Better buy - 670 or 7850 ?

[Nickjf20]

I've currently got a 5770, but that's starting to drag in many games these days.
I can get £50 for it which will lessen the ravaging of my bank account.

I've only heard good things about the 670 and the 7850 in terms of price/performance, and the massive overclocking abilities of each.

For arguments sake, I've taken both cards to be overclocked to the performance levels of the 680 and the 7870 respectively. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=555

Now, I primarily play BF3, and then a wide mix of other assorted games.

What I'm asking is, is the 670 really worth the extra £140 for the extra 20% in most games, and then almost 40% in BF3 ?
It's not really that I don't have the money, more think it would be a waste to get the 670 @1080

Since I've got AMD already, surely sticking would make the transition easier as well ?

 

[Barry1987]

I don't see why transition from AMD to NVIDIA and vice versa would make any difference or have any relevance. The driver software is easy to get used to regardless.

The 7850 should do 30-40FPS at stock values and is arguably the best card to overclock on the planet. You could probably gain at least 10FPS with a decent overclock.

670 is a very good card, though and the 670 Gigabyte Windforce has a tri-cooler on it so would probably have really good temperatures.

@ £200 though the 7850 is a steal.

 

[Nickjf20]

Since I primarily play BF3 though, I'm torn between the 670s 40% higher fps, or the much cheaper 7850.

Could the 7850s higher than average fps deficit in BF3 be solved by a driver update at some point ?

 

[Rusty0611]

I think only you can really answer if it's worth it to be honest. You know the raw numbers in performance and what FPS you'll be getting. If money isn't a consideration and you have the funds readily available then go for the best you can afford. You can rarely go wrong doing this.

Could the 7850s higher than average fps deficit in BF3 be solved by a driver update at some point ?

No. They're different tiers of cards. The 7850 is in the same tier of card with what will eventually be the GTX 660.

The GTX 670 while overclocked performs above and beyond a stock 7970 (although a stock 7970 has lots of overclocking headroom).

The 670/680 are comparable to the 7950/7970 respectively while considering the tier of card although factoring in performance it becomes slightly more complicated.

 

[Nickjf20]

Hmm, I'll probably go for a 670 then.

I'll keep my eye out for another windforce sale

 

[Nickjf20]

One last thing, if I got a 670 and overclocked it, would my 920 at stock bottleneck it in something like BF3 ?

 

[PGdude]

It may do, you could easily get a few hundred more MHz out of it, you'd get a nice boost in your current rig from that alone.

 

[Rusty0611]

Possibly although unlikely. There isn't much info around on this. I would overclock it as a matter of course though to remove that question.

In BF3 you should be seeing close to maximum GPU utilisation with a single card.

 

[crinkleshoes]

One last thing, if I got a 670 and overclocked it, would my 920 at stock bottleneck it in something like BF3 ?

Yes... but only really in 64 player matches.

I would pick the 670...

 

[Nickjf20]

In BF3 currently, the GPU is stuck at 100% whilst the CPU is only at 30-40% across all 8 threads.

I flashed the bios of my mobo, but it doesn't allow any overclocking options (multiplier is locked at x20), although after pressing the "optimum defaults" button in the bios, CPU-Z registers the CPU at 2.8GHz, which I assume is turbo boost. Intel list the max. turbo boost at 2.93, so idk why it's at 2.8, probably just the mobo.
It's an OEM thing hence the OC absence.

 

[wazza300]

if budget matters then id choose tha 7850,it will be a huge upgrade from your 5770 ive owned both those cards,plus the 7850 uses less power and overclocks well,around 50-60fps in bf3 all on ultra with the 7850

if budget isnt a worry then id choose the gigabyte windforce 670 and youll be more future proof but tbh the 7850 is plenty powerfull

the money you save buying a 7850 you could pick yourself up a cheap used overclocking motherboard? however even at stock cpu i7 920 clocks i was running a 5870 and could max all modern games inc bf3

multi doesnt matter though you clock by increasing the base clock on that chip

 

[pieman109]

One thing to realise is that not all 7850 cards clock the same. Some ppl are getting absolutely mad clocks, 1225 and above, others can barely get 1200, mine included. But either way, you should be looking at least 1100-1150 on the core which is still a good overclock and will translate well into game performance.
saying that, I've flogged mine and I'm going for either a 7950 or 670

 

[psychodil]

The 7850's over clock really well so after overclocking the 40% lead that the 670 has in bf3 will probably be reduced to around 10-15% if you get a decent over clock. That being said the 670 will be faster in all games. The biggest question is this: do you want to spend £180ish or is £300 ish OK?

 

[555BUK]

If this is good enough for you, get a 7850. The graph shows exactly how well 7850's perform and overclock. Otherwise, the 670 is also a great card.

 

[Amraam]

If this is good enough for you, get a 7850. The graph shows exactly how well 7850's perform and overclock. Otherwise, the 670 is also a great card.

Wow that really bodes well for me I play 1080p (less pixels) with a 2500k at 4.3, and a GTX670. I should get 55+ constantly at ultra!

 

[Nickjf20]

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

After initially deciding on a 670 I'm swinging back to a 7850 again. Probably the sapphire twin fan model.

I'm thinking of rebuilding in a year or so anyway, so I'll spend big then instead.


Last time I spent £300+ on a GPU was the 7800GS Bliss AGP 512MB special edition


As for buying a better used mobo, surely I'd be better waiting until Haswell, and then replacing everything at once ?
Or would buying a new mobo and whacking the 920 up to say ... about 3.8GHz future proof it for another 2-3 years ?
Bear in mind it is a C0 stepping.

 

[SFFNoob]

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

After initially deciding on a 670 I'm swinging back to a 7850 again. Probably the sapphire twin fan model.

I'm thinking of rebuilding in a year or so anyway, so I'll spend big then instead.


Last time I spent £300+ on a GPU was the 7800GS Bliss AGP 512MB special edition


As for buying a better used mobo, surely I'd be better waiting until Haswell, and then replacing everything at once ?
Or would buying a new mobo and whacking the 920 up to say ... about 3.8GHz future proof it for another 2-3 years ?
Bear in mind it is a C0 stepping.

Would like to know how that Twin model performs in terms of OC as well as noise, thanks.

 

[wazza300]

it should run fine at stock cpu clocks,as for overclocking you can just raise the base clock? doesnt matter if cpu multi only goes to 20?

 

[Nickjf20]

it should run fine at stock cpu clocks,as for overclocking you can just raise the base clock? doesnt matter if cpu multi only goes to 20?

I'll have another look around the bios, but last time I checked the only thing I could change was the multiplier (down from 20)

 

[555BUK]

Would like to know how that Twin model performs in terms of OC as well as noise, thanks.

Almost every 7850 can do 1125MHz with a minor voltage bump, most can be pushed to 1200MHz, and if you are lucky 1250-1300MHz is reachable.

I had one that was stable at 1350MHz and could bench at 1400MHz, but I was really really lucky until a BIOS flash combined with the latest version of ASUS GPU Tweak and GPU-Z combined to bork it. My own fault for tinkering too much and pushing the ragged edge.

Aim for 1200MHz which should provide roughly 7950 stock performance.