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7850 vs 6950?

T

tropico

n00b
Joined
Sep 13, 2011
Messages
7
I'm in the market for a new graphics card right now. I'd like to go with the 7850 but the driver/crashing issues are kind of making me think otherwise. Does anyone know if these issues have been resolved or if not how much longer would you expect they will last? Should I just get the 6950 instead? I'm looking to buy within the next few weeks. Right now there is about a $40 difference between the two on Newegg.

Also my system has a i7 920 at stock clocks. Will it be able to handle either of these cards?
 
Your CPU is more than enough to handle these cards. I am doing the same thing you are and I have been doing a lot of reading. I really think that the 7850/7870 are going to be the best bang for buck. The 7850 should give good frame rates with any game at 1080p, they use a lot less power, and run much cooler. I have only read about early drivers giving problems, but nothing recently.

At the same time the 69xx cards are still very capable and can be picked up here for sale from 170-200 bucks. A lot of those are still under warranty as well.

What are the rest of your system specs and what games do you play?
 
I actually just sold my unlocked 6950 and picked up a 7850 which I should be installing tonight. Mostly I got the 7850 because it is for my gaming HTPC, where the smaller and more efficient card is always nice to have. For me, the added power/heat savings and potential overclocking headroom are worth the extra $40. Your 920 should be fine running either card....although why are you running it at stock clocks? This is [H] after all. lol
 
What issues? The only time I've had any driver crashing issues is when I've pushed my overclock too far.
 
although why are you running it at stock clocks? This is [H] after all. lol
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Yeah depending on what board you have I instantly took my 930 to 4.2 with minimal voltage increase.
 
That's exactly what I was thinking. The performance difference between the two cards doesn't seem to be that significant, but I do like that the 7850 runs cooler, quieter, and on less power. The rest of my system is i7 920, 8 GB RAM, Intel 320 SSD, 2 1920x1200 monitors and 1 2560x1440 in eyefinity. I only use one monitor when I game. The games I play aren't too intensive, mostly Starcraft II, Diablo 3, Mass Effect 3, MW3.

The driver problems I'm talking about is I've read people not getting very good performance on some games as well as general system instability.
 
tropico said:
I only use one monitor when I game. The games I play aren't too intensive, mostly Starcraft II, Diablo 3, Mass Effect 3, MW3.

The driver problems I'm talking about is I've read people not getting very good performance on some games as well as general system instability.
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Get a HD 7850. It should easily hit 1050 Mhz in AMD CCC and give you GTX 570 performance. As far as driver issues you can ask users like Blkout who have this card. he seems to be very impressed. :)

http://hardforum.com/member.php?u=189369
 
I love the 7850 at $250-260. Its a serious performer in this price range. If you override the CCC limits and use Afterburner's unofficial overclocking mode, you can push the clocks a good ways above the factory 1050Mhz limit. Mine goes to 1150/1450 and its very quick at that speed. It trades benchmarks with my old 5850 crossfire setup at stock clocks. Prety impressive from a single card vs a dual card setup that was twice the price just 2 years ago.
 
tropico said:
That's exactly what I was thinking. The performance difference between the two cards doesn't seem to be that significant, but I do like that the 7850 runs cooler, quieter, and on less power. The rest of my system is i7 920, 8 GB RAM, Intel 320 SSD, 2 1920x1200 monitors and 1 2560x1440 in eyefinity. I only use one monitor when I game. The games I play aren't too intensive, mostly Starcraft II, Diablo 3, Mass Effect 3, MW3.

The driver problems I'm talking about is I've read people not getting very good performance on some games as well as general system instability.
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I've had no driver problems or stability issues with my 7850.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm probably going to go with the 7850. If anyone else has been eyeing it like me, the XFX Double D version is on sale for $250 with free shipping and lifetime warranty on Newegg.
 
tropico said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm probably going to go with the 7850. If anyone else has been eyeing it like me, the XFX Double D version is on sale for $250 with free shipping and lifetime warranty on Newegg.
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Just a recommendation for those wanting to go with a 7850 (which I highly recommend!). I have the Asus 7850 Direct CUII that I picked up for $269 Canadian at a local store (Newegg charges $10 less, then charges $12 for shipping!) and it's amazingly cool and quiet. I really recommend you go for it. The oversized cooler they borrowed from the 7870 and the ultra-quiet fans have really won me over.

Mine's currently running at 1150MHz core/1375MHz memory (haven't tried o/c'ing the memory much yet) with 1.150v. This is a 24/7 stable-under-full-load o/c, temps never go much past 70 degrees, and I don't have an especially well-cooled case. My Phenom II@3.5GHz is also dumping heat into the case, so those are really good temps IMHO.
 
My Sapphire non-OC 7850 showed up the other day and I did some initial overclocking. I did not want to add to much voltage as the airflow in my HTPC is well, about as you might expect....not superb plus the HTPC is in a A/V cabinet, which is at least vented. 1150/1450 seems stable so far at 1.16v with initial testing, but tonight I will test with some extended gaming sessions. I like the MSI and Asus coolers a bit better, but I wanted the Sapphire for my HTPC because of it being shorter while still having a decent cooler. My old long 6950 pretty much created a wall in my HTPC so airflow was severely hampered, wanted to avoid that with the 7850.
 
jhatfie said:
My Sapphire non-OC 7850 showed up the other day and I did some initial overclocking. I did not want to add to much voltage as the airflow in my HTPC is well, about as you might expect....not superb plus the HTPC is in a A/V cabinet, which is at least vented. 1150/1450 seems stable so far at 1.16v with initial testing, but tonight I will test with some extended gaming sessions. I like the MSI and Asus coolers a bit better, but I wanted the Sapphire for my HTPC because of it being shorter while still having a decent cooler. My old long 6950 pretty much created a wall in my HTPC so airflow was severely hampered, wanted to avoid that with the 7850.
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I've only tried up to CCC max 1050 core on stock voltage with my sapphire 7850. I'll try more later, but no need now as my q8300 is bottlenecking my performance.

After bf3 mutiplayer temps hover around 55 C and I never hear a peep out of the fans. Very happy with the performance. Originally wanted to avoid sapphire due to 2 year warranty, but glad I gave sapphire a chance.
 
Ive been looking into the 7850 myself, it seems to be the new 6850/6870 of last gen. A bang for your buck type of deal.

If AMD drops prices to compete with the low end Kepler, it will be a MUST have under $300 card.
 
Just picked up a 7850 last week and have had 0 issues. In fact, I replaced my aged GTX285 with it, and I had nothing but driver issues with that thing pretty much since the day I got it, go figure.
 
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