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5850 or 7790?

enkoda

enkoda

enkoda

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Just wondering if it's worth my while swapping out my current 5850 for a 7790 (both 1GB)?

Benchmarking software places the 7790 out in front, but looking at some gaming benchmarks the 5850 seems to put up quite a fight.
I tend to play stuff like CoD, Battlefield, F1 2013, Need For Speed, GTA 4 (and hopefully 5), running at 1920x1080.

Could I try using them both in CrossFire, as I know AMD cards can be linked across different models?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
 
GPU wise they trade blows with one another, however the 7790 has much lower memery bus which result in lower memory bandwidth than the 5850 and would suffer greater drop in frame rate at demanding scenes and graphic settings such as the use of AA, so over all the the 7790 would only be as good as/slower than the 5850. Another thing to bare in mind is the 5850 has a greater overclocking headroom than the 7790.

The only real benefit that the 7790 has over the 5850 is probably lower power consumption and temp.

You can't crossfire cards with different GPU architecture.
 
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one thing missed here is that the 7790 is GCN architecture, so it will benefit from games that utilise mantle in the future.

7790 also has true audio, that I believe either can be or is due to be enabled by drivers. The power consumption will be lower as well.
 
pandem0nium said:
one thing missed here is that the 7790 is GCN architecture, so it will benefit from games that utilise mantle in the future.

7790 also has true audio, that I believe either can be or is due to be enabled by drivers. The power consumption will be lower as well.
Click to expand...
Yea forgotten about the GCN part, but there's definitely no TrueAudio for the 7790, as it doesn't have the TrueAudio chip.
 
pandem0nium said:
It does have it, but it's disabled, and will be enabled in a driver like the 260x. Unless the internet is lying to me again!
Click to expand...
260x is not a rebrand like most other 200 series cards. As far as I know, only the new cards with new architecture (i.e. 290/290x, 260/260x) "may" have TrueAudio:
http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DESKTOP/GRAPHICS/R7/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-r7-series.aspx#4
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/r9/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-r9-series.aspx#5

I honestly don't see how the 7790 will have the TruAudio chip when its launch far pre-dated the announcement of TrueAudio. The 77xx series cards don't list TrueAudio in its spec at all:
http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DESKTOP/GRAPHICS/7000/7700/Pages/radeon-7700.aspx#2
 
The 7790 is a special case in the 7k series. It's hawaii in disguise and has the same hardware as the 260x that replaced it, including true audio chip and updated crossfire, but it's not enabled as yet.
 
pandem0nium said:
The 7790 is a special case in the 7k series. It's hawaii in disguise and has the same hardware as the 260x that replaced it, including true audio chip and updated crossfire, but it's not enabled as yet.
Click to expand...
Had a bit reading on TechReport and yea you seem to be right about the TrueAudio part being within the processor...but the question is- would AMD have driver for enabling them?

I mean if the 260x was just a straight rebrand of the 7790, then people could probably just flash the bios to make it a 260x to enable the TrueAudio...however that isn't the case. The 7790 would be using and 7000 series driver where as the the 260/260x would be using the 200 series driver, and I got a strong feeling that TrueAudio would not be enable for 7000 series driver. May be some 3rd party could make some hax to enable the TrueAudio on the 7790? But I'm not sure if anyone would bother to do that, considering 7790 is not exactly a mainstream card with huge number of owners/users.

But yea 7790 is may be worth holding onto for Mantle alone. But until Mantle become commonly used of games that OP would play, the 5850 would remain overall a better performing card.

IMO OP should sell off both the 5850 and 7790, and buy a 2nd hand 7850. Not much point keeping both, when he could have a 7850 with 1GB more vram, higher memory bandwidth and around 40% faster than either card :p
 
Marine-RX179 said:
IMO OP should sell off both the 5850 and 7790, and buy a 2nd hand 7850. Not much point keeping both, when he could have a 7850 with 1GB more vram, higher memory bandwidth and around 40% faster than either card :p
Click to expand...

That could be an option, but I want to avoid ebay if I can, and there's no rush to upgrade yet...well, at least until I find out the specs for GTA 5!:p
 
I had an HD5850 1GB and a mate who had one(until he replaced it with an HD7870LE) and an HD7770.

In newer games,the better tessellation ability of the HD7770 makes it push slightly ahead of the HD5850 1GB. You can see this with BF4 for example:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...s-Test_GPU-Action-Battlefield_4-test-1920.jpg

The main advantage of the HD5850 1GB is it has the possibility of being overclocked a decent amount. My reference HD5850 1GB could hit around a 30% core overclock.

This would mean the HD7790 is generally quicker than an HD5850 1GB. An overclocked HD5850 1GB might be a different question though.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
This would mean the HD7790 is generally quicker than an HD5850 1GB. An overclocked HD5850 1GB might be a different question though.
Click to expand...
Not trying to argue or anything, but it depends on what "generally" is referred to. For games which both cards offer playable frame rate, the 5850 will pull ahead if any AA settings was applied due to the 256-bit vs 128bit memory bus.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Not trying to argue or anything, but it depends on what "generally" is referred to. For games which both cards offer playable frame rate, the 5850 will pull ahead if any AA settings was applied due to the 256-bit vs 128bit memory bus.
Click to expand...

The main problem is the HD5850 1GB has relatively weak tessellation abilities. The R7 260X can at times get close to an HD7850:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...sins_Creed_Liberation_HD_-test-ac_hd_1920.jpg

An HD5850 will be in-between an HD6850 and an HD6870,and when tessellation is enabled usually is closer to an HD6850.

Look at where the R7 260X is in that chart and it is basically an HD7790 with a 10% overclock on the GPU core and memory.

Here is a tougher scenario for the R7 260X:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...tal_Gear_Rising_Revengeance-test-mgs_1920.jpg

Even if you take 10% off it is HD6870 level performance.

Unless the HD5850 is overclocked,the HD7790 will be generally faster in newer games.

Another thing is the frame pacing drivers will only work with GCN based cards,and with AMD introducing Mantle,that will only work with GCN based cards too.

With newer and newer games,the HD7790/R7 260X will be a better supported choice.

The OP already has the card,so I would probably use the HD7790 unless he is only really playing old games.

Edit!!

I would generally agree with the suggestion of selling both cards. The OP could probably get an HD7870 2GB or R9 270 2GB on special offer for around £120 to £135.
 
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