6850 - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...res-eyefinity-hdmi-2x-mini-displayport-2x-dvi 7850 - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...gpu-860mhz-1024-cores-dual-link-dvi-i-hdmi-2x Firstly - I know, I know, the 7850 is the better card by far, with the extra VRAM, lower power consumption and whatnot. But my issue is a financial one. Originally in my build I was going to go for the 7850, but then I'd have to wait until at least early next year until I get the money. However, if I go for the cheaper 6850 I could get the parts this month. The obvious answer would be to wait. But I was considering either later selling or crossfiring the 6850s. What do you guys think? I'd be playing games in 1920x1080, mostly Guild Wars 2, Skyrim and Shogun 2 (I'd also like to be ready for Rome 2). Could I run all these at max with a 6850 at a good framerate? I've looked at benchmarks, but only Shogun 2 can be maxed with brilliant FPS for definite, Skyrim's benchmarks are different all over and Guild Wars 2's are hard to find. Sorry if I seem to ramble on, hah.
My 7850 maxes out all those games at around 60fps (I usually have vsync on). However, early next year is probably a long time to wait for not that much performance difference. There will be very little difference between high and very high settings, and like you said, crossfired 6850s are quite capable.
Alright, thanks. I think I'll go with the 6850, even games in the next-gen should run fine, as long as I tone down AA and the like.
I would second the 6850, but considered spending a few more pounds and going for the 6870 instead? You can pick up good second hand units off of eBay for the price of a new 6850... Also, you can use software based GPU overclocking to gain the extra FPS that some newer games could lack when they demand a lot off your system. I boost my 5850 by 25Mhz sometimes just to give it the edge it needs.
I was thinking of picking up a 6870... if at the time I can find one for a decent price, I'll pick it up. If not, a 6850 should do just fine. Also, aren't the XFX versions of the 6870 meant to be very hot/loud?
So I saw an OEM 6870 on Pixmania for only £110 (inc. postage). Considering picking this up, but is it worth it? I've heard a 6850 can be OC'ed to 6870 levels... http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/11391849/art/amd/radeon-hd-6870-oem-1-gb-g.html
True enough I guess. Does anyone have experience with the 68XX cards? The 6870 is barely any better in some games but much better in other, from what benchmarks I've seen...
Well, if you can get a 6870 for around the same price, you might aswell, if not, just go for the 6850
Cheapest I can find a 6850 is £80, the cheapest I can find a 6870 is £110, including postage. Can't decide for myself if this is worth it...
I highly strongly recommend you forget the mid range 68xx series and do yourself a favour and grab a used HD5870. The price of a HD6850 but quite a bit faster than the HD6870. It's old architecture but IMO will outlive a HD6850 and will play all those games mentioned at 1080p maxed out (I tried it myself in Skyrim anyway)
Couldn't help but notice this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...750mhz-shader-336-cores-2-x-dvi-1-x-mini-hdmi Worth it? And I'm wondering, will this fit in a BitFenix Alpha Merc? I'm unsure on the dimensions...
You probably won't find a much better deal than this one at the moment, an MSi HD 7850 OC 1GB card for £130. Given the insane overclocking ability of the 7850, you should be able to overclock to 1050 MHz or perhaps even >1150 Mhz (I have mine running at 1100MHz/5500MHz with 1.075 volts). That kind of OC would put it toe-to-toe with a GTX 580. Even at stock, it offers up 570 performance in a much more power efficient package (This MSi card has a 40MHz OC over the one in the graph and the new drivers have improved 7850 performance more than the comparison shows). This really seems to be the bang-for-buck card of the 28-nanometre GPUs from both the red and green team. edit: I forgot to add that this card is 20.2cm long so it shouldn't pose too much difficulty getting it into your case.
Quite tempting actually... It's the 1GB version though, won't that hinder it's performance quite a bit?
nice deal on the 7850. I can't imagine the 1gb as oppose to 2gb in those benchmarks would make that much difference would it?
I game at 1920x1080 and 1440x900. Outside of synthetic benchmarks, I have only seen the memory usage go over 1GB twice in gaming situations and both times when I used masochistic levels of super sample anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and tessellation. I don't think the 1GB would be very limiting at 1080p, but going above 1920x1200 would not be recommended with this card. Here is the worst case scenario, running Unigine Heaven with maximum anti-aliasing, aniso and tess. There you can it maxes out at about 1.25GB in a worst case scenario (with my heavy overclock which would require more memory usage). With that card, you're probably looking at 500-900MB for 4xAA, 16xAF and high tessellation like I do. Good luck with your decision!
Cheers buddy! I'll see exactly how much I have at the time of purchase, so it's either 7850, 6870 or (most likely, due to my budget) 6850. Thanks again!
I'm running an XFX 6870. I've had to take Vsync off a bit as my chosen graphical settings are on the 'pretty' side for gaming (1920x1080), so I prefer the smooth FPS changes of 45-60fps to the massive jerk from 60 to 30 fps and back. Other than that I can't really fault it. I've been looking at getting a new graphics card (this one was installed in February when I build the computer) for a few days but I can't really justify it to myself yet. Not had driver issues or anything, though!
Hmm, how would you compare it to the 6850? It seems to perform only a little bit better than a 6850 in some games, but moreso in others.
I have no basis for comparison, I'm afraid. Games I typically play: Fallout 3/NV. Arma2/DayZ. Tribes: Ascend. Not the most taxing ones, admittedly. But all will sit at 50-60fps happily 95% of the time with my graphics settings.
