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Upgraded from 7850 to 7950 - underwhelmed

MG42Maniac

MG42Maniac

MG42Maniac

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Joined
28 Jan 2005
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1,842
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Lymington
Hi Guys,

I had my e6750 @ 3.2 & 4890 for just over five years before upgrading at the end of Oct this year to an i7 920 @4.0 & 7850 2GB. I was blown away at the performance increase. Got my Christmas bonus recently and was dead set on getting another 7850 for xfire just because I've never had xfire before and fancied frittering some of my bonus lol. Decided to get a 7950 instead and leave the option to upgrade later on down the line if needed.

I got an XFX 7950 DD and have been leftmunderwhelmed. It's still in the first seven days of purchase so I can easily return it if needed. I had the 7850 at 1100/1475 and I pushed the 7950 to 1050/1500. I tried running Unigine on the 7950 at 1100/1500 but it crashed so dropped the OC to 1050 and it ran fine. I'm using Asus GPU tweak and have 20% extra power going through and it still didn't like it at 1100. ASIC rating was 90.3% as well.

Ran 3D Mark 11 as well and only just got over 8,000 which didn't seem much considering people with 7850s were getting pretty much the same score. I know benchmarks are not the be all and end all but I expected it to be noticeable faster! I did look at comparisons and expected the 7950 to be a fair bit faster, especially when overclocked. Both cards run all games I've thrown at them @ 1080p so am wondering if I should just return the 7950 and stick with the 7850? By the time I've sold the 7850, some games and some other old bits of hardware the upgrade will have cost me about £80.

I've played Crysis, BF3 and Crysis 2 on the 7850 and they all ran perfectly so don't really needed the extra power of the 7950 as of yet but it could be useful in the future!? I'm going traveling in just over a year so will be putting the PC in storage for anything up to a year which kinda makes me think I should just keep the 7850 for a year. The other part thinks I should keep the 7950 as its only cost me £80ish to upgrade and it will still be decent in 2 years when I'm back home, if not I can xfire.

Opinions guys?
 
The thing is, the gap probably doesn't seem like much because they can both handle pretty much any game that's out now at max settings at 1080p. However, the 7950 is a superior card and in a year's time when BF4, etc is out, that's when you'll see the 7850 start to struggle, while the 7950 powers on.

I wouldn't put too much stock in synthetic benchmarks either.
 
Get a 1440p monitor and the upside of the 7950 becomes instantly apparent, speaking as someone who went from a 7850 to a 7950.
 
The 7850 when oc'ed gives a stock 7950 a run for its money. I have mine at stock voltage at 1200 core and 1450 memory.
 
7850 high oc will probably be same or very similar

also as mentioned at 1080 both cards wont struggle with much

so either get bigger monitor or just keep as you are .

as for bf4 being more taxing wont be much more if at all. it will probably be just a tweaked version of engine they using now.

they spent there time making the new engine now it will be milked
 
I'd send it back and stick with the 7850 if your going away for a year, its a bit of a waste to sit there getting older. And when you do come back, get another 7850(will be a lot cheaper then obviously) and xfire them, should still be very good at the time.
 
kissenger said:
The thing is, the gap probably doesn't seem like much because they can both handle pretty much any game that's out now at max settings at 1080p. However, the 7950 is a superior card and in a year's time when BF4, etc is out, that's when you'll see the 7850 start to struggle, while the 7950 powers on.

I wouldn't put too much stock in synthetic benchmarks either.
Click to expand...

Doubt it, i bet DICE will do something to their engine to make it run like **** on a 7950.
 
kissenger said:
However, the 7950 is a superior card and in a year's time when BF4, etc is out, that's when you'll see the 7850 start to struggle
Click to expand...

~>Dg<~ said:
as for bf4 being more taxing wont be much more if at all. it will probably be just a tweaked version of engine they using now.

they spent there time making the new engine now it will be milked
Click to expand...

He just used BF4 as an example. We all know what he meant. Even you did :)
 
I think OP's issue of too high expectation sort of rooted from getting too big a performance boost in his previous upgrade, which is why the upgrade from the 7850 to 7950 is disappointing for him.

The thing is that his old E6750 at 3.2GHz would had bottlenecked even his 4890 to probably no faster than a 4850 in number of games, which is why the performance boost was so huge when he upgraded BOTH his CPU to i7 920 at 4.0GHz AND graphic card to 7850. Comparing to that, of course the upgrade from 7850 to 7950 alone the performance increase would seem pale in comparison.
 
Have decided to return the card :) First piece of hardware I've ever returned in 7 years of building computers! I just didn't find it that much faster than my overclocked 7850 to justify the extra cost, heat and noise. I figured if this card can last me another year till I go travelling then I'll be happy. Also another factor was that I couldn't see any upcoming games that particularly interested me that would require the extra power of the 7950.
 
I get around 25-27% increase +/- from 900/1250Mhz to 1170/1600MHz on my 7950, depending on the game. If a an OC 7850 is equal with a stock 7950 (800mhz/1250mhz), an OC 7950 should be pretty far also, but not as big as the jump you've previously had. How did it fair in games like Dirt Showdown or Sleeping Dogs where GPGPU calculations should matter more?

Do to extra vRAM (break that 2GB in some instances even now :D) and extra power, that 7950 should have been much better if you plan to go the CF route in the future.
 
Calin Banc said:
I get around 25-27% increase +/- from 900/1250Mhz to 1170/1600MHz on my 7950, depending on the game. If a an OC 7850 is equal with a stock 7950 (800mhz/1250mhz), an OC 7950 should be pretty far also, but not as big as the jump you've previously had. How did it fair in games like Dirt Showdown or Sleeping Dogs where GPGPU calculations should matter more?

Do to extra vRAM (break that 2GB in some instances even now :D) and extra power, that 7950 should have been much better if you plan to go the CF route in the future.
Click to expand...

I only tested it on BF3 and Crysis and they played perfectly smoothly on both. Before I got rid of the 7950 I tested it and it got 8279 (1050/1450) in 3D Mark 11 for gfx only, the 7850 OC got 6162(1050/1450). Both running cat 12.10.

It is faster, I'm sure one the right game I'd notice a difference but for me the 7850 when overclocked was perfect. Thankfully I don't play benchmarks!

I'll come back from Oz in Nov 2014 and probably be so depressed to be back in UK that I'll ***** a load of money on shiny hardware in an attempt to cheer myself up anyway! Reckon my i7 920 @ 4.0GHz will still be decent in 2 years though and I'll only upgrade it because I want new toys to play with!
 
MG42Maniac said:
I only tested it on BF3 and Crysis and they played perfectly smoothly on both. Before I got rid of the 7950 I tested it and it got 8279 (1050/1450) in 3D Mark 11 for gfx only, the 7850 OC got 6162(1050/1450). Both running cat 12.10.

It is faster, I'm sure one the right game I'd notice a difference but for me the 7850 when overclocked was perfect. Thankfully I don't play benchmarks!

I'll come back from Oz in Nov 2014 and probably be so depressed to be back in UK that I'll ***** a load of money on shiny hardware in an attempt to cheer myself up anyway! Reckon my i7 920 @ 4.0GHz will still be decent in 2 years though and I'll only upgrade it because I want new toys to play with!
Click to expand...

I could be wrong but 8279 gpu score sounds on the low side for 1050 core.
 
Rusty0611 said:
VRAM not a problem on any card with 2GB. The GPU limit kicks in before VRAM gets close to coming into it.
Click to expand...

Not really. Hitman Absolution and Skyrim went above 2GB mark, the first one even with "only" 4xAA at times, with Aero disabled. You don't need 3GB for single GPU, sure, but "some" above 2GB, yes. It's the same deal as in 1GB vs. 2GB discussion and I'll leave it to that.
MG42Maniac said:
I only tested it on BF3 and Crysis and they played perfectly smoothly on both. Before I got rid of the 7950 I tested it and it got 8279 (1050/1450) in 3D Mark 11 for gfx only, the 7850 OC got 6162(1050/1450). Both running cat 12.10.

It is faster, I'm sure one the right game I'd notice a difference but for me the 7850 when overclocked was perfect. Thankfully I don't play benchmarks!

I'll come back from Oz in Nov 2014 and probably be so depressed to be back in UK that I'll ***** a load of money on shiny hardware in an attempt to cheer myself up anyway! Reckon my i7 920 @ 4.0GHz will still be decent in 2 years though and I'll only upgrade it because I want new toys to play with!
Click to expand...

Like TheRealDeal said, your score is low. I got 9913 on graphics score with 1170/1600. True, I run 12.11beta 8, but the difference (around 20%) is to great. Are you sure you had clicked that apply button at overclocking? :D
 
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