Upgrading from a 9600GT

[lenu]

Hi everyone.

I'm little out of the loop regarding video cards. I did a little research, but still need some help.

2500k
9600gt ddr3 512MB (my 1st vga)
PSU 400CX Corsair

At first it's going to be used at 1680x1050 (e-ips).

I'm still undecided about the price point:

$100: GTX 650 ($95) and HD 7770 ($125)

$150: GTX 650 TI ($145) and HD 7850 ($175)


Very important: silent! durable! and power consumption.

Games bundled have zero impact on my purchase decision as im planning to use the video card for some time.

Sapphire has one of the best coolers (DUAL X), but.. keep reading...


Long story short, I was going toward the Sapphire HD 7850 1GB until i read this about the HD 78XX. Write up:

HD 7850: random flickering issues, not often but occasional. Latest drivers (12.11) seem to have fixed most of the issues, but also reports about the flickering happening outside the OS.
HD 7870: flickering and black screen. Lots of people having problem with this one due to hardware issues and apparently its mainly sapphires fault. A few other brands have the issue (eg. ASUS, MSI). It seems to be officially recognized by AMD. [LINK 1] [LINK 2]

From reading i got the impression AMD is a little on the slow side to fix important driver issues and that CCC can be cumbersome at times, but feel free to lecture me if i got the wrong idea.

I realize the best option is the HD 7850 (30% over the GTX 650 TI in some games), but i'm not sure what i should go for at this point as i don't want to deal with poor drivers or hardware problems with the HD 78XX.

I thought about the GTX 660 (non TI), but its little above my budget, i'm not sure.

Opinions on the subject, advises on cards, everything that could help me decide my next purchase will be appreciated.

Please stay on topic, be objective and honest about what you think.


Thanks in advance. ^^

 

[Annisman*]

@ 1680X1050 any of those cards will fly. AMD defininitely is sketchy on the driver front, but don't be scared away by a 'flickering' issue. Chances are it's already fixed, will be fixed soon. Plus there are always older drivers you can use that probably don't have that issue. Nvidia has it's problems as well.

My suggestion is the GTX 650ti, it's very small form factor, runs cool, whisper silent and rather powerful. It also comes bundled with Assasins Creed 3, which I know you dont care about but you may be able to sell it for 30 bucks or something.

 

[skipsneeky2]

As someone who has ranted a bit about amd drivers in the pass,as i have had bad luck majorly,12.11 and the 7850 i had presented zero issues and i got a killer overclock of 1050/1450 that was bulletproof and super stable while running cool.:thumbsup:

Sadly i did have a issue with one of my games running super poorly on the 7850,more then likely the game of course so i ended up switching up to a gtx670.

The drivers are pretty much stable and if your playing the latest games,you should be fine OP,trust me if you saw how much i hated amd drivers in the pass land seeing my approval now,that should convince anybody including you.

 

[Greenlepricon]

AMD used to have terrible drivers, but I feel like you could say that for Nvidia too. AMD was just more recent so it gets kicked more often than it's competitor, but at this point both of their drivers are pretty mature. The 7850 is the better card by far for its price point.

 

[SPBHM]

I'm not so sure if the 7850 is really worth the extra money in this case....
but any new card will be a good upgrade.... when my 9600GT died and I bought a 5700 it was already a pretty big upgrade...

 

[dragantoe]

7850, especially with the 12.11 catalyst, and if you upgrade your monitor it will still be able to crush games (as long as you get a 2gb model)