Is this card overkill .....

[kingblood69]

I am building a gaming/video editing for the game World of Warcraft, this will be the only game that I am planning on making videos for currently. I am putting together an AMD system and I have been looking at two cards, my question is between the following cards would the 7850 get the job done or would I see a huge difference stepping up to the 7870?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406



or


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125418

 

[auntarie]

WoW favors Nvidia cards so you should probably take a look at a 660ti.

 

[wanderer11]

660 is comparable to the 7870. 660ti competes with the 7950.

 

[Daedalus12]

A 660 will be more than enough for wow. If that is all you are going to play, I wouldn't get anything more than that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-13.html

 

[j2j663]

660 is comparable to the 7870. 660ti competes with the 7950.

Check out the latest Graphics charts from TH. Auntarie is right the 660ti compares with the 7870. AMD had to do some major driver work to get the 7xxx series cards from where they were when launched to where they are now.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

you would indeed see a difference...the 7870 is about 25% more powerful and also oc s better.

it remains a debate wether or not you are going to pay the premium for that performance increase.

 

[kingblood69]

Ok I will take a look at the nvidea line as well

 

[ibjeepr]

No such thing as overkill

 

[kingblood69]

Well in comparing them it looks like the 660 and or 660ti have a bit of an edge over the 7850 and 7870. I am not sure if the 660ti is in my budget range at this time, I may have to go with at 660.

 

[auntarie]

Well in comparing them it looks like the 660 and or 660ti have a bit of an edge over the 7850 and 7870. I am not sure if the 660ti is in my budget range at this time, I may have to go with at 660.

660 will still be enough, just because Blizzard games perform on Nvidia cards better for some reason. You might actually get better performance than you would with the 7870.

 

[ibjeepr]

My 560 TI ran WoW noticibly better than my current HD 5870 which should be about equal according to Tom's graphics card chart.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
Based on that I would recommend Nvidia.
I was able to OC my 560 Ti to 960 core though and My Sapphire 5870 Vapor X OC edition isn't stable at even the factory OC settings which is below 900 core.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

My 560 TI ran WoW noticibly better than my current HD 5870 which should be about equal according to Tom's graphics card chart.

it could also be because on occasion, nvidia cards of the same heirachy have lower frame latency, making games run smoother, even if they dont have more fps.

 

[ibjeepr]

it could also be because on occasion, nvidia cards of the same heirachy have lower frame latency, making games run smoother, even if they dont have more fps.

True but in this case the NVidia card smoked the ATI card in FPS as well. Averaged 50-80 FPS with 560 Ti OC'd. I averaged about 10-20 FPS less with factory OC'd ATI card. The NVidia card was able to OC so much higher than my 5870 though it's almost hard to compare.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

we should not compare two cards using 1 game only...just because he plans WoW now does not mean he will do it forever till he upgrades.
an sweet blend of all should give a better picture don't you think?

 

[ibjeepr]

we should not compare two cards using 1 game only...just because he plans WoW now does not mean he will do it forever till he upgrades.
an sweet blend of all should give a better picture don't you think?

The OP's post specifically calls out WoW and only WoW so based on that specific request I believe in this case refering to the one game is called for. If the OP states they are concerned about other games then I would agree with you.

 

[redeemer]

No such thing as overkill

This!

 

[siddharthmukul007]

The OP's post specifically calls out WoW and only WoW so based on that specific request I believe in this case refering to the one game is called for. If the OP states they are concerned about other games then I would agree with you.

reading is essential...
@kingblood69 wrote,"...making videos for currently"
why so short sighted?

 

[ibjeepr]

reading is essential...
@kingblood69 wrote,"...making videos for currently"
why so short sighted?

What he said exactly was "gaming/video editing for the game World of Warcraft, this will be the only game that I am planning on making videos for currently"

Thus, the only one he is concerned about.

I wasn't short sighted and obviously my reading comprehension score is higher than yours. If you choose to expand the topic to beyond what the OP asked, feel free. The rest of us stuck to the topic at hand.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

What he said exactly was "gaming/video editing for the game World of Warcraft, this will be the only game that I am planning on making videos for currently"

Thus, the only one he is concerned about.

I wasn't short sighted and obviously my reading comprehension score is higher than yours. If you choose to expand the topic to beyond what the OP asked, feel free. The rest of us stuck to the topic at hand.

so that he needs an upgrade next time he plans another game

good luck

 

[wanderer11]

Check out the latest Graphics charts from TH. Auntarie is right the 660ti compares with the 7870. AMD had to do some major driver work to get the 7xxx series cards from where they were when launched to where they are now.

Wow, I fell behind recently then. I got a 2560x1440 monitor and so far my 7870 is doing pretty well on most games. BL2 is the hardest to run so far maxed gives me 25-55 fps. Makes he happier that I bought the 7870 and not a 660ti.

 

[ibjeepr]

so that he needs an upgrade next time he plans another game

good luck

That’s your agenda, not the OP’s question. You can suggest a more powerful card for future use all you want. It's not what the OP asked about.
I'm the one that said, no such thing as overkill, so if the OP wants to Xfire two 7970's then more power to them. However, the op asked if it was overkill implying they probably don't want to spend more than they have to in order to play/record WoW which is the only game the OP said they were currently planning on doing this for.
You can focus the emphasis on the word "Currently" if you like but the overall question rules out the importance of that word in my opinion. To imply that the rest of us can't read and are short sighted for figuring that out suggests you are the one that may be placing your own opinion over the OPs question at hand.

 

[bystander]

A 660 will be more than enough for wow. If that is all you are going to play, I wouldn't get anything more than that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-13.html

Just so the OP is not disappointed, I'd like to point out that WoW is far more demanding than these charts show. In the spirit of consistency between benchmarks, when most sites benchmark MMO's, they go to out of the way locations with no one around. This practice gives the most consistent and fair benchmarks for each card, however, it drastically inflates the numbers, because in large towns and in Raids, FPS will drop like a rock.

WoW will see major improvements, all the way up to the highest end cards.

I would also like to point out that the highest end graphics settings in WoW, don't always give major improvement in visuals, so you may still be happy with one of these cards and lowering the settings.

 

[ibjeepr]

Just so the OP is not disappointed, I'd like to point out that WoW is far more demanding than these charts show. In the spirit of consistency between benchmarks, when most sites benchmark MMO's, they go to out of the way locations with no one around. This practice gives the most consistent and fair benchmarks for each card, however, it drastically inflates the numbers, because in large towns and in Raids, FPS will drop like a rock.

WoW will see major improvements, all the way up to the highest end cards.

I would also like to point out that the highest end graphics settings in WoW, don't always give major improvement in visuals, so you may still be happy with one of these cards and lowering the settings.

A 560 TI also does far higher FPS than that graph shows so I'm not sure that the graph is all that accurate any more with driver updates and assuming you don't buy a reference card. Also, like you said, just turning a couple less important settings lower, like view distance, can help the card out quite a bit.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7870_PCS_Plus_Vortex_II/29.html

 

[bystander]

A 560 TI also does far higher FPS than that graph shows so I'm not sure that the graph is all that accurate any more with driver updates and assuming you don't buy a reference card. Also, like you said, just turning a couple less important settings lower, like view distance, can help the card out quite a bit.

When I was playing WoW, I recall Shadows put the biggest hurt on the system, yet you could barely tell anything changed between the last 2 or 3 settings.