7850 to R9 270 TurboDUO 2048MB a good upgrade?

[Vanilla]

Forgive me Graphics card gods for I am not a smart fellow when it comes to such things.

My Spec is:

Intel i7 2600k
VTX3D HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5
OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 480GB 3.5" SATA-II SSD
Various 1TB & 2 TB Drives
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Professional Series AX650
Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case
Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 Channel Kit
Thermalright Venomous X Silent CPU Cooler

I have been advised to upgrade the card and it seems this one is £100 on OCUK.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-169-PC

Is this a worthy upgrade?

 

[tommybhoy]

Is this a worthy upgrade?

Nope, it's more or less a 7870 with higher vram clocks, not much faster than what you have now.

280 would be the minimum to aim for imo, or a dirt cheap used 7850 for CrossFire.

 

[VincentHanna]

It's slightly better, not significantly so.

You might not find a huge amount of difference.

 

[Boomstick777]

For the money it's a great lil card. I grabbed one from OCUK yesterday to go crossfire.

Runs really cool and quiet, only needs 1 x 6 pin to power it.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8595080

 

[VincentHanna]

True, but it's really not much different from what he has.

 

[HeX]

7850 to 270 isn't going to give you a huge boost. As mentioned above, you really want to go to a 280 / 280X to get a nice jump in performance.

Snag this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-171-PC

Sell the gold voucher. Jobs a good'un

 

[Vanilla]

Thanks all I may scour eBay and do crossfire.

Does it have to be an identical 7850? Brand and everything or as long as it is a 7850 is it fine?

 

[gareth170]

Thanks all I may scour eBay and do crossfire.

Does it have to be an identical 7850? Brand and everything or as long as it is a 7850 is it fine?

doesn't have to be identical. can be even a 7870.

 

[Vanilla]

Thanks any down sides to getting a 1gb 7850 rather than a 2gb one like mine?

 

[tommybhoy]

Yes, you will only have 1GB usable vram in CrossFire, you need a 2GB 7850 or it's pointless tbh.

 

[JonSmith]

You can buy the 270 and crossfire it with your existing 7850:

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-7000-radeon-r200-series-mixed-crossfire-testing_126124

If you make the 270 your primary card you'll get a decent boost in crossfire enabled games and a small boost in games that aren't enabled.

 

[Vanilla]

You can buy the 270 and crossfire it with your existing 7850:

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-7000-radeon-r200-series-mixed-crossfire-testing_126124

If you make the 270 your primary card you'll get a decent boost in crossfire enabled games and a small boost in games that aren't enabled.

This is interesting....

I was looking at spending about £75 for an old 7850 on ebay, I guess I can buy the OCUK R9 270 one for £100 ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-169-PC ) and make it my primary. Rather spend another £25 and get something new

 

[breadturbo]

You'd be much better off taking your £100, putting it toward a 280x off the MM, and flogging your old 7850.

 

[james.miller]

Agree with that

 

[Vanilla]

You'd be much better off taking your £100, putting it toward a 280x off the MM, and flogging your old 7850.

I'm kinda lazy when it comes to selling and shipping and all that faff

Surely having a 7850 + R9 270 crossfire will provide better performance than a single 280?

 

[breadturbo]

They will be roughly the same performance, the question is do you want two cards now for the same cash, or a single card with the ability to bob a second in later?

The choice..... is yours

 

[Vanilla]

What if I bought a 280 and used the 7850 in crossfire with it

Double bonus or 'hell-no what are you stoopid that wont work'

 

[altrewin]

Can't crossfire a 7850 and a 280/7950 together unforunately.