The Radeon 7850 is an overclocking beast

[SickBeast]

I just wanted to point this out in its own thread because I think that the 7850 now represents the best value by far in the midrange price bracket.

This thread talks about how with new overclocking tools people can increase the core voltage and they are hitting ~1300mhz on the core which makes the 7850 faster than a 7950, approaching the 7970:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18389760

Look at the 11th post.

I personally ordered one because they hit $230 shipped where I live.

Why I think that the 7850 is better than the GTX 560 Ti 448:

- 2gb vram
- cooler, quieter, and more power efficient
- better overclocking potential by far

 

[blastingcap]

I just wanted to point this out in its own thread because I think that the 7850 now represents the best value by far in the midrange price bracket.

This thread talks about how with new overclocking tools people can increase the core voltage and they are hitting ~1300mhz on the core which makes the 7850 faster than a 7950, approaching the 7970:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18389760

Look at the 11th post.

I personally ordered one because they hit $230 shipped where I live.

Why I think that the 7850 is better than the GTX 560 Ti 448:

- 2gb vram
- cooler, quieter, and more power efficient
- better overclocking potential by far

OC's are not guaranteed.

Overvolting can cause premature wear on the card, and even if not, it definitely raises power consumption exponentially since power varies by the square of voltage, so overvolt with care. Also, a strong oc or oc+ov will make the card a lot less cool and quiet!

2GB is nice but not useful for those at 1200p and below for 99% of situations; nevertheless it's better than 1GB and can't be dismissed as a difference-maker.

I'm a 7850 owner so I am not trying to argue against you, just raising some caveats. It's only the best value in 28nm because the others are even worse in value. I wouldn't have gotten it had it not been for a discount I got on my card, and even so, I am not sure I made the right decision. It'll be interesting to see what NV's response is to the 78xx cards.

 

[SickBeast]

How high can you get your 7850? Have you tried overclocking it with either the Asus tool or MSI Afterburner?

 

[krumme]

As this 200usd is traditionally the market of importance, now having this kind of performance in this brice bracket, one have to wonder what can be earned in he market 3 years from now if it continues?

- and at the same time there is this crying about prices, seriously what is there to complain about. And all the whining about drivers...pheeft, give me windows 95 beta, and some drivers from the first 3d cards.

 

[blastingcap]

How high can you get your 7850? Have you tried overclocking it with either the Asus tool or MSI Afterburner?

Honestly I have no idea how much more headroom it has beyond the CCC limits of 1050/1450. I downloaded what I think is that latest Afterburner, and it does not allow voltage unlock and restricts me to 1050/1450 for some reason. I guess they haven't updated it yet? Or I downloaded an old version. I don't think so, though. I haven't looked into it much because I currently lack an Eyefinity DP adapter cable, so the 7850 is already overkill for the games I play (TF2, L4D2, etc.) at 1080p. I got the 7850 to get a smoother Eyefinity experience when I do get a cable, which should be soon.

It's a Sapphire OC edition if that helps. I like Sapphire's cooling, plus their 6850 was rock solid and I could change voltage and clocks on it with no problems, so I assume that after Afterburner gets updated I can do that with my 7850 as well.

Maybe I should have gotten the ASUS instead for $10 less, but I hated the overhang on the 7850... so sloppy looking and makes me wonder if it's not aligned properly with the components that need cooling. (See, e.g., the thermal images that hardware.fr made of how bad the XFX Double D cooling was because it produced hotspots that limited OC potential.)

 

[blackened23]

Honestly I have no idea how much more headroom it has beyond the CCC limits of 1050/1450. I downloaded what I think is that latest Afterburner, and it does not allow voltage unlock and restricts me to 1050/1450 for some reason. I guess they haven't updated it yet? Or I downloaded an old version. I don't think so, though. I haven't looked into it much because I currently lack an Eyefinity DP adapter cable, so the 7850 is already overkill for the games I play (TF2, L4D2, etc.) at 1080p. I got the 7850 to get a smoother Eyefinity experience when I do get a cable, which should be soon.

It's a Sapphire OC edition if that helps. I like Sapphire's cooling, plus their 6850 was rock solid and I could change voltage and clocks on it with no problems, so I assume that after Afterburner gets updated I can do that with my 7850 as well.

Maybe I should have gotten the ASUS instead for $10 less, but I hated the overhang on the 7850... so sloppy looking and makes me wonder if it's not aligned properly with the components that need cooling. (See, e.g., the thermal images that hardware.fr made of how bad the XFX Double D cooling was because it produced hotspots that limited OC potential.)

Blasting cap, you can extend further (if you want) but you need to get ASUS gpu tweak to extend your clock range. Download the latest version off of their website under their 7970 downloads, install it, reboot, go to "tuning" and click "advanced" and then click "extend overclocking range". Reboot.

NOW, at this point start using afterburner to overclock. You can overclock up to 1800 I believe.

Use GPU tweak to extend clocks, and then use afterburner to overclock. Sadly, afterburner no longer extends overclocking range unless you have an overlapped install.

 

[Arzachel]

Honestly I have no idea how much more headroom it has beyond the CCC limits of 1050/1450. I downloaded what I think is that latest Afterburner, and it does not allow voltage unlock and restricts me to 1050MHz for some reason. I guess they haven't updated it yet? Or I downloaded an old version. I don't think so, though.

It's a Sapphire OC edition if that helps. I like Sapphire's cooling, plus their 6850 was rock solid and I could change voltage and clocks on it with no problems, so I assume that after Afterburner gets updated I can do that with my 7850 as well.

Maybe I should have gotten the ASUS instead for $10 less, but I hated the overhang on the 7850... so sloppy looking and makes me wonder if it's not aligned properly with the components that need cooling. (See, e.g., the thermal images that hardware.fr made of how bad the XFX Double D cooling was because it produced hotspots that limited OC potential.)

Edit: ^Blackened said it better than I could.

1300mhz(more than a 50% overclock btw) core is way too optimistic, but seems like people are getting 1150 and 1200 with a slight voltage bump.

 

[SickBeast]

blackened, what do you mean by an "overlapped install"?

 

[blastingcap]

Sadly, afterburner no longer extends overclocking range unless you have an overlapped install.

Pardon my ignorance, but what does that mean exactly?

 

[SickBeast]

I have a feeling that he means that you need to have both the Asus tool and Afterburner installed at the same time, but I need him to confirm it.

I'm looking forward to modding my bios so I won't need any of these software tools.

 

[blackened23]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does that mean exactly?

Sorry, what I mean by that is overlapping 12.2WHQL on top of an old installation (on top of 12.1 for instance). If you do a "clean" installation of 12.2 WHQL+, MSI afterburner does not extend overclocking range. My understanding from guru3d is that there was a change in registry keys/files for overclocking with 12.2, which afterburner doesn't incorporate.

 

[chimaxi83]

What I had to do was add two lines to .inf files and take two files from a 12.1 release, and copy/paste them into the 12.3's that I was using. That allowed clock extension with Afterburner.

 

[SickBeast]

What I had to do was add two lines to .inf files and take two files from a 12.1 release, and copy/paste them into the 12.3's that I was using. That allowed clock extension with Afterburner.

Do you have a link to a guide on how to do that?

It looks as though AMD might be trying to prevent people from running their cards at high frequencies.

 

[chimaxi83]

Do you have a link to a guide on how to do that?

It looks as though AMD might be trying to prevent people from running their cards at high frequencies.

Yep, it's on Guru3D, under "Fixing overclocking problem"

You'll want to follow this guide to extract the files from 12.1's for example, and use them to fix the latest driver set.

 

[SickBeast]

Thank you chimaxi and blackened.

My 7850 arrives next week. I will overclock it as high as it will go.

 

[Zebo]

Congrats. Great card. With same Mhz it's only 2-5% slower than it's big brother which cost $100 more. I remember the first review samples which only got 1050Mhz max out them which gave me pause but now, unleashed it's the card to get under $300!

Actually, for overclockers, it's the card to get up to $400 since 7870 and GTX 580 have such poor value All three Oced you won't be able to a tell a lick of difference except in your wallet.

 

[jacktesterson]

See my Sig.

Mine is running nice and cool at 35% fan setting.

 

[Olikan]

it's kinda scary that the only thing that holds back GCN is clocks...
the next refresh is going to be nice for this arquitecture

 

[Arzachel]

it's kinda scary that the only thing that holds back GCN is clocks...
the next refresh is going to be nice for this arquitecture

Yeah, 8970 vs GK110 should be interesting to say the least. Hopefully AMD will go with a slightly larger die for the refresh.

 

[SickBeast]

See my Sig.

Mine is running nice and cool at 35% fan setting.

The Asus direct cu 2 is a beast. My card is reference; I didn't think the Asus was worth $40 extra.

 

[Zebo]

OC's are not guaranteed.

Overvolting can cause premature wear on the card, and even if not, it definitely raises power consumption exponentially since power varies by the square of voltage, so overvolt with care. Also, a strong oc or oc+ov will make the card a lot less cool and quiet!

2GB is nice but not useful for those at 1200p and below for 99% of situations; nevertheless it's better than 1GB and can't be dismissed as a difference-maker.

I'm a 7850 owner so I am not trying to argue against you, just raising some caveats. It's only the best value in 28nm because the others are even worse in value. I wouldn't have gotten it had it not been for a discount I got on my card, and even so, I am not sure I made the right decision. It'll be interesting to see what NV's response is to the 78xx cards.

Ok mom now get out of my room. Seriously it's best card under $400 when OCing all for $239, no brainer.

 

[Mopetar]

Are there any reviews of the 7850 with the clocks that high? I'll probably be upgrading when IB comes out and want to replace my 8800. Just wanted to get a good idea of what kind of performance I could expect from it at those settings.

 

[SickBeast]

A guy ran some benchmarks and it beat a 7950.

 

[Arzachel]

Are there any reviews of the 7850 with the clocks that high? I'll probably be upgrading when IB comes out and want to replace my 8800. Just wanted to get a good idea of what kind of performance I could expect from it at those settings.

Techpowerup got one up to 1140mhz core, but they only benched CoD4 which tells very little. You can also dig through that OverclockersUK thread linked here for some Heaven 3 3dmark and BF3 benches.

 

[blastingcap]

Somewhat disappointed in my card. Technically the oc was +25% (860 to 1075 MHz at stock voltage) and therefore nothing to complain about. , but I have a well-cooled system and was expecting more. If I set a more more aggressive fan profile or overvolted, I could do better, but I don't like doing that.

The good news is that scaling is almost linear, at least at the levels I was playing at. At 1075/1450(5800), I got a 16.7% increase in my Unigine 3.0 benchmark compared to 920/1250(5000). So 16.8% higher core clock gave me 16.7% more fps.