How does the 7850 reference cooler compare to the other options available?

[SickBeast]

I'm wondering if cards like the twin frozr 2 are worth the $40-50 premium.

 

[blastingcap]

I'm wondering if cards like the twin frozr 2 are worth the $40-50 premium.

There comes a point where getting a jazzed-up lower-spec card is a worse buy than simply getting a stock higher-spec card. If your budget is more like $290 than $240-250, then I would wait for prices to settle down and get a 7870 or NV's 28nm card at that price.

 

[3DVagabond]

There comes a point where getting a jazzed-up lower-spec card is a worse buy than simply getting a stock higher-spec card. If your budget is more like $290 than $240-250, then I would wait for prices to settle down and get a 7870 or NV's 28nm card at that price.

I disagree, in this instance. The custom cooled cards are not $290.00 They're only $250-$260 at Newegg. Well worth the $10-$20 difference, IMO.

 

[blastingcap]

I disagree, in this instance. The custom cooled cards are not $290.00 They're only $250-$260 at Newegg. Well worth the $10-$20 difference, IMO.

Please read the OP, then my post, and what I wrote may make more sense to you.

 

[3DVagabond]

Please read the OP, then my post, and what I wrote may make more sense to you.

Well then, I disagree with the OP too.

@SickBeast: Do you live somewhere that the TF cards are at at that much of a premium? If so, are all of the custom cooled cards similarly market up? Newegg USA has Sapphires, and others for as little as $250.

 

[SickBeast]

Where I live the reference cards are $230, the sapphire is $250 and the twin frozr 2 is $270-280. I almost bought the sapphire but went with the reference card because my budget was really only $200.

 

[3DVagabond]

I understand. I too set upper limits for components and won't generally go over. I hope you enjoy gaming on your new card.

 

[blastingcap]

Well then, I disagree with the OP too.

@SickBeast: Do you live somewhere that the TF cards are at at that much of a premium? If so, are all of the custom cooled cards similarly market up? Newegg USA has Sapphires, and others for as little as $250.

Yes take it up with the OP not me. I am just going by his numbers. Not sure why you responded to me instead of him in the first place. At $290 or even $280, I just don't think that's a good value and would rather just wait it out and grab a 7870 for ~$290 or else NV's similarly-priced 28nm card when available, if it's price/perf is good enough.

 

[SickBeast]

Thanks. I'm hoping the cooler won't matter much. At xbit it span 300rpm faster to reach 105mhz on the core. Hopefully I can hit 1200mhz with a 600rpm increase and a modest voltage boost.

 

[3DVagabond]

Yes take it up with the OP not me. I am just going by his numbers. Not sure why you responded to me instead of him in the first place. At $290 or even $280, I just don't think that's a good value and would rather just wait it out and grab a 7870 for ~$290 or else NV's similarly-priced 28nm card when available, if it's price/perf is good enough.

Well, it was nothing personal. I actually was going to say that I think it's worth the $40 and when I checked saw it was more like $10-$20.

As far as waiting for nVidia goes, it might be a long wait. They need to get the 680 production to some sort of acceptable level before they can release anything else. I don't F5 for hours on end, but I've never seen any availability at Newegg. Not once!

 

[RavenSEAL]

Usually, the special cards go beyond just custom cooling. Some have better VRMs and PBC with strong components.

 

[SickBeast]

I was unfortunately budget limited. I generally like the aftermarket cards as well. I'm just wondering how bad mine will be overclocked under full load. I'm used to quiet cards.

 

[3DVagabond]

I was unfortunately budget limited. I generally like the aftermarket cards as well. I'm just wondering how bad mine will be overclocked under full load. I'm used to quiet cards.

Save up a few pennies and down the road you can get a better cooler, if you want. Sometimes it's easier to do it in steps, and you could end up with a better product in the end.

 

[SickBeast]

My next upgrade is going to be another 7850 for crossfire once they hit $100-150.

 

[kalrith]

My next upgrade is going to be another 7850 for crossfire once they hit $100-150 in three years.

fixed

 

[SickBeast]

That long? I'm thinking 6 months to a year tops.

 

[kalrith]

I guess it depends on what's brought to the market. Look at the video card prices 18-24 months ago compared to today; they're not that much different.

Here's an example. The 5850 was released in Sept 2009 for $250, almost 3 years ago. I think used prices have been around $115 shipped lately.

Obviously this will be much different if nvidia releases a 660/670 card that shakes up market pricing.

I think the biggest problem is that the 7850 is the best price/performance of AMD's lineup right now. Everything else could come down in price with the 7850 still at a solid $230-$250 street price.

Edit: I honestly think it'll be more like 2 years than 3 years, but there are so many variables that anything at this point is just a blind guess.

 

[RavenSEAL]

From my understanding, AMD is gonna be quick about pushing the 8xxx series. So a year might not be a bad time estimate...

 

[Dark Shroud]

That might happen, but AMD will quickly EOL the current series shortly before the replacement card launches. And depending on the performance of the card Bitcoin miners will snatch them up.

 

[Jaydip]

7850 is a pretty good card for 1080P.I doubt u will need to CF this early.I stay as far as possible from Multigpu setups be it SLI or CF but that's a personal preference.I have had enough with 470SLI setup.

 

[Freddy1765]

So could anyone return to the topic of the post?
I kinda wanna know by how much custom coolers like MSI's, Asus' and Sapphire's compare to the reference card on the 7850, especially with regard to thermal headroom in OC'ing, anyone who have experience with this?

 

[Jaydip]

I'm wondering if cards like the twin frozr 2 are worth the $40-50 premium.

For low to moderate overclocking probably not.But u are an extreme overclocker so i would say yes in your case :biggrin: The price premium comes with better power phase design,robust component selection,handpicked chips to lower leakage etc etc.$40-50 premium is probably way too much but when u are gonna run this chip oced @ 24/7 it is not a bad deal IMO.

 

[flexy]

A 7850 with a "fancy" cooler where you buy premium for the cooler does NOT make too much sense to me.

The 7850 (assuming you run stock or only small overclock) is voltage and clock reduced, cooling is NOT an issue. Those cards run cool and draw very little power and simply do not need a high performance cooler.

But if you eye an 7850 for mega overclocks, then the COOLER is possibly also not the deciding and limiting factor here. Not that i say a good cooler would be bad if you shoot for high overclocks, but there are other factors which might play a bigger role here, such as proper power regulation etc., not necessarily the cooling. Just my $0.02

 

[tuffluck]

That long? I'm thinking 6 months to a year tops.

no way in hell 6 months. put the crack pipe down.

i got the 7850 sapphire OC that was $260 with a free dirt 3 game. i have it clocked to the max CCC setting (1050/1450) and it only hits 60c during BF3 play. also it only hit 60c when it was at the stock speeds, so clock speed doesn't seem to affect the temps whatsoever in the range i've OC'd to.

fan doesn't go past 35-40%, and it's silent. however, at 60% my card never got above 54c, but it was super-loud. if you unlocked msi afterburner, on stock voltages, you could probably get 1100-1150 clock speed, crank the fan speed up a bit and still stay at 60c.

so for me, an OC card with a better cooler/fan is a must with these cards, since they OC so very well.

 

[SickBeast]

Are there good aftermarket gpu heatsinks or am I forced to do watercooling?