Prices are moving almost daily, I'd wait a few weeks for the 660 series to hit the market. I was watching 7850 prices, but now I'm looking at the 7950 as the head down towards my budget. dunx
Think I'll pick up this beauty, assuming I can get the budget to increase - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...hz-core-gddr5-4800mhz-dl-dvi-i-2xmini-dp-hdmi If not, a 6850 will still suit my needs.
Don't worry, it won't stay at that high a price for very long. At this price, it starts to encroach on the 7870 and GTX 660 which are both more powerful (although 7850 max OC > 660 max OC). Just remain vigilant and I'm sure you'll find it somewhere between £150-£160 by the end of the week. Persevere though because this card with 2GB will give you a lot more longevity gaming-wise versus the 6800s you were looking at. I'll keep an eye out and post again if I catch it anywhere for sub-£160.
Alright, thanks! There's the 7850 I linked in the OP which is quite cheap compared to it's brethren, I think I'll end buying that, unless I can get a dual-fan 7850 for the same price somewhere.
If I were you I would definitely search customer reviews on the XFX cards. This generation some of their Ghost Thermal/Double Dissipation cards have been found to have poor cooling capabilities leading to increased fan noise. Not this one in particular, but I heard this with the 7900s that first came out and it may still be an issue. Before jumping in, it may be worth waiting until Saturday and taking a gander at what weekend deals may pop up. I hope you find your ideal 7850 soon.
Thnks for all the help man. I'm waiting for the next wage to come in anyway before I make the purchase, but I'll keep an eye out for deals! Added rep by the way.
I've just bought a GTX660 nonTi for €209. It's a pre OCed Gigabyte with Windforce-cooler (2s 100mm fans). It's a real good card for the money and it runs cool and quiet aswell. Performance beats the 7850 and actually matches the performance of a 7870. Just as a reminder that there's now a counterpart from nVidia
I'd like to throw my 2 cents into the pot with the rest of the folk saying go for the 7850 now. I bought myself a 7770 just after christmas, it was a very reasonable price, on par with the 6850 at the time, and was the xfx black edition with the DD cooler. While very quiet and very cool-running, and with it being the OC edition, on par for performance in most areas with the 6850. I just found it to not be powerful enough to really make the most of modern games, and while a definite upgrade over my darling old 4850, not noticeably so. A month ago, I found myself eyeing up a second card to Cfx with but for the extra £100 it wouldve cost, selling the 7770 and putting the money to the 7850 was the obvious option. It runs crysis 2 on ultra at 1920x1080 at around 60fps, have yet to have a go on skyrim but expect similar performance. It may not interest you, but on scans today only right now they have the 2gb MSI twin frozr going for the right side of £170 and you get a download code for sleeping dogs, that you can either use, or sell for about a tenner, bringing a premium-cooled 7850 below the £160 sweetspot. Quick look on novatech has the same card but with dirt: showdown for £160 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...hicscards/amdhd7850series/r7850tf-2gd5oc.html And I've no idea what the card itself is like, but if it's on par with the other 2Gb 7850's then we have ourselves a winner here http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-052-HS Hope this may have helped in some way.
Have you tried overclocking at all? haven't seen much hype around the non-ti version and wondered what it was like. One of the best things about the 7850 is the ease of overclocking, you're pretty much guaranteed to be matching a stock 7870 for performance just by dragging two sliders in catalyst, and with a good cooler, a lucky chip and some third-party software people have been recording almost 50% overclocks on some cards. Would be interesting to see if the gtx660 competed in this area.
My opinion is save up your pennies and buy the best gtx 660 ti on the market as current MSI Power Edition GTX 660 Ti you wont be sorry...
