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HD 7770 on PCIE 3.0 or HD 6850 on PCIE 2.0/ 2.1 (both stock speeds)?

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I'm looking to get a new card to compliment my:
i5 3450 (Ivy Bridge)
MSI H77MA-G43
Kingston 4GB RAM 1333Mhz
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit DirectX 11

The TDP is a dead-giveaway with the HD 6850 using around 40% more than the 7770 (still based on a forum). Had a look at several benchmarks across different forums but I'm still confused. Also I forgot to mention that they are almost of the same price (7770 is even cheaper by around USD 3.00)

More about : 7770 pcie 6850 pcie stock speeds

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Graphics card Authority

With cards of this caliber, there's no difference between PCIe 2.0 and 3.0.

As for the performance of the 7770 vs. 6850, the Tom's Hardware review of the 7770 had this to say:
Quote:
The more painful comparison is to AMD’s own Radeon HD 6850. Generally faster, much less expensive, and still very prolific in the channel, there’s just no contest between the 16 month-old Barts-based board and Radeon HD 7770.

Now, you can factor in low power use and make an argument that the 7770’s efficiency makes it a more attractive buy. But I don’t agree that efficiency trumps absolute performance in the minds of most. Instead, we get a new card with performance comparable to what’s already available at a price point already being hit. Almost makes you wonder why they didn't just shrink Barts to 28 nm?


So go with the 6850 unless you can find a 7770 costing a good bit less than the 6850 (and don't want to spend the extra money).
Graphics card Master

That review is VERY VERY VERY OLD. From a time where the 7770s were more expensive than 6850s. There is no reason a 7770 needs to be a lot cheaper than a 6850 to purchase it. With a factory, or home overclock the 7770 will win, at lower power. At the same price point i would take a 7770. There is a reason it says the 6850 is *generaly faster*. Not always. The main complaint was the price, when looking at a 7770 at stock clocks.
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Graphics card Authority

unksol said:
That review is VERY VERY VERY OLD. From a time where the 7770s were more expensive than 6850s. There is no reason a 7770 needs to be a lot cheaper than a 6850 to purchase it. With a factory, or home overclock the 7770 will win, at lower power. At the same price point i would take a 7770. There is a reason it says the 6850 is *generaly faster*. Not always. The main complaint was the price, when looking at a 7770 at stock clocks.

Sure, you can overclock the 7770. But you can overclock the 6850 too, so that doesn't really mean anything. It's unreasonable to compare an overclocked 7770 to a stock 6850; you either compare stock to stock or overclocked to overclocked. Either way, the 6850 is faster. Which is why my advice was to buy the 6850 unless the 7770 is cheaper (and not just by some measly 5 dollars or 5 euros etc.) and you would like to save that cash for something else.
Graphics card Master

Right. They should be compared overclock to overclock. Something the 6850 is very meh at... and something the 7770, and all 7xxxs cards excel at. At the same price the 7770 wins. If you want to talk about price, factor in the electric bill

Take it easy fella's. So I guess you guys both agree that PCIe 3.0 or 2.0 won't make a difference at all? Let's say I'll put the 7770 on the PCIe 2.0 slot, won't that make even a decrease in performance by let's say 10% (which is a lot especially for demanding games like Crysis 2 or Shogun 2 - where I guess even a nudge of 5 FPS lower is a huge difference) compared of putting it into the PCIe 3.0?
Graphics card Authority

kevin83 said:
Yeah the performance difference between pci-e 2.1 and 3.0 isn't anywhere near the 5-10% range, it's much closer to .1-.5%, if anything at all. The $125 7770 is a much better option than the $150 6850.

The 6850 doesn't cost 150 dollars everywhere though. OP says he's seeing the 6850 being just 3 dollars more expensive, and with those prices I'd personally prefer the 6850.
Graphics card Master

If I'm not mistaken, driver updates have improved / are improving the HD7770's performance more than they are affecting the HD6850, so performance differences will shift more in favor of the newer card. Check specific games that interest you to see which one is faster, and by how much. Unless it loses by a considerable margin, I'd take the HD7770. I can tell you that my XFX version is extremely quiet (I can barely hear it during benchmarking); read reviews but I think more of the HD6850's were described as noisy under load.

Sakkura said:
Sure, you can overclock the 7770. But you can overclock the 6850 too, so that doesn't really mean anything. It's unreasonable to compare an overclocked 7770 to a stock 6850; you either compare stock to stock or overclocked to overclocked. Either way, the 6850 is faster. Which is why my advice was to buy the 6850 unless the 7770 is cheaper (and not just by some measly 5 dollars or 5 euros etc.) and you would like to save that cash for something else.

no, you are wrong, at stock clock the hd 7770 is hardly 2-3% slower(maybe they will become equal after next driver update) than the hd 6850, and the hd 7770 overclocks better than the 6850 and also the 7770 consumes a lot less power than the 6850, so if they are the same price i dont see any reason to not buy the 7770

The best driver for GCN[HD 7xxx] series is 12.11b11..Now take a look at this benchmark....
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_P...

The HD 7770 trails behind HD 6850 by 2-6 Fps with 12.11b11 driver..That's not much of a difference considering low power on HD 7770..However do keep in mind HD 7770 has a lower bus & Memory bandwidth than HD 6850...In future "IF" games arrives with huge texture or post process..MAYBE HD 7770's GCN architecture will not be enough...Either is good for now..But for high resolution's sake go for HD 6850
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