Crossfire HD 7850's user review

[Few Oranges]

Hello all, just here to give my personal opinion and review of the HD 7850's I have in crossfire.
First off I have:
--one Powercolor HD 7850 2GB at the typical 860Mhz core clock and 1200Mhz memory clock
--one HIS HD 7850 2GB also at 860Mhz/1200Mhz
--Beta Drivers 13.2

Currently I am playing at 1920 x 1080 resolution (however im gonna whip out the eyefinity setup in a cpl days)
--All games I play are first person shooters at absolute max settings with a minor adjustment between 2X-8X aliasing (i dont really care for aliasing since i personally don't notice much of a difference)
=======================================================================================

With that being said here are the games and experiences I've had.

--Black Ops 2 multiplayer: 124-178 FPS
--Far Cry 3: 78-150 FPS
--Borderlands 2: 175-245 FPS Physx on Low
--Dishonored: 128-130 FPS
--Crysis 2: 65-102 FPS DX11 with Maldo High Resolution Textures
--Just Cause 2: 122-280 FPS 8X Aliasing
--Metro 2033: 49-82 FPS DX11
--Crysis 3: 39-65 FPS Aliasing Disabled

Dolphin Emulator
--Super Smash Brother Brawl 1080 Texture pack 60FPS or 100% Emulation almost the entire time however majority of the time i could achieve this with a single 7850 with the exception of having 4 Players on the screen
(For those that know about this, 100% emulation is hard to achieve due to sloppy coding for the emulation)
=======================================================================================

Things to Keep in Mind:
--I am currently using a VIZIO 32' LCD Tv that is 60Hz refresh rate, therefore anything over 60 frames is not registered
--Yes, I do in fact own a Wii and an actual copy of the SSBB game.
--All games that have a cliff note regarding DX11 indicates that there are multiple C++ settings you can choose that enhance performance with the degradation of quality, ie DX10 and DX9 games
--Crossfire is NOT for everyone.. there IS a bit of tweaking involved with getting what you want out of your crossfire setup
--My HD 7850's are connected using one a single crossfire bridge as thats the only option my cards have, i believe all the 7850's are single fingered crossfire capable but im not positive
--Crossfire DOES generate a lot of heat if you are not using proper cooling and airflow/fan profiles
+My First GPU is the Powercolor, other than Crysis 3 the core temperature never exceeds 56C (61C for Crysis3)
+My Second GPU (HIS) Never exceeds 53 on any game
+Both Cards use Stock coolers that are single fans, however they both have Antec Formula 6 Tim applied
+Both Cards are REFERENCE designed meaning the fan pulls air in across the PCB and exhausts out the back
=======================================================================================

What about Microstutter?!?
--I have yet to run into ANY microstuttering of any sort, even in games where there may have been some dips in FPS, although this is the case for me I attribute this to the fact that im getting some very high frames and microstutter is rumored to plague the lower frame situations, but no one is actually positive about the microstutter causes.
=======================================================================================

Tweaks/Issues?
--The only issue I have run into is that on 13.2 Beta drivers the "AMD HD Audio" driver is no longer present on CCC or my computer whatsoever, however I'm using speakers so this is not an issue for me, this would only effect those that are using native speakers in their monitor or television
--Using "MSI Afterburner" to monitor my temperatures, the only annoyance with this is that i must start the game, go to desktop and then launch afterburner in order for both my GPU1 and GPU2 temperatures to be displayed. Its a minor grievance, but a kink in the fluidity of gameplay nonetheless
=======================================================================================
Verdict::
After reading and researching countless reviews and talking with individuals in person about the horrors of crossfire i decided to dive in against the majority opinion and I am glad I did.
While Crossfire may have its ups and downs Ive had an excellent experience thus far, I understand that crossfire problems range from rig to rig and that's definitely understandable
--Don't go the crossfire route if you are not: |Patient| Technologically sound| Or Experimental|
--DO go crossfire if you already have a decent card and are not willing to sell and buy a larger one but want performance boost, this is what i did.
Even with my crossfire setup being smooth there are always going to be bumps with drivers and the like so use caution.

Thanks for reading this short novel, if you have any questions about my setup ill be happy to help!

 

[hubbardt]

Thank you for sharing

 

[Few Oranges]

Absolutely, I saw there was a real lack of 7850 crossfire reviews other than benchmarks so decided it may be useful

 

[4745454b]

Sweet, not a dead thread...

Have you setup your eyefinity setup yet? I'm looking to get a 7950 but now considering a CF 7850. I have three screens and looking for something that can handle it. I also want to setup my HDTV over HDMI as well. You said 13.2 doesn't handle audio, do any other drivers still work? Any Eyefinity or 3+1 info would be great.

 

[Nieru Senju]

Wow thank you for sharing. I needed this kind of thread. I'll be cfx my 7850.

 

[Few Oranges]

Sweet, not a dead thread...

Have you setup your eyefinity setup yet? I'm looking to get a 7950 but now considering a CF 7850. I have three screens and looking for something that can handle it. I also want to setup my HDTV over HDMI as well. You said 13.2 doesn't handle audio, do any other drivers still work? Any Eyefinity or 3+1 info would be great.

Sorry have been busy doing a complete mod overhaul for a friend of mine, yes i have the eyefinity set up currently but only activate it for gaming. The games ive tested with it are:
Deus Ex human revolution: absolute max settings i get a minimum of 87 FPS
Just cause 2: max settings minimum of 90 FPS
Dishonored: max settings minimum of 101 or something close to that
Crysis 3: i think it was a minimum of 26 FPS but the game as mentioned above still has some ways to go as far as optimization
Tomb raider (2013) in eyefinity was a bit curious since it has the option for dual screen optimization but not exactly 3, however when i got it to work there would be instances (on stock clocks) that i would dip to the high 20's in fps, Not worth it in my opinion as in eyefinity the game detail is almost too much for the eyes, in a nauseating manner.

ill have to go back through some of my other games in eyefinity to check it out. Currently i have 3 monitors set up as eyefinity when activated with my vizio tv mounted just above it, so when i retexture games ill have photoshop on the tv different folders on the satellite computers and the game itself on the screen just below the tv. Its great for the utility aspect however as many know its difficult if not impossible to do a 3+1 set up for eyefinity in which you have 3 monitors set up as eyefinity and a 4th monitor for a desktop.

As far as drivers go, 13.2 beta are the best for performance by far. the lack of audio via hdmi like i said is really no big deal because i use computer speakers through the audio jacks for surround sound instead of the speakers on my tv. the 13.1 drivers i believe were capable of the audio however were talking a serious 30 frame drop in not only eyefinity but regular 1080 gameplay for games that driver communication was needed from the get go ie, Far cry 3, crysis 3, Tomb raider and the like of recent games, also Metro 2033 benefited a few frames from the increase to the newest beta drivers.

youll need active mini dp to hdmi, mini dp to dvi, an hdmi and dvi for the setup im currently running. If you have any more questions ill be happy to answer, as you can read im extremely pleased with my crossfire setup.

 

[4745454b]

I bought a 7950, 2 mDP to DVI adapters, etc. I got it working. Sorta. I had all my screens up. But I couldn't find a way to get my 3 LCDs on my desk in one group, with my 40" TV as an extended screen. Drivers want the TV with the monitors. I said screw it, lets go play some games. NO games would load. TF2, L4D2, Audiosurf, Blur all failed to load. They would start, then kick me back to the desktop. (13.1 drivers.) I removed the drivers and could play games again, but now of course can't run eyefinity. Going to be a long weekend over here.

 

[JJ1217]

Hello all, just here to give my personal opinion and review of the HD 7850's I have in crossfire.
First off I have:
--one Powercolor HD 7850 2GB at the typical 860Mhz core clock and 1200Mhz memory clock
--one HIS HD 7850 2GB also at 860Mhz/1200Mhz
--Beta Drivers 13.2

Currently I am playing at 1920 x 1080 resolution (however im gonna whip out the eyefinity setup in a cpl days)
--All games I play are first person shooters at absolute max settings with a minor adjustment between 2X-8X aliasing (i dont really care for aliasing since i personally don't notice much of a difference)
=======================================================================================

With that being said here are the games and experiences I've had.

--Black Ops 2 multiplayer: 124-178 FPS
--Far Cry 3: 78-150 FPS
--Borderlands 2: 175-245 FPS Physx on Low
--Dishonored: 128-130 FPS
--Crysis 2: 65-102 FPS DX11 with Maldo High Resolution Textures
--Just Cause 2: 122-280 FPS 8X Aliasing
--Metro 2033: 49-82 FPS DX11
--Crysis 3: 39-65 FPS Aliasing Disabled

Dolphin Emulator
--Super Smash Brother Brawl 1080 Texture pack 60FPS or 100% Emulation almost the entire time however majority of the time i could achieve this with a single 7850 with the exception of having 4 Players on the screen
(For those that know about this, 100% emulation is hard to achieve due to sloppy coding for the emulation)
=======================================================================================

Things to Keep in Mind:
--I am currently using a VIZIO 32' LCD Tv that is 60Hz refresh rate, therefore anything over 60 frames is not registered
--Yes, I do in fact own a Wii and an actual copy of the SSBB game.
--All games that have a cliff note regarding DX11 indicates that there are multiple C++ settings you can choose that enhance performance with the degradation of quality, ie DX10 and DX9 games
--Crossfire is NOT for everyone.. there IS a bit of tweaking involved with getting what you want out of your crossfire setup
--My HD 7850's are connected using one a single crossfire bridge as thats the only option my cards have, i believe all the 7850's are single fingered crossfire capable but im not positive
--Crossfire DOES generate a lot of heat if you are not using proper cooling and airflow/fan profiles
+My First GPU is the Powercolor, other than Crysis 3 the core temperature never exceeds 56C (61C for Crysis3)
+My Second GPU (HIS) Never exceeds 53 on any game
+Both Cards use Stock coolers that are single fans, however they both have Antec Formula 6 Tim applied
+Both Cards are REFERENCE designed meaning the fan pulls air in across the PCB and exhausts out the back
=======================================================================================

What about Microstutter?!?
--I have yet to run into ANY microstuttering of any sort, even in games where there may have been some dips in FPS, although this is the case for me I attribute this to the fact that im getting some very high frames and microstutter is rumored to plague the lower frame situations, but no one is actually positive about the microstutter causes.
=======================================================================================

Tweaks/Issues?
--The only issue I have run into is that on 13.2 Beta drivers the "AMD HD Audio" driver is no longer present on CCC or my computer whatsoever, however I'm using speakers so this is not an issue for me, this would only effect those that are using native speakers in their monitor or television
--Using "MSI Afterburner" to monitor my temperatures, the only annoyance with this is that i must start the game, go to desktop and then launch afterburner in order for both my GPU1 and GPU2 temperatures to be displayed. Its a minor grievance, but a kink in the fluidity of gameplay nonetheless
=======================================================================================
Verdict::
After reading and researching countless reviews and talking with individuals in person about the horrors of crossfire i decided to dive in against the majority opinion and I am glad I did.
While Crossfire may have its ups and downs Ive had an excellent experience thus far, I understand that crossfire problems range from rig to rig and that's definitely understandable
--Don't go the crossfire route if you are not: |Patient| Technologically sound| Or Experimental|
--DO go crossfire if you already have a decent card and are not willing to sell and buy a larger one but want performance boost, this is what i did.
Even with my crossfire setup being smooth there are always going to be bumps with drivers and the like so use caution.

Thanks for reading this short novel, if you have any questions about my setup ill be happy to help!

Disable ULPS to fix that issue. I was also a previous 7850 Crossfire user, no microstuttering but lots of heat :/

 

[Few Oranges]

JJ what do you mean by "disable ulps?" is that in accordance to my audio problem?
yeah no microstutter and oddly enough little to no heat difference between crossfire and single GPU setup, for my system anyway.
what GPU setup are you currently running?

 

[easyfame]

Do you have any updates on this? You seem to enjoy your set up on this and I'm looking to buy another 7850 soon. Crossfire seem's to be getting better with every new driver.

 

[Few Oranges]

Do you have any updates on this? You seem to enjoy your set up on this and I'm looking to buy another 7850 soon. Crossfire seem's to be getting better with every new driver.

yeah easyfame i continually use my crossfire setup and am fully in love with it haha, I just played Bioshock Infinite of course at ultra settings and never dipped below 75 FPS. Also if youre a BF3 guy on ultra i never dip below 59 FPS this is now on the 13.3 Beta drivers for both of these games. Also Skyrim with hd textures plays really well i dont remember the exact frame count ill have to get back with you on that.
If youre interested in the 7850 crossfire id say go for it, they scale almost 100% linearly as of the 13.3 beta drivers.
Im also here to answer any questions you might have regarding the crossfire set up!

 

[easyfame]

Do you have any updates on this? You seem to enjoy your set up on this and I'm looking to buy another 7850 soon. Crossfire seem's to be getting better with every new driver.

yeah easyfame i continually use my crossfire setup and am fully in love with it haha, I just played Bioshock Infinite of course at ultra settings and never dipped below 75 FPS. Also if youre a BF3 guy on ultra i never dip below 59 FPS this is now on the 13.3 Beta drivers for both of these games. Also Skyrim with hd textures plays really well i dont remember the exact frame count ill have to get back with you on that.
If youre interested in the 7850 crossfire id say go for it, they scale almost 100% linearly as of the 13.3 beta drivers.
Im also here to answer any questions you might have regarding the crossfire set up!

Million dollar question would be is there or how bad is the micro-stutter. Is is just so mild that it isn't even a bother to you or do you have to tweak some settings? Really close to pulling the trigger thanks!

 

[Few Oranges]

Do you have any updates on this? You seem to enjoy your set up on this and I'm looking to buy another 7850 soon. Crossfire seem's to be getting better with every new driver.

yeah easyfame i continually use my crossfire setup and am fully in love with it haha, I just played Bioshock Infinite of course at ultra settings and never dipped below 75 FPS. Also if youre a BF3 guy on ultra i never dip below 59 FPS this is now on the 13.3 Beta drivers for both of these games. Also Skyrim with hd textures plays really well i dont remember the exact frame count ill have to get back with you on that.
If youre interested in the 7850 crossfire id say go for it, they scale almost 100% linearly as of the 13.3 beta drivers.
Im also here to answer any questions you might have regarding the crossfire set up!

Million dollar question would be is there or how bad is the micro-stutter. Is is just so mild that it isn't even a bother to you or do you have to tweak some settings? Really close to pulling the trigger thanks!

Man there is literally no microstutter, at least if there is I haven't noticed it what so ever and I'm pretty picky. Even with vsync off I notice very little if any screen tearing. Let us know what you end up going with sir.

 

[easyfame]

Do you have any updates on this? You seem to enjoy your set up on this and I'm looking to buy another 7850 soon. Crossfire seem's to be getting better with every new driver.

yeah easyfame i continually use my crossfire setup and am fully in love with it haha, I just played Bioshock Infinite of course at ultra settings and never dipped below 75 FPS. Also if youre a BF3 guy on ultra i never dip below 59 FPS this is now on the 13.3 Beta drivers for both of these games. Also Skyrim with hd textures plays really well i dont remember the exact frame count ill have to get back with you on that.
If youre interested in the 7850 crossfire id say go for it, they scale almost 100% linearly as of the 13.3 beta drivers.
Im also here to answer any questions you might have regarding the crossfire set up!

Million dollar question would be is there or how bad is the micro-stutter. Is is just so mild that it isn't even a bother to you or do you have to tweak some settings? Really close to pulling the trigger thanks!

Man there is literally no microstutter, at least if there is I haven't noticed it what so ever and I'm pretty picky. Even with vsync off I notice very little if any screen tearing. Let us know what you end up going with sir.

Well just as an update I decided to go for the crossfire 7850 and so far no regrets. With radeonpro using dynamic frame limiter at 60, EVERY one of my games run like butter. I would recommend this.

 

[Few Oranges]

Do you have any updates on this? You seem to enjoy your set up on this and I'm looking to buy another 7850 soon. Crossfire seem's to be getting better with every new driver.

yeah easyfame i continually use my crossfire setup and am fully in love with it haha, I just played Bioshock Infinite of course at ultra settings and never dipped below 75 FPS. Also if youre a BF3 guy on ultra i never dip below 59 FPS this is now on the 13.3 Beta drivers for both of these games. Also Skyrim with hd textures plays really well i dont remember the exact frame count ill have to get back with you on that.
If youre interested in the 7850 crossfire id say go for it, they scale almost 100% linearly as of the 13.3 beta drivers.
Im also here to answer any questions you might have regarding the crossfire set up!

Million dollar question would be is there or how bad is the micro-stutter. Is is just so mild that it isn't even a bother to you or do you have to tweak some settings? Really close to pulling the trigger thanks!

Man there is literally no microstutter, at least if there is I haven't noticed it what so ever and I'm pretty picky. Even with vsync off I notice very little if any screen tearing. Let us know what you end up going with sir.

Well just as an update I decided to go for the crossfire 7850 and so far no regrets. With radeonpro using dynamic frame limiter at 60, EVERY one of my games run like butter. I would recommend this.

Sorry for the late reply, have been busy with finals and what not. But I am very glad to hear that you are also satisfied with your crossfire setup. Its a shame that Crossfire and SLI have gotten such negative reputations over the years due to it being fairly new technology. I'm currently anticipating the release of Metro Last Light quite a bit. Its gonna be alot of fun considering I played the entire Metro 2033 with a single 7850 and never really had too many problems. Although majority of the time I would hover in the 40's for FPS count (I am kind of picky with anything lower than the standard 60) I didnt even notice. However games such as Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2 (on very rare occasion) I couldnt stand anything lower than 60 FPS.

 

[Bisudasu]

Hey just wondering how the Heat is with both cards under load is,
Thinking about getting another 7850 to add to my system so your review/input is very useful.

 

[Few Oranges]

Hey just wondering how the Heat is with both cards under load is,
Thinking about getting another 7850 to add to my system so your review/input is very useful.

I like to use Crysis 3 as a "benchmark" for heat due to it being a game that heats up my cards more than any other game ive come across. On the master card (top card) during intense gameplay in Crysis ill see temps reach about 60C and my slave card reaches about 56-57C as the max temps. This is with both GPU fans set manually at 70% and no overclocking. Also these are absolute max settings on Crysis so they do eat up a lot of resources from the GPU.
Games like Bioshock Infinite with the highest settings can have my cards hover around a max of 50C also with the fan settings on 70% however even in some intense gameplay situations the average temps for the cards in Bioshock are 47 for master card and 44 for the slave card.
Both my cards have Antec Nano Diamond thermal paste that brought down idle and load temps by 5-7 degrees after the burn in for the paste. And both of my cards are reference design, meaning the pull in ambient heat from the case and disperse the heat out of the back of the case. Unfortunately (not really unfortunate) I have yet to need to overclock the cards passed 905 on the core clock so I dont have a good temp log for overclocking these cards but from my experience the 7850's temperatures raise only very little when overclocked compared to their original load temps. Hope this helped, if you have anymore questions i would be glad to answer!

 

[Bisudasu]

Hey just wondering how the Heat is with both cards under load is,
Thinking about getting another 7850 to add to my system so your review/input is very useful.

I like to use Crysis 3 as a "benchmark" for heat due to it being a game that heats up my cards more than any other game ive come across. On the master card (top card) during intense gameplay in Crysis ill see temps reach about 60C and my slave card reaches about 56-57C as the max temps. This is with both GPU fans set manually at 70% and no overclocking. Also these are absolute max settings on Crysis so they do eat up a lot of resources from the GPU.
Games like Bioshock Infinite with the highest settings can have my cards hover around a max of 50C also with the fan settings on 70% however even in some intense gameplay situations the average temps for the cards in Bioshock are 47 for master card and 44 for the slave card.
Both my cards have Antec Nano Diamond thermal paste that brought down idle and load temps by 5-7 degrees after the burn in for the paste. And both of my cards are reference design, meaning the pull in ambient heat from the case and disperse the heat out of the back of the case. Unfortunately (not really unfortunate) I have yet to need to overclock the cards passed 905 on the core clock so I dont have a good temp log for overclocking these cards but from my experience the 7850's temperatures raise only very little when overclocked compared to their original load temps. Hope this helped, if you have anymore questions i would be glad to answer!

Wow so it's technically the same temps as one card by itself? Alot of people made it out to be extremely hot, are they really loud together? or about the same as one card? Really excited to upgrade to another 7850 was very dishearted with all the forums saying micro-stutter and heat was unbearable, your experience seems completely how I was hoping mine would be.

 

[4745454b]

One thing to keep in mind is MS supposedly effects people differently. Not everyone can see/feel it. Do you remember CRT monitors? Everyone I knew wasn't bothered by a refresh rate of 60Hz. I'd sit at my moms or friends computer and INSTANTLY get a headache. (I swear I could hear it as well. Sound went away as soon as 72 or 75Hz kicked in.) Just because one guy online doesn't have a problem, or even most guys online don't have a problem doesn't mean you won't as well. If possible, try before you buy.

 

[Few Oranges]

Hey just wondering how the Heat is with both cards under load is,
Thinking about getting another 7850 to add to my system so your review/input is very useful.

I like to use Crysis 3 as a "benchmark" for heat due to it being a game that heats up my cards more than any other game ive come across. On the master card (top card) during intense gameplay in Crysis ill see temps reach about 60C and my slave card reaches about 56-57C as the max temps. This is with both GPU fans set manually at 70% and no overclocking. Also these are absolute max settings on Crysis so they do eat up a lot of resources from the GPU.
Games like Bioshock Infinite with the highest settings can have my cards hover around a max of 50C also with the fan settings on 70% however even in some intense gameplay situations the average temps for the cards in Bioshock are 47 for master card and 44 for the slave card.
Both my cards have Antec Nano Diamond thermal paste that brought down idle and load temps by 5-7 degrees after the burn in for the paste. And both of my cards are reference design, meaning the pull in ambient heat from the case and disperse the heat out of the back of the case. Unfortunately (not really unfortunate) I have yet to need to overclock the cards passed 905 on the core clock so I dont have a good temp log for overclocking these cards but from my experience the 7850's temperatures raise only very little when overclocked compared to their original load temps. Hope this helped, if you have anymore questions i would be glad to answer!

Wow so it's technically the same temps as one card by itself? Alot of people made it out to be extremely hot, are they really loud together? or about the same as one card? Really excited to upgrade to another 7850 was very dishearted with all the forums saying micro-stutter and heat was unbearable, your experience seems completely how I was hoping mine would be.

yeah the heat is really not a problem in crossfire as most cards generally are. Keeping in mind that the 28nm architecture has really helped with temperatures for the 7xxx series cards. However the temps are higher than a single card as this will always be the case with more surface area to cool in the case and more sources generating heat itself. The noise can be a bit ridiculous when both cards are set on 70% or higher for the fan profile but i generally play with sound high enough for it to not matter and whenever im done gaming i turn the fan profiles back to auto immediately. specifically the master card when at higher fan speeds generates quite a bit of noise due to the slim amount of clearance if has sitting right above the second card. Overall as you yourself stated i have optimum results for a crossfire setup.

 

[Few Oranges]

One thing to keep in mind is MS supposedly effects people differently. Not everyone can see/feel it. Do you remember CRT monitors? Everyone I knew wasn't bothered by a refresh rate of 60Hz. I'd sit at my moms or friends computer and INSTANTLY get a headache. (I swear I could hear it as well. Sound went away as soon as 72 or 75Hz kicked in.) Just because one guy online doesn't have a problem, or even most guys online don't have a problem doesn't mean you won't as well. If possible, try before you buy.

yeah that is some good advice as there are always situations where you can have two extreme ends for opinions. I consider myself picky when it comes to minute details and oddly enough the only thing i consistently get micro stuttering in is a n64 emulator with high resolution texture packs.. (sigh) haha. Trying out crossfire would be a bit trick but would ultimately be a great option if it were an available option that is.
For what its worth my brother is also running a HD 7850 2gb Crossfire setup with completely different specs and is also experiencing some great results. I believe his setup is 8350 black edition, 2 gigabyte 7850s 2 gb (the one with 2 fans) so its not a reference pcb. His temps are even less than mine but he also has a much larger case, the cooler master haf 922 i believe. But then again there are some atrocious reviews of the crossfire setups for the 7850s all over the web. guess its part of the gamble.

 

[4745454b]

Few Oranges, another thing to keep in mind isn't so much the great 28nm process, but the 7850 isn't a high wattage card. People tend to think that because it trades blows with the GTX480/570 that it must use a lot of power. But I think its only around 130W. This gives it a power draw similar to the 6850 or less then the GTX460. If you were using their higher wattage cards like 7950 or 7970 you'd probably see higher temps. (depending on model you use.)

 

[Few Oranges]

Few Oranges, another thing to keep in mind isn't so much the great 28nm process, but the 7850 isn't a high wattage card. People tend to think that because it trades blows with the GTX480/570 that it must use a lot of power. But I think its only around 130W. This gives it a power draw similar to the 6850 or less then the GTX460. If you were using their higher wattage cards like 7950 or 7970 you'd probably see higher temps. (depending on model you use.)

well actually the architecture of the GCN chipset is exactly why the wattage is lower on the 7xxx series cards. The more efficient the chip is (the more transistors they can cram in a smaller space) the lower the power needed to operate advance processes. This is why you can see newer cards with much higher core clocks than their predecessors but coupled with lower temps. However you are correct with the 79xx cards running hotter but this is also due to the fact that they are essentially doubling the amount of stream processors (referencing the 7970) and therefore do need much more power than the 78xx series cards and below.

 

[Crash Course]

Hello all, just here to give my personal opinion and review of the HD 7850's I have in crossfire.
First off I have:
--one Powercolor HD 7850 2GB at the typical 860Mhz core clock and 1200Mhz memory clock
--one HIS HD 7850 2GB also at 860Mhz/1200Mhz
--Beta Drivers 13.2

Currently I am playing at 1920 x 1080 resolution (however im gonna whip out the eyefinity setup in a cpl days)
--All games I play are first person shooters at absolute max settings with a minor adjustment between 2X-8X aliasing (i dont really care for aliasing since i personally don't notice much of a difference)
=======================================================================================

With that being said here are the games and experiences I've had.

--Black Ops 2 multiplayer: 124-178 FPS
--Far Cry 3: 78-150 FPS
--Borderlands 2: 175-245 FPS Physx on Low
--Dishonored: 128-130 FPS
--Crysis 2: 65-102 FPS DX11 with Maldo High Resolution Textures
--Just Cause 2: 122-280 FPS 8X Aliasing
--Metro 2033: 49-82 FPS DX11
--Crysis 3: 39-65 FPS Aliasing Disabled

About 2 months ago I purchased a Gigabyte HD7850 (the one with 2 fans) on the assumption I would get another one
if the performance wasn't good enough. I probably spent about a month on doing research before I bought it. I
was looking for a single card that would equal or better the performance of my SLIed GTX460 768 Mb cards which I
bought in Jan 2011. As it turned out, the HD7850 is only about 80-90 % the performance of my SLIed cards at 1920
x 1080 resolution on most of the current FPS games I like to play. Unfortunately the limitation of my GTX460
cards is the 768 Mb frame buffer (I like eye candy!) They were a lot cheaper than the 1 Gb version at the time!

Most of the reviews I've read on the HD7850 say to expect scaling performance of up to 70-80 % by adding a
second card. But I recently read an article saying that a 2nd card should double the frame rates as scaling is
more a driver issue (assuming your system can handle both cards of course). I'm sure improving drivers is part
of AMD's Gaming Evolved Program. And lately I have seen driver updates showing improvements on specific titles I
like to play.

Up until now, I've been umming and arring about purchasing another HD7850 to Xfire. It was your mini review that
made my mind up about getting that 2nd card! I've been a long time reader of Tom's Hardware and your little
review prompted me to join so I could put in my 2 cents!

As for heat and power consumption, there are a couple of this you can do. Obviously a big case with many fans in
the right places should be able to expel the warm air inside the case and keep temps as low as possible. But
having 6 or more fans inside the case does increase the noise level somewhat. Add to that another 2-6 fans on 2
video cards and the extra air pressure becomes noticeable when some serious game play is on hand.

For me, heat and noise is more a concern than power consumption even though extra power means more heat. Adding
a second video card will use more power than a single high end card with similar performance but will also be
cheaper. For this reason alone I think more people go the SLi/Xfire route to save the dollars on a more
expensive upgrade! Besides, an extra 50-100 watts more power for a couple of hours a day won't cost you more
than $10-$20 for a year.

I know whenever I get a knew video card, I like to see how much I can OC it without it exceeding about 75
degrees C. I use Furemark and only test for about 3 minutes as the temp usually stablizes by then. Furemark
pushes video cards harder than when playing a full on FPS game like Crysis so I know the temps won't get that
high when gaming. As it stands, a lot of the new video cards coming out today are already factory overclocked.
And one thing I've noticed is even a small increase from there can cause the power consuption and temps to go up
sustantially. With my SLIed GTX460s, the highest clock speed was 775 Mhz before artifacting was a problem. But
the temps were too high for my liking. So then I thought I would return to stock speed and undervolt! Yes,
undervolt! I was amazed! I went from a core voltage of 1.0v down to 0.875v which brought my systems power
consumption down from 400 watts to 320 watts (40 watts for each card). And to top that off, temps went down by
6-8 degrees C! Less heat, slower running fans. Ah, that's better! So if your card supports undervolting and your
temps are too high, give it a go.

Thanks for your thread Few Oranges. A second 7850 coming real soon!

 

[Few Oranges]

Hello all, just here to give my personal opinion and review of the HD 7850's I have in crossfire.
First off I have:
--one Powercolor HD 7850 2GB at the typical 860Mhz core clock and 1200Mhz memory clock
--one HIS HD 7850 2GB also at 860Mhz/1200Mhz
--Beta Drivers 13.2

Currently I am playing at 1920 x 1080 resolution (however im gonna whip out the eyefinity setup in a cpl days)
--All games I play are first person shooters at absolute max settings with a minor adjustment between 2X-8X aliasing (i dont really care for aliasing since i personally don't notice much of a difference)
=======================================================================================

With that being said here are the games and experiences I've had.

--Black Ops 2 multiplayer: 124-178 FPS
--Far Cry 3: 78-150 FPS
--Borderlands 2: 175-245 FPS Physx on Low
--Dishonored: 128-130 FPS
--Crysis 2: 65-102 FPS DX11 with Maldo High Resolution Textures
--Just Cause 2: 122-280 FPS 8X Aliasing
--Metro 2033: 49-82 FPS DX11
--Crysis 3: 39-65 FPS Aliasing Disabled

About 2 months ago I purchased a Gigabyte HD7850 (the one with 2 fans) on the assumption I would get another one
if the performance wasn't good enough. I probably spent about a month on doing research before I bought it. I
was looking for a single card that would equal or better the performance of my SLIed GTX460 768 Mb cards which I
bought in Jan 2011. As it turned out, the HD7850 is only about 80-90 % the performance of my SLIed cards at 1920
x 1080 resolution on most of the current FPS games I like to play. Unfortunately the limitation of my GTX460
cards is the 768 Mb frame buffer (I like eye candy!) They were a lot cheaper than the 1 Gb version at the time!

Most of the reviews I've read on the HD7850 say to expect scaling performance of up to 70-80 % by adding a
second card. But I recently read an article saying that a 2nd card should double the frame rates as scaling is
more a driver issue (assuming your system can handle both cards of course). I'm sure improving drivers is part
of AMD's Gaming Evolved Program. And lately I have seen driver updates showing improvements on specific titles I
like to play.

Up until now, I've been umming and arring about purchasing another HD7850 to Xfire. It was your mini review that
made my mind up about getting that 2nd card! I've been a long time reader of Tom's Hardware and your little
review prompted me to join so I could put in my 2 cents!

As for heat and power consumption, there are a couple of this you can do. Obviously a big case with many fans in
the right places should be able to expel the warm air inside the case and keep temps as low as possible. But
having 6 or more fans inside the case does increase the noise level somewhat. Add to that another 2-6 fans on 2
video cards and the extra air pressure becomes noticeable when some serious game play is on hand.

For me, heat and noise is more a concern than power consumption even though extra power means more heat. Adding
a second video card will use more power than a single high end card with similar performance but will also be
cheaper. For this reason alone I think more people go the SLi/Xfire route to save the dollars on a more
expensive upgrade! Besides, an extra 50-100 watts more power for a couple of hours a day won't cost you more
than $10-$20 for a year.

I know whenever I get a knew video card, I like to see how much I can OC it without it exceeding about 75
degrees C. I use Furemark and only test for about 3 minutes as the temp usually stablizes by then. Furemark
pushes video cards harder than when playing a full on FPS game like Crysis so I know the temps won't get that
high when gaming. As it stands, a lot of the new video cards coming out today are already factory overclocked.
And one thing I've noticed is even a small increase from there can cause the power consuption and temps to go up
sustantially. With my SLIed GTX460s, the highest clock speed was 775 Mhz before artifacting was a problem. But
the temps were too high for my liking. So then I thought I would return to stock speed and undervolt! Yes,
undervolt! I was amazed! I went from a core voltage of 1.0v down to 0.875v which brought my systems power
consumption down from 400 watts to 320 watts (40 watts for each card). And to top that off, temps went down by
6-8 degrees C! Less heat, slower running fans. Ah, that's better! So if your card supports undervolting and your
temps are too high, give it a go.

Thanks for your thread Few Oranges. A second 7850 coming real soon!

Excellent! I am very glad I could help. This is precisely why I started the thread to begin with! When I myself was in the market for a possible second card for crossfire I could not find any true reviews other than theoretical benchmarks and in one case a specialized set. To say the least there was very little information and the stuff i could find was almost always negative or some sort of feedback to someone asking if crossfire is worth it and of course majority opinion shut it down. This undervolting info is also a great find, thank you for sharing! My case is a Cooler master HAF 912, (modded here and there with a paint job etc) and as you may have read heat has never been an issue with me. Oddly enough that was something I was petrified of when considering crossfire. Rest assured there are no real problems (for me at least) with heat.
Please let us know how it goes with your crossfire setup I am curious with the 2 double fan coolers on the 7850's! As mentioned above with crossfire I have yet to barely breach 60C with a slight overclock of 925Mhz on the core clock. This is with the reference coolers which is just the single intake fan over the heatsink of the card.