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GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs Radeon HD 7850

Barry1987

Barry1987

Barry1987

Associate
Joined
11 Apr 2012
Posts
412
Location
London
Hi guys,

I'm fairly new to this forum but am fairly good with rig building having made 2 of my own from scratch. However, I'm a bit stumped with graphics cards.

I recently built a new PC using this bundle as my main outlay: build
ordered everything else from oc too which is all in my signature.

what would be the best graphics card for my current build? looking to play the latest resource demanding games such as bf3, witcher 2, skyrim etc. i would consider doing sli or crossfire if it helps (i will buy one card at the end of this month and another next month, since i have to budget :d) but i know i can play these games on max settings with just one. what about the ones in the topic title? those are the main ones i've narrowed it down to based on my budget which is between £150-200 for one card.

according to PassMark the 480 has the best benchmark and is within my budget. I do prefer ATI over NVIDIA on a personal note though.. but I am willing to choose either!

Thanks for your help.
 
Look at the benefits of each.

480:
Performance edge
Can SLI as your PSU is strong enough
Nvidia drivers are better (imo)

7850:
You prefer ATI
Can go crossfire later
Only slightly slower then 480
Cooler/uses less power

560Ti:
No benefits compared to the other 2 options which are faster cards.
maybe cheaper

They are close enough that you should just buy the one you're most comfy with. Personally I prefer Nvidia drivers so I would lean that way. I will only buy ATI cards if they are significantly cheaper for the same performance which in this case they aren't. However, if you prefer ATI drivers then get the 5850. A lot of people will get into technical details of how much heat/power each card takes but tbh who cares? The majority of cases have reasonable cooling so heat wont be an issue which ever one you decide. The 5850 will use less power but you wont notice the 10p per month saving so i'm not sure why it's ever mentioned or cared about in these type of threads. I buy a card for gaming, not for monitoring the electric metre. I suppose everyone's different though :)
 
If you prefer AMD, you could get a 6970 for around that price. And you've got a decent PSU so you could CF with another next month.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-123-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

I'd recommend you save up a little longer and grab a 7950 or 7970 though; they'ed be a much better buy in my opinion. That said, two 6970's will be a little better than a 7970, so if you don't mind going crossfire, that'd be a good shout :p.

Edit:
Wouldn't bother with 560Ti's at all, they just aren't relevant anymore if you're buying new. And I personally wouldn't recommend the 480 unless you're ready to watercool it, the heat off those things is ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
My vote would be the 480, amazing value and if you game on a single monitor, not much more is needed for gaming, mine thrives under water cooling, clocked it to 900mhz on the core and 2100 on the memory, max temps under water of 58c
 
Get the 7850 man it overclocks like an absolute beast so its easily the most powerful of the three cards after an oc, it's quieter and uses less power definitely the way to go in my view.
 
no_1_dave said:
Look at the benefits of each.

480:
Performance edge
Can SLI as your PSU is strong enough
Nvidia drivers are better (imo)

7850:
You prefer ATI
Can go crossfire later
Only slightly slower then 480
Cooler/uses less power

560Ti:
No benefits compared to the other 2 options which are faster cards.
maybe cheaper

They are close enough that you should just buy the one you're most comfy with. Personally I prefer Nvidia drivers so I would lean that way. I will only buy ATI cards if they are significantly cheaper for the same performance which in this case they aren't. However, if you prefer ATI drivers then get the 5850. A lot of people will get into technical details of how much heat/power each card takes but tbh who cares? The majority of cases have reasonable cooling so heat wont be an issue which ever one you decide. The 5850 will use less power but you wont notice the 10p per month saving so i'm not sure why it's ever mentioned or cared about in these type of threads. I buy a card for gaming, not for monitoring the electric metre. I suppose everyone's different though :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info mate. I have heard stories about the NVIDIA drivers being better than ATI/AMD. 5850 is a lot lower on the benchmarks than the other said cards though. If I do go with NVIDIA then it will definitely be the GTX 480.

tobsmonster2 said:
If you prefer AMD, you could get a 6970 for around that price. And you've got a decent PSU so you could CF with another next month.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-123-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

I'd recommend you save up a little longer and grab a 7950 or 7970 though; they'ed be a much better buy in my opinion. That said, two 6970's will be a little better than a 7970, so if you don't mind going crossfire, that'd be a good shout :p.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply :) Wow, thank you for the find! Seems that the offer is this week only.. but the original price is reasonable/feasible with it being just £15 over budget. Could squeeze that extra in I think! 7970 is quite a way out of my disposable income threshold so I may have to leave that. I could just save for 2 months and buy that but I would like to start playing the games I mentioned pretty soon so I think I will go crossfire or sli with either the HD 6970 or GTX 480.

Cheers!
 
If you are happy to overclock I should add if your leaving the cards at stock the other points are valid but if you don't mind downloading a program and moving a slider 7850 all the way.
 
Release said:
If you are happy to overclock I should add if your leaving the cards at stock the other points are valid but if you don't mind downloading a program and moving a slider 7850 all the way.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Yeah, I don't mind overclocking as I have pretty much had my HD 4850 overclocked from GPU Clock 625mhz to 700mhz and Memory Clock 925mhz to 1150mhz for over 3 years now and no problems so.. :)

But even if I buy the 6970 I'll probably end up OCing it regardless if I feel the need to lol :D
 
Release said:
If you are happy to overclock I should add if your leaving the cards at stock the other points are valid but if you don't mind downloading a program and moving a slider 7850 all the way.
Click to expand...

Still haven't figured out what wins out between an OC'ed 6970 and an OC'ed 7850. I'm tempted to grab a couple of those TFIII cards my self now they're so cheap.
 
7850 ocs much more than 6970 dude I have one it came at 860 its now running happily at 1150 nearly as powerful as a 7950 at stock. (memory oced to 5800 too)
 
Madness buying a 6970 over a 7850, both oc'ed, the 7850 will probably surpass the 6970 while running cooler, quieter and less power.
 
Release said:
7850 ocs much more than 6970 dude I have one it came at 860 its now running happily at 1150 nearly as powerful as a 7950 at stock. (memory oced to 5800 too)
Click to expand...

Yea I've seen the massive OC's people have been getting on the 7850, but I'm sure the 6970 is a faster card clock for clock? The memory is definitely better on the 7850 though, apparently rated for 7000MHz, but they sell it underclocked.
 
tobsmonster2 said:
Guess I'd have to restate my recommendation then.
The TFIII 7850 if you can't afford to wait:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411
Or
The VTX 7950 here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-VX&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

Considering the 3 free games you'll get with it, I'd say the 7950 is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Sounds good mate... considering the 3 free games - I will strongly have to consider that :)
 
Barry1987 said:
5850 is a lot lower on the benchmarks than the other said cards though. If I do go with NVIDIA then it will definitely be the GTX 480.
Click to expand...

Just ran the benchmark with my 5850 @ 1GHz and scored 3800 which puts it just below a 7970.

Obviously a trash benchmark :p
 
tobsmonster2 said:
Guess I'd have to restate my recommendation then.
The TFIII 7850 if you can't afford to wait:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411
Or
The VTX 7950 here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-VX&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

Considering the 3 free games you'll get with it, I'd say the 7950 is the way to go.
Click to expand...
I'd go with the 7850 over the 7950, considering you'll be saving £100 you can go crossfire in the future and have some beast performance, especially with the overclocking potential of the 7850.
And you can get games other ways if you really want them ;)
 
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