7850 2GB Crossfire or Get New GPU?

[Havenost]

So currently I have an XFX 7850 2GB Core edition (model no. FX785ACNL4). I was wondering whether I should get a second one and crossfire it or just wait for the new GTX 960s or 970s to go down in price.

Because the only FX785ACNL4 I can find at a reasonable price is used one being sold on Amazon for $100+$6 in shipping. All the other FX785ACNL4 have actually increased in price due to the fact that they're discontinued and a rarity now. Fun fact is I bought the one I had back in 2012 for $200 and in came with Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider. Now all the other ones I can find all cost $240+ which is funny because that cost more than a GTX 960.

I know the answer is most likely upgrade to a new card over crossfire, but is there any reasonable reason to crossfire over simply getting something like GTX 960?

If there is none do you think I could even manage to sell my Radeon 7850 for a decent price like $100?

And any recommendation on the new GPU? I only have Dual 60 Hz 900p monitors (1600x900).

I would like to spend less than $300 and ideally $200 and under. I am neither a AMD nor Nvidia fan boy, but I do live in California without AC where ambient temperatures in my room can get up to 100-114 degrees in worst case scenario. So I am a bit inclined towards a GTX card over an R9, though if the performance per dollar heirs on the AMD side I might as well take the $70-100 I saved and cough it up towards an air conditioner.

My current system is

i7-4790K clocked at stocked speeds with turbo enable.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
16 GBs of 1600 mHz Corsair RAM CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
Asus Z-97 AR
CX-600M PSU
XFX Radeon 7850 Core Edition 2 GB FX785ACNL4
Cooler Master HAF 912 with 6 Cooler Master Case fans that push around 46 CFM.

 

[Creme]

7850s in crossfire are 2048 shaders, which is what the 7970/R9 280X has, but the latter has 3GB of VRAM.

In my opinion, if you feel you need the upgrade (even after overclocking the 7850), sell the 7850 and go for a R9 290 4GB or R9 280x depending on your budget, though both are kind of overkill for a single 1600x900 display, at that resolution the 7850 does fine.

For AMD cards, always go for cards equipped with aftermarket coolers.

 

[Havenost]

I updated the original post, what I have is dual 1600x900 monitors.

So is it not worth to go Nvidia in this case? Like a GTX 960?

 

[Gallarian]

As you guessed, the majority of people (me included) would suggest going for a new card over CrossFire.

As you have found out, the cost of buying a new 7850 would be pretty much the same as buying a new card if you were to sell your current one.

The benefits of doublng your 7850's would be better FPS than a single 960 or 970. However, that comes with increased temperatures (which could be a problem given your locale), more power usage and image problems such as micro-stuttering in some games. Also, some games do not support CrossFire at launch or even at all, and so you may end up with only one working card.

I would definitely suggest selling your current 7850 for whatever the going rate for them currently is, and buying a GTX 960 or r290.

 

[Havenost]

Could any of you give me a scale of how much better each card is than the other... between like

R9 280
R9 280x
R9 290
R9 290x
GTX 960
GTX 970

 

[Creme]

GTX 960 =< R9 280 < R9 280X < R9 290 < GTX 970 =< R9 290x < GTX 980

I think the R9 290 is the best balance, good price, same real 4GB as the 290X and same bandwidth just slightly less shaders. GTX 960 4GB is too expensive compared to R9 280 or 280X, and doesn't do as well in bandwidth-limited scenarios.

 

[Gallarian]

Ranking:

1) GTX 980
2) GTX 970
3) 290x
4) 290
5) 280x
6) 280/GTX 960

I place the 970 on top of the 290x, as it achieves slightly more FPS in most games whilst using significantly less power.

 

[Havenost]

7850s in crossfire are 2048 shaders, which is what the 7970/R9 280X has, but the latter has 3GB of VRAM.

In my opinion, if you feel you need the upgrade (even after overclocking the 7850), sell the 7850 and go for a R9 290 4GB or R9 280x depending on your budget, though both are kind of overkill for a single 1600x900 display, at that resolution the 7850 does fine.

For AMD cards, always go for cards equipped with aftermarket coolers.

GTX 960 =< R9 280 < R9 280X < R9 290 < GTX 970 =< R9 290x < GTX 980

I think the R9 290 is the best balance, good price, same real 4GB as the 290X and same bandwidth just slightly less shaders. GTX 960 4GB is too expensive compared to R9 280 or 280X, and doesn't do as well in bandwidth-limited scenarios.

I like how you said "same real 4GB", are you alluding to the GTX 970's 3.5 + .5 GB issue?

Also maybe I should of been more clear, what I meant by scale is like raw horse power performance gain percentage over the each other, though I think this is probably an unrealistic and pointless question because how useful each card all really depends on the game/program's optimization right?

 

[Creme]

7850s in crossfire are 2048 shaders, which is what the 7970/R9 280X has, but the latter has 3GB of VRAM.

In my opinion, if you feel you need the upgrade (even after overclocking the 7850), sell the 7850 and go for a R9 290 4GB or R9 280x depending on your budget, though both are kind of overkill for a single 1600x900 display, at that resolution the 7850 does fine.

For AMD cards, always go for cards equipped with aftermarket coolers.

GTX 960 =< R9 280 < R9 280X < R9 290 < GTX 970 =< R9 290x < GTX 980

I think the R9 290 is the best balance, good price, same real 4GB as the 290X and same bandwidth just slightly less shaders. GTX 960 4GB is too expensive compared to R9 280 or 280X, and doesn't do as well in bandwidth-limited scenarios.

I like how you said "same real 4GB", are you alluding to the GTX 970's 3.5 + .5 GB issue?

Exactly, though that issue has subsided a bit with recent driver updates. The main factor between the 970 and 290/290x is price, I don't think the extra 60w the 290 consumes is enough to offset the massive price difference.

EDIT: Yes, how it scales depends on the game. At resolutions higher than 1080p (such as yours), the 290s can blow past the 970 and even the 980 in the case of the 290x. Some games can also be poorly optimized, running worse than it should (such as a 960 running better than a 290 for example, though that's not very common, Dying Light before patch was such a game).

 

[lcp1109]

240 dollars for an hd 7850 is too high, you can get an R9 290 for that price. A second card will outperform the GTX 960 - it will perform better then an HD 7970 and an this card performs better then the GTX 960.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4798/his_radeon_hd_7850_iceq_x_turbox_2gb_in_crossfire_video_card_review/index6.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2015-vga-charts/compare,3664.html?prod%5B7345%5D=on&prod%5B7381%5D=on&prod%5B7215%5D=on

You can find the card you have for less then 86$ (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=hd+7850&_sop=3&_from=R40&_osacat=27386&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XXFX+Radeon+7850.TRS0&_nkw=XFX+Radeon+7850&_sacat=27386). Or for 100$ at amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B009TS43FW/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used


You can get cheap hd 7850 at ebay, but the increased power consumption will increase your electricity bill, and you might want to calculate the power requirements of your system before you buy a second HD 7850

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Other HD 7850:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Graphics-Video-Cards-/27386/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=hd+7850&_sop=3

 

[Havenost]

7850s in crossfire are 2048 shaders, which is what the 7970/R9 280X has, but the latter has 3GB of VRAM.

In my opinion, if you feel you need the upgrade (even after overclocking the 7850), sell the 7850 and go for a R9 290 4GB or R9 280x depending on your budget, though both are kind of overkill for a single 1600x900 display, at that resolution the 7850 does fine.

For AMD cards, always go for cards equipped with aftermarket coolers.

GTX 960 =< R9 280 < R9 280X < R9 290 < GTX 970 =< R9 290x < GTX 980

I think the R9 290 is the best balance, good price, same real 4GB as the 290X and same bandwidth just slightly less shaders. GTX 960 4GB is too expensive compared to R9 280 or 280X, and doesn't do as well in bandwidth-limited scenarios.

I like how you said "same real 4GB", are you alluding to the GTX 970's 3.5 + .5 GB issue?

Exactly, though that issue has subsided a bit with recent driver updates. The main factor between the 970 and 290/290x is price, I don't think the extra 60w the 290 consumes is enough to offset the massive price difference.

240 dollars for an hd 7850 is too high, you can get an R9 290 for that price. A second card will outperform the GTX 960 - it will perform better then an HD 7970 and an this card performs better then the GTX 960.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4798/his_radeon_hd_7850_iceq_x_turbox_2gb_in_crossfire_video_card_review/index6.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2015-vga-charts/compare,3664.html?prod%5B7345%5D=on&prod%5B7381%5D=on&prod%5B7215%5D=on

You can find the card you have for less then 86$ (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=hd+7850&_sop=3&_from=R40&_osacat=27386&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XXFX+Radeon+7850.TRS0&_nkw=XFX+Radeon+7850&_sacat=27386). Or for 100$ at amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B009TS43FW/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used


You can get cheap hd 7850 at ebay, but the increased power consumption will increase your electricity bill, and you might want to calculate the power requirements of your system before you buy a second HD 7850

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Other HD 7850:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Graphics-Video-Cards-/27386/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=hd+7850&_sop=3

Thanks for the response, I think you missed the part that I already know a new 7850 is not reasonable considering that it cost way more than a much better and new card.

Also a little thing to point out is that most of the sales that are listed on e-bay are the 1 GB models, and not the same 2 GB card I have. Even though on the e-bay there is one that list the same exact model number, the title says its a 1 GB card which makes it a bit sketchy. And I already knew about the Amazon one, I even posted a link of it in the OP.

 

[Creme]

If you're not really desperate for an upgrade, you can wait for the 300 series from AMD.

Even if you don't buy a 3xx card, the 200 series will come down in price.

 

[lcp1109]

didnt notice the ram of each one, only the picture But there are at least 3 with 2gb, and the one from amazon is also 2gb

Here a comparison of those cards you mentioned(I didnt included the R9 280 because I think its weaker then the GTX 960 and the increased power consumption makes it a bad choice compared with the GTX, even tomshardware does not recommend it at Best GPU of April):

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2015-vga-charts/compare,3664.html?prod%5B7345%5D=on&prod%5B7294%5D=on&prod%5B7280%5D=on&prod%5B7284%5D=on&prod%5B7381%5D=on&prod%5B7471%5D=on

 

[Havenost]

If you're not really desperate for an upgrade, you can wait for the 300 series from AMD.

Even if you don't buy a 3xx card, the 200 series will come down in price.

Yeah I am in no rush, I don't have any games that can kill my XFX Radeon 7850 2 GB. The most intensive games I have is Skyrim, FNV, GTA4, BF3, Red Orchestra 2, General and Heroes, and GW2. With ultra settings on all of them I at least get an average of 40-60 FPS, occasional dips to the the 30s but I am not to picky about.

Skyrim is the only game I use ENB on to me the game doesn't seems to perform all that different from when I had 60-80 FPS without ENB compared to the 24-40 FPS I get with the ENB on. But then again I don't have all the crazy 2K-8K grass mods, the water and tree mods that other people have. Nor the massive landscape overhauls that add a ton of stuff. But I would like to have option have them sometime lol...

I do have quite a few Total War games, but sadly the GPU isn't the problem, its the fact that they can only use 1 CPU core which causes massive lag even with a i7-4790K.

 

[Creme]

If you're not really desperate for an upgrade, you can wait for the 300 series from AMD.

Even if you don't buy a 3xx card, the 200 series will come down in price.

Yeah I am in no rush, I don't have any games that can kill my XFX Radeon 7850 2 GB. The most intensive games I have is Skyrim, FNV, GTA4, BF3, Red Orchestra 2, General and Heroes, and GW2. With ultra settings on all of them I at least get an average of 40-60 FPS, occasional dips to the the 30s but I am not to picky about.

Skyrim is the only game I use ENB on to me the game doesn't seems to perform all that different from when I had 60-80 FPS without ENB compared to the 24-40 FPS I get with the ENB on. But then again I don't have all the crazy 2K-8K grass mods, the water and tree mods that other people have. Nor the massive landscape overhauls that add a ton of stuff. But I would like to have option have them sometime lol...

If you don't need to, don't. Overclock if you want, but only upgrade if you really need to, with a card that makes sense for the time. I actually downgraded from a 7950 to a 7850 because the games I played simply didn't need that kind of graphics. When I will need a new graphics card, the cards available will be better than they are now.

 

[Havenost]

If you're not really desperate for an upgrade, you can wait for the 300 series from AMD.

Even if you don't buy a 3xx card, the 200 series will come down in price.

Yeah I am in no rush, I don't have any games that can kill my XFX Radeon 7850 2 GB. The most intensive games I have is Skyrim, FNV, GTA4, BF3, Red Orchestra 2, General and Heroes, and GW2. With ultra settings on all of them I at least get an average of 40-60 FPS, occasional dips to the the 30s but I am not to picky about.

Skyrim is the only game I use ENB on to me the game doesn't seems to perform all that different from when I had 60-80 FPS without ENB compared to the 24-40 FPS I get with the ENB on. But then again I don't have all the crazy 2K-8K grass mods, the water and tree mods that other people have. Nor the massive landscape overhauls that add a ton of stuff. But I would like to have option have them sometime lol...

If you don't need to, don't. Overclock if you want, but only upgrade if you really need to, with a card that makes sense for the time. I actually downgraded from a 7950 to a 7850 because the games I played simply didn't need that kind of graphics. When I will need a new graphics card, the cards available will be better than they are now.

Well the thing is I am pretty malleable when it comes to frame rates because I haven't had much experience in the high end of gaming. My first graphics card I had when I first build my computer back in July 2011 was a cheap $75 XFX Radeon 5670, I then upgrade to the 2GB XFX Radeon 7850 I have now in like March or April of 2013 for $200 which I got Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider for free, which technically made the value I got it for much cheaper than $200. Technically I also got Far Cry Blood Dragon part of the bundle also, but I didn't claim it from Ubisoft and so the product key expired.

That upgrade made a big difference in GW2 since my I gained like nearly 30 FPS, and at that time GW2 was my only GPU intensive game. Though I didn't notice much of difference considering that GW2 has so many explosions and things going on in combat, its not like you can even see anything to differentiate the frame rate gain. But now I do have other games I can use to distinguish the performance increase, though it might not make difference considering the fact that both of my monitors only have 60 hz refresh rate.

Though at one point in the near future would like to see what a future/modern game like GTA 5 looks like in its full glory on ultra settings. Though I would probably need new monitors first, and probably should just wait for new GPUs.