7850 2GB vs GTX 650TI Boost 2GB

[willomz]

Price difference is pretty big over 1000, so around 35% extra.

GTX660 aren't bad though; 843 for a Gigabyte card, which isn't much more than the 7850. Can't work out if this comes with any free games though.

 

[Misha4870]

What's the price difference where you are, 7850 vs 7870? Because if you don't OC, 7850 is actually poor value (comparing prices to US or AU atm).

30-40 Euro (40-50$).

 

[Silverforce11]

If a 660 is similar in price to a 7850, i would go with 660. Otherwise, the 7850 is a proven beast at overclocking, with gains of 40% not uncommon... so that in itself is a big factor.

 

[willomz]

If a 660 is similar in price to a 7850, i would go with 660. Otherwise, the 7850 is a proven beast at overclocking, with gains of 40% not uncommon... so that in itself is a big factor.

Don't think that the 660 doesn't overclock well, look at this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2313189

John Tauwhare started at 1059 and ended up at 1372 on Unigine, that's a 30% performance increase.

 

[Silverforce11]

No doubt a few samples of whatever X, Y, Z card could achieve great OCs..

The difference is the vast majority of 7850s are amazing overclockers, as attested by the huge thread on this forum. As well as the 7950s etc.

 

[yepp]

Just sold both my old 7850 which could only hit 1150MHz at 1.225v and a 660 that would only do 1189MHz.

The 660 was slightly quicker, not much between them.

There were games where the 660 pulled well ahead. Far Cry 3, Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 2.

Then there were games where the 7850 pulled ahead. Hitman Absolution, Tomb Raider.

 

[willomz]

No doubt a few samples of whatever X, Y, Z card could achieve great OCs..

The difference is the vast majority of 7850s are amazing overclockers, as attested by the huge thread on this forum. As well as the 7950s etc.

Well interestingly John has SLI GTX 660s and that result is based on the slowest of the 2 cards so that they had matching clocks.

I also have a GTX 660 that can hit the same core clocks, making it 3 for 3.

Obviously YMMV but the same is true of AMD cards.

 

[Misha4870]

If a 660 is similar in price to a 7850, i would go with 660. Otherwise, the 7850 is a proven beast at overclocking, with gains of 40% not uncommon... so that in itself is a big factor.

660 is similarly priced as 7870 here

Really guys, given my strict budget, I can only rely on 7850 or 650Ti Boost.

 

[willomz]

http://www.evomag.ro/COMPONENTE-PC-...ayPort-font-colorredPCI-E-3.0-font-89910.html
Is this one not in budget? Although don't know if this includes free games or not?

It's about 200 Lei cheaper than a 7870.

 

[Misha4870]

http://www.evomag.ro/COMPONENTE-PC-...ayPort-font-colorredPCI-E-3.0-font-89910.html
Is this one not in budget? Although don't know if this includes free games or not?

It's about 200 Lei cheaper than a 7870.

Well, yes, that's from rebate. But it is still 100 Lei more than my budget (~750 lei, meaning ~175 Euro).
On the other hand, I don't particularly like Gigabyte.
Actually, I have to choose between these two models which have probably the best prices in here for this class of cards (actually best price/quality ratio given their good brands). See the following links:
http://www.evomag.ro/COMPONENTE-PC-...ayPort-font-colorredPCI-E-3.0-font-92276.html
http://www.altshop.ro/placi-video/placa-video-asus-nvidia-gtx650tib-dc2oc-2g--60328

 

[RussianSensation]

Since you are going those free games and you want them and you don't mind overclocking, HD7850 OC > GTX650Ti Boost OC.

You can also consider GTX660 for a bit more:
http://www.evomag.ro/COMPONENTE-PC-...ayPort-font-colorredPCI-E-3.0-font-89910.html

 

[thewhat]

You could also sell the Never Settle bundled games, I've seen them go for 30-40€/$ on eBay.

 

[l2ez4m]

Here is a decent review (18 games), comparing 650ti B/7850/660 stock and with so called "standard/common" OC (650tiB@1150/7850@1200/660@1150). Basically OC 7850 smokes the green competition. Plus already mentioned NSR bundle.

 

[Yuriman]

What about memory ? How much can it be overclocked in your case ?

Around 1550.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

However, NV cards are more CPU limited

While true for Fermi, I thought that was reversed with Kepler?

Perhaps that was just because of the stutter issues with their drivers, but I was pretty sure that AMD has more CPU overhead this gen than Nvidia does. Maybe not though.

 

[Misha4870]

Around 1550.

And you have Gigabyte ?
Do you know (question is for all of you guys) if I can do the same with Sapphire (i.e. overclock vRAM around 1500) ?

 

[Misha4870]

Hello again,

Just to inform everyone.
I decided to go with 7850, Sapphire implementation, Dual-X model.
The main reason for which I took this decision is the 7850's big overclocking potential comparing with the 650 Ti Boost.
Other reasons for this decision would be the 256 bit bus, the higher number of ROPs (32 vs 24 as Ti Boost has) and a much higher computational power.
Another arguably reason would be that the next generation consoles (both Xbox 720 and PS4) will have Radeon GPUs inside and that the developers will have in mind that architecture when optimizing the games.
Therefore, on the games ported from consoles to PC, the Radeon GPUs will have a clear advantage over NVidia GPUs.

Ok, all these being said, I would like to thank to all of you for your useful advices.
I'll come back with the first impressions.
Cheers !

 

[willomz]

Make decisions based on real data, not theoretical stuff.
Anyway hope you enjoy your 7850.

 

[Misha4870]

Make decisions based on real data, not theoretical stuff.
Anyway hope you enjoy your 7850.

Well, at least the (high) overclocking potential is very real
Also is the raw computing power (Direct Compute / OpenCL) of the 7xxx generation.
The other reasons, I admit, are only assumptions.
However, I'll see with my own eyes the real performance of the card when it will arrive in my hands.

 

[3DVagabond]

Well, at least the (high) overclocking potential is very real
Also is the raw computing power (Direct Compute / OpenCL) of the 7xxx generation.
The other reasons, I admit, are only assumptions.
However, I'll see with my own eyes the real performance of the card when it will arrive in my hands.

All of your reasoning was sound. :thumbsup:

 

[futurefields]

7850 is better. Get Sapphire.

 

[futurefields]

I see you already did, good choice.