How to overclock a 7850 past 1050MHz?

Jarrod · 8 Apr 2012 at 15:23

horrorwood said:
How would one of these compare to SLI GTX 460's?

I'm almost certain these would be faster, when I swapped my single GTX 460 superclocked with a 7850, I instantly saw higher fps in BF3 and my 3DMARK11 P score was boosted by 2000.

Nickjf20 · 8 Apr 2012 at 17:07

welshdragon said:
Everything I can find suggests it is a reference card. Or at least teh one pictured is a reference card

Yeah, I know it's of reference design, but I really want to know whether the components used to construct said design are of decent quality.

From past experiences they're poorly constructed and the fans are noisy even at low rpm. This was a cheapy cheapy 5770 from 2 years ago though, so they may use better quality components these days.

555BUK · 8 Apr 2012 at 18:15

Nickjf20 said:
Yeah, I know it's of reference design, but I really want to know whether the components used to construct said design are of decent quality.

From past experiences they're poorly constructed and the fans are noisy even at low rpm. This was a cheapy cheapy 5770 from 2 years ago though, so they may use better quality components these days.

All reference cards will be built to exactly the same specification. VTX, Powercolor etc just slap different stickers on them and design their own packaging. Infact, my VTX card doesn't even have a VTX label on it (it is straight off the reference production line).

Currently, I believe most (if not all all) 7850's have reference PCB's. Sapphire, ASUS and MSI stick non-reference coolers on them, but the PCB's use the same components. It usually takes a few months before OEM's start getting creative and cutting component costs.

Nickjf20 · 8 Apr 2012 at 20:03

Excellent, I'll order one right away then !

*Edit* Ahh, I didn't realise that postage is £9 ... that's a bit of a pain

HeX · 8 Apr 2012 at 20:08

You need to post more, get yourself in on the free shipping goodness.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17943556

welshdragon · 8 Apr 2012 at 20:13

555BUK said:
All reference cards will be built to exactly the same specification. VTX, Powercolor etc just slap different stickers on them and design their own packaging. Infact, my VTX card doesn't even have a VTX label on it (it is straight off the reference production line).

Currently, I believe most (if not all all) 7850's have reference PCB's. Sapphire, ASUS and MSI stick non-reference coolers on them, but the PCB's use the same components. It usually takes a few months before OEM's start getting creative and cutting component costs.

Nickjf20 -This is what I was trying to say about things being 'reference'. Cheers for confirming they are reference cards dude!

wazza300 · 8 Apr 2012 at 20:15

anyone running a reference card? any noticable fan noise difference compared with say a sapphire non ref cooler?

555BUK · 8 Apr 2012 at 20:51

wazza300 said:
anyone running a reference card? any noticable fan noise difference compared with say a sapphire non ref cooler?

I have a reference card and can honnestly say it is very very quiet. Only when I overclock massively does the fan crank up to noticeable levels, and even then it is not too bad.

I imagine that the Sapphire and MSI Frozr's are better for extreme overclocks, but the reference cards are pretty good for those on a tighter budget.

Nickjf20 · 8 Apr 2012 at 21:39

welshdragon said:
Nickjf20 -This is what I was trying to say about things being 'reference'. Cheers for confirming they are reference cards dude!

Ahh right, learn something new every day

I thought reference was merely the design, not quality identical components.

Nickjf20 · 8 Apr 2012 at 21:42

HeX said:
You need to post more, get yourself in on the free shipping goodness.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17943556

Hmm, only 240 more to go !

Is there any reason why OcUK use (expensive) overnight shipping rather than a standard 3-5 day (cheap) option ?

two00lbwaster · 9 Apr 2012 at 00:06

Nickjf20 said:
Hmm, only 240 more to go !

Is there any reason why OcUK use (expensive) overnight shipping rather than a standard 3-5 day (cheap) option ?

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for I think with couriers. I rarely see anyone with a bad word to say about DPD. City Link/Yodel on the other hand :S

Surveyor · 9 Apr 2012 at 00:58

Nickjf20 said:
Hmm, only 240 more to go !

As you only joined on 8 April you also need another 89 days forum membership even if you've made 250 posts before then.

Nickjf20 said:
Is there any reason why OcUK use (expensive) overnight shipping rather than a standard 3-5 day (cheap) option ?

For a lot of people even next day delivery isn't fast enough

kmax86 · 9 Apr 2012 at 01:21

555BUK said:
Many reviewa show a 7850 overclocked to 1050MHz equalling a stock 7870 @ 1000MHz. That mean clock for clock a 7870 is only very slightly faster.

Stock speeds
Stock 7870 = 1000/4800
Stock 7850 = 860/4800
difference = ~20%

before GPU Tweak allowed unlocking average overclocks
OC 7870 = ~1250/5600
OC 7850 = ~1050/5600
difference = ~25%

with GPU Tweak unlocked overclocks
OC 7870 = ~1250/5600
OC 7850 = ~1250/5600
difference = 6-8%

It is not that 7870 no longer overclocks better, it is more that 7850 now overclock just as well. The 7870 is not worth 40% more money for just 6-8% performance.

damn... reading this made me have doubts on buying a 7870 :confused:

Boomstick777 · 9 Apr 2012 at 02:51

555BUK said:
7850 is defo the sub £200 card to get. At stock the 6970 is 5-10% faster, but the 7850 overclocks by >40% and you'll be lucky to get 10% more out of the 6970. As this is an overclockers forums, there are very few here who would argue that the 7850 isn't better.

I remember getting flamed in the other thread for saying the HD 7850 2Gb was a better buy than the EVGA GTX 480 at £185.. Turns out I was right haha

555BUK · 9 Apr 2012 at 10:57

Boomstick777 said:
I remember getting flamed in the other thread for saying the HD 7850 2Gb was a better buy than the EVGA GTX 480 at £185.. Turns out I was right haha

Perhaps that was before anyone had pushed the 7850's past the 1050MHz barrier

. An extra 200MHz is what launches these cards past the 480 and into the stock 580 league.

This and an overclocked 480 will probably offer very similar performance, however this will obviously run much cooler, quieter, suck less juice, and have the extra 512mb VRAM.

welshdragon · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:06

Mine is now showing as awiting dispatch! Yay

On the driver front, do I just grab the latest off AMD's site or do I have to use the disc?

I remember when the 6850 first came out drivers were iffy for a few months!?!

Jerry64 · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:23

Get the lastest from Amd's site think Hex is using 2.4 beta's.

Nickjf20 · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:25

welshdragon said:
Mine is now showing as awiting dispatch! Yay

On the driver front, do I just grab the latest off AMD's site or do I have to use the disc?

I remember when the 6850 first came out drivers were iffy for a few months!?!

I'd just grab the latest drivers off AMD's website. They're generally good these days.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx
x64 download page

welshdragon · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:25

Ok cool. Will just uninstallin gmy nvidia drivers be fine? WOuld prefer not to use drivesweeper etc

Nick you bought one yet? Just ahd email back off ocuk confirming they are reference in case you still worried? ;-)

HeX · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:28

Yeah just uninstall nVidia drivers, delete the nvidia folder from your hdd, then power down and remove the card. New card in, power up, 12.3 WHQL/12.4 Beta's and away you go.