Sapphire 7850 OC edition vs Powercolor 7870

[wulfric]

Just wondering whether there will be much of a noticeable difference with the frame rate between the two? I've heard that an OC'ed 7850 can pretty much match the 7870. So far I am leaning towards the 7850, if I could have any pointers that would be great, thanks!

Also forgot to mention if I did end up going for the 7850 would I be right saying there would be no point in getting the 2GB version because the resolution of my monitor is 1280x1080?

 

[caj]

have you bought them or still keeping your options open?
can you specify your budget? we can provide you with a better option if possible.

 

[wulfric]

I haven't bought either yet, my options are still open the budget really at the absolute maximum extends to about £150 which is what I've found the 7870 for although I'm just wondering on if the difference between the two warrants an extra £20 but if there is an even better alternative then that's even better!

Thanks for the reply.

 

[caj]

can you up your budget by 20 pounds more?

 

[wulfric]

Not really I'm afraid around £150 seems to be my absolute maximum

 

[caj]

if you can trust my word..i can suggest you the best deal & worth it. the 7870xt. its basically a stripped down 7950. & currently best bang for buck. plus you get 3 games free with it

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-fx787acnac

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/tahiti-le-7870-7930-benchmark,3401.html

 

[wulfric]

Cheers for the reply, I'll take a closer look at it.

 

[guggi4]

if you really play at 1280x1080, you wont need more vram than 1gb, so the hd7850 should be fine and also has enough power for this resolution.
cause you mentioned the oc, also the hd7870 can be oc'ed very well to match hd 7950 performance, so its up to you...

 

[caj]

his ram will come in effort wen his gaming with gpu intensive games where he can easily crank up the settings to high or even ultra or even increase his AA

 

[guggi4]

even a gtx 770 only has 2gb, with his resolution and with the power of the gpu its just a waste of money. There are enough benchmarks that a hd 7850 with 2 gb isnt faster aslong as you dont play on 2560x1440 with high aa, but then its like 16fps vs 21 fps, so there is actually no gain with the additional memory with gpu with this amount of power, even less at a lower resolution

 

[caj]

playing Crysis 3 on my friends comp and my VRAM usage hit about 2.1GB and stayed there for good portions of time. I know Crysis is top of the line stuff, but in the next couple of years that will become somewhat standard . Its entirely possible the VRAM requirements will shoot up because of the new console gen (the PS4 has a potential 8GB of VRAM, though in practical usage more likely 6GB), and 1440p monitors are eventually going to become common fare.

When trying to figure out future trends over a timeframe, look backwards by that amount of time.
The HD5970, fastest graphics card of 2009/early 2010 had 2GB of VRAM, being a dual GPU card in reality it only had 1GB of effective VRAM.
Your gonna need more VRAM than 2GB in a few years time.