Which card is better? MSI r7 260x OC vs. Powercolor ax7850

[bboyshadows]

Which card is better? The specs seem relativily the same, but is that all to consider? Also are Power color cards reliable?
MSI r7 260x OC
Power color ax7850
Thanks in advance

 

[i7Baby]

The 7850 - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

[damric]

Powercolor (TUL) is actually 2nd leading supplier of Radeons. Only Sapphire ships more.

Anyways, yes the 7850 is faster because of higher core count but also because of bandwidth. Once the AA goes up, it pulls way ahead.

 

[bboyshadows]

Ah I see. I've read numerous mixed opinions on powercolor , but this clears it up. Yeah I'm new to PC building and that makes sense now. Thanks again for your help

 

[photonboy]

Hi,
The amount of cards ship does not indicate the quality of the company, let alone a particular model of card.

Crappy companies can make a good card, and great companies can make a crappy card. So look at Customer Feedback and more professional reviews as well.

There is also a difference in GPU and Memory frequency as well so you need to factor that and price into the equation to determine VALUE.

I'll give a recommended card from pcpartpicker below (USA link).

*TECHPOWERUP is a really great source for benchmarks and review. They often have a SUMMARY BENCHMARK that averages 18 games so it's pretty accurate. It might to completely recommend YOUR performance if you have a CPU that isn't good and bottlenecking a bit (or a lot) but it compares cards accurately.

(Bottlenecking also varies between games).

 

[photonboy]

You might do better, but at pcpartpicker the R7-260X is a lot cheaper than the HD7850.
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=81,149&sort=a8

This R9-270X is $105 after the $10 MIR: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-1003662l

The Asus GTX750Ti is $140 (cheaper than the HD7850's listed) and is comparable to an HD7850:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx750tioc2gd5

*The Asus GTX750Ti is overclocked by 10% here I believe. Since then they've reported most can get 25% (the drivers at the time locked to a 10% overclock):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_750_Ti_OC/25.html

FYI, the Asus GTX750Ti uses a lot less power than the HD7850 as it uses the new Maxwell GPU which is very power efficient.

 

[bboyshadows]

That is very true. I guess I was a little naïve. How important is core and memory in relation to how good a card is? Because I believe the 7850 has better benchmarks than the 260x but it has lower speeds than the 260x. I also found it weird that the power color 7850 was only 100 dollars with rebate. Wondèr if it has to do anything with the quaility because its a steal. I'll have to keep that site in mind in the future (when I start my first build. It seems pretty useful. Also, I appreciate your feedback. I'm learning by the minute.

 

[photonboy]

That is very true. I guess I was a little naïve. How important is core and memory in relation to how good a card is? Because I believe the 7850 has better benchmarks than the 260x but it has lower speeds than the 260x. I'll have to keep that site in mind in the future (when I start my first build. It seems pretty useful. Also, I appreciate your feedback. I'm learning by the minute

Here's the KEY POINTS when buying a graphics card:

*Before I start, don't get hung up on technical details of graphics cards like amounts of Shaders or whatever (except perhaps the amount of Video RAM). Mostly what matters is performance in Benchmarks...

Card itself:
1. Performance (see benchmark of several games such as Techpowerup which is a summary of about 18).
*I mean performance of the EXACT card or one with the same base frequency since frequencies vary mainly due to the extra cost of a good cooling solution.
2. Value (Performance versus cost)
3. Quality (see Customer Review comments for quick score, and investigate further)
4. Noise
5. Cooler (ties into overclocking capability and noise)

Other:
1. Is your Power Supply adequate (in general, see if it has the proper 6-pin and/or 8-pin video connectors such as 1x6-pin)
2. How good is your CPU? (If really weak may be a big bottleneck so a $100 and $150 card may perform similarly)
3. Do you have 32-bit Windows? (64-bit Windows is fine, but with 32-bit Windows you can address 4GB of memory locations which INCLUDE the System and Video RAM. In general, if you have 32-bit Windows like XP 32-bit and a 2GB video card, you are left with 1.8GB of System RAM that is usable if you have 2GB or more installed.)

4. NVidia vs AMD:

AMD:
Can support games that use Mantle. Only two games so far (BF4 and Thief I believe) but more coming. Biggest advantage is reducing CPU bottleneck. The future of Mantle is in question as it requires game manufactures to support it AND the main API (i.e. DirectX). All things being equal it's nice to have the option but all things are NOT equal.

NVidia:
- PhysX (though I'd usually disable on weaker cards)
- G-Sync (supports upcoming G-Sync monitors for smooth gameplay. Really doesn't apply to you likely due to cost)
- Shadowplay

Shadowplay is the big one for many people. You can RECORD or STREAM your game or even the DESKTOP. I just tested Desktop mode yesterday. It simply records whatever you see.

There are SOFTWARE ways to do recording but this uses the NVENC encoder on newer NVidia cards which is very efficient. Generally at most a 10% drop in the frame rate though I'm usually under 5% (i.e. 52.5FPS dropped to 50FPS). It's actually kind of fun to record and you can leave it ON all the time if you want, then click a button to auto-save the last 20 minutes or so.

Any questions feel free to ask, but if you want better advice please give the following info:

1. Total Budget
2. System specs:
- Power Supply
- CPU (use CPU-Z)
- System RAM amount (CPU-Z, Task Manager or other)
- Games you play or want to play

CHEERS!!