How to choose between Radeon cards?

[MageVortex]

Ok, so I'm looking to get either a 7870, or if i find a GREAT deal on a 7950, i'll go for that. But i'm patient, and waiting for a great deal on one, not just buying today regardless. So i'm researching them, and i THOUGH i only had to chosoe between brands...but man was I wrong! I thought that If i looked at (for isntance) HSI, they would have a 7850, 7870 & a 7950 for me to consider...but no. They have 3+ 7850's alone, and then I see one of their 7870's is actually cheaper than their 7850..? (granted, i know that 7870 was a great deal, and sold out almost isntantly because it was such a great deal*)
But i've seen similar stories elsewhere, with 7850's being just as if not more expensive than some 7870's, and some brands are having just blatantly higher prices...

Below is an example of what i am talking about.

Example at Newegg comparing 4 cards

Now, normally, I would just shrug it off and say it's pricing descrepencies and the cheaper ones are just much better value and the other company is charging more because people don't look to see if there are better options...but i don't want to make that assumption without some input first.

So...when i am looking at and comparing these cards to try and make my decision, and considering the value of any future deals, what do i need to look at when comparing same brand cards to distinguish between them, and are there any brands I should make sure to avoid, regardless of how good a 'deal' it may look like (ie - because they use really cheap/crappy components that fry easily, and then have horrible Customer Service to help me).

Also, although i'm more seriously considering Radeon's because they tend to be a better value, I am considering the nVidia's, mostly because i'm getting Borderlands 2, and the PhysX looks pretty dang nifty in it. Which of their cards would be comparable to the 7870, and what does their price tend to be around?

Thanks all!

 

[Supernova1138]

The price discrepancy is because the $240 7850 is a factory overclocked card that has a better cooler and better components to facilitate overclocking. The cheaper 7870 model is just a basic 7870, nothing too fancy.

As for nvidia, right now most of the stuff they have in your price range are older 500 series cards that are inferior to similarly priced 7000 series Radeons. There is the GTX 660Ti, but that costs $300. This week the GTX 660 non Ti is supposedly going to launch for around $250, it's going to compete with the 7870.

If you are very brave, there is also the option of hybrid PhysX if you have a motherboard with two PCI-E x16 slots. It is possible to get a Radeon card and use it as your main display adapter, and get a lower end nvidia card and use it as a dedicated PhysX card using a hacked nvidia driver. Power requirements will be higher with that setup though, so you would need a beefier power supply.

 

[MageVortex]

The price discrepancy is because the $240 7850 is a factory overclocked card that has a better cooler and better components to facilitate overclocking. The cheaper 7870 model is just a basic 7870, nothing too fancy.

As for nvidia, right now most of the stuff they have in your price range are older 500 series cards that are inferior to similarly priced 7000 series Radeons. There is the GTX 660Ti, but that costs $300. This week the GTX 660 non Ti is supposedly going to launch for around $250, it's going to compete with the 7870.

If you are very brave, there is also the option of hybrid PhysX if you have a motherboard with two PCI-E x16 slots. It is possible to get a Radeon card and use it as your main display adapter, and get a lower end nvidia card and use it as a dedicated PhysX card using a hacked nvidia driver. Power requirements will be higher with that setup though, so you would need a beefier power supply.

First, thank you very much for the response! I do apprecaite it, and you gave some good information! I'm tempted by the hybrid thing you mentioned, but i'm fairly sure that would, as you said, require beefier power supply, and i don't know if my mobo could do it regardless...i'd have to check.

Second...So then would I be better off getting that 7850 over the 7870..? This is exactly my problem, I don't know which what is who*
Logic says the 7870 is obviously teh better card, since it's the step up, but is it? Are the superior components and possibly better cooler going to actualy make the 7850 a better card than the 7870? At what point should i go with the 7870, or stick with the 7850? This just seems so much more complicated

 

[Supernova1138]

A factory overclocked 7850 might be able to rival a stock 7870 if you can overclock it high enough. However, the 7870 will net you significantly better performance right out of the box, and even a basic 7870 will be able to achieve better performance than even a heavily overclocked 7850 if you choose to overclock it. If you can afford to get a 7870, I would definitely opt of that over the 7850.

 

[MageVortex]

A factory overclocked 7850 might be able to rival a stock 7870 if you can overclock it high enough. However, the 7870 will net you significantly better performance right out of the box, and even a basic 7870 will be able to achieve better performance than even a heavily overclocked 7850 if you choose to overclock it. If you can afford to get a 7870, I would definitely opt of that over the 7850.

So then I would be correct in thinking that if i found any 7870, even if it is is stock, based on the original architecture Radeon put out (i forget what thats called, but the factory default companies use...Reference? i think thats it)

And a follow up question, Is the GHz version of the 7870 just another name for the regular 7870, and a marketing gimmick, or is the GHz edition actually a slightly improved reendition (sp?) that will net me better performance? if so, is it worth the increased cost?
Thanks man, you've been a freakin great help! I really do appreciate it.

 

[Supernova1138]

The stock clock speed for the 7870 is 1GHz, so the GHz Edition name is just a marketing gimmick for that particular card.

Yes, even a reference 7870 will beat out a 7850 when you put overclocking into the equation. The only time this wouldn't be true would be if you got a really high end 7850 and put a very heavy overclock on it, and you compared it to a 7870 that pretty much couldn't overclock at all. Since AMD basically underclocked all their 7000 series cards, all of them, aside from perhaps the 7750 probably should have been clocked higher at stock speed, it's unlikely you will run into a 7870 that is a very poor overclocker.

 

[Mousemonkey]

i reccomend MSI hawk editions or MSI lightning

i will tell you why.........
1st of all MSI have the best GPU's for overclocking and extremey high performance


spend an hour or 2 in this site (you can click on the big symbol series things to get more info)
http://event.msi.com/vga/2012/series-comparison/#

7870 MSI HAWK is goood

So now you're an expert?

 

[MageVortex]

MSI 7870 ***HAWK*** is a great overcloker
the HAWK and LIGHTNING are the best overclockers lightning is the best
then hawk

It would be great if you could provide any sort of backup for these claims...? saying the same/similar thing 3 times ... doesn't lend the best credence to what you are saying. any web site reviews you want to link to?

 

[MageVortex]

Best answer selected by MageVortex.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey