HD 7770 VAPOR X SAPPHIRE OC OR HD 6850

[zeroone19]

Hi,

I'm building a mid-range game rig, well enough to play some FPS games on a 20+ inch monitor. I haven't got a GPU yet and thought I'd ask for some help. I 've got my eyes on Sapphire vapor X HD 7770 or an HD 6850. My specs are below and I'm concerned the cards may be too powerfull for my built that it might bottleneck. Not going to Xfire or use multiple screens, not in the near future. I just want to be able to play BF3 on mid or high. Let me know which brands are good too.. I'm in Philippines and some brands are very limited if not scarce... such as EVGA and XFX. Budget would be within this range, though i probably can stretch to $170. Priorities are performance versus power consumption/heat.


I3-2120 3.3 Ghz
Asrock z68/usb3
cougar rs550 watts 80+ bronze
g.skill ripsaw 4G 2x2G 1600
nzxt source 210


TIA.

 

[songorocosongo]

I used to play BF3 with an HD 6850 on high settings at ~45fps and felt pretty smooth.

 

[horaciopz]

HD 7770 OC, no doubts. At stock speeds it can reach HD6850 performance, and OC it would get to the HD6870 territory.

Getting the 7770 to 1100mhz core and 1300memory clocks yo will get some 50ish FPS on High. I had an HD6790 and I OC it to the 1000mhz core clock mark, it was just for 45fps on prereset high.

I play in a 1920x1080 monitor 21".

You should actually go for an HD7850 for 21" or more monitor, if you can get 170$, its worth saving the resto for HD7850, its a quite porwerful card.

Also, your processor it's pretty good, you wont feel bottlenecks. Only if you get something at the level of 7870, 7950 or gtx 660ti you would experiment some bottlenecking. You should know that your CPU is as capable as any FX 8100 or Phenom processor outthere...

 

[twelve25]

7770 barely beats the 6770, so the 6850 hands down. (IMO, at least)

But I agree the 7850 1GB if you can go $170. There are few in that price range on newegg right now and that beats anything else at that price for performance/price/power consumption.

 

[dudeknows]

Im from philippines too. And my suggestion is to buy at PChub/Edge local store.
HD7770 vaporX is enough for your rig. I also have this on my i3 3220 and 1600x900 resolution setup and dude, All games i play are maxed out.

If you prefer to play at 1920x1080 resolution i suggest HD7850.

And don't mind HD 6850 BTW.

Other thoughts for HD7770 vaporX: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1498/pg3/sapphire-hd-7770-vapor-x-graphics-card-review-test-system-and-methodology.html

 

[zeroone19]

Thanks all.. i guess it boils down to which brand eh.. i'm actually more inclined to the HD 6850 though i feel my PSU won't be enough. with 80% of 550W i dont think it can power the 6850. with 4 fans turning inside the NZXT source. more reviews for me i guess..

 

[twelve25]

Your 550W could run a 7970 or a GTX 680. Fans don't use a meaningful amount of power. You don't need to be worrying about power with a 550W unless you plan to run crossfire.

 

[zeroone19]

Im from philippines too. And my suggestion is to buy at PChub/Edge local store.
HD7770 vaporX is enough for your rig. I also have this on my i3 3220 and 1600x900 resolution setup and dude, All games i play are maxed out.

If you prefer to play at 1920x1080 resolution i suggest HD7850.

And don't mind HD 6850 BTW.

Other thoughts for HD7770 vaporX: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1498/pg3/sapphire-hd-7770-vapor-x-graphics-card-review-test-system-and-methodology.html

Thanks bro.. that link really helped big time..

 

[Earnie]

Your 550W could run a 7970 or a GTX 680. Fans don't use a meaningful amount of power. You don't need to be worrying about power with a 550W unless you plan to run crossfire.

that would depend on make,model and age .And from what I just googled,HEC/Cougar are for the most part,crap.

 

[zeroone19]

that would depend on make,model and age .And from what I just googled,HEC/Cougar are for the most part,crap.

Yah, read about them too.. unfortunately i was aiming really for Seasonic non-modular 520W and it wasnt available. I settled for the HEC and didnt know it had these kind of reviews. It's new anyway so we'll wait and see..

 

[mace200200]

There would have been much better options than the HEC PSU (ask here, people love to recommend the stuff they've been running in their rig). Either way, the 7850 is really the best GPU for your money, followed by the 6850 if your looking for something cheaper. I love my 7770 but I would have bought a 6850 instead but I really didn't have the $105 I got my card for at the time. I don't OC my cards though, so I can speak where they lie at their max OC.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539?vs=536

 

[zeroone19]

i think i might be missing something here.. the brand i can easily get here in my country are Sapphires. needless to say, im considering HD 6850 and HD 7770 OC vapor x from them. but I need to know the difference in having 128-bit memory from 256-bit. is there a significant/noticeable improvement on a 1600 x 900 resolution monitor? I think the 7770 wins it terms of GPU, but then i might be wrong..

HD 6850
Memory 1024 MB Size
256 -bit GDDR5
4000 MHz Effective

HD 7770
1024 MB Size
128 -bit GDDR5
5200 MHz Effective

 

[dudeknows]

You also may notice some better -power consumption on HD7770 than HD6850.

At your resolution 900p. HD7770 vaporX/GTX 650 ti are smooth enough to play bf3 at ultra.

@ 256 -bit GDDR5 you don't need it base on your resolution. 128-192 bit is fine!

 

[supergtr]

How does the VaporX compete against the EVGA 650ti 1GB SSC?

 

[zeroone19]

There would have been much better options than the HEC PSU (ask here, people love to recommend the stuff they've been running in their rig). Either way, the 7850 is really the best GPU for your money, followed by the 6850 if your looking for something cheaper. I love my 7770 but I would have bought a 6850 instead but I really didn't have the $105 I got my card for at the time. I don't OC my cards though, so I can speak where they lie at their max OC.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539?vs=536

i want to hear from the veteran.. although i welcome everyone's opinion...

I'm now leaning towards HD 7850 sapphire or msi. I'm thinking of giving my rig a little bit of muscle.. it's christmas anyway. I wanna find out though, some of benchmarks that we see on reviews are using I7. since i'm using I3, can someone tell me how much FPS difference does this two make using 4G of RAM, sapphire HD 7850 on a 1600 x 900 Samsung monitor. i can't seem to imagine the difference. My worry is, the HD 7850 might be reaching 50-60 FPS on some games using I7, how many FPS will I miss using I3 on the same set up??

TIA.

 

[horaciopz]

In games such as Battlefield 3 on campaing, the diference its about 1 or 2 FPS lost, agasint a I 7 extreme edition. But heavy CPU games, such as Starcraft 2, battlefield 3 MULTIPLYAER, will favor a better processor.

Let´s say that with your HD7850, you are playing BF3 multiplayer, with your processor the real number will go from 50FPS to 60 FPS on Battlefield Ultra at 1600x900 monitor.

I can say that because a close friend has the same system as you, I3 2120 with an Hd7850. He uses an 22" 1920x1080 monitor, and playing on ultra, SOMETIMES he gets 40 FPS.... While the most of the time he has about 50ish FPS.

If you get an I7 3777k overclocked, you will see a big improvement on multiplayer Bf3, world of warcraft, starcraft 2, Skyrim and those games. But at your Level of performance, the i3 2120 will not slow down your GPU, its need a beefier GPU to experiment CPU bottleneck.

Hope it helps

 

[zeroone19]

In games such as Battlefield 3 on campaing, the diference its about 1 or 2 FPS lost, agasint a I 7 extreme edition. But heavy CPU games, such as Starcraft 2, battlefield 3 MULTIPLYAER, will favor a better processor.

Let´s say that with your HD7850, you are playing BF3 multiplayer, with your processor the real number will go from 50FPS to 60 FPS on Battlefield Ultra at 1600x900 monitor.

I can say that because a close friend has the same system as you, I3 2120 with an Hd7850. He uses an 22" 1920x1080 monitor, and playing on ultra, SOMETIMES he gets 40 FPS.... While the most of the time he has about 50ish FPS.

If you get an I7 3777k overclocked, you will see a big improvement on multiplayer Bf3, world of warcraft, starcraft 2, Skyrim and those games. But at your Level of performance, the i3 2120 will not slow down your GPU, its need a beefier GPU to experiment CPU bottleneck.

Hope it helps

Helps BIG TIME.. going hunting for the MSI or Sapphire 7850.

 

[esrever]

buy which ever is cheaper. If both are the same price, get the 7770 because its newer and probably will have better support.