What would fit better? 6850 or 6870?

[cloverst]

Hi.
Due to the release of the 78xx series, prices have dropped, so I wanna buy myself a new "budget" card (to replace my current HD4850 512MB with)
Now, I am having hard time to choose which card I should go for, the HD6850 or the HD6870.
Well, the only thing bothering me is actually my current pc specs:
Intel E8400 (dual core)
GP-43 DS3L (Gigabyte p43 chipset - actually doesnt have pcie 2, but 1.6 if I remember correctly)
4GB 800mhz DDR2 (could be oc'ed as they have cooling, but not oc'ed atm)
Enermax pro 525w (so it could handle the new card)

Now I was told that the system would not be able to "use" all of the power in a 6870, so it would be useless to put it, and that I should go for the 6850.
However, is the difference that big? my pc is not THAT old and slow, I want to know what you guyz think.
btw, another thning is the price: the 6870 costs 214$ and the 6850 is 160$ - thats a diff.

Thanks in advance!

 

[alvine]

i would go for the 6850 and for the price difference get a cpu cooler and begin overclocking

 

[Hydroc10]

The dif between a 6850 and a 6870 is pretty big. I ran a 6870 with a psu that has 30amps on the 12v rails combined although more is better. You could run that setup on a quality 430w psu. So check your psu it should tell you on a sticker how many amps your working with.

 

[cloverst]

ooh, thanks for the fast replay.
Now should I go for the Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 6850 Overclocked (with:
Core Clock 820 MHz
Memory Clock 4200MHz and appears with a cooler (2 fans))

or the Asus regular one? and then buy the cooling separately?

 

[cloverst]

The dif between a 6850 and a 6870 is pretty big. I ran a 6870 with a psu that has 30amps on the 12v rails combined although more is better. You could run that setup on a quality 430w psu. So check your psu it should tell you on a sticker how many amps your working with.

This is what I have:
http://www.enermax.com/home.php?fn=eng/product_a1_1_1&lv0=1&lv1=27&no=75
Enermax is a very high quality psu so I believe it could handle the card.
Only question is, if my motherboard with pcie 1.6 will be able to use the 6870 perfectly, meaning, will I see a difference on my machine, between the 6750 and the 6870?
thanks

 

[jsrudd]

Don't plan on buying the cooling separately. The fan doesn't always integrate with the fan controller on the card.

 

[Hydroc10]

This is what I have:
http://www.enermax.com/home.php?fn=eng/product_a1_1_1&lv0=1&lv1=27&no=75
Enermax is a very high quality psu so I believe it could handle the card.
Only question is, if my motherboard with pcie 1.6 will be able to use the 6870 perfectly, meaning, will I see a difference on my machine, between the 6750 and the 6870?
thanks

That looks like a nice PSU, 80plus bronze. Well a pcie 3.0 card will work on a pcie 2.0 motherbord so I assume you will be just fine. A pcie card 1.6 wont work on a pcie 2.0 motherboard etc. Unless I'm missing something, thats my logic

 

[Hydroc10]

Just wanted to add this an HD 6850 has %50 more compute power and %100 more ram than your card so it would be a good upgrade. I don't know much about your CPU but if it will push a 6850 it should be able to use A 6870 which has %100 more compute power and %100 more ram than the card you have now.

 

[cloverst]

That looks like a nice PSU, 80plus bronze. Well a pcie 3.0 card will work on a pcie 2.0 motherbord so I assume you will be just fine. A pcie card 1.6 wont work on a pcie 2.0 motherboard etc. Unless I'm missing something, thats my logic

What I meant was the opposite - I have a x16 PCIE slot, which ofcourse will run any PCIE 2.0 card, and I believe that PCIE 3.0 cards as well.
I was uncertain about how efficient it would be to put 6870 on my pc. my CPU is 3.0 GH, dual core with 6mb cache, which I believe is fine even in today's standards (I hope), but I was thinking that the motherboard would be the "bottleneck".

thanks for the responses hydroc, and everyone. I'm still not sure about what to order, but I will sure do it tomorrow tend to go for the 6850 cause of the price tough