AMD's Mid-range GPUs Launch: Radeon HD 7870/7850 Reviewed

[lawfer]

Steve said:

amstech said:
The 11% this and 7% that are very misleading.
The 7870 gives you 570 performance, period.

Nothing more, nothing less.

I really have no idea how you came up with that. How can stating the actual facts be misleading? Based on the 14 games that we tested with the Radeon HD 7870 was on average 12% faster than the GeForce GTX 570. There were just 3 games were it was slower and 11 were it was clearly faster. There were 3 games where it was more than 20% faster. Anyway again very strange logic there.

my thoughts are the 78XX will be a nice "replacement" for last gen 69xx users.. but it won't be an "upgrade" consider it's price tag. just a month ago, you could get a 6950 for $225 on newegg. the performance increase for the 78xx over 69xx is just not big enough to be considered an upgrade consider their price tags. but if you're in for a replacement, it'll be a nice treat.

on the other hand the overclocking potential on the 7950's are on average 30~40%. mine site at a relatively 37% overclock increase.

Its not an upgrade for Radeon HD 6900 series, its really more of an upgrade for Radeon HD 5800 series users. Still if you are happy to spend the money they are a nice upgrade for anyone with a slower card

Don't listen to him Steve, he's just jealous he bought a 570 and not the 7870.

And really, look at those temps. Very nice card. I will sell my 560 Ti for this big boy. I was waiting for Kepler, but meh, I don't <i>really</i> need it.

 

[LNCPapa]

Haha! "need"

 

[lawfer]

LNCPapa said:
Haha! "need"

May I know what you find so amusing about it?

 

[LNCPapa]

Oh sorry... it's kind of funny because need really doesn't come into play when we talk about computers like this - it's all want really. I guess these are first world problems.

 

[lawfer]

LNCPapa said:
Oh sorry... it's kind of funny because need really doesn't come into play when we talk about computers like this - it's all want really. I guess these are first world problems.

Actual need, and the overarching term "needs" usually associated to a nation's entire economic status, are two things that happens to be mutually exclusive.

To play next generation games, clearly you <i>need</i> a more powerful hardware to play such games. "Want" has nothing to do here. Sure I want it, but I don't need it. Or would my comment be less amusing to you if I had said I don't want it? That, on the other hand, indirectly implies I <i>can</i> afford it, but for an unknown reason I won't be getting it.

If that had happened then, to me, it would have sounded a lot like what you thought you read.

Just because I am in the position where I get to ponder, and make such decision, shouldn't be taken as an example of "first world problems."

Just like if, say, you live in New York City, and you find yourself realizing you don't necessarily need a car, you can commute to work just fine. Just because you live in NYC and you get to make such a decision, it shouldn't be automatically contrasted with how someone in Uganda can't make such a decision. Life is less complicated than that when you know your limitations.

 

[Guest]

Hey Walton fix your equipment, Crysis 2 max and a gtx 590 is only get 58 fps average at 1680? What planet is your test setup from? All your crap is running way slow. 7970 51 fps at 1680 max? No just no.

 

[Steve]

Hey Walton fix your equipment, Crysis 2 max and a gtx 590 is only get 58 fps average at 1680? What planet is your test setup from? All your crap is running way slow. 7970 51 fps at 1680 max? No just no.

So you have never run the game in DX11 mode with the high resolution texture pack then? I could pull half a dozen reviews to backup my results but since I cannot be bothered here is one...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-benchmark-tahiti-gcn,3104-8.html

Note the 3rd graph which used the ultra settings, at 1920x1200 the 7970 rendered 54fps with motion blur set to low.

 

[LNCPapa]

Hehe - some people just don't pay attention to the settings... and of course it's easy to talk to you that way when they're "anonymous". It's all in the details folks. And Lawfer, you put way more thought into your post than I did mine. Just wanted you to know that I meant nothing negative by what I said, it's just an internal thing I've been doing to try to stop using the word "need" for things I want. Often, after I buy some of the stuff I get I ask myself, "Did I really need that?"

 

[Guest]

Great review. I think the 7850's are going to be the new crossfire favorites. Factor in their price, 1 power connector per card, their lower power consumption over the 5xxx and 6xxx series cards, and their decent scaling (from what little has trickled out on crossfire benchmarks) then compare that to the performance you get I think there are going to be a lot of happy gamers on that set up.

I am getting ready to buy a crossfire board now and a 7850 (to upgrade from my single 5770). I will probably get my second 7850 next year.

 

[Guest]

You are right but you are wrong. You need the central processing unit (the "brain" ) to also support PCi3.0.
I like the look of the 7850, but with some really strong cooling solution, maybe from likes of HIS.