Gtx 460 to 7850, worth it?

lickisg · **Gtx 460 to 7850, worth it? -** 03-24-2012, 14:48 | posts: 164

Hey there, i have the opportunity to buy a new card with a 250$ budget. In the same time i'll be buying a ridicoulous cheap i7-2700k build from someone near which will give a nice boost in everything. I plan on gaming at 1080p this time up from 1680x1050. Theres a multiple list of games that i would like to max out with atleast x2 AA ; most which i havent played and will in the following month such: Skyrim, ME 3, BF 3 DLC's, Crysis wh and any other recent releases or upcoming.

I know for sure the card will bring a strong upgrade, but will it be able to meet the standards? In some games the card barely pushes 30 fps in the reviews, but i know they pull even higher demanding settings to push the cards. The 7870 is not an option unless it goes below 300 which wont happen any time soon.

The gtx 460 is my first card after a radeon 4850 and besides the perfomance and temps, for some reason my games had a strange IQ with snow and flashy jaggies on the edges that even the highest settings did not fix. Never had that issues with amd cards, reason im deciding to go their path this generation.

lehtv · 03-24-2012, 15:59 | posts: 3,087

7850 overclocks like mad, it is possible to get it near GTX 580 level. I'd say unless you demand constant 60 fps, you will be able to play demanding games like bf3 on ultra. Just don't enable AA on BF3, it's a deferred rendering game and doesn't handle AA with AMD cards well. Use the post processing AA. For online play, you may want constant 60fps though, forcing you to high settings at best.

Skyrim should benefit nicely from overclocking the CPU since it's a two-thread game.

lickisg · 03-24-2012, 16:08 | posts: 164

Overclocking is not an issue. Thou i dont generally push high, i take it into account.

angmar · 03-27-2012, 05:56 | posts: 1,025 | Location: Monmouth County, NJ

You can buy a gtx 480 for under 200 dollars of ebay...which is faster then a 7850...about the same speed as a 7870

DarkKnightDude · 03-27-2012, 06:12 | posts: 570 | Location: Taipei, Taiwan

Will be worth it I'd imagine. Low power usage, great temps, good performance.

Loophole35 · *Last edited by Loophole35; 03-31-2012 at 03:41.*

If your not too worried about energy consumption have you looked at 580 prices lately? They are very affordable and the performance is still very comparable. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130587

edit: totally missed the $250 budget thing my bad.

angmar · *Last edited by angmar; 03-31-2012 at 16:41.*

The 7000 series mid range cards are a bit over priced atm. Couldn't really recommend one unless the prices dropped to a more realistic level. Spending 250 dollars to go from a GTX 460 to a 7850 would be more like a side grade. The 7850 is not an upgrade if you already have a GTX 460. While it will be slightly faster it def does not warrant the cost you would have to fork out. I am pretty sure it will leave you feeling rather underwhelmed. That PSU of yours is rather small as well have you ever considered that was the cause of your issues...as graphical artifacts are definitely not normal on your card. You might want to look into the real cause.

The 7850 will not be strong enough to max out quite a few of the games you listed at 1080p with 2xaa

Saad · *Last edited by Saad; 03-31-2012 at 16:44.*

I disagree..a gtx 480 is on par with a 6970 which is on par with a 7850 @ stock...the 7850 overclocks a lot and would consume less than half the power compared to a gtx 480..no way does a 480 compete with a 7870

and really? 460 to a 7850 is a side-grade? in other words 460 to a 480 isnt an upgrade either? lulzwut?

---TK--- · 03-31-2012, 16:44 | posts: 14,720 | Location: New Jersey, USA

read the 7870 reviews the 7870 is a tad slower than a 580. where talking about a slower 7850 here, not much of an upgrade from a 460

Saad · 03-31-2012, 16:47 | posts: 289 | Location: the internets

Quote:

Originally Posted by ---TK---

read the 7870 reviews the 7870 is a tad slower than a 580. where talking about a slower 7850 here, not much of an upgrade from a 460

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ra...7870-review/23

not much of an upgrade from a 460?

angmar · *Last edited by angmar; 03-31-2012 at 17:04.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saad

I disagree..a gtx 480 is on par with a 6970 which is on par with a 7850 @ stock...the 7850 overclocks a lot and would consume less than half the power compared to a gtx 480..no way does a 480 compete with a 7870

and really? 460 to a 7850 is a side-grade? in other words 460 to a 480 isnt an upgrade either? lulzwut?

for 190 dollars it will cost to buy a 480 on ebay it competes strongly against a 7870 it can be had for almost half the price and yes it is certainly faster then a 7850 go look upa 7870 review on guru. An then keep in mind gurus 480 numbers are pretty old with old drivers and in reality the 480 is actually slightly faster then the 570 in almost every game. And a 460 to a 480 for under 200 dollars is a way better price/performance boost then going from a 460 to a 7850 for 250. Not only will the 480 be much cheaper it is also faster.

---TK--- · *Last edited by ---TK---; 03-31-2012 at 17:13.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saad

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ra...7870-review/23

not much of an upgrade from a 460?

thats a poor upgrade for buying a new card at full price. I do not consider the difference worthwhile. its easy to look at a review showing the 7850 ahead by about 20%, which I never disputed. It is another thing to have to buy a whole new video card for that increase. hence the thread title, and my recommondation is not worth it. save up for a better upgrade and continue using that 460 and oc it in the meantime

crap daddy · 04-01-2012, 23:12 | posts: 746 | Location: close to the edge

Best card for 250 is the GTX560Ti 448 core.

sykozis · 04-01-2012, 23:50 | posts: 13,493 | Location: US East Coast

The HD7850 is 20-30% faster than a GTX460 1GB.... That's about the same difference we typically see on the "high-end" cards....yet people pay $400-$600 for those upgrades. Typically, I don't believe it makes much sense to change brands unless you're just unhappy with your current brand for whatever reason....or unless you just like to experiment on occassion. Going from nVidia to nVidia, you generally see a constant improvement in performance from 1 generation to the next. Going from nVidia to AMD (or vise versa) you will see cases where some games will perform better, some worse.

@OP, if you're dead set on switching to AMD, I'd suggest looking at the games you play to see what kind of performance you would expect. Make your decision based on which card will provide the best overall experience based on the games you play. Sometimes, "switching sides" isn't the best solution. In my case, not the best solution, but definitely the most interesting. Most of my games are "TWIMTBP" titles, but....I like a little variety at times.

---TK--- · 04-02-2012, 00:29 | posts: 14,720 | Location: New Jersey, USA

that would be like going from 2 580`s to 2 680`s buying 2 video cards for $1000, again not worth it.

Ryu5uzaku · 04-02-2012, 01:01 | posts: 3,200 | Location: Finland

Quote:

Originally Posted by crap daddy

Best card for 250 is the GTX560Ti 448 core.

that or 7850 they exchange blows. and 7850 reaches 570 / 580 at times

sykozis · 04-02-2012, 01:02 | posts: 13,493 | Location: US East Coast

If it's not worth $250 for a 20-30% performance gain, it's not worth $400+ for the same % performance gain.

lickisg · 04-02-2012, 05:03 | posts: 164

I still have about a week until i buy a new card. After reading the replies it does indeed look that the 7850 is not worth for what im willing to spend. As for now, i just got an i7 860, Msi p55-gd85, 2x4 ddr3 1333 ram and hq 850w coolermaster PSU, a nice upgrade from what i currently have and which i plan to OC. I would really like a new card to max out recent and upcoming demanding games on 1080p

As for new options:
I would like to move away from gtx 400 series, besides good performance there´s something with the image quality that never got me comfortable. I can go as high as 300-310 $´s and was thinking on scoring a used/refurbished gtx 580 for that price. What do you think, are refurbished cards secure and worth it?, is there any other model for that price range that would be a better upgrade?

thanks so far for the replies

sykozis · 04-02-2012, 05:07 | posts: 13,493 | Location: US East Coast

Quote:

Originally Posted by lickisg

I still have about a week until i buy a new card. After reading the replies it does indeed look that the 7850 is not worth for what im willing to spend. As for now, i just got an i7 860, Msi p55-gd85, 2x4 ddr3 1333 ram and hq 850w coolermaster PSU, a nice upgrade from what i currently have and which i plan to OC. I would really like a new card to max out recent and upcoming demanding games on 1080p

As for new options:
I would like to move away from gtx 400 series, besides good performance there´s something with the image quality that never got me comfortable. I can go as high as 300-310 $´s and was thinking on scoring a used/refurbished gtx 580 for that price. What do you think, are refurbished cards secure and worth it?, is there any other model for that price range that would be a better upgrade?

thanks so far for the replies

I wouldn't pay that much for a refurbished product....

Ryu5uzaku · 04-02-2012, 10:24 | posts: 3,200 | Location: Finland

if you can find 7870 for around that 300-310 get it O_O

GhostXL · *Last edited by GhostXL; 04-03-2012 at 06:09.*

Those people suggesting someone to buy old tech over new tech that can OC to higher performance than old tech should rethink their suggestions to the OP.

OP, get the 7850 and OC. It's going to be a nice upgrade. If you can get a 7870, then do that instead.

So to answer your question. Yes, it's very worth it. Overclock it, and it will be an even better investment. HD 7 series is made to OC.

Haz-RT · 04-04-2012, 18:31 | posts: 38

I plan on buying the XFX HD 7850 Black Edition Double Dissipation, if they ever release the damn thing, so far newegg has the XFX HD 7850 Core edition and the Black Edition with 1 fan, OP go with the 7850 and then get a Ivy Bridge CPU for PCI-E 3.0.