7850 vs 7870

[zagestone]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy a new graphics card for my desktop that I built 4 years ago. I'm currently running an AMD Phenom II x4 965 processor (3.4Ghz stock.) I got a new heatsink and am going to overclock it to 3.8Ghz-4Ghz. My graphics card is going to bottleneck my system considering it's a Gtx 260. I was looking at a Radeon 7850 or 7870. My budget is $225 at an absolute maximum, but I'd rather spend less than $200. Here are the two cards I found (I'd rather shop on Amazon due to the sales tax in NJ on Newegg):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2J4ROE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MJHSFG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I run a 1680x1050 monitor and play only MMOs, (Tera, GW2, LoL.) My question is, is it worth stretching the extra $40 for my needs? Or should the 7850 be enough for my purposes? Are they both future proof for at least the next few years in the MMORPG realm? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[megagabobe1]

in my opinion you should get the 7870, very good overclocker, but at that resolution the hd 7850 will serve you well too, if we were talking about 1080p then the 7870 should be your choice

 

[cuecuemore]

If you can spend the extra $40, you definitely will see a benefit from the 7870 (not in LoL, but in the other games). I don't see how one could defend the 7850 being better at that resolution.

 

[megagabobe1]

im more inclined to the 7870 as cuecuemore says, but its your choice

 

[zagestone]

I have run into another problem in choosing. The 7870's I had picked out were both too large for my case. I have a Cooler Master Storm. On their website it says the largest for a video card is 10.5". The only 7870 I could find under that specification was the XFX: http://www.amazon.com/XFXAMD-Radeon-Display-PCI-Express-FX787ACNFC/dp/B007MJGMXQ/ref=sr_1_37?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1362444967&sr=1-37&keywords=7870

Is that brand any good? Or should I just get the 7850?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MJHS8I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[zagestone]

Best answer selected by zagestone.