Gaming Good GPU Upgrade?

W.I.C.K.E.D. · Sep 6, 2012

I was considering replacing my sapphire 5770 after my last thread speaking of it's odd behavior. Reinstalled drivers one more time, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. I was considering this http://www.newegg.co...Item=14-150-548 due to decent price, 2 free games, and you can't beat xfx's warranties. My only issue before I buy it is, I don't know if my psu will handle it. I will list my tower hardware and maybe that will make this easier to determine.

600w Rosewill Performance PSU http://www.newegg.co...pk=rp600v2-s-sl
phenom II x4 2.8ghz 95w http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103656 (b93 which is the business edition, no different specs)
8gb crucial sport 1600 ddr3 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820148544
biostar ta970xe http://www.newegg.co...348&Tpk=ta970xe
hyper 212 evo http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835103099
ocz agility 4 128gb ssd http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820227807
500gb black caviar hdd http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136795

I have probably 3 performance fans, and 3 generic fans in the case. Just removed two raptor drives in raid so those are irrelevant. I do occasionally run externals on the system too. Obviously additional hdds in the future is possible as I do have a few more 500gb/1tb drives lying around the house

This is the card I'm currently running
sapphire 5770 1gb ddr5 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102858
looking at this: http://www.newegg.co...Item=14-150-548

-now it looks as though the required power supply for the 6950 compared to the 5770 is only a 50w difference between the two, but I have considered my current issues with driver crashes could be due to my power supply's inability to keep up (although unlikely). What do you guys think? Would this be suffice for what I'm looking to buy, or would I have to upgrade the psu as well? Thanks for the help.

mocalacace · Sep 6, 2012

If you are going to spend $240 on a graphics card I recommend you just buy the 7850

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127663

And if you are worried about your power supply now being able to handle it, you could always buy a secondary power supply for the graphics card.

W.I.C.K.E.D. · Sep 6, 2012

I see what you're saying. I will point out though, The only advantage I see is the slightly higher clock speed. I couldn't even find on MSI's site the recommended psu for this card. The memory clock on the xfx is higher, and it has a lifetime warranty. Other than that they look almost identical. After rebates the price would be almost exactly the same (shipping excluded). My motherboard doesn't even support 3.0 slots so I couldn't take full advantage of the card and I don't see me upgrading it anytime soon. I also noticed within the first 10 reveiws for the 7850 that 3 people had issues with the card. Where the 6950 I only found one complaint amongst all the reviews. I just want to make a good choice, and I've always loved xfx products. Am I going to benefit more from a higher core clock, or from a higher memory clock and more stream processors? I would assume the latter but I could be wrong.

mocalacace · Sep 6, 2012

W.I.C.K.E.D. said:
I see what you're saying. I will point out though, The only advantage I see is the slightly higher clock speed. I couldn't even find on MSI's site the recommended psu for this card. The memory clock on the xfx is higher, and it has a lifetime warranty. Other than that they look almost identical. After rebates the price would be almost exactly the same (shipping excluded). My motherboard doesn't even support 3.0 slots so I couldn't take full advantage of the card and I don't see me upgrading it anytime soon. I also noticed within the first 10 reveiws for the 7850 that 3 people had issues with the card. Where the 6950 I only found one complaint amongst all the reviews. I just want to make a good choice, and I've always loved xfx products. Am I going to benefit more from a higher core clock, or from a higher memory clock and more stream processors? I would assume the latter but I could be wrong.

The benchmarks for the 7850 are higher than the 6950, and pci 3.0 slots only improve performance by

W.I.C.K.E.D. · Sep 7, 2012

Well, taking your recommendation into perspective, I was looking at this http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102999 . Price point is good, better than the 6950 I was looking at, and is the newer architecture. It has two coolers, which is what I'm looking for. Plus the money I save will let me probably move from the good mid tower I have to a full tower. So I guess it would be win win. I thought about getting the 7870, but from numberous articles I've read online, some of these have the ability to OC to the equivalent clock of a 7870 (rather easily I might add). Not that I'm too much into that, but for the 30% performance boost. That could push me to commit.

mocalacace · Sep 8, 2012

W.I.C.K.E.D. said:
Well, taking your recommendation into perspective, I was looking at this http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102999 . Price point is good, better than the 6950 I was looking at, and is the newer architecture. It has two coolers, which is what I'm looking for. Plus the money I save will let me probably move from the good mid tower I have to a full tower. So I guess it would be win win. I thought about getting the 7870, but from numberous articles I've read online, some of these have the ability to OC to the equivalent clock of a 7870 (rather easily I might add). Not that I'm too much into that, but for the 30% performance boost. That could push me to commit.

I would definitely go with that 7850. The price is very good and it is already overclocked plus you could probably overclock it more.

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