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Got 7850 2GB.. keep or upgrade it?

S

Shadowprice

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 7, 2005
Messages
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So, I purchased a Gigabyte 7850 2GB card to go into my AMD Phenom II 955 BE rig off Amazon... I upgraded from a XFX 5770. I had a $200 amazon credit, and the card was $200, so I essentially got it for free.

Thing is, my two main games are literally World of Warcraft and Skyrim, which are more CPU intensive games. It made a nice performance gain in Skyrim, but my rig still runs pretty choppy on high/ultra settings and I have to scale it down to Medium settings to retain fluidity across the board.. WoW on the other hand? It hardly even made a difference, which I was really taken back by.

I'm planning on upgrading to a ivy i5/mobo combo deal from my local Frys tomorrow and I'd like to see if I should just hang onto the 7850 or return it and maybe get a 7870, or a 660 Ti, or any other recommendations. I really like the Gigabyte brand, the build is impressive and they're extremely quiet cards.

What would you guys do?

Edit: I game on a 24" 1080p display.
 
Free Radeon 7850? Keep. If not, sell and put money toward faster card. For Skyrim and WoW, you'll be more than good with a 7850.
 
Aspirations is to run at high/ultra settings with a fluid non-shaky 60fps.

It's doing poor on a Ph II 955 BE. Will this be achieved by swapping out for a IB i5?
 
Xan433 said:
Aspirations is to run at high/ultra settings with a fluid non-shaky 60fps.

It's doing poor on a Ph II 955 BE. Will this be achieved by swapping out for a IB i5?
Click to expand...

Is your 955 overclocked? If not, over clock it.
 
Xan433 said:
Aspirations is to run at high/ultra settings with a fluid non-shaky 60fps.

It's doing poor on a Ph II 955 BE. Will this be achieved by swapping out for a IB i5?
Click to expand...

For Skyrim, a good i5 (3.2 ghz or higher) should handle Skyrim at ultra with no problems. Check out some CPU reviews. I myself am considering moving to either an i7 or an i5. For what I'm going to do, I think an i5 3470 is in order; as I live near a Microcenter and they cost $150 there.
 
You're not going to see a significant performance increase with a 7870 and a 660ti is $300, you'd get more fps with an overclocked 7950. Are you playing Skyrim with a lot of mods?

An OC 3570K is about double the performance of the Phenom, probably even moreso in single-threaded apps. I think that will help.
 
I know there are price differences but keep an eye on the FS/FT forum. I picked up a 7970 for $325 and sold my GTX 580 for $200 on the first offer. So I ended up paying $125 for a 79-freakin-70! :D

Can't beat that.

Also, yes, the Phenom II is holding you back. Think about it...if a Core2Quad is faster than a Phenom II by a good margin and Sandy Bridge kicks a C2Q's ass...then SB is definitely worlds above your current CPU.
 
The 7850 is a great card and if you are willing to OC, is a fantastic card for the $$ invested. My son gets really solid performance with his clocked at 1175/1450 paired with a modest i3-2120. A 7870 or 660 ti would give better performance but the step up is not huge once overclocking is taken into consideration. However if you are the type to not OC, there certainly is some benefit if you can return without much additional cost. For Skyrim, If your 955BE is not OC'd, you could see a decent boost with overclocking, but a bigger boost with a i5 - see link.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html
 
Thanks guys. I'm going to pickup an i5. I'm not big into over clocking, which I know something [H] prides itself on. But I know games like WoW heavily favor intel CPUs and I'm all for more energy efficiency. I kind of just want a fire and forget setup.
 
Xan433 said:
Thanks guys. I'm going to pickup an i5. I'm not big into over clocking, which I know something [H] prides itself on. But I know games like WoW heavily favor intel CPUs and I'm all for more energy efficiency. I kind of just want a fire and forget setup.
Click to expand...

This sounds like the best option in your situation. In any case, an i5 and 7950 will be a hell of a jump from your 955 and 5770, maybe 30% more CPU power and 120% more gpu power.

And don't be afraid of the OC. You should get an extra 10-15% out of both the i5 and 7950 easily. Just set it in bios for the CPU and msi afterburner for the gpu and forget.
 
core i5 is much faster than phenom ii x4 for games like skyrim. a HD 7950 is the best price perf card to get. at the same clocks say 1 Ghz this is how the performance would be

HD 7850 - 100
HD 7870 - 110
HD 7870 Tahiti LE - 125
HD 7950 - 143
HD 7970 - 150
 
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