Upgrading MSI 6850 PE/OC, $250 Max Budget

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toloveistorebel

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Mar 5, 2013
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Hey all,

Looking to replace my graphics card and want some advice. Seems like the Tahiti LE versions of the 7870s are the best bang for the buck in my price range. But I'm not sure if maybe that's overkill for my monitor resolution, plus they're next to impossible to find right now. And really the only reason I'm able to justify a new card is for the included games with AMD cards. Any help/advice specifically geared towards my 1600x900 resolution would be awesome. Thanks.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE:
This week?

BUDGET RANGE:
Preferably between $200-$230 obviously even less would be great if possible. Max is $250

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:
Gaming [Far Cry 3, Minecraft, Tomb Raider, Darksiders 2, Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 3 maybe....]
HTPC [Movie watching, Movie encoding in handbrake, etc.]

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:
GPU: MSI 6850 Cyclone PE/OC, PSU: Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB 500W

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
CPU: Intel Pentium G2120, MOBO: ASRock Z77 Extreme3, RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) G.Skill Ripjaws X, Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 64GB + 250GB HDD, Case: Rosewill Blackbone

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:
Newegg.com, Amazon.com (I have Prime)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
USA

PARTS PREFERENCES:
AMD because of the current included games and price/performance

OVERCLOCKING:
Yes/Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE:
No

MONITOR RESOLUTION:
1600x900

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
My main purpose is to be able to play Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, and Far Cry 3 at the highest possible settings for the least amount of money for the resolution I play at.

Cards I'm considering:

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 MYST
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131484&Tpk=7870%20le

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 XT w/Boost
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202024

SAPPHIRE 100355L Radeon HD 7850 2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102998

PowerColor AX7850 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 7850 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131482
 
Solution
I
You should depending on your setting I actually upgraded from a 6850 to a 7870 Le my self however I had a AM3+ board so I upgraded my processer as well from a 2.6 to a 3.5 8320 (got a good sale during xmas for $150/no tax/free shipping) and it felt like a night and day difference. I even had an old 16x10 20inc monitor that I upgraded a few weeks later to a 1080p 24inc.

What you may want to do is download MSI after burner and have it log your GPU usage and your CPU usage to see if either is peaked,. If you find that you GPU is at 100% and your CPU isn't then you will probably see a differnce. If you find it the other way around it would be best to upgrade your CPU first and that may increase your fps.
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You need to upgrade your CPU. You have such a good mobo but ok CPU. Grab the i5 3570K from a microcenter for 189.99 and then get a better card. Your CPU will bottleneck your GPU big time.
 
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Bummers. Well thanks for the info guys. I guess I'm kinda going about this all wrong then. The 3570K is definitely what I was planning on upgrading too eventually. Only problem with that is it doesn't come with any free games 😛 And that was a big factor in upgrading anything since my wife likes to watch me play.

Perhaps I could go ahead and grab one of the Tahiti LE cards if they come back in stock then get a 3570K sooner than I was wanting. Even with my G2120 I would at least get some improvement over my 6850 right?

EDIT: Ah and of course that price at Microcenter is pick up only. I live in Florida :/
 
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You should depending on your setting I actually upgraded from a 6850 to a 7870 Le my self however I had a AM3+ board so I upgraded my processer as well from a 2.6 to a 3.5 8320 (got a good sale during xmas for $150/no tax/free shipping) and it felt like a night and day difference. I even had an old 16x10 20inc monitor that I upgraded a few weeks later to a 1080p 24inc.

What you may want to do is download MSI after burner and have it log your GPU usage and your CPU usage to see if either is peaked,. If you find that you GPU is at 100% and your CPU isn't then you will probably see a differnce. If you find it the other way around it would be best to upgrade your CPU first and that may increase your fps.
 
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Solution
Well I ended up getting the Sapphire 7870 XT (Tahiti LE). It's pretty awesome. I haven't done any definitive testing but I'm definitely getting a huge fps increase. Obviously my cpu is holding it back a bit so that will be my next upgrade. It's pretty nice to know that I'm one part away from having a pretty high end machine. Even though I didn't really heed any of the input on here I appreciate all the responses. A "K" series i5 will definitely be my next upgrade.
 
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