GTX 570 Price Drop vs Radeon HD 7850 - Which to pair with IB CPU?

[Matt1990]

Hey guys.

I am going back and forth between the GTX 570 and Radeon HD 7850. Yes, I realize there are other threads comparing the two, but, I can't find one that is up to date now that the GTX 570 dropped in price by quite a bit.

I defenitely won't ever run SLI/Crossfire and will be using a single monitor at 1920x1080.

Here is the GTX 570-AR (Limited Lifetime Warranty) for $259.99 after rebate, free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593


Here is the XFX Radeon HD 7850 for $239.99 and it comes with 2 free games.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150608

My question is, now that the 570 is around $40.00 (maybe more?) cheaper, is it worth getting over the 7850? Will I even need 2GB VRAM for single monitor at 1920x1080? Also keep in mind I will be playing Blizzard Games (WoW, D3) BF3, BFBC2, Skyrim, and possibly a few others. I heard that Radeon cards don't play Blizzard games well. I also heard that Radeon cards have some driver issues, and AMD sacrificed image quality for improved benchmark scores, have these been fixed? So, which one do you guys suggest, and why?

 

[willard]

I'd go with the 570. The 7850 and 570 are very close in terms of performance, except in a few titles where the 570 has a comfortable lead. The tradeoff is the card uses more power and runs hotter, as we've come to expect from NVIDIA over the last few years.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/518?vs=549

 

[Sunius]

GTX 570 is around 12% faster than HD 7850 and costs only 8% more, if you ignore the fact that you get games with HD 7850 (especially if you don't want them). Also, you get very nice Nvidia driver support. AMD always had driver issues, and I doubt the situation will change in the near future. You won't need 2 GB of VRAM. Personally, I'd go for GTX 570 hands down.

 

[Matt1990]

Also, I meant to ask. Can I get away with a corsair 550 PSU? I5-3570K and one of the cards mentioned above, 8GB RAM, mild overclocking? Keep in mind I have no desire to SLI/Crossfire.

 

[Sunius]

Depends which Corsair PSU. If it's TX/HX/AX series - it will work without any problems!

 

[source47]

a game like BF3 allready copes de 1gb vram usage, and i think the 7850 has a more future proof and it will be easier to sell in the future in case u want to upgrade. remmember that de 570uses 2 pcie pins while the 7850 only uses 1 and it runs so much cooler.

About the 7850 with driver issues, was just at the beggining now its solved

 

[Guest]

When you compare performance, price, power consumption, temperature and noise, I think HD 7850 is clearly a winner. It's cheaper, runs cooler, whisper silent and needs half the power of GTX 570. Only trade off is few % of performance. Oh, and there are no driver problems to speak of.

 

[Sunius]

a game like BF3 allready copes de 1gb vram usage, and i think the 7850 has a more future proof and it will be easier to sell in the future in case u want to upgrade. remmember that de 570uses 2 pcie pins while the 7850 only uses 1 and it runs so much cooler.

About the 7850 with driver issues, was just at the beggining now its solved

Just because RAM is used, it doesn't automatically mean that performance suffers. On Crysis 2 I am having my VRAM usage maxed out at 1 GB as well, so what? I still run stable 40-50 fps on maximum settings, except post processing on extreme (instead of ultra).

And how is slower card more future proof?

 

[4745454b]

Do you care about the games? The 7850 isn't that much slower, and if you want Dirt then you are better off with that card. Or if you know of a way to sell the game coupons you could recover a lot of your money. If you sell each code for $20-25 then you could get that 7850 for <$200. Even if you ignore the games I'd probably get the 7850. Cheaper and uses less power. You'll save money the longer you run it.

 

[zakattak80]

Just because RAM is used, it doesn't automatically mean that performance suffers. On Crysis 2 I am having my VRAM usage maxed out at 1 GB as well, so what? I still run stable 40-50 fps on maximum settings, except post processing on extreme (instead of ultra).

And how is slower card more future proof?

well im wondering why no one has mention that the 570's drivers have probably been optimized to the limit for performance, whi;e the 7850 drivers ar not mature and could gain 5, 10, or maybe more percent performance boost

 

[rglaredo]

both are good the 7850 overclocks well to be superior to 570 ..the later performs well out of the box. I would go 570 cause I don't like to OC any card and nvidia always been better with the drivers than AMD....for the psu I was debating on a 600 one but decided on a 750 ..just in case one day I wanted to sli or xfire in the future ..or have a bigger power-hungry gpu lol ..

 

[Matt1990]

Hmm..can anyone comment on the issues I've heard about with Radeon cards running Blizzard games poorly?

 

[Ironslice]

Yeah for some reason Blizzard games tend to favor nVidia, who knows why. Anyway, go with the GTX 570, I didn't even realize the price was this low till I saw this thread.

 

[zakattak80]

you act like it's just Oh, and by the way.....
no big deal..

Radeon drivers are the worse..

there driver support isn't near as good as nvidia,but there drivers are the worse? for petesake there is only two companies in the discrete gpu business, so there isn't much to compare against.

 

[zakattak80]

not with the latest driver set and nVidia's new A/A..
301.4x have unleashed the new A/A on all cards that are PhysX capable, the stronger the GPU the more the benefit.

FYI - my brand new in box N570GTX TF III PE/OC = $265 shipped.
thanks very much..

well that's nice of nvidia, dont remember much about the new AA,. i know some sites said that it was very possible that the 600 series feature could rollover to the 500s

 

[4745454b]

D3 doesn't seem to favor nvidia. Both the 5770 and 6850 are faster then the GTX460. Not sure how the 7850 and GTX570 play out. Either should be fast enough for the most part. You can usually find a game or two here and there then will favor one over the other.

 

[Matt1990]

Yeah for some reason Blizzard games tend to favor nVidia, who knows why. Anyway, go with the GTX 570, I didn't even realize the price was this low till I saw this thread.

Yea I've been following the prices and they just dropped a couple days ago

 

[Guest]

you act like it's just Oh, and by the way.....
no big deal..

Radeon drivers are the worse..

What exactly are you trying to say? My HD 7850 runs every game I throw at it flawlessly using ultra details. Can you show me those driver problems please?

 

[quilciri]

Not only is the 7850 cheaper to begin with, it'll save you $20 or more a year depending on how much electricity is where you are and how long your computer is on.

The 7850 will be supported longer than the 570 will.

The overclockability of the 7850 has been a bit understated, too I think

40-50% overclocks on stock cooling
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2239216

good luck!

 

[quilciri]

Here's benches of a 19% overclocked 7850 matching a gtx 580.

http://tbreak.com/tech/mobilearticle/?articleid=59378

 

[ohyouknow]

I'd say 7850. New tech is fun. If you look at the benchmarks on diablo here on tom's even my backup 6770 is pretty boss in that game.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diablo-iii-performance-benchmark,3195-5.html

No need to agonize about the differences between the 2 since they are pretty much the same. If the card is going to last you awhile, looking at the increased vram could be a boon.

Flip a coin and be done with it =)

 

[Matt1990]

I can't flip a coin...I'm too OCD about the parts I am using :]

 

[Matt1990]

Will this be able to handle either the 570 and i5-3570k with mild overclocking. I'm fairly certain in can handle the 7850, right?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

 

[viridiancrystal]

I haven't had the slightest driver issue with my 7850, so don't worry to much about that. The card is silent, and runs cool. I'd recommend the newer tech, but both seem like good choices to me.

 

[quilciri]

I can relate to that..
personally the power consumption difference doesn't bother me as I went for the 570, I have ample power supply.
so it boils down to choice, personal preference.
I'm more a fan of the HD 7870 more than I am of the HD 7850.
to bad it cost too much.

What? It doesn't matter what PSU you have, the 570 will still cost you $20+ more a year to run than the 7850. Maybe I don't understand the argument you're trying to make.