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which HD7850 should i get?

S

silvscorp

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
124
I've read many individual reviews but never found a direct compare for the two cards I have in mind, especially tied with my personal situation. Cards in questions are the Asus DC II and MSI Twin Frozr.

I know you can't do direct compare as all cards are different. Heard many great things about the MSI being quiet and good cooling. I wasn't able to find any good review for the cooling on Asus card.

Here is my dilemma, Asus might be slightly too big to fit in my current case. Even if fits, it'll be very tight. I can always modify the case if need more room, just more hassle. For buying brand new, I can get Asus one for $30 less than the MSI.

I've heard mixed reviews for the Sapphire card but most people seems to recommend above two if price isn't a major factor.

Please let me know your suggestions.

thanks,
 
The Asus one is weird. The cooler isn't designed for it so it hangs off the edge. That's sort of stupid since one of the big benefits of the 7850 is that it's a small/light card. It was a dealbreaker for me since I will likely eventually throw this in my HTPC.

I have the Gigabyte 7850OC. I did the electrical tape mod to make sure my fans didn't make noise right when I got it. It's been great. I've only really played Saints Row 3, Mass Effect 3, and Diablo 3 with it, but it's quiet and significantly cooler than the 5850 it replaced.

The MSI is nice, and I thought I saw the Sapphire card generally got good reviews.

Of all the coolers, I like the MSI twin Frozr the best. The gigabyte cooler is sort of flimsy, but it's a cheaper card than the others usually.
 
I totally disagree with InternationalHat. For me, the Asus 7850 Direct CUII was the best 7850, precisely because it has an over-sized heatsink from the 7870. It has MORE heat disappation capability than any other 7850, which means the fans turn at a completely inaudible speed. Obviously, if space is an issue, you'll have to look for a shorter card, but if it's not, you'd be foolish to buy another 7850 if you plan to overclock.

I bought two of these cards, and I very nearly kept them because they were so amazingly efficient and silent. When I say silent, I mean that you can essentially consider them to be fanless cards in terms of noise. I'm not exaggerating. I could hear my case fans at all times and never hear the Asus cards' fans. Both of them easily overclocked to 1150MHz! Only reason I didn't keep them is because I was able to grab a Gigabyte Windforce GTX670 at a local store (no shipping) for $319. These cards are almost never in stock anywhere, so I sprung for it.

Just my 2cents worth from experience.
 
anubis44 said:
Only reason I didn't keep them is because I was able to grab a Gigabyte Windforce GTX670 at a local store (no shipping) for $319.
Click to expand...

Surely you meant $419. Otherwise I need to know where, immediately.
 
Sapphire OC, Asus Direct CUII, MSI Power Edition, MSI lightning and the GB windforce.

Theres a lot of good options, I was going to wait for the MSI power edition because the cooling is pretty good but I ended up getting the sapphire OC.
 
Q1DM6 said:
Surely you meant $419. Otherwise I need to know where, immediately.
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Whoops! Yes, of course. $419 Canadian. Sorry, was trying to get the post in before I had to go out the door.
 
Trimlock said:
Sapphire OC, Asus Direct CUII, MSI Power Edition, MSI lightning and the GB windforce.

Theres a lot of good options, I was going to wait for the MSI power edition because the cooling is pretty good but I ended up getting the sapphire OC.
Click to expand...

Yes, there are plenty of great choices for the 7850 simply because it's such a cool-running, overclockable chip. I've even heard good things about the PowerColor PCS+ 7850. Certainly, the Sapphire cards have a very good reputation for reliability and value for money with quiet fans.
 
Thanks guys.. I think I am gonna get the Asus one. As mentioned, it's $30 cheaper than the MSI and I can do little mod to the case to make it fit, overall I guess I am looking for a card with most potential for OC.
 
I was very pleased with my MSI Twin Frozr 7850 when I had it. It overclocked to 1140/6000MHz at stock voltage with completely stability in all games and benches and temps never went above 64c under the heaviest loads and the fans were almost inaudible even at 60%. If I were buying another one today, it would likely be a Power Edition or Twin Frozer again.
 
You can consider getting this card.

HIS Iceq HD 7850 - USD 255 (USD 235 with mail in rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161405

The Iceq cooler is very good. here is video review of HIS Iceq HD 7850 TurboX. its an OC version of the same card.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3bjl4jagPc

Another good card is Powercolor PCS+ HD 7850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131472

Its the fastest factory clocked HD 7850 at 1 Ghz clockspeed. This card has been well reviewed .

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/33.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/PowerColor_HD_7850_PCS/14.html

Both cards come with 2 yr warranty. If thats too less you can consider getting MSI HD 7850 Twin frozr.
 
Last edited:
XFX Black Edition looks like a good over clocker and so does the MSI Power Edition R7850.


I'd pick one of those. Need more research before deciding which one but based on experience with MSI I would go with the MSI.
 
I've had HiS products in the past and would say that based off of my experience, don't go with them. Customer service NIGHTMARE.

As far as the "most room" for OC, its hit or miss with all of them as far as max potential. You have really good chances on a good oc'er from what I've read. If you wait for the MSI Power Edition to ever come back in stock you could of missed out on other good OC'ers.
 
I have no complaints about my Asus 7850. The only problem with the oversized cooler is that it can be tough to unplug the 6pin from it (they include an extension for this reason, but my 6 pin is individually sleeved so I didn't want to use the extension). I actually like the oversized cooler because my card doesn't look so tiny in my massive case.
 
Here is a fabulous deal on XFX HD 7950 DD .

XFX HD 7950 DD - USD 360 with 10% off w/ promo code HARDOCPX613C, ends 6/19 and USD 20 mail in rebate

Nett price = USD 360 - 36 - 20 = 304. can't get any better than this . Maybe they are clearing stock for Tahiti 2 launch at the end of this month. :D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150588

this card can do 950 Mhz - 1 Ghz at stock volts. with voltage tweaking you can get 1150 Mhz. here is a review of the XFX HD 7950 DD Black edition card. that is the OC version.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/01/xfx_radeon_hd_7950_black_edition_video_card_review/
 
raghu78 said:
Here is a fabulous deal on XFX HD 7950 DD .

XFX HD 7950 DD - USD 360 with 10% off w/ promo code HARDOCPX613C, ends 6/19 and USD 20 mail in rebate

Nett price = USD 360 - 36 - 20 = 304. can't get any better than this . Maybe they are clearing stock for Tahiti 2 launch at the end of this month. :D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150588

this card can do 950 Mhz - 1 Ghz at stock volts. with voltage tweaking you can get 1150 Mhz. here is a review of the XFX HD 7950 DD Black edition card. that is the OC version.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/01/xfx_radeon_hd_7950_black_edition_video_card_review/
Click to expand...



Great deal. Too bad the Black Edition isn't son sale. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150589
 
Q1DM6 said:
I'll take what I got for less than the cost of a 7870 and run. Especially considering that now I get to sell this 7770.
Click to expand...

The card is easily a good 33% better than HD7870. Great deal. :cool:
 
@InternationalHat
I have the Gigabyte 7850OC. I did the electrical tape mod to make sure my fans didn't make noise right when I got it.
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What is the tape mod? I just bought a Gigabyte 7850 OC 2G and it's so noisy I can't use it. The funny thing is, the fan rpm control doesn't change the fan sounds much. I'ts just a horrible HSF. Anything that can quieten it down will be good.

I'm looking at replacing its fans altogether, jury rig some 92mm Scythes onto it with rubber bands or something.. $40 worth of fans to fix a horribly designed card.

I'd get an XFX unit, if I could actually get one in Australia, or a Sapphire OC as being the pick of them. Wisdom in hindsite.
 
I'm looking at replacing its fans altogether, jury rig some 92mm Scythes onto it with rubber bands or something.. $40 worth of fans to fix a horribly designed card.

I'd get an XFX unit, if I could actually get one in Australia, or a Sapphire OC as being the pick of them. Wisdom in hindsite.
Click to expand...

No point in spending money and fixing a badly designed HSF. return the card and get the Sapphire HD 7850 OC or MSI HD 7950 OC.

http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-4206086...cked_Video_Card_-_GDDR5_2048MB_256-Bit_-_920_

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/189014/VIDEOCARDS_RADEON_7000_SERIES/MSI/R7850TWINF2GD5OC.asp

Both these coolers are well designed. MSI has 3 yr warranty while sapphire has 2 yr warranty. pick one you like.
 
I've had the asus dc2 7850, and while it was dead quiet at 30% fanspeed, anyting above 45% was way too loud for me. Performance was a little below my previous gtx 570, but it supported more monitors. I can't recommend it.
 
I have MSI 7850 Power Edition and I would not recommend it to anyone with silent pc, fan speed above 40% is clearly heard and very annoyng and with 40% fan speed it doest really cool well when heavily overclocked. For stock usage you still have to manually control fan because it spins up to 47% even before it hits 60C.
 
I highly recommend Sapphire, they are probably the best manufacturer of radeon graphics in my opinion. They have great cooling and acoustics performance.
 
A lot of people like the Sapphire OC, and now I look as I should have looked in the first place. I agree. On paper it is just that much quieter. a better design overall, and Sapphire and ATI/AMD have always been a good combination.

The thought of rubber bands and fans didn't appeal very much at all to me, all I need now is to work out an exchange with the store.

The most peculiar thing is this: I've grown accustomed to it. Last night, it was terrible, tonight, exact same conditions, it's not so bad, seemingly. But I would sure notice the silence if I turned it off.
 
emueyes said:
A lot of people like the Sapphire OC, and now I look as I should have looked in the first place. I agree. On paper it is just that much quieter. a better design overall, and Sapphire and ATI/AMD have always been a good combination.

The thought of rubber bands and fans didn't appeal very much at all to me, all I need now is to work out an exchange with the store.

The most peculiar thing is this: I've grown accustomed to it. Last night, it was terrible, tonight, exact same conditions, it's not so bad, seemingly. But I would sure notice the silence if I turned it off.
Click to expand...

If you can return your card you should get the Gigabyte HD 7870 OC (1.1 Ghz) with the Windforce 3x cooler

http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-4206085...ion_2GB_256_Bit_GDDR5_Core_Clocks_1100MHz_Mem

I suggest you spend the extra money. Its well worth it. The HD 7870 at the same clock is 6 - 8 % faster than HD 7850. In few games like Shogun 2 which is extremely shader bound the difference is 20+ % (almost directly proportional to the shader count % increase) .

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/9.html

HD 7850 (1 Ghz) - 45.4
HD 7870 (1 Ghz) - 49.5

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/21.html

HD 7850 (1 Ghz) - 29.7
HD 7870 (1 Ghz) - 36.9

And the temps are very low.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/06/19/gigabyte_radeon_hd_7870_oc_video_card_review/9

53c at 1.1 Ghz and 56c at 1.245 Ghz is amazing. In fact you could have a custom fan profile running at reduced speeds with lesser noise using sapphire trixx and let the card run in the low 60s. :)
 
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