• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Worth paying extra for 7850 over GTX 650 ti?

fozzybear

fozzybear

fozzybear

Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2004
Posts
7,653
Location
Manchester
I've decided to sell my XBox 360 and get back into some lightish PC gaming.

I was considering getting a pre-overclocked Sapphire 7770 but then realised the GTX 650 ti was more powerful for a similar price. Now, I've realised I could get a 1GB 7850 for not much more.

My choices are:

Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti DirectCU II for approx £105.

or

MSI Radeon HD 7850 OC for approx £128.

I'll be gaming at 1920 x 1080 and will mainly be playing stuff like Far Cry 3, Skyrim and BF3 (or BF:BC2). I also want to give Elder Scrolls Online a try when it's released.

Is it worth me spending the extra £23 and getting the 7850? Also, is it worth paying another £17 on top of that to get a 2GB 7850?

I'm presuming everyone will say the 7850 so which specific cards am I best looking at (around £125 for the 1GB and £145 for 2GB)? I'd prefer something pre-overclocked.

Cheers.
 
the 7850 is the better card and don't mess about with the 1GB version. If you are going to get one, only worth getting the 2GB version at your resolution.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £155.99
Total : £166.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).



There is a thread (sticky) that is so easy to follow for overclocking, you would be foolish not to visit it :)
 
Last edited:
yeah 1gb is obsolete now as Greg said.

You could save up for a GTX 660 if you like Nvidia..

Not that expensive to build a decent Steam box these days.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

Would I get any sort of bottleneck with the 7850 as I only have an Athlon II X3 450 (with 8GB DDR3 and Gigabyte GA 880GMA UD2H)? I don't expect a CPU upgrade any time soon.
 
Damn it. It's a good job I asked. :(

So what's the best card I could get now you know my PC specs?

edit//

I get the feeling I should upgrade my CPU (and therefore my AM3 motherboard) before buying a reasonable graphics card. Would my CPU limit me even if I only had a 7770?
 
Last edited:
I'm going to be grabbing a card early this week.

I've seen an EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB (993MHz, Boost 1059MHz,non-superclocked one) for a decent price. There's also a XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7850 2GB for £15 cheaper than the EVGA GTX 660. You also get a free game with the GTX 660 so it looks a bit of a bargain.

Are there any issues with the XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7850? It looks too good to be true. Does the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB have a good rep? It seems to be one of the cheaper GTX 660's.

Finally, am I OK with the 2 above cards using a Corsair 430w PSU? I realise it's probably pushing things.
 
XFX are ok so long as you don't need warranty. As RMA they suck big time.

It depends on the Corsair. If it's a rev 2 CX or CS? it won't be good enough. I had one and it couldn't run a 8800 GTS.
 
fozzybear said:
How do I tell what rev it is? It's a CX 430.
Click to expand...

Rev 2 then I would imagine. Rev 1 was a Seasonic, rev 2 a load of Taiwanese junk.

I would sit down and think about building a new PC mate tbh. I don't think mismatching current gear with a CPU that weak is a good idea.
 
well the mobo still has room for upgrade on cpu side ...i'd consider finding a cheap 965black edition . should give a good boost with oc.

and at 1080p res the cpu should be fine for another 18 months

you can find the cpu for just under £80 new ...so 2nd hand should be under £50
 
Last edited:
ALXAndy said:
Rev 2 then I would imagine. Rev 1 was a Seasonic, rev 2 a load of Taiwanese junk.

I would sit down and think about building a new PC mate tbh. I don't think mismatching current gear with a CPU that weak is a good idea.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the bad news. :)

I did a google search for '7850 on cx430' and it actually comes up with plenty of people saying a 7850 will be fine.

Anyway, I'm tempted to revert to my original idea of getting a 650 ti. I'm not bothered if I have to lower my settings/resolution a little bit.

TALON1973 said:
well the mobo still has room for upgrade on cpu side ...i'd consider finding a cheap 965 black edition . should give a good boost with oc.

and at 1080p res the cpu should be fine for another 18 months

you can find the cpu for just under £80 new ...so 2nd hand should be under £50
Click to expand...

I think I might wait a few months and get a new motherboard and CPU. I'll have to make do with some light gaming between now and then.

Thanks for the help.
 
like talon said keep an eye out for a cheap phII x4 you board is pretty good and is crying for a better cpu.
I wouldn't buy a 650ti for 1080p its too weak.
 
I'll be getting a 7850 2GB card later on today.

The 2 options are:

XFX 7850 2GB (860/4800) or a VTX3D X Edition 2GB (1000/4900).

The XFX is £7 cheaper than the VTX. I'm not familiar with VTX3D. Are they any good?
 
DO NOT GET XFX!

BAD COMPANY

BAD RMA

NO HELP

LOSS OF CASH AND CARD IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG!

Well thats the story of nearly everyone who had a problem with XFX, so my advise is stay well away dude.
 
ALXAndy said:
Rev 2 then I would imagine. Rev 1 was a Seasonic, rev 2 a load of Taiwanese junk.

I would sit down and think about building a new PC mate tbh. I don't think mismatching current gear with a CPU that weak is a good idea.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't.

Corsair had a 400W PSU that was seasonic, this replaced it.
Don't know what the Manu is, but IIRC they've tweaked the CX430 a few times since, so there's more than Rev 1 and Rev 2 as far as I know.

IIRC they use Channel something as the Manufacturer (Or at least they use them now in their PSU's)

fozzybear said:
I'll be getting a 7850 2GB card later on today.

The 2 options are:

XFX 7850 2GB (860/4800) or a VTX3D X Edition 2GB (1000/4900).

The XFX is £7 cheaper than the VTX. I'm not familiar with VTX3D. Are they any good?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't touch either to be honest.
If the E-tailer is good, then you've got protection I guess.
 
Last edited:
Ended up getting a MSI HD 7850 OC 2GB GDDR5 for £147. It's got a 3 year warranty compared to the 2 year of the XFX and VTX cards. Thought it was worth paying £13 more for it.

I also got a voucher for free downloads of Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider with it as well. Will probably sell them. All in all, not a bad deal. Card seems stable at the moment so I'm not going to push my luck (with a 430w PSU) by overclocking it just yet.

Thanks for the help.
 
fozzybear said:
Ended up getting a MSI HD 7850 OC 2GB GDDR5 for £147. It's got a 3 year warranty compared to the 2 year of the XFX and VTX cards. Thought it was worth paying £13 more for it.

I also got a voucher for free downloads of Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider with it as well. Will probably sell them. All in all, not a bad deal. Card seems stable at the moment so I'm not going to push my luck (with a 430w PSU) by overclocking it just yet.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Nice deal :-) From where did you get the card for £147? Trust
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom