add value?

 

[Rvenger]

1200 core 7850 pulls more fps then a 580 in BF3.

Ultra settings, 1920x1080


Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
16974, 300000, 25, 92, 56.580

Explosions in BF3 on my 7970 was rendering it unplayable with max settings. IMO this is unacceptable for a $475 card. The card sounded like a machine gun from the coil whine being so bad while gaming.

 

[Don Karnage]

Explosions in BF3 on my 7970 was rendering it unplayable with max settings. IMO this is unacceptable for a $475 card. The card sounded like a machine gun from the coil whine being so bad while gaming.

Something was very wrong with your card then because ultra is silky smooth on my rig

 

[Silverforce11]

7850 at stock is not that great, don't get it unless you plan to OC, its value is not much better than previous gen @ stock.

But its relatively easy to get a >40% OC out of it on the stock cooler (only on the Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and sapphire twin fan model though). The scaling is near linear with OC so you can also expect >40% performance gains from the above bench numbers.

As to how they stack up when OC: One uses ~150W OC and the other probably >300W. Air/stock cooling gtx570 probably top out at a 20% OC.

Edit: Just realize, look at that 5850 and 5870 go, obsolete 40nm tech.. pfft.

 

[ocre]

its never really wise to buy a card with overclocked expectations. If you need a certain amount of performance then buy a card that performs where you need it. Overclocking is a bonus, any other way and your setting yourself up for unhappiness.

And i cant believe some of the stuff that flies around. "Its relatively easy to get >40% overclock for the 7850 on a stock cooler". Seriously???

What??? thats not even close to true. I have seen many people struggle to get 1200mhz (which is a 20% OC btw) stable. Ppl saying stuff like this is concerning. Its only a huge setup for disappointment. I am not saying they are doing it on purpose, i am only bring up the fact that its pretty careless for ppl to plant these things into ppls heads.

Truth is a random person buying a 7850 most likely wont get a stable 40% overclock. much less >40%. I am sure that there are people out there that have got great overclocks for a benchmark or screenshot to show off. But its not something you should be expecting or considering everyday.

OP, i just want to give you a heads up. Do not believe these claims of an over 40% overclock. Buy whatever card you desire, i am not getting into that one. I am just trying to give it to you straight here.

 

[toyota]

I have seen many people struggle to get 1200mhz (which is a 20% OC btw)

stock clock on 7850 is 860mhz so 1200mhz is a 40% oc.

 

[ocre]

I have seen many people struggle to get 1200mhz (which is a 20% OC btw)

stock clock on 7850 is 860mhz so 1200mhz is a 40% oc.

it doesnt change much. Its not easy to get 1200mhz and its not everyday common.

look here <scroll down to the 7850 results>:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1231670/the-amd-radeon-7800-club

2 people out of 10 made it to 1200 and the rest are a lot lower.

All i am saying is that its not cool to be planting such expectations that have the chance to disappoint someone greatly. Whatever you get, you get. Whatever that is, its a bonus. Buy the power you need, overclocking is and always will be a bonus feature!

 

[toyota]

it doesnt change much. Its not easy to get 1200mhz and its not everyday common.

look here <scroll down to the 7850 results>:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1231670/the-amd-radeon-7800-club

2 people out of 10 made it to 1200 and the rest are a lot lower.

All i am saying is that its not cool to be planting such expectations that have the chance to disappoint someone greatly. Whatever you get, you get. Whatever that is, its a bonus. Buy the power you need, overclocking is and always will be a bonus feature!

um it does change quite a bit. you mistakenly thought it was 20% when it was 40% so that is a massive difference. many people that cant get there are only using the CCC limited overclocking. using something other than CCC and its pretty much guaranteed that a 7850 will do at least 30% with most doing 35% or better. again that is WAY better than you made the situation look.

 

[blastingcap]

I own a Sapphire OC edition 7850 in addition to my main card. It should be easy to max out CCC at 1.075V on any of the well-cooled cards (ASUS DirectCU, MSI Lightning/Twin FrozrIII/HAWK, Sapphire OC Edition/Atomic, and maybe some others). That's 1050MHz which is a 22.1% overclock. If you go to 1.1 volts you should be able to clear 1100MHz, and at 1.2 or 1.25 volts or so, many people can clear 1200MHz with fans set on high. I think the optimal setting for everyday use is 1.075 volts and 1075 MHz. That gives you a 25% overclock with little added heat and no worries about overvoltage or excessive fan noise. If you're willing to overvolt then something conservative like 1.1-1.15 volts and 1150Mhz is a 33.7% overclock and still very reasonable power/heat/noise.

P.S. the 7850 scales almost linearly with GPU clockspeed. So 33.7% overclock will give you almost 33% increase in framerate, as just one example.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'll be primarily playing Diablo 3 & League of Legends. CPU is an E8500 @ 4.05GHz and resolution is 1680*1050. I could play at 19*10 on the HDTV, but I rarely do that.

HD7850 for 1680x1050 with a dual core CPU? Wasting $ right there.

Honestly HD6870 is the ticket. The other cards you listed are overkill for the 2 games you listed and your resolution.

Even at 2560x1600, HD6870 still gets 65 fps in D3:

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

OC vs. OC the HD 7850 will be faster, and consume a lot less power too. That would be my choice.

 

[Termie]

HD7850 for 1680x1050 with a dual core CPU? Wasting $ right there.

Honestly HD6870 is the ticket. The other cards you listed are overkill for the 2 games you listed and your resolution.

Even at 2560x1600, HD6870 still gets 65 fps in D3:

This. All the debate about which of the cards the OP listed is irrelevant when every card over $150 will perform identically on an e8400. Only spend more than that if you intend to update your CPU soon.

 

[ocre]

um it does change quite a bit. you mistakenly thought it was 20% when it was 40% so that is a massive difference. many people that cant get there are only using the CCC limited overclocking. using something other than CCC and its pretty much guaranteed that a 7850 will do at least 30% with most doing 35% or better. again that is WAY better than you made the situation look.

from overclock.net 7850 club the average OC is 1048mhz. So its 22%. If they were all extreme pros, who knows it those cards may get more. I still stick firmly to my post. Saying you will get >40% overclock without even trying is just not cool. If a person can get that high then its all the better. But its obviously not the norm.

I am concerned with the OP's getting high expectations and being let down. This can be a crushing experience. The 7850 isnt a bad card anyway. There is no reason to over hype things. I am not even going against the unanimous posters siding with the 7850. Thats a battle i am not in. I just think people are better off looking at overclocking as a bonus and not buying a card expected at least >40% overclocks and performance out of it. This is a big setup for disappointment and i dont see a lot of good reason to plant such things in potential buyers heads.

 

[toyota]

from overclock.net 7850 club the average OC is 1048mhz. So its 22%. If they were all extreme pros, who knows it those cards may get more. I still stick firmly to my post. Saying you will get >40% overclock without even trying is just not cool. If a person can get that high then its all the better. But its obviously not the norm.

I am concerned with the OP's getting high expectations and being let down. This can be a crushing experience. The 7850 isnt a bad card anyway. There is no reason to over hype things. I am not even going against the unanimous posters siding with the 7850. Thats a battle i am not in. I just think people are better off looking at overclocking as a bonus and not buying a card expected at least >40% overclocks and performance out of it. This is a big setup for disappointment and i dont see a lot of good reason to plant such things in potential buyers heads.

please stop going by those numbers on that chart in your link. some people did not try to exceed CCC limits and some clearly made no effort at all for a high oc and one person even left theirs stock. all it takes is common sense to realize those numbers you just averaged together are NOT representative of what the 7850 can do.

 

[Udgnim]

I do plan on upgrading my CPU eventually, but I'm focusing on GPU first because I feel my 4870 is going to be the more limiting factor in D3 when it comes out.

when I do decide to upgrade my CPU, it'll probably be 3570K IB and I'll be building a new PC based around IB and the GPU I bought

with that said, my resolution will likely still remain 1680*1050 as my gaming resolution because I use dual monitors and I'm happy with the available screen space.

I'm choosing between 7850 & GTX 570 (really looks like it'll be 7850 though) because I want a more sizable GPU upgrade over the 4870 than what the 6870 provides even if I'm not adequately using the GPU power available to me.

depending on how much I like D3, I may start playing other games (I haven't bought/played any non-F2P games in the past year) and those games should definitely be more GPU intensive than D3. if I have to use expensive AA methods or mods to put a dent into FPS #s, I'll be plenty happy

 

[blastingcap]

please stop going by those numbers on that chart in your link. some people did not try to exceed CCC limits and some clearly made no effort at all for a high oc and one person even left theirs stock. all it takes is common sense to realize those numbers you just averaged together are NOT representative of what the 7850 can do.

This.

Also, 7850s are not created equal. Gotta get one of the better-cooled varieties to really get them clocking high. Even the crappiest 7850 stuck in a poorly cooled case ought to be able to hit 1050MHz core at ~1.1 volts. A well-cooled one in a well-cooled case should hit 1050Mhz easily at 1.075 volts, and >1150Mhz at >1.15 volts.

 

[tigersty1e]

there should be no reason to buy a gtx 570/hd 6900 today (unless going for a second card), especially from someone coming from a 4850.

wait a bit more and pick up the gtx 660ti.

 

[3DVagabond]

OP what's the rest of your system? OS, PSU, and case are important.

 

[Goatsecks]

Hey udjnim. I recently got an almost identical upgrade for an identical system.

I am currently on an e8600 @ 4.33 ghz (what mobo/memory are you using?) and was looking to upgrade my old 280 to a 6950 or a gtx 570 (I game at 1900x1200p). I sided on the 570 (MSI twin frozr III). I managed to get my 570 as b-stock though for £180, and I mainly play bf3 (other than that old games).

Battlefield 3 is playable on ultra settings (avg 38 fps in the few benches i did) for me, though i tend to back off a little bit as I get a few fps drops. You have not said if you play bf3, but when i get home tonight ill set my (CPU) oc to 4.05 and res to 1600x1000 ish and perform some bench's if that would be any use? =]

Goatsecks

 

[Crap Daddy]

7850 is overpriced. 570 is old tech. Stock 570 better than 7850 at your resolution with 10%. Get a 7870 if you can get one at around 320$.