Radeon 7870/7850 Reviews Are up!

[GaiaHunter]

A lot gamers out there play at 1920x1200. Is it fair to say the 7870 is the sweet spot in AMD's current lineup for that resolution?

If the 7850 OC well, and probably they will hit 1GHz core and absurd increases on memory clock, it should be enough and save one $100 over the 7870. $250 for stock GTX580 with ridiculous lower power draw seems fine.

 

[GaiaHunter]

One of the best GPU cards ever! It's still a firepower as long as you don't need to game with heavy Tessellation or go crazy on High Rez texture mods.

Or consoles?

 

[superjim]

So a quick recap:

• If you bought a 5870 for $380, you should still be laughing (or crying if you wanted a good upgrade for same money)
• If you bought a 6950 for <$250 and unlocked the shaders, you should have a smile on your face
• If you own a 6970, nothing to see here, move along
• AMD purposely set the prices $50 high to give wiggle room when Kepler launches
• 28nm overclocking is a gift from the OCing gods
• Most importantly, if you can still find a 6950/6970 buy it now!

 

[railven]

I'm just showing that the 4850 lost half of its value in 1 year.

The last gen cards after 1 year barely dropped.

Why is that?

This is very important that I've pointed out before. Also kudos my point is finally acknowledged as valid! I've only been saying it since January

Anyways because of the lack of normal depreciation in the markets what did you guys expect? 15 month old card held its value? That's never happened before. Clearly the market is changing (for worse you decide). Consoles to blame? I dunno. Its never been easier ans cheaper to PC game like a consoler yet we still get treated as second class citizens.

Anyways we (the market) sustained these prices. The ceiling barely moved and each tier is now affected. Welcome to change.

 

[Crap Daddy]

If the 7850 OC well, and probably they will hit 1GHz core and absurd increases on memory clock, it should be enough and save one $100 over the 7870. $250 for stock GTX580 with ridiculous lower power draw seems fine.

You're saying that an oveclocked 7850 will reach the levels of 580/7950?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

A 7850 can oc around 30% which is nearly as fast as a stock 580 or 7870. But once you oc the 7870 it will at least 10-15% faster than the 30% Oced 7850

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I'm kinda disappointed that a lot of the reviews aren't including the 7970, but they have the 5870 from over 2 years ago included.

We all know the 5870 is still a great card, but I would rather see the driver improvements to the 7970 at this point.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

No wonder both MS and Sony are going AMD for their next consoles. We have some seriously nice performance per watt in the 7xxx line-up. But the price levels of these cards are just depressing. I really would like a 3GB 7950, but for $100 less.

 

[AnandThenMan]

People really need to calm down on the price points. These cards are being made on a brand new, supply limited process. Combine that with no competition, this is what we get. The prices will self adjust going forward, no reason to panic the sky is not falling.

Given the above, the price points are actually quite conservative.

 

[Gikaseixas]

just saying that comparing the 7870 with the 580 is useless, they are not in the same price league.... actually to us have this discussion, just show how good the 7870 is

Couldn't agree more with this. Great card but it should launch @ $299.99

 

[railven]

Haha so I finally got to talk to the gf about this. Pretty much said "with a mild of its gtx 580 performance for $350 that's perfect."

She told me to go eff myself she'll wait for Nvidia. Haha. Well the had is set. Wait for price cuts or good delivery from GK104.

 

[AnandThenMan]

There's a pants joke in there somewhere. :whiste:

 

[Meaker10]

Yes they have separate teams on the different GPUs, there is a lot of talk between them ofc but they do have their own core.

 

[MrK6]

I didn't know the reviews would be out this early. Overall a good set of cards from AMD. There really isn't any reason to upgrade if you have a 6950 or 6970, but I could see a 5870 owner swinging it for the better performance in DX11 games.

No wonder both MS and Sony are going AMD for their next consoles. We have some seriously nice performance per watt in the 7xxx line-up.

Indeed, the performance/watt is something else . HTPC/SFF owners rejoice.

 

[Nintendesert]

No wonder both MS and Sony are going AMD for their next consoles. We have some seriously nice performance per watt in the 7xxx line-up. But the price levels of these cards are just depressing. I really would like a 3GB 7950, but for $100 less.

Where did you read that MS or Sony would be using the 7xxx series of GPUs for their next gen consoles?

 

[Piano Man]

Any reviews with noise monitoring?

 

[MrK6]

Any reviews with noise monitoring?

AT covered noise output in both stock and overclocked states: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/...-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/17 .

Where did you read that MS or Sony would be using the 7xxx series of GPUs for their next gen consoles?

AMD is supposedly manufacturing the GPU's for all the next gen consoles. My assumption would be that they would be based on at least a 28 nm process.

 

[GaiaHunter]

You're saying that an oveclocked 7850 will reach the levels of 580/7950?

A 7850 can oc around 30% which is nearly as fast as a stock 580 or 7870. But once you oc the 7870 it will at least 10-15% faster than the 30% Oced 7850

GTX580 for 1080p - if one said this a couple months ago, one would get a response that the GTX580 would be an overkill.

So $250, OC it and get that GTX580 stock performance. Pay more and get more.

 

[pelov]

GTX580 for 1080p - if one said this a couple months ago, one would get a response that the GTX580 would be an overkill.

So $250, OC it and get that GTX580 stock performance. Pay more and get more.

That's just nuts. The 7870 at $349 seems like a steal for those willing to OC a bit. I'm willing to bet it'll be the next go-to card as far as recommendations go. This card seems like its sitting at a justified price and offers some pretty incredible performance if you like to tweak. There's also the 7950 1.5GB version at $399 which hasn't been released yet.

The 7850 on the other hand looks to be a bit overpriced :'( There's a pretty big gap between the 77xx and the 78xx as far as pricing and performance goes. Maybe we'll see AMD release some new cards between those 2? I'd certainly hope so.

 

[MrK6]

GTX580 for 1080p - if one said this a couple months ago, one would get a response that the GTX580 would be an overkill.

So $250, OC it and get that GTX580 stock performance. Pay more and get more.

6950's have been doing this for over a year. Can't say it's anything new.

 

[GaiaHunter]

6950's have been doing this for over a year. Can't say it's anything new.

I think the 7850 gets a little closer with less hassle (the definition of the hassle is a question of opinion).

And as an engineer myself I can't stop being impressed by the fact it does do so with the power consumption of a 6870 and an even smaller die size (I know that part of the work goes to TSMC engineers).

Shame that AMD doesn't seem interested on going gung ho.

 

[pelov]

Shame that AMD doesn't seem interested on going gung ho.

I'd reckon that has to do with how good the performance-per-watt looks like. Us desktop folk are a slowly dying breed (or more aptly a far-slower-growing breed) so the perf-per-watt gives it appeal for mobile, console and all-in-one.

The 7970 also has fantastic performance-per-watt, but those figures turn sour once you start ramping up those clock speeds. Not a big deal for the enthusiast, as we do that anyway, but OEMs like to see versatility

 

[3DVagabond]

Pretty sure the 580 has better per core, per clock performance.

Think of it like bulldozer vs SB... I guess. A i5-2500k @ 3.3 GHz vs a Bulldozer cpu at 4.2GHz is slightly faster, it doesn't need to continue to match clock speeds at this level to continue being faster because it has higher IPC, meaning it gains more for increased MHz than bulldozer does. 7870 vs 580 works exactly the same way.

You told me not to compare CPU to GPU when I was just talking about pricing and profit, which since you make and sell both of them you can compare those metrics. Now you are trying to compare BD perf to SB and somehow make it the same as GCN to Fermi, which, except for the job they do, have nothing in common.

Going with your analogy though, if BD was 1/2 the size of SB used 2/3 the power to give the same performance, no one would care that it had more cores or ran at higher clocks. It would be a decisive win.

Fermi does not compete with SI, period! Which is fine, because it shouldn't. The only reason we are comparing them is because nVidia hasn't brought Kepler to market yet. nVidia will now have to play the pricing game until they release their new gen cards.

 

[Skurge]

Where are people seeing the 7870 use less power than the 6870?

 

[thilanliyan]

So when are these being released? I checked newegg and didn't see any in stock.