The "new" mainstream gaming GPU: AMD 7870?

[Pheran]

The 7870 has been around for a while now, but in the space of a little over a month, the price has dropped a full $100, from $349 to a much more attractive $249 (thank you nVidia!). There is also a forthcoming bundle that will include Sleeping Dogs. For mainstream 1080p gaming, the 7870 has decent performance and some of the lowest power usage this generation. While the GPU itself isn't as fast as the 660Ti (which costs $50 more), it also doesn't suffer from the 660's narrow memory bus, so it can come close to or even exceed the 660 in some situations (particularly if you enable AA).

I've been a longtime nVidia loyalist and was waiting for the 660 to come out to upgrade, but with the new pricing landscape I'm seriously thinking of going for the 7870 once the Sleeping Dogs bundle is available.

Thoughts?

PS: I'm sure some will argue for the even cheaper 7850, but its performance is a bit lower than I would like.

 

[Arzachel]

The issue with 7870 vs 7850 is that clock for clock the performance delta is around 5% which usually is not worth the premium. If you're not going to overclock and would get Borderlands 2 anyways, 660ti is the way to go. If you are going to overclock, the 7950 and 7850 are unbeatable in their respective price brackets.

The 7870 only makes sense if you're not going to overclock and want to get Sleeping dogs but need a bit more power than the 7850.

 

[Silverforce11]

The issue with 7870 vs 7850 is that clock for clock the performance delta is around 5% which usually is not worth the premium. If you're not going to overclock and would get Borderlands 2 anyways, 660ti is the way to go. If you are going to overclock, the 7950 and 7850 are unbeatable in their respective price brackets.

The 7870 only makes sense if you're not going to overclock and want to get Sleeping dogs but need a bit more power than the 7850.

Agreed. OP, you're paying $50 extra vs the 7850 for what? A few minutes downloading Sapphire Trixx or AB and moving sliders to 1ghz? Even at stock volts its possible.

 

[KingFatty]

Yeah maybe see if after waiting a bit the 7950 gets close enough to splurge for - the wait is to see if the 7870 drops a lot and distances its price from the 7950, or if the 7870 just drops a bit, but the 7950 gets a big drop and gets closer to the 7870 making it a small enough jump in price to go for it.

I know there are the announced official new price drops, but I think we still need to see what actually happens with the vendors and various discounts etc. Maybe the 7870 will have such a low demand curve that the price will automatically drop even lower.

 

[exar333]

The 7850 is the best 'affordable' card around IMHO. If the 7870 came with a new, free game, it would be a good buy as well. Otherwise, save $50 and get the 7850.

 

[Phynaz]

Agree with the posters. The 7850 just became (performance) mainstream.

Under $200, single power connection, can be used in OEM systems.

 

[Rvenger]

If crossfire was very much improved I would love to grab 2 external exhausting 7850s and crossfire them with some overclocking to see how much power I can get out of them vs a 7970 or 680.

 

[moonbogg]

Oh god derp. Get a 670.

 

[RussianSensation]

OP, personally I'd get a 7850 for $190 and overclock it. I think it's the best value right now for a mainstream card. If you aren't comfortable with overclocking, a case can still be made for the 7870.

You can now even get the HD7870 Ghz Edition for $230 and get Lifetime Warranty with it. Just wait for Sleeping Dogs bundle to be added. At these prices, GTX660Ti makes no sense at all.

Oh god derp. Get a 670.

A good 670 is $400. How is that mainstream pricing? Besides for $30 more you can get a 7970 GE that beats it or $320 HD7950+OC that matches an OCed 1300mhz GTX670 for $80 less. 670 needs a price drop to $375 or so to make sense now.

 

[Pheran]

Oh god derp. Get a 670.

Derp indeed. But RS already covered this.

 

[MentalIlness]

If crossfire was very much improved I would love to grab 2 external exhausting 7850s and crossfire them with some overclocking to see how much power I can get out of them vs a 7970 or 680.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/47...b_in_crossfire_video_card_review/index14.html

 

[raghu78]

The issue with 7870 vs 7850 is that clock for clock the performance delta is around 5% which usually is not worth the premium. If you're not going to overclock and would get Borderlands 2 anyways, 660ti is the way to go. If you are going to overclock, the 7950 and 7850 are unbeatable in their respective price brackets.

The 7870 only makes sense if you're not going to overclock and want to get Sleeping dogs but need a bit more power than the 7850.

clock for clock HD 7850 can be 5% slower or even upto 20% slower depending on the game. Shogun 2 represents the latter case as its completely shader bound.

here is a HD 7850 (1 Ghz) review

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/21.html

Shogun 2 1920 x 1200 no AA

HD 7850 (1 Ghz) - 29.7
HD 7870 (1 Ghz) - 36.9

BF3 is around 8% slower clock for clock on HD 7850 wrt HD 7870 according to the same review.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/9.html

BF3 1920 X 1200 4X AA

HD 7850 (1 Ghz) - 45.4
HD 7870 (1 Ghz) - 49.5

Shogun 2 from anandtech review

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/...d-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/8

If you average out all cases HD 7850 is slower by around 10% clock for clock.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/28.html

definitely HD 7850 has better price perf with a 20% lower price. But we all know that performance does not increase linearly with pricing. So 10% avg better performance for 20% price increase is pretty good. But the HD 7950 has a better price perf than HD 7870 or even HD 7850 and in fact has the best price perf in the market. Get the Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X for USD 330 and overclock it to 1.1 Ghz and you get the performance of HD 7970 Ghz which sells for USD 470.

 

[Greenlepricon]

7870 is still a good card. It's hard to argue value vs. performance when it's so close in this case. That $230 deal for the 7870 looks really good. Yeah it's a little more than the 7850, but I feel like it's worth the extra especially if you're running at stock or light overclocking. It's tough to say what "enough" gpu power is, and the 7870 is in an awkward spot for that. A little better than a 7850 and quite a bit worse than 7950, but I think the pricing reflects it now. When it was $350 my head hurt with thinking about what that price was going for, but now it's in a really good spot. Bottom line is if you don't need a crazy amount of performance, the 7850 is a great deal. If you want a little more and don't mind paying for what an overclock can do, or need a little more overclocking room, the 7870 is a great deal too. It's all about your own requirements.

 

[Rvenger]

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/47...b_in_crossfire_video_card_review/index14.html

:thumbsup:

 

[Pheran]

Prices are really down now! I just bought this for $220 (no rebate hassle!) with the Sleeping Dogs bundle. Thanks Termie for the pointer.

 

[blastingcap]

For mainstream 1080p gaming, the 7870 has decent performance and some of the lowest power usage this generation.

Yes, techpowerup review says either a special-binned GTX 690 or a regular joe-blow 7870 is the most energy efficient GPU right now in terms of perf/watt (frames per second per watt).

At GPU-limited resolutions like 2560x1600 it's clear:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_660_Ti_Power_Edition/29.html

 

[Termie]

Prices are really down now! I just bought this for $220 (no rebate hassle!) with the Sleeping Dogs bundle. Thanks Termie for the pointer.

Glad to help. I've been looking at lots of benchmarks the past few days and I think the 7870 is definitely worth it over the 7850 at current prices.

 

[RussianSensation]

Since 660Ti + OC can barely even catch a stock GTX670 once you turn on MSAA, that puts the $220 HD7870 in an unbeatable price/performance spot right now, while cards such as Gigabyte Windforce 3x 7950, MSI TF3 7950 and Sapphire Vapor-X make 660Ti seem irrelevant for overclockers looking to spend $300-330. At stock speeds, the 7870 is nearly 35% cheaper than a GTX660Ti and maybe has 10-12% less performance at 1080P. HD7870 seems like a capable card for most people for $220. Plus, it can bitcoin mine on the side, a great little bonus.