7850 Options?

Begbie · 4 Apr 2013 at 23:13

Guys,

Been a long, long time since I owned a PC. Have bought CPU,RAM and Mobo and all I need now is a GPU.

From looking about the best bang for buck at the moment is the 7850?

But there is so many options......

The three I've seen that spike my intrest are;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-052-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

XFX HD 7850 Core Edition 2GB

and

Sapphire HD 7850 OC Edition 2GB

Are they all very much the same?

The sapphire seems to have a higher clock and is the cheapest, but then the one from OcUK does come bundled with two games I fancy trying.

I assume they will all overclock to the same anyway and all the internals are pretty much the same?

wazza300 · 4 Apr 2013 at 23:16

Don't worry about clock speed,they will all max out ccc overdrive on stock voltage,xfx are poor imo,I personally have two msi twin frozr3 7850's and they are fantastic,I hear good things about the his icq 7850

danjama · 4 Apr 2013 at 23:23

I am using the Sapphire and can vouch for it

Saying that i'm not sure if im going to keep it yet as its really not much of an improvement over my 6850 :rolleyes:

Paladine · 4 Apr 2013 at 23:34

The MSI are not voltage locked as far as I know so I would say go for those. You have to be careful because a lot of the 7850s are voltage locked to 1.223V max which makes overclocking more limited. With the MSI cards you should be able to hit 1.3V from what I have read which should allow you to overclock to 7950 speeds with no difficulty.

Again, from what I have read, most people are able to hit 1250-1300 Core and 5800-6000 Memory clock with no problems on 1.3V.

As for the free games, shouldn't all AMD cards currently come with "Never Settle" or "Never Settle: Reloaded" at the moment as this is an AMD promotion not retailer promotion?

Davedree · 5 Apr 2013 at 00:37

danjama said:
I am using the Sapphire and can vouch for it

Saying that i'm not sure if im going to keep it yet as its really not much of an improvement over my 6850

something wrong there then, especially if you clocked the 7850 too.

Begbie · 5 Apr 2013 at 07:18

Paladine said:
The MSI are not voltage locked as far as I know so I would say go for those. You have to be careful because a lot of the 7850s are voltage locked to 1.223V max which makes overclocking more limited. With the MSI cards you should be able to hit 1.3V from what I have read which should allow you to overclock to 7950 speeds with no difficulty.

Again, from what I have read, most people are able to hit 1250-1300 Core and 5800-6000 Memory clock with no problems on 1.3V.

As for the free games, shouldn't all AMD cards currently come with "Never Settle" or "Never Settle: Reloaded" at the moment as this is an AMD promotion not retailer promotion?

The MSI comes with bioshock and tombraider and the other two come with never settle iirc.

Looks like the MSI is the one to go with anyway, alougth the most expensive will most likely end up cheaper in the long run.

Cheers guys, will read the sticky and clock the **** out of it.

Paladine · 5 Apr 2013 at 10:39

Begbie said:
The MSI comes with bioshock and tombraider and the other two come with never settle iirc.

Looks like the MSI is the one to go with anyway, alougth the most expensive will most likely end up cheaper in the long run.

Cheers guys, will read the sticky and clock the **** out of it.

BioShock and Tombraider are from the Never Settle: Reloaded promotion, which is just AMD's updated promo.

ArchAndroid · 5 Apr 2013 at 10:50

danjama said:
I am using the Sapphire and can vouch for it

Saying that i'm not sure if im going to keep it yet as its really not much of an improvement over my 6850

What clocks is the 7850 at?

Begbie · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:00

Paladine said:
BioShock and Tombraider are from the Never Settle: Reloaded promotion, which is just AMD's updated promo.

Ahh, I'm pretty thick at times. So they all come with it!

Still, I do like the look of the MSI card, and being unlocked is a bonus.

On a side note (this being the best card I can afford it's pretty irrelevant) but how well does this card peform?

Am I going to be able to max out Bioshock/tombraider?

Doomedspeed · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:04

danjama said:
I am using the Sapphire and can vouch for it

Saying that i'm not sure if im going to keep it yet as its really not much of an improvement over my 6850

Yeah, that's not right..

You should see a vast improvement, I went from a gtx 460 (similar to the 6850) to a gtx 570 (a bit less powerful then the 7850) and saw a vast improvement..

Somethings wrong bud.

Mrjobby · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:30

Id go for the Iceqx.

His coolers are usually pretty decent and the games are easily worth 20 a piece, makes the card very good value.

Paladine · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:34

Mrjobby said:
Id go for the Iceqx.

His coolers are usually pretty decent and the games are easily worth 20 a piece, makes the card very good value.

Again, the games are available on -all- 7800 and 7900 cards as they are a standard AMD promotion, so the question is is the Iceqx card voltage locked - if it is is it reference design so it can be flashed with a reference card BIOS to unlock the voltage? If not then he wants to avoid it and find a card which is not voltage locked such as the MSI so he can really get the best bang for his buck (the 7850 effectively overclocks to 7950 speeds with unlocked voltage).

The games are irrelevant as he will get free games no matter which "brand" he buys.

Paladine

wazza300 · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:49

I don't think any 7850's are voltage locked??? only some 7950/7970's

the max voltage on a 7850 is 1.225v not 1.3v

Mrjobby · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:49

All I was stating was the HIS comes with a decent cooler and is priced better than the MSI, i didn't make reference to the HIS being the only card with the games either.

To the Op I would also look to find a review of that MSi card as there has been fan issues with some of msi's 7950's and 7870's where the fans just max out.

Davedree · 5 Apr 2013 at 13:15

wazza300 said:
I don't think any 7850's are voltage locked??? only some 7950/7970's

the max voltage on a 7850 is 1.225v not 1.3v

I think thats just the 7850 pcb single 6 pin = 1.225v. Not 100% sure but I always thought the 7850 using a 7870 pcb can go upto 1.3v? (Sometimes requiring a bios mod etc)

Paladine · 5 Apr 2013 at 16:51

wazza300 said:
I don't think any 7850's are voltage locked??? only some 7950/7970's

the max voltage on a 7850 is 1.225v not 1.3v

That is incorrect, plenty of 7850s are being volted to 1.3V, voltage locked 7850s can only hit 1.223V.

For example, the Gigabyte 7850 OC 2GB is voltage locked (my card). Some people have managed to get past the voltage lock by flashing reference cards with ASUS BIOS to hit 1.3V.

Paladine

wazza300 · 5 Apr 2013 at 16:52

no they are all 1.225v!!! only the asus bios lets you push to 1.3v though why you would want to is beyond me

Paladine · 5 Apr 2013 at 17:20

wazza300 said:
no they are all 1.225v!!! only the asus bios lets you push to 1.3v though why you would want to is beyond me

You are incorrect I have read dozens of threads on overclocking 7850s all over the net and lots of people are pushing lots of different brands to 1.3V with Trixx, Afterburner etc. once they have unlocked the voltage.

Voltage locked cards are locked to 1.223 volts (not 1.225 - 1.223) they can safely be volted to 1.3V if they are unlocked or flashed with a reference BIOS that has unlocked voltage.

wazza300 · 5 Apr 2013 at 17:26

yes once they use the asus unlocked bios

otherwise 1.225v is the highest they can go,

pretty sure im right on this,technically its not a locked card its just the asus bios lets you go even further to 1.3v

555buk is the one to ask,he will know for sure

Paladine · 5 Apr 2013 at 17:31

wazza300 said:
yes once they use the asus unlocked bios

otherwise 1.225v is the highest they can go,

pretty sure im right on this,technically its not a locked card its just the asus bios lets you go even further to 1.3v

555buk is the one to ask,he will know for sure

Technically if the cards are capable of going to 1.3V and achieve 7950 speeds as a result but the BIOS is stopping them going beyond 1.223 then yes the voltage is locked. I don't see how much clearer I can be, ASUS aren't magically increasing the voltage the card is capable of, their BIOS unlocks the voltage to allow it to go to 1.3V. It is a setting in the BIOS that prevents it going to 1.3V thus it is voltage locked!

How difficult is it to understand?

Also, my understanding is (again from extensively researching this issue) that not just ASUS BIOS allows 1.3V, I had read reports that MSI are capable of 1.3V too (without flashing to ASUS BIOS).