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**ATI RADEON 7800 SERIES NOW AVAILABLE!!**

555BUK said:
Both new consoles (PS4 & 720) are reported to support Full-HD gaming, latest DirectX, high level AA/AFetc (basically all of the standardised features of latest GPU's). Some rumours also suggest that the PS4 will be a locked down PC-in-a-box, similar to the original XBOX. Whatever they are, both should be as media friendly as a PC.

With three times as many laptops now sold vs desktops, and tablets catching up with laptops, the days of Desktop are numbered. When our kids grow up (perhaps much sooner) desktops will be consigned to museums. Consoles, tablets and smartphones will rule the world and laptops may also have bit the dust. Whatever happens, bye bye desktops and £400 graphics cards.
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I wouldn't be so gloomy about PC's- about 70million stand alone graphics cards were sold each year since 2005. Thats a lot of cards, a lot of revenue and a lot of incentive to keep making them.

Consoles are relatively cheap because their business model is to " almost give away" the platform and then skin you with game prices.
 
I've not been paying too much attention to the mid-range 7 series, but do these cards perform similar to the 6950/6970 and cost more than they did at launch?
Last gens cards have never looked so good. :D
 
Power draw is not enough reason to upgrade/sidegrade to a card of this type though, unless you've got a small case/grim PSU.
How is the price justified in this case? With the 79** series, you can get away with it as they are the fastest cards around. With these though... There's still competition. Who in their right mind would buy one, whilst there are alternatives?
 
How is that "apples to apples" when one costs £80 and the other £200? The only "apples to apples" is how many FPS in your favourite game will £xxx buy - full stop.
New mid range cards are woefully inadequate.
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
How is the price justified in this case? With the 79** series, you can get away with it as they are the fastest cards around. With these though... There's still competition. Who in their right mind would buy one, whilst there are alternatives?
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My thoughts exactly! Buying 7870 for 580gtx price-£10 is just stupid. And the story repeats itself throughout sub £300 range.
 
555BUK said:
Let's do the math.

*1kW of electricity currently costs about 15p.
*1kW = 1000W
*Lets say that the enthusiastic gamer plays for 3 hours per day (I am being very generous, that is almost one full day out of each week).
*3x 35w = 105W per day.
*365.25 (incl leap years) x 105W = 38.351kW per year.
*38.351 x 15p = £5.75 difference per year.

Given the current ~£80 used value of a 5850, and the £190 purchase cost of a 7850, it will take more than 19 years to break even. A 7870 at £270 will take 33 years. Not many of these cards will be playing games in 19-33 years, and those that do won't do it well.

edit: If people really want to save energy, they are much better served replacing one single 50W halogen lamp with a 5W LED lamp. These only take ~2 years to pay for themselves, and will be much greener than swapping graphics cards. Change 10 of them and save the world single handedly.
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+1 for that math
 
Borsch said:
How is that "apples to apples" when one costs £80 and the other £200? The only "apples to apples" is how many FPS in your favourite game will £xxx buy - full stop.
New mid range cards are woefully inadequate.
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It's apples to apples because all 3 cards are clocked at the exact same speeds.

It's showing the differences in architecture and what your monetary outlay actually buys you.

If you have a 5850 and OC it to 7850 clockspeeds, is there really enough improvement to warrant the cost of upgrading etc.
 
Bobisuruncle54 said:
Desktops aren't going anywhere for a long while yet. While you can conjure up conjecture all you want, they will always have their place due to current manufacturing processes.

Not saying that these ridiculous prices aren't helping though, they are not. AMD should have really considered their long term stance here - even if they do start to drastically reduce prices bit by bit over the next 12 months, the initial prices of this generation will still be a damning mark against them.

Why they think it's a good idea to try and screw enthusiasts is anyone's guess, because it is a tremendously stupid and naive move.
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Desktop PC sales declined by 15% last year compared to 2010. Laptops also took a big hit as people move to tablets and consoles. There are plenty of articles on the web about it, but here is the first one google gave me. Believe what you like, but desktop gaming is doomed. Sure, there will be console ports for years to come, but with soon to arrive new consoles, the difference will be much closer between them and PC's.

It doesn't take an accountant to realise that dedicated PC games will soon be a thing of the past.
 
HeX said:
It's apples to apples because all 3 cards are clocked at the exact same speeds.

It's showing the differences in architecture and what your monetary outlay actually buys you.

If you have a 5850 and OC it to 7850 clockspeeds, is there really enough improvement to warrant the cost of upgrading etc.
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If I had the price of 7850 to spend- would my money be best spent on 7850? No.

If I had the price of 7870 to spend- would my money be best spent on 7870? No.

Spending these amounts on previous gen brand new cards gets me more performance. THats all there is to it as far as I am concerned. AMD need to change their pricing big time.
 
555BUK said:
Desktop PC sales declined by 15% last year compared to 2010. Laptops also took a big hit as people move to tablets and consoles. There are plenty of articles on the web about it, but here is the first one google gave me. Believe what you like, but desktop gaming is doomed. Sure, there will be console ports for years to come, but with soon to arrive new consoles, the difference will be much closer between them and PC's.

It doesn't take an accountant to realise that dedicated PC games will soon be a thing of the past.
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Yes, but remember that there are about a billion PCs in the world (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=703807) - so there is A LOT of shrinking to do before PCs will disappear. PC gaming market is by far the biggest, bigger than consoles- in terms of gamers base (http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_5.html).
 
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wazza300 said:
anyone know if the 7850 beats 5870?
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Disgusting really the performance for the price.

5870v7850.jpg
 
I won't be upgrading not unless I win the lotto then I might buy a 79xx but never a 78xx. Better off previous generation AMD/ATI users getting one of these and overclocking using MSI Afterburner - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD.

I managed to get my 5850 core to 1005MHz / memory to 1290MHz and it was Unigine 2.5 stable, I've saved the profile so gonna see what it's like in some games at that speed (now theres any idea for a little weekend benchmark review project) :)
 
I think they had the pricing spot on with the 6000 series, especially with regards to a £200 6950.

That is exactly what the majority of people are looking for. A high powered card and a mid range price.

They have completely lost sight of this price point with the 7000 series.

The 7870 should be under £250 to fill this gap.
 
opethdisciple said:
I think they had the pricing spot on with the 6000 series, especially with regards to a £200 6950.

That is exactly what the majority of people are looking for. A high powered card and a mid range price.

They have completely lost sight of this price point with the 7000 series.

The 7870 should be under £250 to fill this gap.
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It's not just that, FYI - the Performance jump from the 5870 to 6970 (13%) was greater than the jump to the 6970 to 7870 (10%). Considering that this generation had the benefit of a full node shrink, it's a complete flop.
 
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7870 isn't the 6970's replacement, though. That would be the 7970 which is hugely faster than the 6970.

So whilst I agree with the 13% 5870-6970 I don't on the next part. 5870 was AMD's top end part. 6970 was AMD's top end part (ignoring the silly dual GPU cards of course). So therefore logic says that 7970 is the next one on.

Now compare the 7870 to the 5830 and tell me how much faster it is.
 
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