Why should I prefer a 7770 over a 6870?

[Marty502]

I have a decent PSU and I want to make this rig as fast as possible for gaming without spending too much.

I'll be playing at 1920x1080. I've seen some benchmarks and the 6870 seems to wipe the floor with the 7770... and they're almost the same price here.

I'll also buy another 4 GB stick just to be really sure. RAM is so cheap these days.

I understand the 7770 is a bit more frugal, not as loud or power hungry. I don't really care, if it's noisy while playing but quiet after that, I'm happy.

Anything I'm missing?

 

[tviceman]

Nope, the hd6870 is considerably faster.

 

[Jaydip]

Man are you running with that processor?if yes upgrade that first before bothering with the video card

 

[Marty502]

I think it should be OK with this processor by now-
I just bought my mobo/cpu/memory two weeks ago and I'm so ridiculously GPU limited it's not funny.
I definitely need a stronger GPU, the 4670 was OK in 2008 and I don't wanna spend much.

If the Pentium falls short then I'll sell it and buy an i5 down the road or something.

 

[Majcric]

If the pentium falls short it's likely you won't see any gains at all, I mean at all. And therefore wasted money on that GPU.

 

[lehtv]

The Pentium will handle a 6870 just fine

 

[jacktesterson]

I had a G530 with a 5870 that would play 1080p at High to Max in any single player game I tried.

 

[maddie]

If the pentium falls short it's likely you won't see any gains at all, I mean at all. And therefore wasted money on that GPU.

He said he was GPU limited

 

[blastingcap]

If power draw and heat are big enough issues, a 7770 makes sense. But for most people a 7770 is lower price/performance. I understand that electricity costs like 5 times more than u.s. average in places such as Hawaii though

 

[Arkaign]

the G630 is no speed demon, but it's a good match for a 6870 or 7770 imho.

Only reason to get a 7770 over a 6870 would be if your PSU is really really weak. Otherwise 6870 is a good bit better.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for an 1155 box to get a decent GPU anyway, there are tons of great CPUs one can drop in down the line to make it last longer.

 

[pauldun170]

I'm one of those folks who bought a HD 7770.
Only reason I picked it was because it handles the light gaming on the HTPC box and is doesn't require a lot of juice. Fairly quiet as well.

I would not recommend it for a primary gaming rig.I currently use a gtx-570 for that.

 

[Red Hawk]

Unless power is really an issue, you should go with the 7870. More shader performance and more memory bandwidth.

 

[Marty502]

The 7870 is also twice the price, man... Too much for me.

The 7850 I could pay, but it's not much faster than the 6870 I think?
Though it seems it's an overclocking beast so maybe I could convince myself with that.

 

[WMD]

The 7770 is better at tessellation. Less performance drop enabling tessellation vs no tessellation. But otherwise the 6870 is faster.

 

[Red Hawk]

The 7770 is better at tessellation. Less performance drop enabling tessellation vs no tessellation. But otherwise the 6870 is faster.

Not really. The 6870 does better in the DirectX 11 Detail Tessellation sample benchmark (shown here), though not tremendously better in the "max" setting.

The 7870 is also twice the price, man... Too much for me.

The 7850 I could pay, but it's not much faster than the 6870 I think?
Though it seems it's an overclocking beast so maybe I could convince myself with that.

Oh, oops, I meant to type 6870.

 

[Greenlepricon]

I would do the 7850 if you can. Red Hawk and others have it right. The only reasons to get the 7770 are heat, noise, and power requirements. The 6870 wins in almost everything else.

 

[pandemonium]

Go with the 6870, but make sure it's a twin fan HSF assembly (otherwise the single fan will run too loudly and won't be able to keep the heat down compared to a dual fan).

If you're going to run a single 6870 with that CPU you'll probably be fine. I run 6870's CF'd and my CPU is my bottleneck (Q9400 OC'd to 3.4GHz; similar in performance to your G630). It really depends on which game(s) you'll be playing at 1080p, but for the most part you should be ok.

Another 4GB of RAM probably won't help any gaming that much. Granted, a stick of 4GB is pretty cheap, I don't think you need to bother unless you're doing video encoding or photoshop or something memory intensive. Also, if you OC, 1 stick of 4GB RAM is more stable than 2 sticks.

 

[krumme]

We have a core2 duo 3.7 running with a 6850 non oc in the house on a 300 watt ps upgraded from 4670. I would say its balanced, as much cpu as gpu limited. Can play bf3 far better than fx. the laptop sb quad i7 core with nv 555 gfx oc.

I would say get the 6870, you dont need more than 4gb ram, and you will be fine. Dont lisnt to all the cpu bs in this forum its way overdone, some simple testing will confirm it. Upgrading to 6870 will give some solid improvement for little doe in most games. Overall the gaming experience will change.

 

[WMD]

Not really. The 6870 does better in the DirectX 11 Detail Tessellation sample benchmark (shown here), though not tremendously better in the "max" setting.

Oh, oops, I meant to type 6870.

That was not a pure tessellation bottleneck benchmark. Besides the 7770 takes less of a hit going to max settings.
This benchmark show that 7770 is far ahead in tessellation.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Get the 6870, you won't regret. Your cpu will be fine, don't worry.

 

[Rambusted]

I have an xfx single fan 6870 and until I upgraded my case to the antec nine hundred two it was a very hot card. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have good airflow, even then I would stay away from xfx. It is a capable gpu though and a sizeable upgrade from that 4670. I went from a 4870 and it was still a noticeable improvement.

 

[Marty502]

Just noticed the 7850 is only 25% more expensive than the 6870, while potentially around 50% faster (with overclock)

Screw CPU bottlenecking. 7850 it is!

I'm excited, first time I'm ever buying a powerful card.

 

[Phynaz]

Yep, 7850 is great choice.

Some unsolicited advice - I have both XFX and HIS cards, and the XFX is very loud.

 

[KingFatty]

Wait, I think Newegg just put the 7870 on sale for $200 again, might want to consider that, depending how much you were willing to spend on the 7850...

 

[Mopetar]

Yep, 7850 is great choice.

Some unsolicited advice - I have both XFX and HIS cards, and the XFX is very loud.

I second this. I've got an ASUS and it works well. They overclock well if you need a little more power, but for a lot of the games I run, I've found that I really don't need it.