Low cost AMD 6800 series replacement?

[Dave_Manasseri]

Hello All-

My video card is failing!

Looking for a low cost AMD 6800 series replacement, can anybody help?

Running a 4 year old alienware pc with windows 7 and i7 chip.

Thanks-

Dave

 

[tambeshakunt]

Whats your budget?

An r7 260 is about the same performance as a 6850.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-R7-260X-Graphic-DL-DVI-I/dp/B00M7UJ2IM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421430648&sr=8-3&keywords=r7+260x

Its worth going for the 260x as its only a £5 difference from the 260 but has performance that is worth it.

When replacing the card:
1) Uninstall old GPU drivers using DDU in safe mode http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/display_driver_uninstaller_download.html
2) Remove old card
3) Install new 260x
4) Download latest drivers from AMD website.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Look on ebay. I picked up a used radeon 7950 to replace my 7850 for 116 shipped. Though if money is a big deal, I know 7870's were going for like 80 bucks.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

Thanks tambeshakunt....I should have mentioned I am in the states.
Budget is under 100 American. Only because, the machine is 4 years old.

Ohio, thank you! Are you sure those 2 cards will fit without knowing what mobo I have?

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

How about this:

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Radeon-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-R7770-PMD1GD5/dp/B0089KJRLG/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1421439873&sr=8-14&keywords=radeon+7870

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

As long as you are using a pci express slot then they should fit. Main things are going to be check the length of the card you are buying vs how long of a card will your case allow. Also check the power requirements for the card vs your current power supply. You may need to upgrade that also. If money is really tight but you want decent performance, look into a Radeon 7850. I just sold mine for 50 bucks after i upgraded, but they are decent performers for that kind of money. My 7850 originally cost about 170 if memory serves.

 

[Nikola Aslanov-1338074]

7770 is roughly equal to 6850. Almost certain to fit, Alienware desktops have decent space for video card usually.

 

[tambeshakunt]

How about this:

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Radeon-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-R7770-PMD1GD5/dp/B0089KJRLG/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1421439873&sr=8-14&keywords=radeon+7870

The r7 260 is a rebranded and improved 7770. It has better features and lower power consumption. The 7770 is basically the old version of that so I recommend getting the newer r7 260- there is not much price difference between the two.

 

[tambeshakunt]

Also, most low end cards such as the 260x are short length and use the standard pcie x16 slot so should work fine. Power is the only requirement and I am sure your PSU will have at least 1 PCIe connector required.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Someone got a deal on my card. Now the 7850's seem to be in the 70-80 range. 7770's don't seem far behind. Also could look at the 7750, though it might perform bit under the 7770.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

Thanks tambesakunt....you guys are awesome! After rebate, only $85 for that card here:

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-R7-260-1GD5-OC/dp/B00I5HIVTM

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Looking on ebay, radeon 7750 for 65 used as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIAMOND-AMD-Radeon-HD-7750-PCIE-1G-GDDR5-Video-Graphics-Card-7750PE51G-/261735207789?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf0a2536d


If you want a bit of an upgrade and the power supply can handle it this 7870 is 105.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-R7870-2GD5T-OC-Radeon-HD-7870-GHz-2GB-256-bit-GDDR5-PCI-Express-video-card-/201263082694?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2edc36ecc6

Imagine, that 7870 was probably a 200 dollar card new. I paid 170 for the 7850 I sold for 50. Nice that the tech is affordable. I am happy with my 7950 I got for 116. Maxes most of my games, should hold for a year.


I'll quit spamming ebay lol, but if you knew your power supply would handle it, I like this card.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Powercolor-Radeon-7950-GDDR5-3GB-PRICED-TO-SELL-/251777152279?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3a9f167517

Radeon 7950 3gb. That's actually the exact one I bought, from the same guy looks like too. That would be a nice shot in the arm for your i7.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

Ohio, thanks so much....you are the man! I cant seem to find the power supply specs with stupid windows 7. Gonna open the case and have a look, will let you know.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Yep, should be a sticker on the side of the power supply that says the amperage.

The 7950 is a bit more power hungry, it takes 2 6 pin connectors, but I tell you what, once you go up into the higher end gpu's, you don't want to go back to the low end or mid range. I figure this will last me a year or so till I save up for a bigger upgrade. Next one though I'll have to build in a new case, because my card is the width of a finger from touching the hard drive case in my storm scout case.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

Yep, should be a sticker on the side of the power supply that says the amperage.

The 7950 is a bit more power hungry, it takes 2 6 pin connectors, but I tell you what, once you go up into the higher end gpu's, you don't want to go back to the low end or mid range. I figure this will last me a year or so till I save up for a bigger upgrade. Next one though I'll have to build in a new case, because my card is the width of a finger from touching the hard drive case in my storm scout case.

Cant find anything inside the case about the power supply, but the video card in there is huge. Looks like 2 cards but I cant tell.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Yeah, looks like you have 6850's crossfired. So at that, if that psu runs that in crossfire I would think it would handle a single 7950. For PSU information, usually there's a sticker on the side of the PSU, might be on the bottom, or depending how that case is set up, could be on the other side.

Anandtech bench. It looks like a 7950 uses more power than a single 6850, but you are running dual 6850's, so I think maybe you'd be safe with the 7950

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1077?vs=1033


Here's an old thread to have a look at.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/374828-33-6850-single-7950

Another old article.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review,4.html

But they say the 6850 crossfire setup should consume 393 watts under load.

According to this article

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/his-radeon-hd-7950-review,8.html

A single 7950 consumes 300 watts. So in other words, if your power supply is good, sounds like you would actually have less load on it with a single 7950 than the crossfire setup than you have now. Performance wise, it slaughters a single 6850, not sure on crossfire, but might be worth checking.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

Thanks Ohio, you and the other members have been a big help. The used 7950 for $116 sounds like a good option. But, the 7750 you posted earlier comes new, and for $65.00. Being that the machine is 4 years old, and I only play older Warcraft games....looks like the 7750 is for me. Thanks again you guys!

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Keep in mind that 7750 will probably not be near the horsepower of the 6850s you are used to since they were running in crossfire. Might reconsider that 260x then if you want to save. Or look into a 7770 maybe. Either way, good luck with it.

Search 7770 on ebay, saw a refurbished one on there for 70, so a little better than the 7750. Either way you've got good options.

Another option, you might test those cards separately for stability, if only one of your 6850s is bad maybe you can run the other one by itself.

 

[Nikola Aslanov-1338074]

7750 will be serious downgrade from dual 6850s. 7750 is a very basic gaming card, 6850 is middle level gamer and works very well in crossfire (two cards).
If the budget is not very constrained, really, try to get 7870 or at least 7850.
From that snapshot the PC looks like Alienware Aurora R3 - PSU should be 550w.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Yep. And on the 7950 being used, the one I linked is the same one i bought from the same seller just about 2-3 weeks ago. The guy has 100% feedback and gives 14 day return also.

But i think the 7950 might perform better than those 6850s. You can go for the 7850 or 7870, but with current prices i saw yesterday you are within a few bucks of that 7950. I upgraded from a 7850 to that, I'm telling you the difference is phenomenal. I man my 7850 did medium high settings on most things. The 7950 is like high ultra settings, some aa and good frame rates too. It's so much smoother.

Also since the guy does a 14 day return, I ran my card through the 3dmark benchmarks when I got it which it handled fine. He says he runs them through firestrike before he ships.

But 7750 or 7770 will work, they will be a downgrade though.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

I knew I was ordering too quickly. I see these video glitches and I start freaking out. Firstly, I didn't realize I could run off of one card. Gonna try that now. I do understand the value in the upgrade, and I appreciate the help. But because I only play a 15 year old game, I see no need to spend anymore money on video performance. That's why I'm passing on the 7950. I'll let you all know if I am successful running off 1 card.

 

[Dave_Manasseri]

Update: Disconnected the inner card and pc would not boot up.....just a blank screen. Disconnected outer card instead, and so far so good(though not battle tested yet). Even running on one old card, machine seems to test well at novabench:

NovaBench Score: 1585
1/17/2015 11:44:23 AM
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Intel Core i72600K 3.40GHz @ 3401 MHz
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

16366 MB System RAM (Score: 239)
- RAM Speed: 12399 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 726)
- Floating Point Operations/Second: 205231112
- Integer Operations/Second: 807995072
- MD5 Hashes Generated/Second: 1113040

Graphics Tests (Score: 586)
- 3D Frames Per Second: 1589

Hardware Tests (Score: 34)
- Primary Partition Capacity: 918 GB
- Drive Write Speed: 43 MB/s

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

The proper way to do it would be pull the card with issues, put the working card in the top slot.