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Thread: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

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    Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Hi, I haven't posted on here for awhile now! I don't really keep up with tech stuff anymore so wondered what the opinion of your guys was. As far as I can see the HD 7850 (particularly the 2gb) is one of the best price performance cards ... ever.

    The thing that is most staggering about this card is it does it with low power consumption, temperature, noise and a smallish PCB (obviously most of those things go hand in hand). But on top of this it is supposedly the best overclocker in the HD 7xxx range. If you get passed the voltage lock and overclock lock then HD 7950/ GTX 580 performance is achievable. (see from post 11 onwards).

    So next question: when are prices going to start going up :S.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Not really. There have been several good value cards in the past, and the prices for discrete cards seems to have jacked up in recent years, so it only seems a bargain compared to recent prices. Don't forget when it was released the price was significantly higher as well.

    In the past cards like the X800, X1950, ti 4200, 6800gt, 8800gt have been at least as good value for money, and more recently the 560 (non-ti) was a cracker for the money.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    It's certainly a good value card, but I don't think it will be remembered in 5 years time.

    Thing to remember is that overclocks don't automatically translate into faster frames.
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...S_Plus/31.html

    This is best 7850 they tested and while the 25% overclock sounds amazing it provides a more modest 10.6% increase in FPS.

    Yes you can do more extreme overclocking but this comes at the expense of cost, power, noise and temperatures.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Willzzz I thought that was something else about the Hd 7850 though it scales better with overclocking compared to other cards. With GCN based cards performance scales much better with overclocking than say VLIW5. Again I don't really keep up with stuff anymore that is just what I have head people say.

    Kalniel, could it just be inflation or do you think manufacturers jacked their prices post 2005/06?

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    It's certainly a good value card, but I don't think it will be remembered in 5 years time.

    Thing to remember is that overclocks don't automatically translate into faster frames.
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...S_Plus/31.html

    This is best 7850 they tested and while the 25% overclock sounds amazing it provides a more modest 10.6% increase in FPS.

    Yes you can do more extreme overclocking but this comes at the expense of cost, power, noise and temperatures.
    Another HD7850 review they did:

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/C...lQueen/31.html

    38% OC=27% performance increase

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...dition/31.html

    18% OC =18.6% performance increase

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...D_7870/29.html

    33% OC =18.7% performance increase

    They also overclocked the RAM too in all the reviews.

    To,put it blankly the TPU OC results are all over the place.

    Lets look,at the Hexus review of the PCS+ card:

    http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...d7850/?page=11

    A 20% overclock gave a 25% performance increase. 1GHZ pre-overclocked card

    Another Hexus one:

    http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...ition/?page=10

    12% OC=12% performance increase. 1GHZ pre-overclocked card

    The PCS+ cards and the IceqX cards are already are running at at a 16.3% core overclock too,so at 1200MHZ you are looking at a 40% core overclock over the stock core clocks.

    It is basically clocked too low. 860MHZ is pathetic for a 28NM GPU of its sized.

    The last year or so since the HD7850 has been released,enough people have bought the card and tested it on forums like OcUK. It does have decent performance increases when overclocked. You might want to go over the and ask some people. They should be only too happy to run some benchmarks for you(they like doing those sorts of things it seems).
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 27-03-2013 at 01:21 PM.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Having said that,BOTH the HD7850 and GTX660 hit the same average overclock on HWBOT:

    http://hwbot.org/hardware/videocard/radeon_hd_7850/

    http://hwbot.org/hardware/videocard/geforce_gtx_660/

    So,there is no real limitation of either card,with clockspeeds,unless you get a cheapo version with a crap cooler(or a voltage locked card). I do think that upto 1100MHZ is attainable with most of the current AMD and Nvidia cards though.

    The only thing is the HD7850 has been gimped by AMD with low clockspeeds,which whys its percentage overclocks look impressive.

    However,at £140 to £160 it is not a bargain card IMHO.

    The best bargain card I had in terms of speed was an AGP 6800LE.

    Unlocked to the same configuration as a 6800GT but with slower VRAM. I overclocked the core to past the 6800GT stock clockspeeds and the VRAM as much as possible. It really came close to a 6800GT in games IIRC.

    That was a budget rocket of a card.

    In terms of longetivity it has to be the 9500PRO and HD5850 I have had,but even the latter is due to the slow uptake of full DX11 features,and the fact it overclocked nearly 30% percent(and actually gives a decent performance increase too).

    Despite the power consumption,the 8800GTX and indeed the people who got bargain priced GTX480 cards have done very well.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 27-03-2013 at 01:23 PM.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    As long as i've been interested in PC components, the GTX 260 (216) and 4870/90 were top buys when they could be had for ~£140. The 4850 had some sterling O/C models too.

    Likewise, if you managed to grab a 5850/5870 when they launched you've done well as their prices rocketed after the initial batches and stayed high for a good while.
    Kalniel: "Nice review Tarinder - would it be possible to get a picture of the case when the components are installed (with the side off obviously)?"
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    for all intents it seems to be the same card minus some gays name on it and a shielded cover ? with OEM added to it - GoNz0.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    So why are AMD and partners so conservative?

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    So why are AMD and partners so conservative?
    Some of its probably down to TDP I suspect,even with the lower cards and that even goes back to the previous generations. The HD6850 had conservative stock clockspeeds for example and so did the HD4830. Both had decent overclocking headroom too and hardly any OC models with decent overclocks. OTH,the GTX460 had loads of models with decent overclocks.

    You only need to look at the HD7950 and HD7970 too. Their conservative clockspeeds,really made the GTX670 and GTX680 shine even more for Nvidia. The worst thing they actually admitted they had set the clockspeeds too low.

    It was actually worse off years ago. It is only really in the last two years,that they have seemed to have allowed their OEMs somewhat more freedom with non-reference designs,with decent overclocks within a few months of launch. Nvidia,traditionally gave their OEMs far more room with regards to what they do with their cards.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 27-03-2013 at 01:46 PM.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Yeah but given that they have admitted this, why isn't there a 7850 Ghz edition? Or a 7850 Boost or whatever they want to call it.

    Clearly it is possible, it's not like they are somehow bound by the decisions they made at launch.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    Yeah but given that they have admitted this, why isn't there a 7850 Ghz edition? Or a 7850 Boost or whatever they want to call it.

    Clearly it is possible, it's not like they are somehow bound by the decisions they made at launch.
    An HD7850 Boost would probably eat into HD7870 sales. They could boost the HD7870 too,but then you have the HD7870LE/XT.

    It does seem rather a congested sub £200 range for AMD ATM.

    What they need to do is drop the HD7850 and HD7870 prices.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by c.ruel View Post
    Kalniel, could it just be inflation or do you think manufacturers jacked their prices post 2005/06?
    No it's not inflation, and it's more recent than 2005/6, it's only the last few years.

    It's caused by reduced demand and competition aviodance more than anything.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Personally think the 7850 is a great card, clocks well and with the games I play (Grid, F1, Dirt) with settings in Ultra & 4XAA I still have to have Vsync as on as its still getting over 70fps. Yesterday I got my Sapphire 7950 vapor X (massive), for the size of the card and the 2 x 8 pin power draw I can't justify keeping it, so on Ebay its gone. But with all graphics cards, It depends on what you play.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    You can't go wrong with either a 7850 or a GTX 660 for a budget build... Both overclock well and both are decent performers for their price range (the Radeon 7850 is slightly cheaper). Prices for mid and high end cards have definitely gone up over the last few years though.

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by technodean View Post
    Personally think the 7850 is a great card, clocks well and with the games I play (Grid, F1, Dirt) with settings in Ultra & 4XAA I still have to have Vsync as on as its still getting over 70fps. Yesterday I got my Sapphire 7950 vapor X (massive), for the size of the card and the 2 x 8 pin power draw I can't justify keeping it, so on Ebay its gone. But with all graphics cards, It depends on what you play.
    Really? You're choosing the 7850 over the greatly superior 7950 because of power consumption? The difference between the two is night and day when gaming and the 7950 will cope better with future game releases. Maybe you should consider a GTX 660Ti? It's faster than a 7850 and the power requirements are less than the 7950 . I couldn't imagine myself using anything below a 7950 or 660Ti (i own both).

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    Re: Is the HD 7850 one of the best graphics cards ever?

    Just because it has 2x8pin doesn't mean it actually makes full use of them. It can quite happily draw enough power just from 1 8pin connector.

    However it is all about what you play and how much performance you need. I would suggest that most gamers would be perfectly happy with a 7850/660.

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