Will the 7850 make the stuff of legend?

[skipsneeky2]

Pc gamers have always had their most popular favorite cards,like the 9700 pro and the 8800gtx for example,or perhaps a bang for buck that blew away the competition.

Will the 7850 make the list of the dreams or be another forgotten card in a sea of has beens?

The 7850 overclocks,the performance to power consumption seems fair and its price for performance currently seems unrivaled...i love nostalgia and perhaps 10 years from now this could fall under many gamers fan favorites.

 

[Silverforce11]

7950 does it all better. 7850 was great when everything else was overpriced, but with 7950s being so cheap for months now its really the stuff of legend already.

GPUs that i remember fondly: Rendition Verite 1/2, Geforce 4200ti (had it for cheap, made custom heatsink/fan & OC it like nuts!), 9700 PRO, 8800gt, 5850..

Hopefully next gen, NV could release a killer GPU, so I can switch back to the green wagon, its been too long.

 

[DominionSeraph]

5850 came out in September of 2009 for $250.
7850 came out two and a half years later, also for $250.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/512?vs=549

That's a difference we should be seeing in 6 months, not 30.

7850 dinged $143 AR last month I think. That was a good deal. But it's back up in the $180 range now. Taken in perspective, that's kinda meh.

My vote for the legendary card of the last few years would be the 5770/6770. That thing just won't die.

 

[Majcric]

While the 7850 and 7950 are great price/performance, they will not be a legend of some sort. You have to remember when the 8800GTX came out it had next to no competition in performance.

 

[Plimogz]

I'm with Silverforce on this: the 7950 has more of the stuff of legends. (then again, I just recently picked two up for 245$ apiece, on average -- not counting the 3 free games I'll be receiving as a bonus! -- so I may well be partial -- my first, an open-box card, hits 1200core/1600vram OCCT max shader complexity stable at just under 7970GE stock volts) The way I figure, a legendary card must attain or exceed top-tier performance (because to an extent that's what enthusiats get excited about) at an obviously better price point. The 7850 could've been exactly what the OP describes had it been released at it's current price and without the 79xx's above it. Then it would have obliterated everything that came before it (when OC'ed) in performance/cost and performance/power. (though it would've necessarily been accompanied by it's big brother 7870, so hypothetical performance domination is questionable). Regrettably (which is also questionable) the 7850 was positioned as a bang/buck winner during it's entire existence without ever really attaining the status of a game-changer.

5870 is a much better recent candidate for legendary status: it was released earlier than the competing option; was priced aggressively from the start; managed to remain relevant well into the second generation of succeeding cards (you can blame the retarded-console-porting marketplace if you want) and went on to get a huge uptick in value (for a year+ old gfx card) with the bitcoin mining craze. And even in that case the smaller sibling 5850 was a good deal cheaper, could reach similar clocks (hence having much better OC headroom, which I think enthusiasts do appreciate) and offered very similar performance, all things considered.

 

[ShintaiDK]

None of the cards since the GTX8800 and before that the 9700PRO are even close to being "legend". To say it bluntly, HD78xx/HD79xx etc is just another random card in the sea of cards.

HD78xx or for that matter HD79xx cant even hold its value for more than a few months either. Try check how long 8800GTX hold its value. Performance was so good it basicly defied the normal pricing "laws" of PC components.

 

[NIGELG]

5850

 

[SPBHM]

9500NP with the pipelines mod and OC (as fast/faster than a 9700pro) was legendary

 

[BenSkywalker]

While the 7850 is close to being legendary, I don't think it was quite bad enough to warrant that tag.

Full node drop, long product cycle, launched *way* too expensive, less then optimal performance(considering the full node drop and pricing, insanely overpriced). If the 7850 had hit the ground at $150 it would have been a very solid budget card.

The way it went down, it simply fits in perfectly in this stupidly bad generation of parts. From top to bottom from both vendors I think this generation has to go down as legendary, the failure of this generation has been on an entirely different level then anything we have ever seen before. Shockingly small performance increases for a full node drop and obscene pricing for the performance level, but no one card stands apart from the others in that metric.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

1. Mid range cards are never legendary cards for most of us. Just like we remember 9700Pro not 9500Pro which wasn't very different at all.

2. 7850 isn't a jump compared to previous gens.

3. 7850 won't last too long either.

4. Even at the moment, the 7950/7970 are not that much costlier and often more popular with serious gamers in the Western world.

5. The 7970 may or may not make it there. Legends like 9700 Pro and 8800GTX lasted for 2+ generations before being outdated. Even 5870 isn't exactly the same category of legend despite being close.

 

[SlowSpyder]

No, it is a value card that does well if you overclock it. The 7850 will likely be looked back on much like the GeForce 6600GT. A fantastic midrange/performance card.

To me the big three are the Radeon 9700, it really stomped the competition and pushed performance so far forward. The GeForce 8800GTX was another monster, a real game changer. Its performance was so far above the previous highend that it pretty well instantly obsoleted the highend cards that were in the generation before it. And the last one, to me, is the Radeon 5870. The performance was simply outstanding, the price was very consumer friendly, and it had a half of a year all to itself before there was an answer from Nvidia.

What all of the above have in common is the competion misstepped in comparrison, while the launch of those cards was executed perfectly.

I'm sure there are previous cards (Vodoo, as an example) that would likley also be included with those three, but I wasn't into PC gaming at that time.

 

[Obsoleet]

In my view the 5870 is the legend, not the 5850. I bought it for $299 on launch day and I'm still using it to this day.. everyone will decide their own 'legends' (for me the 3dfx Voodoo1, GF2 MX, GF4 ti4200, 8800GTX, 5870 are legends. All served me well for a long time at great pricepoints.

I've had nearly every video card released including the 9700Pro, Voodoo3, GF3, GF5, GF6, GF7 you name it until recently when I've come to realize the 5870 does what I need and has lasted longer than any card before.
Progress is slowing down unless you game over 1920x1200 and most of us are topping out at that.

 

[skipsneeky2]

No, it is a value card that does well if you overclock it. The 7850 will likely be looked back on much like the GeForce 6600GT. A fantastic midrange/performance card.

To me the big three are the Radeon 9700, it really stomped the competition and pushed performance so far forward. The GeForce 8800GTX was another monster, a real game changer. Its performance was so far above the previous highend that it pretty well instantly obsoleted the highend cards that were in the generation before it. And the last one, to me, is the Radeon 5870. The performance was simply outstanding, the price was very consumer friendly, and it had a half of a year all to itself before there was an answer from Nvidia.

What all of the above have in common is the competion misstepped in comparrison, while the launch of those cards was executed perfectly.

I'm sure there are previous cards (Vodoo, as an example) that would likley also be included with those three, but I wasn't into PC gaming at that time.

I could never afford a 8800gtx but i did get its little g92 brother,the 8800gts 512mb and man did i love that card.

I got into pc gaming back into 2006 and i found a asus p4c800-e deluxe motherboard new in box at a swapmeet for $50,put a 2.4ghz p4 out of a dead dell dimension 2400 along with its 2gb ram into a antec 900 and a $50 6200le and that was my first gaming machine.:thumbsup:

 

[SlowSpyder]

I could never afford a 8800gtx but i did get its little g92 brother,the 8800gts 512mb and man did i love that card.

I got into pc gaming back into 2006 and i found a asus p4c800-e deluxe motherboard new in box at a swapmeet for $50,put a 2.4ghz p4 out of a dead dell dimension 2400 along with its 2gb ram into a antec 900 and a $50 6200le and that was my first gaming machine.:thumbsup:

My first 'gaming' computer was a 700MHz AMD Duron that I could run at 800MHz by flicking switches on my motherboard to get a 115MHz bus. I had a Radeon 7200 32MB DDR. It easily ran Half Life like a boss, and HOMM2 & 3 nicely. Good memories from back then.

 

[SickBeast]

I have yet to be "wowed" as much as I was when I first saw Far Cry running on my 9700Pro. The graphics were a huge leap forward. Seeing my 8800GTS choke on Crysis was quite upsetting.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

5870 is the most recent legendary card. Only reason I'm still not using mine is because I got the upgrade itch. It's still a great performer over 3 years later.

 

[Smoblikat]

HD5850/8800GTX/9700pro

Those are legendary cards.

 

[crisium]

8800GT / 9800GT was also a classic viable option for years (depending on your budget) until it finally faded away by 2011.

Also the Radeon 4870 and 4850 for their price to performance revolution. The 4850 was only 7-8 months later than the 8800GT and launched at $199 compared to the 8800GT's $250 and was markedly faster. And of course the 4870 actually beat the GTX 260 192 and forced a performance revision and price reduction of that card.

 

[Silverforce11]

In my view the 5870 is the legend, not the 5850.

Have to disagree completely. The 5850 was much cheaper than 5870 and it OC like nuts to essentially match an OC 5870.

 

[skipsneeky2]

My first 'gaming' computer was a 700MHz AMD Duron that I could run at 800MHz by flicking switches on my motherboard to get a 115MHz bus. I had a Radeon 7200 32MB DDR. It easily ran Half Life like a boss, and HOMM2 & 3 nicely. Good memories from back then.

Been bitten so hard by the nostalgia bug,i might look high and low for a old msi p35 platinum mob,a e6750 and a evga 8800gts 512mb,install xp on a 150gb raptor and build up a replica of basically my all time favorite pc for some of my older games.:thumbsup:

Recently got into some emulators is how bad the bug is but building a replica of a gaming pc i retired in 2008 might be a little over the top lol.

Nostalgia is the reason for this thread in the first place.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

There wasn't too much price diff btw 5850 and 5870.

 

[zaydq]

If there is any card that might make the list, it'd be the 7950 of this generation... but to be frankly honest, I feel warmer thinking of my 8800GTX that I have sitting in front of me than I do my 7950.

 

[legcramp]

The 7850 is a legendary overclocker, but that's about it.

 

[Piano Man]

....looks in legendary GPU thread. Sees no mention of 3dfx. Feels older than everyone else.

 

[ChippyUK]

Don't worry, My old Voodoo 2 sli is the stuff of legends, particularly for the bargain of buying them from a closing h/w vender.

Brought quake to life and I played that for about 10 years continuously (diff hardware but I think I remember retiring my sli after 4 years). No other cards felt as good since!