My 7770 Experience

[jacktesterson]

Wife is preggers, so I finally lost my office and we are redoing it for the baby room.

That being said, I've lost my workspace and am now using my primary TV as my primary gaming monitor. Its a 5-6 yr old 50" 768p Plasma TV that still works excellent. I don't see any reason to upgrade to 1080p, as I'm happy with the quality still. It was a high end TV when new, paying $3000 for it.


Anyways, Long story short, Selling my 7970 due to it being overkill at 768p, and using my 360 more these days. Will use the added $$ on the room. (Selling 500R case, Q270 Monitor, LG 1080P Monitors, 7970) very happy with the performance of a 7770 at 768p. Picked it up for $110, runs at 1200 core no problem at all. Runs all the games I'm currently playing on maxed details with 2x AA so far. (Saints Row 3, Black Ops, MLB 2K12, Dirt 3 played so far)

Kinda has me thinking, why do we spend so much on GPU's? I always run top tier GPU's.. (Mind you I gamed at 1080p/1440p prior). The added cost of gaming at 1440p is not really worth it. Sitting on my couch , I'm pleasantly enjoying the experience gaming on the big TV just as much as I did before sitting in my office on a much smaller screen with more pixels. The Plasma looks very sharp as well, even if only 768p. (Sit about 8 feet from it)

Black Ops with maxed details and 2x AA looks on a 7770 looks night and day better than MW3 on my 360 too.

Pointless thread, just rambling, but I think this experience may have changed my hardware purchasing strategy down the road. I've realized I can still enjoy gaming on cheaper hardware.

 

[blastingcap]

You reach the point of diminishing returns with most things in life, whether it's $10 vs $40 for a hamburger, or $20k vs $200k for a car, or $110 vs $550 for a video card.

Same for graphics settings... those last few check boxes for DoF or whatever add very little to image quality but sink your framerates. If you are willing to give up those last few checkboxes, you can often make do with much weaker hardware.

I have recently gamed on a 7770 with barely any oc and it's about the same as my old 6850. Quite capable and sips power. Got mine as an open box for under $100.

 

[B-Riz]

Sometimes you want to turn it up to 11 and puke rainbows.

 

[jacktesterson]

New Rig Setup with 7770 @ 1200/1256

P4004 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4165322


Old Rig Setup with 2 x 7970 @ 1050/1375

P13760 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3894912

 

[Arkadrel]

New Rig Setup with 7770 @ 1200/1256

P4004 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4165322

Honestly not that bad.
At 1250 mhz memory your at what? 80GB/s memory bandwidth?

You can probably get that up over 1400-1500mhz.
@1400mhz memory you'd be right around 90GB/s in bandwidth (~12.5% incrase).

But yeah the 7770 @1200mhz/1256mhz is a decent card.

 

[KingFatty]

How far away are you sitting from that 50" - maybe you are beyond the limit of vision to where you'd discern the individual pixels. But if you are sitting close enough, you might get the pixels in the face and diminish the immersion/beauty.

 

[Protomize]

How far away are you sitting from that 50" - maybe you are beyond the limit of vision to where you'd discern the individual pixels. But if you are sitting close enough, you might get the pixels in the face and diminish the immersion/beauty.

He said he was about 8' away which is around the distance in which you cannot detect the pixel structure of a display of that size.

 

[Crap Daddy]

I know the feeling. Same here, albeit on a secondary rig and with a 560SE (similar in performance with the 7770) on a 768P LCD TV. Everything runs smooth as butter, high settings. (apart from BF3 multiplayer which is totally killed by the stock E8400 used in the machine)

 

[RussianSensation]

Its a 5-6 yr old 50" 768p Plasma TV that still works excellent. I don't see any reason to upgrade to 1080p, as I'm happy with the quality still. It was a high end TV when new, paying $3000 for it.Sitting on my couch , I'm pleasantly enjoying the experience gaming on the big TV just as much as I did before sitting in my office on a much smaller screen with more pixels. The Plasma looks very sharp as well, even if only 768p. (Sit about 8 feet from it).

Plasma is underrated. I have a Panasonic Viera TH-42PX60U in another room. Gaming on it (and of course movies) look great even at 768P. This is because I personally find that Plasma has far superior black levels, color reproduction accuracy, response time (no ghosting whatsoever like a CRT) and viewing angles than most LED/LCD panels I have seen. If you sit farther away, you can "fix" aliasing and resolution since your eyes often can't even discern individual pixels / pixel pitch at 8 feet away. However, you can always notice poor viewing angles, slow refresh rate/response times, poor black levels that often appear greyish on LCD/LEDs and less accurate colors. This is why videophiles for years and years have focused on all these aspects instead of 720P vs. 1080P, which came last for movies. Since PC gamers sit so close to the monitor, the resolution and pixel pitch matter more. In your case, Plasma starts to look a LOT better than a typical PC monitor, even better than a 30 inch 2560x1600 monitor since far away you can't notice the 768P deficiency, but yet you enjoy all the benefits that Plasma has to over offer LCD/LED.

Pointless thread, just rambling, but I think this experience may have changed my hardware purchasing strategy down the road. I've realized I can still enjoy gaming on cheaper hardware.

Not pointless. Your experience actually shows that someone can build a cheap PC and game in the living room with a $100 graphics card, without having to buy a console. It also shows you don't need a 2560x1600 screen and $500-1000 of GPUs to be an 'enthusiast' PC gamer as sometimes people make it out to be. :thumbsup:

 

[SheHateMe]

So where exactly are you selling all of this stuff, I'd love to have a look-see.

 

[jacktesterson]

So where exactly are you selling all of this stuff, I'd love to have a look-see.

As of this mornings its all been sold except for the Corsair 500R case, which is listed locally.

The 7970 was listed here in FS section and in my sig for last 5-6 days, as well as ebay, which is where it sold last night. Monitors were all sold locally.

 

[WiseUp216]

Plasma is underrated. I have a Panasonic Viera TH-42PX60U in another room. Gaming on it (and of course movies) look great even at 768P. This is because I personally find that Plasma has far superior black levels, color reproduction accuracy, response time (no ghosting whatsoever like a CRT) and viewing angles than most LED/LCD panels I have seen. If you sit farther away, you can "fix" aliasing and resolution since your eyes often can't even discern individual pixels / pixel pitch at 8 feet away. However, you can always notice poor viewing angles, slow refresh rate/response times, poor black levels that often appear greyish on LCD/LEDs and less accurate colors. This is why videophiles for years and years have focused on all these aspects instead of 720P vs. 1080P, which came last for movies. Since PC gamers sit so close to the monitor, the resolution and pixel pitch matter more. In your case, Plasma starts to look a LOT better than a typical PC monitor, even better than a 30 inch 2560x1600 monitor since far away you can't notice the 768P deficiency, but yet you enjoy all the benefits that Plasma has to over offer LCD/LED.

^This. Nothing on the market today impresses me as much as a good plasma.

I game on a 50" 1080p Samsung at a distance of ~6-7 feet.

 

[pauldun170]

Very timely thread since I should have a MSI HD 7770 sitting at my front door when I get home today.
It's replacing an HD 4830 sitting in my htpc thats hooked up to a Samsung 46inch.
It's the kids\family friendly gaming box and it will be pushing 1920x1080 res.

 

[jaydee]

I'm not suprised, because overall, you are using more expensive hardware now. Your greater expense just shifted from high cost GPU/low cost monitor to a low cost GPU/high cost monitor.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Yeah,i can follow with the Op,i just moved to a new state to be near family,about to purchase a 8x32 travel trailer as a temporary place to stay in till i found a piece of property to build up on and this unit has little to no space for a desk,so might be downsizing myself.

Using a family members 3500+ venice tower which is sitting on top of a desk about 2 feet wide and it looks like a perfect size i will go with,but maybe enough room for a 20'' monitor,most likely a 1600x900.

Wonder if there is any 20'' 1080p monitors?Doubt i will sell any hardware but maybe downsize my big df-85 back down to a antec 300,as the weight would most likely collapse such a small desk,especially fully loaded,it feels like 100 pounds.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

huh... newegg has a 7770 for $90, openbox...

... so ittl hopefully be here by friday and i'll see if it fits my needs. i really wanted a 7850, and even with the prices dropping soon, id rather spend less than more. and since i like to game at 1280x1024, this should be ok for everything.

thank you sir for pointing this out and saving me over $100. if this doesnt work out, I curse you for making me waste $7 on shipping.

at this point, everything is an upgrade over my 9600gt. my only gripe is that the fanless 7770s are no where to be seen.

 

[jacktesterson]

huh... newegg has a 7770 for $90, openbox...

... so ittl hopefully be here by friday and i'll see if it fits my needs. i really wanted a 7850, and even with the prices dropping soon, id rather spend less than more. and since i like to game at 1280x1024, this should be ok for everything.

thank you sir for pointing this out and saving me over $100. if this doesnt work out, I curse you for making me waste $7 on shipping.

at this point, everything is an upgrade over my 9600gt. my only gripe is that the fanless 7770s are no where to be seen.

I have my MSI model (Dual fan O/C model, got it for $110 AR) running at 50% fan speed, and I can't hear it over my case fans. at 1200 core, I have it set to kick up to 80% at 70 degrees C, and its yet to happen.

Its quieter than the Asus 7850 I had for a while at 50% fan speed.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

and silence is my main concern. sitting at my desk, my case only puts out 20db with my current fanless card. and i hear the 7850 can be quiet, but still 30+db for the best ones. So the quieter the better.

the gigabyte i just ordered has 1 large fan. hope its not too loud.

 

[Dark Shroud]

I have a 51" Samsung Plasma and my PS3 does like good on it.

But my gaming monitor is higher than 1080p res. So I needed a stronger card with a decent chunk of memory to play at 4x plus mods.

It's actually very easy to build a steam box now for the living room. Add into that wired 360 controllers just working on Windows and some of the peripherals from Razer and it's not only cheap & easy but fun to do.

 

[jacktesterson]

I use a wireless 360 controller without issue. Just bought the adaptor off ebay for like $5

 

[Rezist]

I've been weighing between a 7770 and a 7850 for my next GPU purchase. I'd like to see a desktop version of the nvidia 650m found in laptops but they don't seem to plan on making one. The only reason for the nvidia preference is my almost 100% playing of blizzard titles (SC2, D3, WoW). Those don't need strong cards at 1080p so a 7770 would be fine and a 7850 likely overkill.

Edit about plasma's those with panasonic vierra plasmas do you notice them getting dimmer? My Parents is now 5 years old and it's going dim pretty badly.

 

[RussianSensation]

Edit about plasma's those with panasonic vierra plasmas do you notice them getting dimmer? My Parents is now 5 years old and it's going dim pretty badly.

LED/LCD is brighter since people put up the backlight to 100% in the store. You can increase the brightness/vibrancy on the Plasma in the menu, but that defeats the whole point of the Plasma since plasma's colors look more natural (i.e., less vibrant). The average consumer prefers brighter colors (one of the reasons Canon's cameras have a brighter color palette). While it is dimmer than newer TVs, the new LCD/LED still don't look better to me. When I compare TVs, Samsung and Panasonic plasmas still continue to impress me the most. I wouldn't buy an LED TV since it still lags behind Plasma overall in image quality despite 90% of consumers buying them. I am hoping that OLEDs or some other technology will obsolete both plasmas and LCDs. Current LED TVs aren't real LEDs.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

Happily gaming with a 7770 at factory OC of 1100. I didn't even consider OC'ing it. Yes, you'll need to do a few tweaks here and there. Overall though, is it worth spending an extra $150? No, not now. Next year? Maybe.

 

[KingFatty]

How does a heavily overclocked 7770 compare to a heavily overclocked 5850? I'm talking custom air cooler and/or water with manual tweaking, not the manufacturer's overclocks - any numbers for that? I think they are relatively comparable when not overclocked, but does the 5850 just walk away from the 7770 when you overclock a lot?

 

[Rezist]

LED/LCD is brighter since people put up the backlight to 100% in the store. You can increase the brightness/vibrancy on the Plasma in the menu, but that defeats the whole point of the Plasma since plasma's colors look more natural (i.e., less vibrant). The average consumer prefers brighter colors (one of the reasons Canon's cameras have a brighter color palette). While it is dimmer than newer TVs, the new LCD/LED still don't look better to me. When I compare TVs, Samsung and Panasonic plasmas still continue to impress me the most. I wouldn't buy an LED TV since it still lags behind Plasma overall in image quality despite 90% of consumers buying them. I am hoping that OLEDs or some other technology will obsolete both plasmas and LCDs. Current LED TVs aren't real LEDs.

I was mostly reffering to getting dimmer over time at the same settings.