Worth while upgrade from 5850?

the 7850 fit your budget nicely...

I know exactly what you mean. The best around now as long as you can power it is the GTX 480 you can pick one up for about $220 now. The Zotac 560Ti Amp is another card that is cheaper and worth consideration along with the 7850.

Personally I have chosen to sit on my 5850 for now as I have no performance issues, I also feel prices are too high at the moment so will play the long game and try for a bargain along the line. Maybe when the 660-650's hit the shelves they will stir things up a bit ? End of August seems to be the favourite date being circulated at the moment.

Mactronix  

I recently went from a 5850 to a 7950. GREAT upgrade. I waited for the first round of price drops on the 7950 but they just dropped again this week to $350 which means you should be able to get one around $320 after mail in rebate. While a 7850 would give you some improvement over a 5850, for a 3 monitor EyeFinity setup, go with a 7950 or higher. The extra gig of Vram the 79 series has vs the 78's makes them better for an EyeFinity setup. I've already seen a few games go above 2 gigs of Vram useage during gaming at EyeFinity resolutions. As far as power the 7950 gave me almost double the performance of my 5850.

To get a wow factor with the upgrade HD7870 or HD7950 will be minimum which means spending either side of $300. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_P...

But the issue is the price that is being asked for Graphics cards at the moment. Everything has been bumped up a notch higher than it was before AMD raised all the prices with its stupid pricing of the 7 series.
I was looking at a 560Ti just before the 7 series was launched and the prices were coming down to what I think is a decent enough price for the card.
Then AMD released there cards which were selling, as its supply and demand this shows the market will take that price and yes I appreciate that's how the world works but prices went up to a point where the card is no longer what I call value so I didn't buy it.

Mactronix  

The problem isn't the prices generally, it's the prices at the middle and the fact that the newest releases haven't really included a good mid-range card at a mid-range price other than the 7850. The 7770 is just too weak, and it leaves a gap in both price and performance before you get to the 7850.

The 660 Ti is likely to be a good high-mid-range card (the 670 is too expensive to count), which might cause a little more downward pressure on the 7850 and 7870. But it's supposed to be $300. I haven't heard anything about a 650 or anything else Kepler-based that's lower than the 660 Ti.

Meanwhile, though, I do think that the twin frozr 7950 for $310 post-rebate (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...) is a great deal. You will certainly see a big upgrade over your 5850 for that--essentially a doubling of performance, and that's without considering overclocking (at which the 7950 excels). Check it out here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/512?vs=550 Given the 7950's performance edge over the 7870 and 7850, I think that's probably the best video card buy right now. It is over $300, but you're getting serious performance.

The 7850 is of course a good choice too, but probably a less compelling upgrade over the 5850 from a pure performance standpoint. You can OC the 7850 like crazy, and you have 2GB of VRAM. But I don't think I'd move to the 5850 without a more compelling reason, e.g. going over 1080p.

You can always wait to see how the 660 Ti changes pricing of the AMD cards; at $200, the 7850 would be amazing (it's already great in the $220-50 range), and the 7870 could move a lot too.

I had the same thoughts recently about my 5870. But then I realized I have no performance issues with the games I currently play (WoW, BF3, Skyrim, TF2, Diablo 3). Sure, maybe I don't have bragging rights to 100+ fps on Ultra details. But those games always default to high settings @ 1920x1080 and run smooth for me. That's all I need.

The day I start seeing noticeable FPS and performance issues due to outdated hardware, is the day I upgrade.

Advertised retail I have seen for the 660Ti is going to be $299 according to all news I have seen. http://www.techspot.com/news/49451-nvidia-geforce-gtx-6...
Putting it in between the HD7870 and HD7950.

@ motorneuron,

Um no I think you will find both the OP and myself have made it clear that for us at least it is the price that is the issue. Not enough performance to much money. Pretty simple really.


Mactronix