2 video cards, $40 difference

[shanks86]

Hi, I have just completed a build of a new machine with an i5 3470, 8gb of ram a corsair 500W PSU and a 60gb SSD (for windows)

Basically was going to get the 6850 priced at £88 with delivery, then this morning the price went up to £100. I set about looking for replacements and have seen a sapphire 6870 @ £110 and a VTX3D 1gb 7850 @ 132.

The VTX3D comes with an O/C to 1000/1225 (4.9Ghz) and from what I have gathered @ 1080p it will keep pace with a 7870/7950 in synthetic benchmarks...

My question is that in real world gaming @ 1080 max, is there going to be a significant difference in the 2, or will they both play all the games at this resolution at good settings? I play only FPS games.

I only ask as my budget is quite tight and I'm thinking whether to save up for a bigger SSD in the near future.

 

[drums101]

are you asking is there a difference in real world gaming between a 6870 and a 7850? yes there is a difference...the 7850 is not alot faster than the 6870 but there is roughly a 20% performance increase...to me its worth the extra $40 bucks for a newer cooler and less power hungry card (not saying the 6870 is a power hog)

 

[shanks86]

Thank you very much for the info, power is a consideration as it's going to all be housed in a bitfenix prodigy LAN box

Also, will the factory overclock to 1000/1225 make it much faster than 20% over a 6870- I ask because I have seen a Sapphire stock clocked 860/1200 for about the same price. From what I have read over the years it's generally better to get a bigger brand, but this overclock does seem really high, so again, is there a big real world difference?

 

[drums101]

There would be some real world difference between a card clocked at 860 and a card clocked at 1000 mhz but its not a game changer...you could always oc the slower card yourself and save a few bucks

 

[shanks86]

Thank you again for your help.

Turns out the vtx3d is cheaper as it has free shipping- I guess best to go with that.

Will go with that then, £20 for more than a 20% performance increase and lower power draw is about right! (I'm guessing with the O/C it'll be another 10-15%?)

As a side note, why is it that old tech is retaining value so well? Last time I made a PC (geforce 6 era) one would be able to pick up the high end of the last generation for a new price around the £120 mark... I am getting old!!

 

[drums101]

couldn't really tell you why it retains its value you so well...took a class on economics once didnt retain a thing haha...i think they just keep the prices up bc they can