HD 78xx and 79xx: to upgrade or not to upgrade. For HD 6950 owners.

[F@32]

May 12, 2012 EDIT: Added gtx 670 and fixed couple wrong avg FPS numbers. Will add shortly charts by resolution as well.

Hi folks. As I can imagine some of you are asking yourself: "Well, sure 78xx and 79xx series perform sweet, but they cost an arm and a leg. I have old trusty 6950 purchased for $300 or below. Should I bother with upgrading it right now?"

I found that most review sites are missing performance/price and performance/power consumption figures. So, I headed to Anand's site, typed FPS figures for cards that are in $350-400 range : 7870, 7950, GTX 580, GTX 670 into a google spreadsheet and came up with the following figures.

Note:
= I only used game benchmarks (37 in total)
= Load watt was from Metro 2033
= I used pricewatch May 12 price quotes for all cards




Note: I reversed price and watt at load numbers to show that less is better.

As you can see,at the current price levels, HD 6950 is the winner in terms of performance/price (while 6950 stock is available). GTX 670 takes the absolute performance and performance/power crown in $350-400 price range.

Cheers!

ChartNumbers.png

[thegoatman]

If you upgrade, I call dibs on the old card! I'm looking to upgrade myself ...from an 8800GT.

[antiacid]

buying new, sure go for the 7xxx. Upgrading? lolno. Do you have a money tree somewhere that can justify spending so much for so little gain?

[demonkevy666]

buying new, sure go for the 7xxx. Upgrading? lolno. Do you have a money tree somewhere that can justify spending so much for so little gain?

driver support notice how there's no 5870 >.>...

[F@32]

buying new, sure go for the 7xxx. Upgrading? lolno. Do you have a money tree somewhere that can justify spending so much for so little gain?

It amazes me to see these comments on the website called "Xtreme Systems". Here's why it would make sense, even though normally hardware enthusiasts are not budget concious and tend to own the latest generation techs regardless of the cost.

I of course would not simply throw my 6950 into trash and shell out $350 for a new card. 6950 2Gb will sell for about $250 on ebay. So, I will spend $100 out of pocket for 30% increase in performance. Let's assume I will get a year out of the new card at a minimum, and let's split that $100 by 52 weeks in a year, shall we? That comes out to $1.92 a week. That's what, 1 small cup of coffee a week at the StarBucks?

Regards

[CrimInalA]

I upgraded from a 6950@6970 to a 7970 .
It's a heluva card

Main reason for that was the fact that i'm buying the s27a850d , and i want to play my games all maxed out . Even on 2560x1440 resolution .

O and I've given my 6970 to my girlfriend . Since i never drink any coffee whatsoever (and definately noy at starbux) i can afford things like that

[LagunaX]

My 6970 was da bomb!
But my 7970 makes it look feeble...

The Nvidia 680 is bragging to be 10-15% faster but I can't see how Nvidia would be priced equally with AMD...

[thegoatman]

...I feel so lost in the stone age with my 8800GT...

[imamage]

Just got my HD7850 today , Sapphire HD7850 for $2000 HKD (~ $257 USD)
It runs cooler than my Sapphire HD6950 Twin Fan in-game , use less power , and gives me similar class performance
It fits in my Silverstone SG02 build very well !

If HD7850 retail price around $200 USD , it will be a bargain to grab one !

[Cpl Ledanek]

hope OP don't mind, but I'm looking for a birthday gift to myself

here's my current:
Win7Pro 32-bit/ ABIT IP35 Pro v1.1 BIOS v.16beta09/ Intel C2D E8400 Batch Q748A223 /Xigmatek HDT-RS1283/ 4GB Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5DHX 5-5-5-18 1.80V ver4.1/ CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W/ CM Stacker 830SE/ ZALMAN ZM-F3RL 120mm Red LED/120mm Yate Loon D12SL-12 Red LED/ Creative Labs Fatal1ty ProGamer/ Radeon HD 58501GB/ Dell UltraSharp 2407FPW-HC

I'm looking to upgrade my 5850 1GB for use with my single monitor
I play primarily BF3, Shift1-2, DiRT2-3...then may movies with DiRT2-3 replays with FRAPs (if possible in HD)
Please consider the CPU bottleneck (if any)

please suggest a $400, a $300, & $200 budget

Advance thanks to the community

[Cpl Ledanek]

...couldn't wait till May, bought the MSI|R7870 TWIN FROZR 2GD5/OC R

Please advice/ link to a proper driver cleaner/sweeper (free preferably) and some bench markers (free also please)
advance thanks

[Zipelgas]

hope OP don't mind, but I'm looking for a birthday gift to myself

here's my current:
Win7Pro 32-bit/ ABIT IP35 Pro v1.1 BIOS v.16beta09/ Intel C2D E8400 Batch Q748A223 /Xigmatek HDT-RS1283/ 4GB Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5DHX 5-5-5-18 1.80V ver4.1/ CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W/ CM Stacker 830SE/ ZALMAN ZM-F3RL 120mm Red LED/120mm Yate Loon D12SL-12 Red LED/ Creative Labs Fatal1ty ProGamer/ Radeon HD 58501GB/ Dell UltraSharp 2407FPW-HC

I'm looking to upgrade my 5850 1GB for use with my single monitor
I play primarily BF3, Shift1-2, DiRT2-3...then may movies with DiRT2-3 replays with FRAPs (if possible in HD)
Please consider the CPU bottleneck (if any)

please suggest a $400, a $300, & $200 budget

Advance thanks to the community

I am no expert but i think a 7850 should fit ur machine spot on these things are really fast and quiet for the money.
Mine does 1160/6200 its pretty much on the 580 level =)

[Cpl Ledanek]

Mine does 1160/6200 its pretty much on the 580 level =)

I'm a n00b to this, but what does that mean?

I finally installed the MSI|R7870 (pictures to follow) into the Stacker and it had no problem swallowing it. So far, no games but a few DiRT3 benches, running on my CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W, and you can barely hear it over my case fans.

I ran a Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1 on the Jet Mission w/ BF3 and my CPU is all over the graph.

I wish I could record it with most current FRAPS, but it affects the graph heavily. Wish there is another BF3 benchmark that I can run and post.

[stepinrazor]

If you upgrade, I call dibs on the old card! I'm looking to upgrade myself ...from an 8800GT.

If your interested I'll sell you mine, I'm looking to upgrade.

I have Reference Diamond 6950HD with dual bios switch. Unlocked 1536 Shaders.

[tbone8ty]

...I feel so lost in the stone age with my 8800GT...

lol its ok, the more u wait the better things get! i hear ya ive been trying to get my friend to upgrade his 9800gtx/Athlon FX system so we can have a decent LAN session in newer games like BF3

[alpha0ne]

...I feel so lost in the stone age with my 8800GT...

The 8800GT was and still is a great card that can still play most games as long as the settings aren't maxed out and no more than 1080p but compared to whats available now....................my HD5870 seems old and tired

Got any spare rocks ?

oh and thanks for the comparisons F@32

[Darxide]

LOL @ 'old trusty' 6950.
Don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon.
I have a reference design (dual BIOS switch) Asus 6950 with unlocked shaders, and for the life of me can't see any reason to replace it.

[F@32]

oh and thanks for the comparisons F@32

You are welcome.

LOL @ 'old trusty' 6950.
Don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon.
I have a reference design (dual BIOS switch) Asus 6950 with unlocked shaders, and for the life of me can't see any reason to replace it.

Yep, I hear ya. 6950 2Gb can still crunch through most of the stuff easily. I might just keep it for now. I also have dual BIOS shader unlockable version. Haven't done unlocking for this card yet.

5/12/12 UPDATE: Added GTX 670 numbers to the mix. Fixed couple of wrong FPS numbers. Prices updated per 5/12 pricewatch quotes.

Peace

[Yoad]

Im not sure honestly, for 6950 there could still be good value in few months as well, and by then the 79xx's will be cheaper, but for 68xx, it's the best opprotunity to not to wait and upgrade it, as their value is decreasing rapidly, i've missed the train once with 1950xtx and kept it and when i've decided to upgrade it went down from 300$ to like 50$ and that if someone felt generous, too.

[akshayt]

It amazes me to see these comments on the website called "Xtreme Systems". Here's why it would make sense, even though normally hardware enthusiasts are not budget concious and tend to own the latest generation techs regardless of the cost.

I of course would not simply throw my 6950 into trash and shell out $350 for a new card. 6950 2Gb will sell for about $250 on ebay. So, I will spend $100 out of pocket for 30% increase in performance. Let's assume I will get a year out of the new card at a minimum, and let's split that $100 by 52 weeks in a year, shall we? That comes out to $1.92 a week. That's what, 1 small cup of coffee a week at the StarBucks?

Regards

This

[thegoatman]

That would require excellent timing and ebay skillz, but it'd probably be cheaper than making a big upgrade every 4-6 years.