Upgrade from my HD 6870: Used HD 6970 or new HD 7850.

[MaxAwesome]

Hey guys,

I have the possibility of selling my HD 6870 and buy a second hand 2GB HD 6970 for cheaper than a brand new HD 7850..

My dilemma is: is it worth getting a last-gen card that is more powerful, or a brand new, less powerful GPU.

I'm more inclined towards the HD 6970, because in spite of being older, it's quite faster than my HD 6870 and also faster than the HD 7850.

Is it a wise move?

[heky]

If you have no chance of saveing up some more money to buy a 7950 or 7970, than i would say go for the 6970. I have it, running at 1000/1500 it can chew on every game at 1080p.

[DarkOCean]

7850 oc alot more without effort while consuming less than half power wich also means is alot cooler -my choice.

[MaxAwesome]

Originally Posted by DarkOCean

7850 oc alot more without effort while consuming less than half power wich also means is alot cooler -my choice.

It may OC more, but it won't be as fast as an HD 6970. Don't forget the HD 6970 can overclock too

[LifeOnMars]

I have my MSI HD7850 Twin FrozrIII OC @ 1250/5800......7850s clock like beasts and generally have the beating of the 6970s at these sort of clocks. Plus I never go above 70c with next to no fan noise

[DarkOCean]

Originally Posted by MaxAwesome

Don't forget the HD 6970 can overclock too.

That's a myth, any card can overclock the question is how much.
A heavily oced 7850 can take a stock 7950; can a 6970 do that ...doubtful.

[redeye]

when in doubt go new.. i.e. 7850... though about a 560ti?... i think it is the same speed as a 6950bios'd to a 6970 on an amd1100t system...

if still worried, check the techpowerup reviews and pick the one that is faster.

or shoot for the moon with palit 680 that seems to have doomed the 7970 to the also-ran pile...
how does Nvidia always come out on top?
NvidiaAmd?

[heky]

Originally Posted by DarkOCean

That's a myth, any card can overclock the question is how much.
A heavily oced 7850 can take a stock 7950; can a 6970 do that ...doubtful.

Now dont get ower your head with statements like that.

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

Here is the 7850 overclocked to the max, and it didnt beat the 6970 stock. But it does use less power, thats true.

[DarkOCean]

Originally Posted by heky

Now dont get ower your head with statements like that.

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

Here is the 7850 overclocked to the max, and it didnt beat the 6970 stock. But it does use less power, thats true.

That's not to the max, i mean overvolted and from your own link you can see the oced 7850 surpassing the 7950.

[lilhasselhoffer]

Do you have a second x16 slot? Two 6870s can crossfire into a heck of a setup, and be significantly cheaper (even new) than either of the two other options.


If you don't have the ability to crossfire the cards then a little bit of patience may be in order. The Nvidea 670 series of cards, or even the 680, may offer far more bang for your money. If you are bent on an AMD card then the best you can hope for is a price drop in response to Nvidea's new cards.


Barring a little bit of patience (no more than a month, longer than that and you get into a never ending cycle of waiting), the 7850 is probably a better option than the 6970. The performance might not be at the exact same level as a 6970, but you get drastically less power consumption and a much cooler running temperature. All of that means a bit more overclocking headroom. If you're getting a new card you've also got to consider that there will be a warranty, that second hand cards generally do not have....

[MaxAwesome]

Originally Posted by lilhasselhoffer

Do you have a second x16 slot? Two 6870s can crossfire into a heck of a setup, and be significantly cheaper (even new) than either of the two other options.


If you don't have the ability to crossfire the cards then a little bit of patience may be in order. The Nvidea 670 series of cards, or even the 680, may offer far more bang for your money. If you are bent on an AMD card then the best you can hope for is a price drop in response to Nvidea's new cards.


Barring a little bit of patience (no more than a month, longer than that and you get into a never ending cycle of waiting), the 7850 is probably a better option than the 6970. The performance might not be at the exact same level as a 6970, but you get drastically less power consumption and a much cooler running temperature. All of that means a bit more overclocking headroom. If you're getting a new card you've also got to consider that there will be a warranty, that second hand cards generally do not have....

I can crossfire and SLI, since I have the P8P67 Evo. But I don't want to deal with the microstuttering and performance hassles of multi-GPU.

I prefer a single, fast GPU.

[Fourstaff]

6970 gets my vote, as long as your electricity bill is not as high as in UK.

[MaxAwesome]

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

6970 gets my vote, as long as your electricity bill is not as high as in UK.

Why do you say that? Is the HD 6970 a power hog?

I thought the HD 6000 series was pretty efficient overall? I'm confused now

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by MaxAwesome

Why do you say that? Is the HD 6970 a power hog?

I thought the HD 6000 series was pretty efficient overall? I'm confused now

7850 comes within 10% of 6970, at only about half the power needed. If you are paying UK electricity bills, you can easily see £30 savings a year in power bills, depending on how long you play games each day.

[phanbuey]

Don't forget to take overclocking into account... I mean yeah the 6970 is faster at its stock clocks, but the 7850 does overclock like a monster from what I have heard... so keep this in mind.

You may actually get more perf from the 7850 down the line. I don't know the numbers and dont have the 5 minutes it would take to look them up. But I would do that comparison first....

Otherwise go with whatever is cheaper and ultimately faster (with OCing into account)

[brandonwh64]

have you seen the performance of the 7870 2GB? These are REALLY nice cards!

[phanbuey]

yeah and that is at stock ^^ with an OC i think the two would be almost identical

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

with a decent OC you're looking at GTX 580ish levels.

[brandonwh64]

Originally Posted by phanbuey

yeah and that is at stock ^^ with an OC i think the two would be almost identical

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

with a decent OC you're looking at GTX 580ish levels.

W1z's OCing results were AMAZING! 2FPS from 7970 status!

[crazyeyesreaper]

get the 7850,

ive had 5850's 6950's 6970's and 7970

the 6970 while a nice card its overclocks dont yield huge performance boosts,

7850 will run cooler quieter and even if it doesnt overclock well, it will still perform well enough that unless you agonizing look at your FPS in every game you play you will never notice,

and yea BF3 = much better OC test then COD4 ever was, glad W1zzard finally moved away from that old ass benchmark to a much better one

[heky]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

and yea BF3 = much better OC test then COD4 ever was, glad W1zzard finally moved away from that old ass benchmark to a much better one

Seriously? BF3 is one of the most badly coded games ever!

[crazyeyesreaper]

better then CoD lulz,

and BF3 is better coded then most of todays PC titles sadly, unless of course you know of a much better benchmark for which W1zzard should be using test overclocks? lol

[MMMSanga]

you said you can crossfire.. just but another 6870

this is me - http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3337562 - the fps results are high as a giraffe bum

I play skyrim etc at nosebleed settings with no problems

those are real results my brother... nothing short of a single massively overclocked gtx680 or a water cooled 7970 can touch it - thats single gpu.. for an extra 150 bucks , with the one you already own.. you would be crazy to ditch your 6870 for a 6970 in my opinion as you wont get the fps..