7850 1GB vs 7850 2GB vs GTX 650TI Boost 2GB

[Misha4870-1317101]

Hi All,

I would like to make an upgrade to my graphics card. I currently own a HD 4850 512MB and I'm thinking to replace it to one of the following three cards: 7850 1GB, 7850 2GB, GTX 650TI Boost 2GB. The budget is somewhere between 170 - 180 Eur (I'm from Europe).
Could you please advice me which one would be better for long term ?
My system specs are:
CPU: Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz (quad core).
RAM: 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz.
Monitor: LG 19 inches, 1280 x 1024 (4:3).
PSU: Recom Power Engine 550W.
I also have to mention that until next year I will upgrade the monitor with one capable of 1080p.
Will all of the three cards be capable of playing at minimum 30 fps all the 2012/2013 titles in 1080p with all settings maxed out (maybe not AA) ?

Thank you in advance.

 

[lostgamer_03]

All the GPUs should give you decent visuals at 1080p with an acceptable framerate.

GTX 650 TI BOOST and Radeon 7850 2 GB should be somewhat similar in terms of performance. The Radeon 7850 1GB is lacking behind, because many of the newer games does require more than 1 GB of VRAM these days, so cut that out of the picture.

GTX 650 TI BOOST has lower TDP than Raden 7850, so it uses less power and produces less heat. It also features TXAA, Adaptive vsync and PhysX, where Radeon 7850 has no alternative.

In my perspective the GTX 650 TI BOOST is more attractive.

 

[Misha4870-1317101]

... It also features TXAA, Adaptive vsync and PhysX, where Radeon 7850 has no alternative.

Well, Physics means not much to me.
On the other hand, I love other eye-candies like: TressFX (I play Tomb Raider) and Tesselation.
Sometimes I also do some compute intensive tasks like video editing / transcoding ... etc.
Which one is better at all those ?

 

[lostgamer_03]

... It also features TXAA, Adaptive vsync and PhysX, where Radeon 7850 has no alternative.

Well, Physics means not much to me.
On the other hand, I love other eye-candies like: TressFX (I play Tomb Raider) and Tesselation.
Sometimes I also do some compute intensive tasks like video editing / transcoding ... etc.
Which one is better at all those ?

TressFX can be used by both GTX 650 ti boost and Radeon 7850 2 Gb version.

Video editing / encoding etc. is determined by the CPU, the GPU won't have much effect on that.

Radeon 7850 2GB is better at computing, while GTX 650 TI BOOST is great at 3D modelling because it has cuda support.

 

[Onus]

See if your video editing software uses any GPGPU capabilities, e.g. CUDA, OPenCL, and/or STREAM. Then check benchmarks for those. AMD cards tend to run rings around nVidia cards at many compute tasks (bitmining is another example of that). Looking just at games, though it seems to vary some by title, the mixed reviews I have read on various sites (HardOCP has a good one) seem to place the GTX650Ti Boost just a little ahead of the HD7850.
The fact that it uses less power could be important. I'm not familiar with "Recom," but it sounds like a cheap generic. I'd treat it like a 400W-450W PSU, which would still be enough for these cards.

 

[Misha4870-1317101]

See if your video editing software uses any GPGPU capabilities, e.g. CUDA, OPenCL, and/or STREAM... ...I'm not familiar with "Recom," but it sounds like a cheap generic. I'd treat it like a 400W-450W PSU, which would still be enough for these cards.

Most of todays video editing software are using GPGPU capabilities. I'm using Cyberlink Power Director, just for my home videos, I'm not any professional.
Regarding Recom, it's a quite serious producer of PSUs, cases and cooling solutions from Netherland. Their prices are fair also.
http://www.recom.nl/psu.html
(however, the model which I have, Power Engine 550 Plus , is older and is already out of production).

I have another question for all of you.
What about bus width ? Wouldn't be 256 bit (Radeon) more future proof than 192 bit (Geforce) ? I mean, dealing with large amount of data at 1080p with high resolution textures, in future games, 192 bit wouldn't be a bottleneck comparing with 256 bit ?

 

[Onus]

The 192bit memory buss can indeed be a bottleneck, but typically not until you turn on high levels of AA. If you play without it, or down around 2xAA, you'll be fine.
See if that Cyberlink Power Director favors nVidia or AMD cards, or can be accelerated by one and not the other; if that's the case, then that's the one you ought to get. If it doesn't matter, than just for games I'd probably choose the GTX650Ti Boost.

 

[Misha4870-1317101]

...The 192bit memory buss can indeed be a bottleneck, but typically not until you turn on high levels of AA. If you play without it, or down around 2xAA, you'll be fine....

Could not be this true also for 1GB vs 2GB (i.e. the case of Radeon) ?

 

[Onus]

You might run out of memory on a 1GB card, but it wouldn't be a "bottleneck" in the same sense; the limitation isn't the buss-width, which is still 256b on that and the 2GB cards.

 

[Misha4870-1317101]

You might run out of memory on a 1GB card, but it wouldn't be a "bottleneck" in the same sense; the limitation isn't the buss-width, which is still 256b on that and the 2GB cards.

Ok, I got that. But the question was if the same scenario could be applied for the 7850 1GB version (i.e. as along as I'm not running in high resolutions, 1080p and above, and with high levels of AA then the 1GB version should do fine). Am I right or wrong ?

 

[Onus]

You are correct. However, with high-res texture packs becoming more popular, having a 2GB card may offer some future-resistance, for not too much more money.

 

[Misha4870-1317101]

You are correct. However, with high-res texture packs becoming more popular, having a 2GB card may offer some future-resistance, for not too much more money.

This is very true also. But my budget is somehow fixed (170-180 Euro) and the difference between 1GB and 2GB versions of 7850 is about 30-40 Euros which means some money. That's why I took in account also the GTX650 Ti Boost which has 2GB and it is almost at the same price as 7850 1GB. But with Geforce, as i said, I'm worried about the limitations of 192 bit bus for future games if comparing to 7850 which has 256 bit.
In the end, due to the fact that 7850 2GB is too expensive for my budget, the question becomes. Which card is more future proof between HD 7850 1GB and GTX 650Ti Boost 2GB, taking in account that one has the advantage of 2GB vRAM and the other one has the advantage of 256 bit bus ?

 

[Onus]

Of those two, I would choose the 2GB GTX650Ti Boost. The best review of this card I've read, at HardOCP, puts the GTX a little ahead of the HD in games. It's not a lot, and will probably vary according to the specific title, but the added 1GB VRAM makes it the more future-resistant card as well.

 

[Misha4870-1317101]

Of those two, I would choose the 2GB GTX650Ti Boost. The best review of this card I've read, at HardOCP, puts the GTX a little ahead of the HD in games. It's not a lot, and will probably vary according to the specific title, but the added 1GB VRAM makes it the more future-resistant card as well.

Many thanks. I'll go to pick that one.

 

[Zachasaurs]

the 650 ti boost is amazing i love it and if i were you id pick gigabyte because its best cooled. and even though you ay not want phyx ive used it in games like mafia 2 and it makes explosions so much more epic.