Gigabyte vs. Sapphire HD 7850 2 GB

[sberganini]

This is my first post, so I apologize in advance if this is an old question. I plan to buy either a Gigabyte or Sapphire HD 7850 2 GB graphics card. I'm leaning toward the non-overclocked Sapphire because it is currently $239 on Amazon.com and this card has lots of over-clock headroom (so why pay a bonus to the manufacturer for overclocking?). I've read most of the reviews for both cards at the various online hardware testing sites. However, I'm wondering if there might be other considerations I haven't thought about besides price and testing results. I'd appreciate any insight.

Also, there is a lot of discussion online about GeForce/Radeon cards competing for market share and, while the Radeon cards may currently be ahead due to earlier releases of 28nm architecture and lower heat & power consumption, the new GeForce cards are coming into the marketplace about now with much improved availability and this will cause some sharp declines in Radeon prices throughout the remainder of the summer. What are your thoughts on the likelihood that I'll see a significant price drop in either the Gigabyte or Sapphire HD 7850 in the next 30 - 60days? Thanks.

 

[Knufire]

AMD just dropped the prices of 7870+, so it might be a while before we see another round of price drops.

It's basically like this. Both Radeon 7xxx and GTX6xx cards are much improved over previous generations. The GTX6xx cards beat the Radeon 7xxx cards in almost every spec, but the only ones out right now are the 3 highest end ones. Since NVIDIA hasn't released midrange cards yet, there's almost no competition there for AMD. Logically, the introduction of midrange 6xx cards will result in price drops on AMD or just getting the theoretically better GTX, but I haven't seen any solid info as to when they're coming out.

In the computer world, you can always wait for the next great thing. I say just get the 7850 now. It's a great card.

 

[sberganini]

Thanks, I appreciate the insight. Also, I realize now that I should have posted to the Video Card forum rather than the general hardware forum. Live and learn!