HD 7870 with Ryzen 5 1400.

[callofgunstar]

Would the sapphire HD 7870 be a good pairing with the ryzen 5 1400 as i already have this graphics card but i am looking for a better CPU than the a10-7700k. Or will this graphics card bottle neck a lot?

 

[dontlistentome]

The main problem is vram, that's a 2gb card right? So you're going to have to limit your settings to medium or less on newer games, or drop resolution from 1080p to 720p. The card's performance in today's games is entry level gaming. So don't expect 60fps at high settings in 1080p in the most popular games, like PUBG or GTA V.

Speaking of games, you don't mention what you play. It's possible all you need is a better videocard. It's possible you need a better CPU. Only if you list the games you play will it become clear what you need most.

 

[DragonAsta]

I personally think many folks do NOT really test the games thoroughly before they give an opinion
I have been using my Phenom II 955 at 3.5-4Ghz for the last couple of years with a Radeon 7870, the vast majority of games out there I can run very well at high settings 1080p no problems the few that I "have trouble with" I just adjust shadows or drop HBAO to SSAO and things like that.

Ryzen is WAY WAY faster then Phenom II is, a clock for clock difference, would likely have to run Phenom II x4 or x6, or Bulldozer/piledriver in the range of probably around 5.4Ghz to be "comparable"

So in my personal opinion, if I never had a problem running the vast majority of games, I doubt you would, games like GTA V are incredibly unoptimized and very much work better at high IPC designs like Intel or the speedy "simple" design Nvidia uses (basically like an Intel CPU but for graphics)

This is just my personal opinion based on thousands of hours testing the crud out of my specific system, I do not use the very fastest memory or the highest clock speeds I know my cpu and gpu are capable of

The cpu in this case that you reference will actually feed the 7870 far better than my Phenom II is capable of at 720p-1080p etc, but the flat response dontlistentome gave you as an "answer" I simply do not agree, some games absolutely, but am pretty sure some of those games are far more biased towards Intel and Nvidia to begin with.

the 2gb Vram "hurts" a bit there is no doubt about that, but there is a reason why most games have tons of things you can adjust, if anything Ryzen will force a bottleneck on the graphics card because it "overpowers it"....when I checked to see a potential bottleneck for my own purchase, RYzen 1400-1500 was quite well paired with it, and TBH if you drop the resolution down too much you can actually create a problem that may not actually exist because it is not loading the graphics card fully (shaders, TMU, ROP etc....just like any engine or power supply really, if you load it too lean it does not fully activate and if you load it too heavily it "chokes"

This site can "help" http://thebottlenecker.com/...basically a Phenom II 955-980 (or better which is VERY easy to do) level is perfectly paired with a 7870-7950-7970 +/- a bottleneck, whereas with Ryzen 1400 using the same 7870 there is around a 20% bottleneck (the cpu is too powerful) whereas pairing with an RX 460 or better would match up VERY well, that is the graphics card is "fast enough" for the cpu to feed it well, overclocking can help of course, or for that matter, slowing the cpu down a bit.

in your case, the A10-7700k and 7870 will be matched PERFECTLY with only about a 3% bottleneck (which is basically nothing) if upgrade to Ryzen basically everything will bottleneck the graphics card (again overclocking or downclocking can mitigate this by all means) Ryzen over Phenom as per example there seems to be about a 1Ghz advantage in "speed" per core.

Anyways, running very low resolution absolutely will murder whatever performance you should be getting (and look like crap)..Ryzen do not do the greatest at running "high speed" that is their IPC is not made for very low resolution, they are built to compliment a decent graphics card 720p IMO is a joke, they are way too powerful to be held down this way, but, if one lower the clock speed on them (because money is tight) than by all means a 7870-270x with Ryzen 120 through 1800x will work very well....

anyways am done ^.^

 

[madmatt30]

You'll be fine with a ryzen 1400 paired with a 7870 at medium settimgs the majority of the time.


Yes the 7870 will be the limiter when it comes to gaming performance - no doubt about it.

Thats not a good enough reason to not upgrade your base system though.

 

[The Paladin]

I agree, you can upgrade to Ryzen with that 7870 video card, it will handle most games at medium,/low settings and plenty of life in it still, until your ready to get a better one (i.e. R9390x/GTX 970 used or GTX 1060/RX570) later on.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

At this point, aren't they saying that volta comes out this year? If so then you might wait on that to see what those look like. Good thing for you, even like a 2050ti or something at that time will be a huge upgrade for you.

According to a video of benchmarks I saw on YouTube, it looks like the current gtx 1050ti actually trade blows with the older Radeon 7970. So if that's the case, it seems like usually the next generation is better. So the 2050ti for example may be similar to a current gtx 1060.

 

[The Paladin]

choices stand as...

1. get a HD7870 for 50-80$ on eBay and wait for the next gen video cards to come out in march or whatever
2. get a 1050 ti for 200+$ and then try to sell it... and get new card
3. get a HD 7950 for 140-160$ and wait until new cards...

which one makes sense? the one where you blow 200$ on a card to get another one in 3 month cost 700$ or spend 50/80$ then get a real card ?

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

On the other hand, look for a a 7950 or 7970 as mentioned. Also look at the RX 560 4gb. I think newegg had some for 159 last time I looked.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Scratch the suggestion of a 7950 or 7970. On Ebay the 7950 is starting at 160 and 15 shipping. Or 7970 is about 200 for a 6 year old card! The cheapest 7870 is 100 bucks. Then they go to 120 and 140-150. At that honestly, this might be your best bet.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814932003

I did see this one below for 159.99 instead of the top one which is 169. But the reason I recommend the top one is because according to the specs it has 1024 stream processors. The one below only has 896 stream processors, which I think means it is effectively an RX 460. Either one will be better than the 7870 I think. But if you are going to spend say 120, for another 40 bucks you can have a brand new card with a warranty.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814932014


If you wanted the 1050 ti which is what 10-20% faster, the cheapest one is like 219.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137055

So it boils down to what you can spend. I think of all the options, if I were on a really tight budget, get the RX 560 4gb. Personally, I just bought a 1050ti, but I had sold my RX 480 8gb for almost 400 bucks during the mining craze and bought the 1050ti for 209. After all the ebay and paypal fees I ended up making like 120 or so. So I had enough to get something, so that's why I got the 1050ti to get closer to that performance level I had previously.

 

[DragonAsta]

I was looking at RX 560 myself last couple of days, but if already have a 7870 (which can play MOST games at medium and high settings with sometimes need to drop medium or low very few more graphic heavy settings usually in poorly optimized games such as GTA V) an RX 560 4gb 1024 shader model is at best comparable with overclocking unless very specific games that can truly leverage what it can dish out (such as DOOM 2016)

7870 is more powerful than an RX 560 (unless you get lucky and get one that can overclock quite high, but I would not "bank on that")
7950/7970 will still be bottlenecked by Ryzen (the 7950 is not more powerful in MOST things unless you give it a bit of an overclock, the 7970 absolutely is) but, why spend that $ on an "ancient" card, put it to a "modern" generation, or at least something not quite as old
270x (would be lowest I would aim for, for something "old...even then I just wouldn't be worth it, unless could get a reasonable shape one for at max like $30-$50 ^.^...same goes for a 7870 XT-7950-7970)

380-380x-460-470/480-570-580 IMHO though they are quite difficult to find reasonably priced ones that are likely not to have been burned out running too hard.

7k series will be bottlenecked by Ryzen, period (as would similar ones from Nvidia such as GTX 750Ti, or various other ones in similar performance bracket)
200 series a little less so, 300 series are really only faster running 200 series, 400 series a good chunk faster (more modernized) majority of 500 series are +/- the 400 because of higher clock speeds or +/- shaders etc.

560 is not a "bad card" though I would at best consider it a "budget ESPORTS gaming"
whereas the 7870 for when it was released was more of a "performance gaming"
bus width 128bit vs 256bit, amount of shaders 1024 (at best) vs 1280.. difference in buswidth, shaders, TMU/ROP etc,
however, the 560 is "more efficient" in its shader usage and such, it just has less overall "oomph" to drive them,
so, the 7870 will win out (not to mention the 7870 is a very good overclocker in most cases...I have ran mine at 1260 core 1450 memory, at + 1-2 notches above its stock volts, I have also dropped the clocks a bit and could drop volts down a very large amount)

anyways, 560 (might be ok for a $ factor) but, it really will not give as much as any Ryzen CPU is wanting to give (stretch its legs)

RX 560 is by specs alone more powerful than a 1050Ti (totally depends on the games simple as that)
a R 380x-470/570 OR 1060 (yuck) if you wanted to upgrade to these would be noticeably more performance.

A good GPU at a reasonable price is hard to come by, I know this, have been on the hunt for the past year at least (even harder because I will NOT buy Nvidia..personal choice not worth going into)

RX 570/580 and 1050Ti/1060 are all pretty much tied up with each other depending on the game and user opinion of course
7870 replaced by 270x replaced by 370x replaced by kind of but not really RX 460 replaced by RX 550/560 (kind of sits in between the 2 of them)

in a "perfect world" one could get an RX 470/570 4gb at MSRP for a custom model (like MSI Gaming X)
~$210-$235..essentially using +/- the same amount of power as 7870 gaming and such, but WAY faster and would pair up perfectly with Ryzen for 1080p or 1200-1440p (have to play with graphics settings if want to play smooth at 1200-1440p however if not concerned or wanting to overclock the cpu or gpu) but the world we live in says "nah, we want to gouge the crap out of you"

(though you did say to pair up the Radeon 7870 which you do have with a ryzen 5 1400 you wanted to buy.I do suggest get 16gb system ram at 2600+ MHZ at CL15 or so timings to get the most out of it, for when you decide you also want to upgrade the graphics card....the good thing about AM4 upgrade, you will have many years of upgrade cpu or update gpu if you choose to do so, whereas the A10 like you currently have, or the 7870 are very much past upgrading directly depending on how you look at it)

ANYWAYS...LOL...I myself am really thinking about going Raven Ridge 2400G and pairing it up with my 7870, though hate the fact the pci-e 3.0 link only works at x8 for dGPU usage (however, that means that the 7870 will actually be being fed perfectly as would the RX 560 ^.^) RR 2400G will be when paired up with decent ram around RX 550/560 768 shader level..."comparable" not beating...at least one could in theory just use the igp on it, and worry about upgrading the graphics in a month or whatever when the money allows, or, get the 2400g and pair it with the 7870..

(though you did say to pair up the Radeon 7870 which you do have with a ryzen 5 1400 you wanted to buy.I do suggest get 16gb system ram at 2600+ MHZ at CL15 or so timings to get the most out of it, for when you decide you also want to upgrade the graphics card....the good thing about AM4 upgrade, you will have many years of upgrade cpu or update gpu if you choose to do so, whereas the A10 like you currently have, or the 7870 are very much past upgrading directly depending on how you look at it)

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Ah, should have read better. If op already has the 7870, roll with it and save up until next generation which will probably come out on nvidia side anyway this year.