Consensus on 7850 choice?

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Drown Babies

Gawd
Joined
May 29, 2005
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I've settled on getting a 2GB 7850, but I haven't seen too much discussion about the various versions in these threads. Is there any consensus on which card to get? Or maybe a better question is which card not to get.

I've had good experiences with MSI cards in the past (and I like the dual fan cards in general), so I was leaning towards those, but right now at least they are a little more expensive than some of the others.

Should I just buy mainly based on the price? Or does anyone have suggestions?
 
when it comes to the 7850, my rule of thumb is to get the cheapest available. i have two twin frozr 3 cards but neither of them will allow me to sustain 1200/1500 overclocks, thus negating the need for the exotic cooling. the cheap powercolor 2gb card will probably still get you to 11000mhz core. the same place i'm at.
 
I guess you can't fit a longer 7870 LE in your case?


For this price range I think you are better off getting a HD 7870 LE card. The Power Color is on sale for around $208 right now. Providing it will fit. The card is long. bonus here is you also get some nice games. (Tombradier and Bioshock)



My favorite HD7850 is the MSI Power Edition HD7850.

I found a deal on it but it doesn't come with any games.

I called them up and was told there is one in stock and you don't get the game bundle. Very nice HD7850 IMO.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearc...deon HD7850 2GB DDR5 256bit PCIE#.UVIBahzryeQ
 
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There's a pretty steep jump in power usage between the 7850 and the 7870 LE, and they are quite a bit bigger too. I'm limited to SFX power supplies, so I don't want to go too high with power usage.

And that game bundle is a pretty big deal too. I already bought one of them off of someone else, but I figure I can sell another one for $40 or so. That turns a $200 card into a $160 one with a little bit of effort (and it's still better than dealing with rebate BS).
 
That ASUS is tempting. It is a little big, but I like the way the fan overhangs the PCB. My case is long enough for it, but otherwise cramped (water cooling isn't really an option), so that fan design might help with air circulation, even if it is hot air.
 
This 7850 is a good buy, but really this is a better idea:

SonDa5 said:
I guess you can't fit a longer 7870 LE in your case?


For this price range I think you are better off getting a HD 7870 LE card. The Power Color is on sale for around $208 right now. Providing it will fit. The card is long. bonus here is you also get some nice games. (Tombradier and Bioshock)
Click to expand...
 
Drown Babies said:
That ASUS is tempting. It is a little big, but I like the way the fan overhangs the PCB. My case is long enough for it, but otherwise cramped (water cooling isn't really an option), so that fan design might help with air circulation, even if it is hot air.
Click to expand...



It's really a well made. Not sure how it will do on the over clocking but everything about it looks top notch quality.

Look at the PCB.

http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/...D-7850-2GB-GDDR5-(90-C1CS62-S0UAY0BZ)-PCB.jpg


It's also hard to find in stock anywhere at a decent price. That Superbiz link I posted is one of the few places that sells it with the bundle. I think this card is discontinued.


Between the ASUS TOP and the MSI PE the build quality is very uniqe and high quality. For the money the Top with the games is a much better deal.
 
Fooshnik said:
This 7850 is a good buy, but really this is a better idea:
Click to expand...



The ASUS TOP card at SuperBiz is probably better. Comes clocked 140mhz higher than the non TOP card you linked to at newegg.


I think it would be a safer bet for satisfaction to spend just a little more money and get the TOP for peace of mind between the two cards. Good chance the GPU quality is higher in the TOP card.
 
If I could find a 500W SFX PSU I might consider it, I don't even really want to go with the 450W silverstone PSUs. They are expensive, and from what I hear you basically have to replace the fan to keep them quiet.

And I don't like the idea of using a 200W GPU on a 300-350W PSU.

I do like that ASUS though. The $30 extra for the TOP seems a little steep, even if I do have to deal with the rebate for the regular version. And you may be right about the card being discontinued; that might not bode well in case I need to RMA it for some reason.

I'm not in a rush though, so I might wait and see if the price moves around a bit in response to the 650 Ti Boost.
 
Drown Babies said:
I'm not in a rush though, so I might wait and see if the price moves around a bit in response to the 650 Ti Boost.
Click to expand...

yeah you can expect some price cuts from AMD early next month. AMD won't be sitting still. the HD 7850 2GB can easily be cut to USD 170 - 180. since GK106 and Pitcairn are of similar die size.so its definitely posssible.
 
Drown Babies said:
If I could find a 500W SFX PSU I might consider it, I don't even really want to go with the 450W silverstone PSUs. They are expensive, and from what I hear you basically have to replace the fan to keep them quiet.

And I don't like the idea of using a 200W GPU on a 300-350W PSU.
Click to expand...

The 7850 is more of a 100W GPU than 200W (even the 7870 is only a 155W GPU) so you are overestimating your power needs.

As for our SFX 450W, there are also many customers that find our 450W PSU to be quiet for their usage as shown here:
http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-450-Watts-Factor-Modular-ST45SF-G/product-reviews/B008VQ2Y4K/ref=sr_1_2_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Since your system's overall power draw will not require a 450W PSU, you are still probably better off looking for other PSUs with lower wattage.
 
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Tony Ou said:
The 7850 is more of a 100W GPU than 200W (even the 7870 is only a 155W GPU) so you are overestimating your power needs.

As for our SFX 450W, there are also many customers that find our 450W PSU to be quiet for their usage as shown here:
http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-450-Watts-Factor-Modular-ST45SF-G/product-reviews/B008VQ2Y4K/ref=sr_1_2_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Since your system's overall power draw will not require a 450W PSU, you are still probably better off looking for other PSUs with lower wattage.
Click to expand...

The 200W GPU I was referring to was the 7870 LE (the Tahiti card).

As for the PSU, I might try out the non-modular Silverstone, since it's not too expensive. I know it's overkill, but the there aren't too many choices in the 300-400W range. And I might as well spend a little more to get something that I know should be solid.
 
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Drown Babies said:
The 200W GPU I was referring to was the 7870 LE (the Tahiti card).

As for the PSU, I might try out the non-modular Silverstone, since it's not too expensive. I know it's overkill, but the there aren't too many choices in the 300-400W range. And I might as well spend a little more to get something that I know should be solid.
Click to expand...

500W PSU is recommended for the PowerColor Myst Tahiti HD7870.

http://powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=430#Specification


If you can find a good deal on one I think its the best choice of any HD78XX series card.
 
Assuming you can fit the 7870 LE into your case I might be able to help with some advice shortly. I had the same power concerns as you and was originally looking at 7770/7850 and decided on 7850.

Since I couldn't find any 7850's that fit in the case I really wanted I opted for my second choice case, the Cooler Master Elite 120. Since I had decided the 7770/7790 just didn't have the performance I wanted my main limiting factor became the PSU and how much heat I want to deal with. I'm working with a 400W PSU with a single +12V rated at 30A. I just ordered the 7870 LE today and I'll let you know how things go. I'll have this paired with the 3570k CPU and AsRock z77e-itx board with a 256 GB mSATA SSD, old 320 GB 3.5" spinner and the LG Super Multi Blu-Ray/HD-DVD to round out things that draw power.
 
The [H] review shows that the 7870 LE uses 335 watts under full load and 377 overclocked so a 450w power supply should be enough.
 
Tweaktown measured power draw of their system @ 400 watts. Mind you that's power draw including power supply inefficiencies so the system is using 320 assuming an 80% efficient power supply. Seems like there should be a bit of breathing room. My "2 day shipping" is currently estimated to take...4 days. WTF.
 
Yeah, 450W is probably fine. And most of these review sites use decently OC'd processors too, so their total system usage is probably a bit higher than I'm likely to have.
 
Did you ever say what the wattage on your current PSU is? And how many amps it is rated for on the +12v rail.
 
So I've got mine installed. It arrived today after all.

Seems to be doing fine on my 400 watt power supply so far as I expected. Played some Metro 2033 on Very High DX11. Set up a bitcoin miner as well to generate some load(even though I've never mined before). Everything seems to be going OK so far.
 
Good luck with the card. I hope it over clocks well and is stable. What is the ASIC score?
 
StormUP said:
Did you ever say what the wattage on your current PSU is? And how many amps it is rated for on the +12v rail.
Click to expand...

Mine? I'm currently using the 300W PSU from the lian-li PC-Q12, but I'm obviously not going to be putting a 7850, or anything else that size, into that case.

I'm going to be getting one of CMadki4's M3A2 cases that we've been discussing over in the SFF forum.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1750863

I might hang on to that PSU for some initial testing, but I'm planning on getting a new one and selling the old case and PSU eventually.

Space shouldn't be an issue in the new case for the GPU, but heat might be. I'll have to test things out before I make any final decisions.

The SFX PSU market is pretty limited (though it might be possible to get a TFX in that case), so I'm thinking I will try out the non-modular 450W silverstone, regardless of how much power I actually need. It seems to have a good reputation, is cheaper than and seems to draw far fewer noise complaints than the modular version.
 
SonDa5 said:
Good luck with the card. I hope it over clocks well and is stable. What is the ASIC score?
Click to expand...

ASIC score is 71%. Not sure how horrible that is being as I haven't had a new graphics card in ages and am not fully back up to speed on the nitty gritty details yet.
 
Seems to be stable mining bitcoins at 1215 MHz core clock without changing the power settings. Can get to 1245 with +20%, but crashes at 1250. Haven't run it for very long at 1245 and I don't really want to run with +power so I've got it mining at 1215.

1215 with 0% change to power crashed after a couple minutes in Metro 2033 though so I'm uncertain about it's fully stable maximum overclock. I'm going to need some advice on modern stability testing tools, etc, but I'll make a new thread for that as I'm getting off the original topic now.
 
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