Upgrade 1GB 5870 to 7870?

[Bartendalot]

I havent run into too many problems with my 5870 (other than fan noise) but is it worth it to upgrade to 7870 for energy savings and performance?

I use it mostly for gaming and the first game to not run at ultra sets is Skyrim but that means other games will be coming soon that will tax the card.

Running i7930 @3.8GHZ 8GB RAM

 

[Guest]

I would go with the 7950 if you can afford the extra $40.but ya with either card it would be a huge boost

 

[darkguset]

I went from a HD4850 to the HD7870 and the power savings are great! I can finally leave my PC 24/7 doing folding and it consumes as much power as it did with the HD4850 at idle! lol
Performance wise it is also miles ahead and whisper quiet (Sapphire OC GHz edition).
If you have the money to spare and think that your games are starting to lag, go ahead and make the leap. Like mikem711 said above, perhaps the 7950 is a better choice now that the prices have dropped. Again, it depends on the resolution of your monitor and what settings you are playing at.
For my monitor (1680x1050), I can run most games with everything maxxed out (including AA and FSAA). If you are gaming at higher res, perhaps you should consider the 7950.

Either way, you will not be disappointed!

 

[Guest]

Skyrim is a CPU bound game

Skyrim may be cpu intensive but he would still get a huge boost upgrading to a 78/7900 series card

 

[ismaeljrp]

Skyrim is a CPU bound game

Dude, he is running an i7 oc'ed...Absolutely no way, the cpu is limiting anything.

 

[ismaeljrp]

What resolution do you play at? cuz I used to run a 5770 and I very nearly maxed everything, but that was @ 1680x1050. And with an AMD Phenom II 945.

In any case, you can expect somewhere around 30-50% more performance in games with a 7870...much quieter, and much cooler....and thats not taking into account overclocking

 

[Bartendalot]

What resolution do you play at? cuz I used to run a 5770 and I very nearly maxed everything, but that was @ 1680x1050. And with an AMD Phenom II 945.

In any case, you can expect somewhere around 30-50% more performance in games with a 7870...much quieter, and much cooler....and thats not taking into account overclocking

Running at 1920x1080. There are a couple of other games that wont let me run full AA but the card seems to have some legs still. I guess the question is if the quieter and less power consuming qualities are worth the upgrade since we are going to be in the 7x series for a year or so. Improved performance is an added bonus but if you are saying its 30-50% improved, maybe that tips the scales?

 

[Guest]

Running at 1920x1080. There are a couple of other games that wont let me run full AA but the card seems to have some legs still. I guess the question is if the quieter and less power consuming qualities are worth the upgrade since we are going to be in the 7x series for a year or so. Improved performance is an added bonus but if you are saying its 30-50% improved, maybe that tips the scales?

If you got a 7950 and overclocked it to 1000 mhz which is easy to do with no voltage your probably talking close to 5870 crossfire performance

 

[vilenjan]

Skyrim is CPU bound?, my 6850 ran out steam way before my 955BE (both OCed).

 

[Bartendalot]

it takes an I5 2500K minimum to get Skyrim running at it's best. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

I dont know... isn't an i7 @3.8 pretty fast still? Maybe I could squeeze a little more out of it but not sure if its worth the chip degradation (it's been running at 3.8 since I got it 2+ yrs ago - completely stable, I should add)

This brings up another question (which probably belongs in a different thread - but here goes). It feels like I need to upgrade my whole system every 4ish yrs but this build seems like it has alot of legs left. Maybe I hold off on a new GPU for 2 more years then just plunk 1500 into a new 2014 build?

What do you guys think a i7 930 and a 5870 will be able to run in 1 and a half years? If the answer is most things at decent settings then maybe it's better to wait and re-up everything in one fell swoop?

 

[osamabinrobot]

weird i dont see on that graph where they compare i5-2500k's to i7-930s

 

[whyso]

Skyrim has since then been patched and gets much higher frame rates

 

[ismaeljrp]

Running at 1920x1080. There are a couple of other games that wont let me run full AA but the card seems to have some legs still. I guess the question is if the quieter and less power consuming qualities are worth the upgrade since we are going to be in the 7x series for a year or so. Improved performance is an added bonus but if you are saying its 30-50% improved, maybe that tips the scales?

Well, I would say yes. It is a very good upgrade, 50% added performance is alot .. e.g. if you get 30fps and then upgrade, you are looking at 45 fps with the new card.
Thats just for thought. And since new consoles haven't been released, graphics won't be improving leaps and bounds for the next 2 years...Pretty much what we see in BF3 is bleeding edge, when compared to everything else.

Another thing you might want to think about is how soon will you upgrade again. Or how long do you want your new card to last you with outstanding performance?

around 2 yrs-----go with a 7870. Once you see performance dip a little, just Overclock for an added 5-10 frames on games.

If you want your card to last around 3 yrs or so, then I suggest going with a higher end card.

I like to upgrade just about every 2 yrs. And I always go for the $250 mark. Thats the real sweet spot. Not to mention I stay up to date features wise. And I only upgrade if I see a 80% performance increase at the least. eg. I just went from a 5770 to a 56oti.....next in line for me is a gtx680 level card, but only when that kind of performance is available at the sweet spot I mentioned.

 

[Bartendalot]

Best answer selected by bartendalot.