The Radeon 7850 is an overclocking beast

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Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
8
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nFeF said:
How decent of an OC is possible on this card (asus) before having to mess with voltage?

Just got mine put in yesterday and I want to bump it up a bit but i'd rather not have to bump voltage as well, as much as I can get out of stock would be good.
Click to expand...


My stock voltage is 1.075 and lastnight I played with how far it would go on stock volts.

1140 it died on 3dMark. 1115 would pass 3DMark 6 times in a row, but Skyrim froze within 5 minutes. 1075 seems okay, played Skyrim a bit, Dragon Age and some AHing in WoW and it was fine. I didn't try anything in-between those clock speeds.

Power usage at idle was lower than my previous card, a 5770. It was about the same consumption in WoW (where I play with vsync on) and was about 20 watts higher in 3DMark and Skyrim. Not bad for about double the performance... if I choose to stay with a stock volts OC.

GPUz reported my ASIC quality at 80.x%
 
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blastingcap

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
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Concillian said:
My stock voltage is 1.075 and lastnight I played with how far it would go on stock volts.

1140 it died on 3dMark. 1115 would pass 3DMark 6 times in a row, but Skyrim froze within 5 minutes. 1075 seems okay, played Skyrim a bit, Dragon Age and some AHing in WoW and it was fine. I didn't try anything in-between those clock speeds.

Power usage at idle was lower than my previous card, a 5770. It was about the same consumption in WoW (where I play with vsync on) and was about 20 watts higher in 3DMark and Skyrim. Not bad for about double the performance... if I choose to stay with a stock volts OC.

GPUz reported my ASIC quality at 80.x%
Click to expand...

My Sapphire OC edition behaves similarly. 1.075V stock, can finish Unigine 3.0 most of the time at 1.1Ghz but for true stability it needs to be more like 1.075GHz on core. I don't have that bad of cooling or anything, either (CM Storm Sniper). But there's quite a jump from 1.075V to the 1.1 or 1.2V that other cards are set to at stock, so I consider my card to be pre-undervolted. :D GPUz says ASIC is 85.x%.

I have zero doubt that with a couple of bumps up in voltage it could hit 1.2GHz with stability, but I'm no longer that interested in it because it has been donated to my gf's computer, and I'm running a 7970 Sapphire OC edition now.

Edit: I should add that I only used auto fan. If I increased fan speed a bit I'm sure I could have broken 1.1Ghz at stock voltage. Sapphire's fans are geared for less noise rather than less temperature.
 
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blastingcap

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
76
KevinH said:
So what's the verdict? Are these overclocking beasts or...?
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, the 7850's overclocking headroom is typically about 25-35% at stock voltage (varies a lot since there is no one single stock voltage anymore) and up to about 50% if you overvolt and go nuts with fan at 100% or water cooling.

This is greater than even the legendary GTX 460 which had something like 25% headroom at stock voltage (typical result).

What is particularly impressive is how linear the scaling is--even more linear than the gtx460 if I recall correctly. So 30% increase in core clocks should translate to something like 29% increase in framerates so long as your memory bandwidth can keep up.
 
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KevinH

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2000
3,110
7
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blastingcap said:
From what I've heard, the 7850's overclocking headroom is typically about 25-35% at stock voltage (varies a lot since there is no one single stock voltage anymore) and up to about 50% if you overvolt and go nuts with fan at 100% or water cooling.

This is greater than even the legendary GTX 460 which had something like 25% headroom at stock voltage (typical result).

What is particularly impressive is how linear the scaling is--even more linear than the gtx460 if I recall correctly. So 30% increase in core clocks should translate to something like 29% increase in framerates so long as your memory bandwidth can keep up.
Click to expand...

Nice. The GTX 460 is exactly what I'm rocking right now and at stock, I'm at the usual overclock. Man, that is fantastic.
 
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Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
8
81
KevinH said:
So what's the verdict? Are these overclocking beasts or...?
Click to expand...

I think there's little argument that they're overclocking beasts. I mean what was the last card where people talked about 40% OCs on air as even remotely possible?

There is some question as to the value, though. At stock clocks it's certainly not a clear winner at $250, in fact, a little bit of a dog. It only seems to be a decent deal once you OC it.

The generic 1050 - 1100 "gimme" OC seems to put it well ahead of a stock GTX580 for ~$250, which I think is more what people were expecting out of 28nm at this price range (GTX580 performance for ~250ish). You just need to OC to get there. At the 1200ish clocks where people seem to be hitting the powertune limits it gives an OCed GTX580 a run for it's money.

It's certainly the best deal at $250 if you're overclocking. It also does that while not being too power hungry, but at stock clocks it doesn't belong at that price.

So I'd say it's definitely an OCing beast, but it's a matter of perspective as to whether the value for the money is in a good place. Someone who's not OCing will call the 7850 a dog, and someone who is will probably figure it an okay to good value.
 
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LurkerPrime

Senior member
Aug 11, 2010
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I just got my XFX card yesterday. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the voltage is changeable on these cards. The option doesn't even appear with the Asus GPU tweak, and the MSI afterburner doesn't let me change the voltage either (even if I follow the unlock instructions). Either way the voltage is at 1.21v (at least according to GPU tweak). It seemed stable at 1175-5800 (will pass unigine benchmark at 1180-6000, but decided to lower it some to test overnight), but I let unigine run overnight and it had crashed in the morning. So I bumped it down to 1150-5600 and I'm letting it go at that. Either way the XFX double cooler keeps the card at less than 70(usually sits around 63ish) degrees with only like 40% fan (auto fan). It essentially silent. I can't hear the fans until I bump them to around 80%.

I"m still trying to find out how/if I can unlock the voltage for these cards, but if not I can live with my current setting of 1150-5600 (assuming it stays stable).
 
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CKXP

Senior member
Nov 20, 2005
926
0
0
LurkerPrime said:
I just got my XFX card yesterday. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the voltage is changeable on these cards. The option doesn't even appear with the Asus GPU tweak, and the MSI afterburner doesn't let me change the voltage either (even if I follow the unlock instructions). Either way the voltage is at 1.21v (at least according to GPU tweak). It seemed stable at 1175-5800 (will pass unigine benchmark at 1180-6000, but decided to lower it some to test overnight), but I let unigine run overnight and it had crashed in the morning. So I bumped it down to 1150-5600 and I'm letting it go at that. Either way the XFX double cooler keeps the card at less than 70(usually sits around 63ish) degrees with only like 40% fan (auto fan). It essentially silent. I can't hear the fans until I bump them to around 80%.

I"m still trying to find out how/if I can unlock the voltage for these cards, but if not I can live with my current setting of 1150-5600 (assuming it stays stable).
Click to expand...

Have you tried Sapphire Trixx?
 
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SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
LurkerPrime said:
I just got my XFX card yesterday. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the voltage is changeable on these cards. The option doesn't even appear with the Asus GPU tweak, and the MSI afterburner doesn't let me change the voltage either (even if I follow the unlock instructions). Either way the voltage is at 1.21v (at least according to GPU tweak). It seemed stable at 1175-5800 (will pass unigine benchmark at 1180-6000, but decided to lower it some to test overnight), but I let unigine run overnight and it had crashed in the morning. So I bumped it down to 1150-5600 and I'm letting it go at that. Either way the XFX double cooler keeps the card at less than 70(usually sits around 63ish) degrees with only like 40% fan (auto fan). It essentially silent. I can't hear the fans until I bump them to around 80%.

I"m still trying to find out how/if I can unlock the voltage for these cards, but if not I can live with my current setting of 1150-5600 (assuming it stays stable).
Click to expand...
I'm having the same problem with my Powercolor card. Hopefully new tools will fix it, or else we can mod the bios to fix it.
 
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AlucardX

Senior member
May 20, 2000
647
0
76
Don Karnage said:
Heatsink extends past the PCB
Click to expand...

Correct, that's why I'm asking. I want to make sure Asus' product spec is including the total length of the card including the heatsink and not just the PCB. I have an older Coolermaster case that can't fit giant GPU's
 
Don Karnage

Don Karnage

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 2011
2,865
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AlucardX said:
Correct, that's why I'm asking. I want to make sure Asus' product spec is including the total length of the card including the heatsink and not just the PCB. I have an older Coolermaster case that can't fit giant GPU's
Click to expand...

This card isn't giant so you'll be fine
 
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AlucardX

Senior member
May 20, 2000
647
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76
Don Karnage said:
This card isn't giant so you'll be fine
Click to expand...

Understood, just want to check if someone could verify Asus' measurements or measure themselves. Don't want to spend $260+ and be stuck with a card that doesn't fit.

The last time I was thinking of buying a new vid card I measured my case, I think I can barely fit a 10.5" card. It would be tight I guess.
 
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Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
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81
blastingcap

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
76
What everyone is saying is correct though if you are that close to your length limit you may want to get a dual-fan sapphire version instead. It's on par with the Asus's cooling but significantly shorter due to lack of overhang.
 
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AlucardX

Senior member
May 20, 2000
647
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76
I went ahead and ordered the Asus 7850, I'm pretty excited, been over two years with a 5770. Really wanted to wait for nV to come up something comparative but I can't wait forever.

I ordered from here, http://www.shopblt.com/. So far these guys are on top of their stuff, two responses from actual humans updating me on my order.
 
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SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
Yeah with nVidia delaying the GTX 660 for 6 months I can see a lot of people going with the 7850.
 
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Silverforce11

Lifer
Feb 19, 2009
10,457
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That HIS one has a CPU like cooler, the fan is okay but don't expect 1.2ghz OC out of it, read from overclockers forum that it gets really hot at > 1.1ghz.

Anyone have the XFX DD? It's got the same PCB as the 7870 with 2 6pin power and a very good cooler. That should be pretty good.
 
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