[Upgrade] 7850 to gtx 960

Veriitas

Member
Sep 12, 2011
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Hi,

I was wondering whether it is worth it to upgrade to a 960, from a 7850.

Or should I wait for Pascal release?

Thanks in advance.
 

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
Not worth it to upgrade to GTX960.
In your position i would go for the GTX970 or even better for the R9 390.
 

Paul98

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2010
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Not much of an upgrade, might want to check on the R9 290 prices instead.
 

Veriitas

Member
Sep 12, 2011
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71
Thank you for your quick responses.

For now 1080p but perhaps 4k in 2016.

Games such as, Witcher 3, Battlefield 4 etc.

When do you expect the new Pascal GPU's to be released anyway?
 

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
Thank you for your quick responses.

For now 1080p but perhaps 4k in 2016.

Games such as, Witcher 3, Battlefield 4 etc.

When do you expect the new Pascal GPU's to be released anyway?

For 4K wait for the new AMD and NVIDIA cards sometime in 2016.
 

Seba

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
1,599
259
126
Can you sell your HD 7850? How much would you get for it and how much would you pay for GTX 960?

While not a card with outstanding performance, GTX 960 brings noticeable performance improvements over HD 7850 (around 50%) at 1920x1080.
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
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1st, OC the 7850, it has huge headroom.

If still wanting an upgrade, look to GTX970 or better (as mentioned above) R9 390.

The GTX960 is not a good card nor is it good value, put your money toward something else or keep it in your pocket.
 

Headfoot

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2008
4,444
641
126
1st, OC the 7850, it has huge headroom.

If still wanting an upgrade, look to GTX970 or better (as mentioned above) R9 390.

The GTX960 is not a good card nor is it good value, put your money toward something else or keep it in your pocket.

For 1080p I agree, hold on to what you've got and OC
 

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
Actually a used 290 will be worth it at the same price as a new GXT 960. He can almost double its performance or even raise the image quality to ultra in many games including BF4.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Hi,

I was wondering whether it is worth it to upgrade to a 960, from a 7850.

Or should I wait for Pascal release?

Thanks in advance.

Depends on your budget and how long do you want to wait? I wouldn't expect any solid Pascal cards until 2Q of 2016. NV might launch something by March 2016 in the form of GTX750/750ti successor or a corporate version (Quadro/Tesla) of GP100. Thus far we do not have any clear idea really.

As far as upgrading goes, 960 is an overpriced product. With 2GB of VRAM it's dead on arrival and with 4GB, its price/performance falls off a cliff. I would advise you to wait for some deals on a GTX970/R9 390 this holiday season or look in the used market for an after-market R9 290/290X/GTX970. Usually there are a lot of awesome sales around Black Friday and the November-December period. Is this true for Netherlands?

Don't fall for the marketing hype of the GTX960. It's really an overhyped product for level of performance it offers. It takes 2 of those just to match a single R9 290.

perfrel_1920.gif

perfrel_2560.gif


You have a solid PSU that will support R9 290/290X/GTX970/390/390X, etc.
 
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raghu78

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2012
4,093
1,475
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Hi,

I was wondering whether it is worth it to upgrade to a 960, from a 7850.

Or should I wait for Pascal release?

Thanks in advance.

With such a powerful CPU and excellent PSU the most sensible upgrade is a R9 290 or R9 390. Get a Sapphire R9 390 Nitro and you are well set for another 2-3 years. Pascal will launch in late 2016, especially the cards which replace GTX 980 Ti/GTX 980/GTX 970. HBM2 supply is going to be scarce in 2016 and I expect high launch prices and further price gouging by retailers due to poor supply and high demand.
 

Veriitas

Member
Sep 12, 2011
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0
71
Thank you all for discussing this.

I am moving more towards a GTX 970 at this moment, also because of the watt usage and noise. Would you still recommend the r9 290/390 at this point?
 

MeldarthX

Golden Member
May 8, 2010
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Thank you all for discussing this.

I am moving more towards a GTX 970 at this moment, also because of the watt usage and noise. Would you still recommend the r9 290/390 at this point?


yep at the same price 390 is the better choice; usually in the states 390 either the same or a hair cheaper than the 970.

There is no noise with the 390; only card that was noisy was 290X ref card...those aren't what you're looking at.
 

Seba

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
1,599
259
126
Depends on local card prices.

For instance I newer saw here such good prices for R9 290 like they had/have in US. Then, what might have been a great choice in US is a bad one in Europe.
 

Veriitas

Member
Sep 12, 2011
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New prices of r9 290/390 and gtx 970 are all around $330 (FX rate of 1.10 eurodollar)

I think i will get around $ 60 for my 7850 on second hand market.
 

Seba

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
1,599
259
126
Between R9 290 and R9 390 at same price there is a clear choice: R9 390. So R9 290 is out.

One thing to consider: on R9 290/390 the exact model is more important than on GTX 970.

I think i will get around $ 60 for my 7850 on second hand market.
You see, there are huge differences between markets. You would get at least $100 here for a used HD 7850 2GB. I just sold my GTX 660 2GB - which is slightly better than your HD 7850 - (with 15 months of warranty left) for equivalent of $125 / 115 EUR.
 
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Veriitas

Member
Sep 12, 2011
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Between R9 290 and R9 390 at same price there is a clear choice: R9 390. So R9 290 is out.

One thing to consider: on R9 290/390 the exact model is more important than on GTX 970.

Which one would you recommend for the R9 390? I saw the sapphire nitro in some earlier post?
 

Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
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Question: Do you guys think that it would be a good upgrade if the person is coming from a 1GB variant of the 7850 and doesn't feel comfortable overclocking? My friend is in this situation and his budget is pretty limited. As you might imagine, that 1GB frame buffer is really hurting him and he wants to upgrade ASAP. It might be hard to convince him to wait a few months to save another $50-60. He also only has a 650W PSU and he has an AMD board with plans to upgrade to an 8C/4M Vishera in the future.
 
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raghu78

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2012
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Seba

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
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Question: Do you guys think that it would be a good upgrade if the person is coming from a 1GB variant of the 7850 and doesn't feel comfortable overclocking? My friend is in this situation and his budget is pretty limited. As you might imagine, that 1GB frame buffer is really hurting him and he wants to upgrade ASAP. It might be hard to convince him to wait a few months to save another $50-60. He also only has a 650W PSU and he has an AMD board with plans to upgrade to an 8C/4M Vishera in the future.

Are you asking if GTX 960 is a good upgrade in that case?

I'll say, yes, it is. He can do better with more money, but the upgrade from HD 7850 1GB to GTX 960 2GB would be very noticeable.

A decent 650 W power supply can sustain any single graphics card so this is not a limiting factor.
 

Techhog

Platinum Member
Sep 11, 2013
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Are you asking if GTX 960 is a good upgrade in that case?

I'll say, yes, it is. He can do better with more money, but the upgrade from HD 7850 1GB to GTX 960 2GB would be very noticeable.

A decent 650 W power supply can sustain any single graphics card so this is not a limiting factor.

Yeah. Though, he's more set on a 4GB variant or a 4GB R9 380. I'd definitely agree that, if he had the 2GB variant, he could hold off other than wanting to play Arkham Knight. Also, I know that it's normally enough, but I'm not sure if the 290 and the, say, 8370 together would push it.

So, on topic, I agree with the conclusions made in this thread.
 

Seba

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
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259
126
R9 380 4GB would be a better choice if it is not to expensive compared to GTX 960 2GB and still in his price range.