7770 Crossfire vs 6850 Crossfire?

[Yoyoman2000]

I am looking into buying a new PC and I am working on a very small budget. That budget leaves me on a budget of around about £115 for a graphics card. Well, I was originally going to get a 6850 but then the 7770 came into my mind as it consumes less power so it would be a more viable option for crossfire-ing. I also hear that the 7770 scales over 100% in Crossfire.

So my basic question is would there be a sizeable difference between 7770 crossfire and 6850 cf.

P.S Buying a £200 card now is not an option; I would probably add the second one in January.


(7770)
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/atihd7770series/ax77701gbd5-2dhg.html

(6850)
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/atihd6800series/ax6850-1gbd5-dh.html

(7770 crossfire review)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGY6buAw9SI

Other info:
My monitor is 1024x1280. I play games like bf3, total war games, Skyrim and older dx9 rts games. My PSU is a 550w coolermaster GX.

 

[FtsArTek]

a) your 550w PSU will NOT handle two 6850s nor two 7770s.
b) At 1280x1024 a 6850 should be able to handle pretty much anything on at least high. Crossfire will be bottlenecked by almost any CPU at that reso.
c) When you ask questions about this kind of stuff, helps to tell us motherboard, CPU, and other specs too, but don't worry about that now.
d) Battlefield 3 won't run on anything less than a 6950 maxxed, although at 1280x1024 it'd probably run maxxed on a 6870 or OC 6850.
e) 6850 is probably a little less powerful than a 7770, as I believe that 7770 is a die-shrunk 6870.
f) it may well be worth waiting for some of the mid-range kepler cards to see how they perform.
g) Cooler Master GX series PSUs are unfortunately not very good at all. I've seen many have problems putting out their maximum power output, particularly the 650w version.

 

[GunSkillet]

a) your 550w PSU will NOT handle two 6850s nor two 7770s.
b) At 1280x1024 a 6850 should be able to handle pretty much anything on at least high. Crossfire will be bottlenecked by almost any CPU at that reso.
c) When you ask questions about this kind of stuff, helps to tell us motherboard, CPU, and other specs too, but don't worry about that now.
d) Battlefield 3 won't run on anything less than a 6950 maxxed, although at 1280x1024 it'd probably run maxxed on a 6870 or OC 6850.
e) 6850 is probably a little less powerful than a 7770, as I believe that 7770 is a die-shrunk 6870.
f) it may well be worth waiting for some of the mid-range kepler cards to see how they perform.
g) Cooler Master GX series PSUs are unfortunately not very good at all. I've seen many have problems putting out their maximum power output, particularly the 650w version.

Wow, I was just doing a random google search and had no choice but to make an account to point out your ignorance.

You probably could run two 6850s on a 550w PSU. You can DEFINATELY run two 7770s on a 550w PSU, it only uses 80w.

Also, Battlefield 3 won't run on max settings on anything less than a 6950??? Where do you get your information from? A 7770 can run BF3 on max settings in 1920x1080 at 30FPS, and the 6850 should too, considering it has BETTER performance.

 

[seriux]

I run BF3 on max with a gigabyte a single 6850OC. No lag, runs like a dream.

 

[Sunius]

What are you talking about guys? HD 7770 barely handles high settings (30.96 fps) at 1920x1080:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-7770-7750-benchmark,review-32379-6.html

And that's single player! There's absolutely no way HD 6850 would max it either, unless at way lower resolution. My GTX 560 Ti hovers around 30-40 fps on max settings (and it's HIGHLY overclocked), but it dips into 20s as well, which makes it pretty unplayable. You'd need HD6970/GTX 570 to max it out, even that may be pushing it.

@OP: HD 6850 is more powerful than HD7770. I believe that is your best bet at that budget. Note: HD 6850 isn't a very high end card, so crossfiring it will probably lead to issues like micro stuttering.

 

[bccorrupt]

I'm going to disregard most of the nonsense going on above me and just answer the question for you...

In benchmarks at 1920x1080 the two cards are split down the middle. The 7770 usually pulls ahead on brand new games and the 6850 pulls ahead a little on older games.

In crossfire the 7770 does achieve almost 100% extra if the game is optimized well for crossfire and also is optimized well for pc.

Considering that the 6850 uses about 50% more power at load and that you have to assume the number of titles that the 7770 is a touch faster on is only going to increase, especially with better drivers I'd personally pick the 7770.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102967 (and $10 cheaper)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

 

[mspaintwizard1999]

I'm going to disregard most of the nonsense going on above me and just answer the question for you...

In benchmarks at 1920x1080 the two cards are split down the middle. The 7770 usually pulls ahead on brand new games and the 6850 pulls ahead a little on older games.

In crossfire the 7770 does achieve almost 100% extra if the game is optimized well for crossfire and also is optimized well for pc.

Considering that the 6850 uses about 50% more power at load and that you have to assume the number of titles that the 7770 is a touch faster on is only going to increase, especially with better drivers I'd personally pick the 7770.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102967 (and $10 cheaper)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

I am having almost the same problem with deciding on a GPU, however, I am not going to crossfire. I'm pretty much set on the 7770, but is the XFX "Black edition" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150599 worth the extra $30 over the SAPPHIRE single fan version http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102967 that you suggested?

 

[bccorrupt]

I am having almost the same problem with deciding on a GPU, however, I am not going to crossfire. I'm pretty much set on the 7770, but is the XFX "Black edition" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150599 worth the extra $30 over the SAPPHIRE single fan version http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102967 that you suggested?

It's really up you whether you think you will get lucky and will get the same clocks overclocking yourself, but in the factory overclocked cards the Sapphires are clocked higher.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102968
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102993

The Vapor-X card has really good reviews on the internet and is overclockable even more than it already is.
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/Sapphire_HD_7770_Vapor-X/3.html

As far as XFX is concerned, I can't say that I've had quality issues with any of their cards(like a couple Biostar and Powercolor cards I've dealt with), but only because I would never purchase anything from them. Back when DDR5 came out every other company was selling normal cards, in Best Buy and Frys electronics XFX was selling a gimped 5670 with DDR3 and other similar cards that should have had DDR3 with DDR2. I would never give money to a company that would prey on people who don't know any better like that. Just my 2 cents.

 

[coffeecoffee]

I am looking into buying a new PC and I am working on a very small budget. That budget leaves me on a budget of around about £115 for a graphics card. Well, I was originally going to get a 6850 but then the 7770 came into my mind as it consumes less power so it would be a more viable option for crossfire-ing. I also hear that the 7770 scales over 100% in Crossfire.

So my basic question is would there be a sizeable difference between 7770 crossfire and 6850 cf.

P.S Buying a £200 card now is not an option; I would probably add the second one in January.


(7770)
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/atihd7770series/ax77701gbd5-2dhg.html

(6850)
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/atihd6800series/ax6850-1gbd5-dh.html

(7770 crossfire review)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGY6buAw9SI

Other info:
My monitor is 1024x1280. I play games like bf3, total war games, Skyrim and older dx9 rts games. My PSU is a 550w coolermaster GX.

As far as I can tell, your better off getting a single 6870 than Crossfiring because;

1) A 6870 can easily handle any game at the resolution you mentioned [1024x1280] at max or near max settings [assuming your CPU doesn't bottleneck]; therefore any performance gained from two 7770 or 6850s can't even be used. Also, keep in mind that computer hardware has extremely high deappreciation rates due to how often newer hardware is released.

2) While a 7770 consumes less power which could potentially open the door for xfire, it does not necessarily mean linear scaling;
a) If a game lacks xfire/SLI support, regardless of how many cards your system is running, only one will be assigned the task of running the game.
b) the 7770 is slower and costs more than the 6850. Benchmark here ==> http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/536?vs=539

3) Newer doesn't always mean better; 7770's drivers aren't as mature as the 6850/6870 which has been around much longer.

In conclusion, your best bet is somehow increase your budget from £115 to about £130-135 for a 6870.

~Coffee

 

[blazorthon]

As far as I can tell, your better off getting a single 6870 than Crossfiring because;

1) A 6870 can easily handle any game at the resolution you mentioned [1024x1280] at max or near max settings [assuming your CPU doesn't bottleneck]; therefore any performance gained from two 7770 or 6850s can't even be used. Also, keep in mind that computer hardware has extremely high deappreciation rates due to how often newer hardware is released.

2) While a 7770 consumes less power which could potentially open the door for xfire, it does not necessarily mean linear scaling;
a) If a game lacks xfire/SLI support, regardless of how many cards your system is running, only one will be assigned the task of running the game.
b) the 7770 is slower and costs more than the 6850. Benchmark here ==> http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/536?vs=539

3) Newer doesn't always mean better; 7770's drivers aren't as mature as the 6850/6870 which has been around much longer.

In conclusion, your best bet is somehow increase your budget from £115 to about £130-135 for a 6870.

~Coffee

For Crossfire, the 7770 scales much better than the 6800 cards. Two 7770s would be able to fight it out with two 6870s, maybe even two 6930s, because 7770s have far more linear scaling than the 6800 cards do. Also, the Radeon 7770 drivers are plenty mature. Yes, they're not as mature as the 6800 cards, but they are more than good enough. In fact, there aren't any serious problems with them as of right now.

Even more importantly, the 7770 is cheaper than the 6850 nowadays, at least it is in the USA. Factory OCed 7770s that meet or beat the 6850 in every game have similar pricing to the 6850s (often-times still a little cheaper) and almost all 7770s also come with one or two free games (usually a free copy of Dirt Showdown). There are some games where these 7770s are on-par with the 6850 and there are some where they beat the 6850 and even a few where they beat the 6870, but they don't lose to the 6850. As even better drivers come out, this will only improve for them. They are also all better for overclocking than 6800, for what that's worth to OP. Some factory overclocked 7770s trade blows with the more expensive and more power-hungry 6870 instead of with the 6850, despite being as cheap as or sometimes cheaper than the 6850. In Crossfire, such 7770s would easily match the Radeon 7970, if not the GTX 680.