AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[cheesyboy]

I'm not bothered by power consumption in my PC. I'm quite aware of how little cash is saved - I've given to others the same argument you've just presented me

Similarly, I don't need a great deal of performance; my GTS 250 is rarely overworked since, when gaming, I mostly play indie games and older titles.

I like a quiet PC, and the 750Ti fits with that, though most modern GPU coolers are fairly good on acoustics for the smaller GPUs.

Mostly, I like the 750Ti because it's interesting. It's not a cut down version of a bigger flagship - it is, to some extent, cutting edge. Something to be excited about in the lower end of the market. Their overclocking is quite something too.

Of course, I might change my mind by the time I come to buy

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well OcUK are doing a limited time offer(less than 8 remaining),of the low profile 1.5 slot GTX750TI for £100,which is the one GTX750TI which looks interesting. They do have the Sapphire R7 265 which is quiet and under 8" long for around £110(standard price) and HD7850/R7 265 cards tend to overclock well. However,the delivery is £10,which makes both cards rather expensive,as GTX660 and R9 270 cards can be had for not much more.

The thing is though,we really need a decent sub £80 card and the most I have seen is the HD7770 and HD7790 on special offer(which is not bad),but no new releases targeting that market.

[cheesyboy]

They also have a 7870 for £130, which seems a pretty stonking deal to me, along with the £126 GTX660. I qualify for free delivery, but I'm not in the GPU market right now (wife on maternity leave, so counting the pennies)

The thing is though,we really need a decent sub £80 card and the most I have seen is the HD7770 and HD7790 on special offer(which is not bad),but no new releases targeting that market.

There's the "new" 250x, which is a rebadged 7770, for around £70-£80

[DanceswithUnix]

The thing is the HD7850/R9 265 are around the same price,or only slightly more and are much faster,plus for around £120 to £130 you can get GTX660 and R9 270 cards too.

There is this R9 260X with BF4 for around £80:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-x...dvi-pci-e-card

It is only a 1GB card,but if the 2GB cards were that price things would look a bit better.

But the 260x is an R7 and that offer seems to be for R9 cards? I was a bit surprised at the lack of bundled games atm.

As for the 265, I was looking on Ebuyer (sort by price made browsing easy) and I didn't see any. Guess it comes down to how much I am prepared to pay for TrueAudio and GCN 1.1

260X for £96 doesn't seem that bad though (Scan link as I was browsing on there this morning). http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-s...dport-dvi-hdmi

I notice this morning that the 8800GT is about to get moved to the Nvidia Legacy driver. That card has had one hell of a run, but I guess next time I see a good offer I should take the plunge. New card would be an upgrade to the wife's HD6770, which would get handed down to replace the obsoleted 8800GT. Would be nice to keep power usage down as airflow isn't good in her case.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

But the 260x is an R7 and that offer seems to be for R9 cards? I was a bit surprised at the lack of bundled games atm.

As for the 265, I was looking on Ebuyer (sort by price made browsing easy) and I didn't see any. Guess it comes down to how much I am prepared to pay for TrueAudio and GCN 1.1

260X for £96 doesn't seem that bad though (Scan link as I was browsing on there this morning). http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-s...dport-dvi-hdmi

I notice this morning that the 8800GT is about to get moved to the Nvidia Legacy driver. That card has had one hell of a run, but I guess next time I see a good offer I should take the plunge. New card would be an upgrade to the wife's HD6770, which would get handed down to replace the obsoleted 8800GT. Would be nice to keep power usage down as airflow isn't good in her case.

Its an XFX bundle it seems. The R7 265 is an HD7850 - OcUK has the Sapphire one for £110 but postage is like £10!!

[DanceswithUnix]

Its an XFX bundle it seems. The R7 265 is an HD7850 - OcUK has the Sapphire one for £110 but postage is like £10!!

265 is a bit tweaked though isn't it: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1076?vs=1127

270 might be more interesting, specially as this one has 2 big fans on it and I will pay a bit more for a quieter card http://www.ebuyer.com/609524-gigabyt...-gv-r927oc-2gd

That is getting us a long way down the slippery slope from my £96 starting point though!

[scaryjim]

265 is a bit tweaked though isn't it: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1076?vs=1127

Only if you count a 40MHz bump in clock speed (and the addition of a non-deterministic boost for up to another 25MHz more) as "tweaked" the underlying silicon is identical. Buy a 7850, overclock it to 926MHz, and you've got an R7 265-beater

[watercooled]

Well, it's actually reasonably close to being so (as big as TDP);
...snip...

R7 265 is perhaps overrated on TDP but, otherwise, the margins are about as you would expect.

Similarly here;
...snip...

750Ti TDP = 60
7790 = 85
260x = 110
265 = 150 (7850 is only 130!)
270x = 180

You can't compare card-only power draw to whole-system AC draw. You can see a more realistic comparison just by looking at the first graph -
265 = 145W
750Ti reference (bearing in mind the non-reference cards seem to use more) = 99W

145-99=46 difference

As for the TDPs, they are 150 and 60 for the 265 and 750Ti, respectively. 150-60=90W. We get a similar result from the TPU GPU-only measurements, 95-52=43.

90>46 or 43, hence my point. The 750Ti comes very close to its rated TDP in a real load (57W peak) but the 265 doesn't get remotely close (103W peak).

[scaryjim]

Interestingly, the Partner-overclocked 750Tis clearly exceed their rated TDP in card-only power draw (Tom's shows 68W, TPU shows 75W) - which is why you can't base power draw comparisons just off TDP.

The other thing to consider is workload type - the Tom's figures are for a GPGPU test, whereas the TPU ones are a gaming test: the Tom's figures have AMD cards using around 20W - 30W more than the TPU figures, but the NV cards using about the same, which massively exaggerates the difference...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AMD 14.2 drivers tested with the A10 7850K:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/13238/am...14-2-driver/4/

Some big performance gains in the games tested!!

[Jellyfish]

Wow, that is impressive! The apu is starting to shine

[The Hand]

AMD 14.2 drivers tested with the A10 7850K:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/13238/am...14-2-driver/4/

Some big performance gains in the games tested!!

Now, that's an eye opener! Impressive results on BF4.

[DanceswithUnix]

Now, that's an eye opener! Impressive results on BF4.

Wonder if that is APU optimizations, or if all GCN 1.1 cards get a boost.

[watercooled]

I was wondering that myself, we'll have to keep an eye out for some updated tests. Techspot was one site to come out with a decent re-review with 12.11 drivers.

[cheesyboy]

AMD 14.2 drivers tested with the A10 7850K:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/13238/am...14-2-driver/4/

Some big performance gains in the games tested!!

The disappointing aspect of this, particularly if this is general driver improvements rather than specific game optimisations, is how much better the Kaveri launch could have been with these drivers in place. That's a huge leap forward

[DanceswithUnix]

Only if you count a 40MHz bump in clock speed (and the addition of a non-deterministic boost for up to another 25MHz more) as "tweaked" the underlying silicon is identical. Buy a 7850, overclock it to 926MHz, and you've got an R7 265-beater

Yes I count that as tweaked, because it is a minimal change to the product but there is a change. That is compared to the HD5770 becoming the HD6770 by swapping a sticker and presumably some byte in the BIOS to make the auto detection come up with the same name as the sticker. That was a re-brand.

My problem is that at some point, in the same way that the entire HD4000 series is obsoleted and consigned to the AMD legacy driver, there will come a day when the 7850 will be reaped by a release note saying the 7000 series is now legacy, but I expect the 265 will get another year of support.

Please don't anyone think I am having a go at AMD here, because I am not. I suspect on average the way Nvidia do their pushing out to legacy works out the same, but is far less uniform. I had years of support from my 8800GT, but if I had just purchased a GT210 (which are still for sale right now) I might well be spitting blood at the latest announcement. So I think the AMD policy is fine, but knowing how long I keep graphics cards for I think having the latest model is worth something to me. Not that I can put a hard value on it.

This is the Nvidia EOL that has me still looking for a graphics card in case anyone is wondering what I am blathering on about: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3473