a pair of 570's or a pair of 7850's or what?

[Niku-Sama]

ok so some one i know has found out i know something about computers and has been asking me about video cards.

first off theres no specs yet, this is a planned bulid, hes got a 700 watt PSU and a roswill thor case so far, no real substance yet he says hes looking at an 1155 socketd motherboard made by ECS, i think its this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135305

he says he wants to get 2 570's which are $250 on the low end, $280 average i was thinking 2 7850's at $220 on the low end (after MIR on that) $250 average it would be a little bit more bang for a little bit less buck.

thinking here the 7850 has 2 gigs of ram at 4800Mhz but only a 256bit bus as opposed to the 570's 1.2gigs at 3600Mhz but with a 384bit bus.

side by side theres not much difference but the 570 is supposed to be higher end last generation and the 7850 is upper lower middle class current generation. plus you know.....power usage.

any way i just noticed 7870's are down to $300, glad i didnt pay full price for mine but adding a seccond is looking like an option.

what do you guys think?

if the videocards change i did tell him a different motherboard mght be in order, i dont know much about intel stuff any more. 775 is the newest i have used

 

[gigabit]

7850's are a tad faster i believe.I know the 7870's are faster but cost about the same as a 7950 which is faster than all them

 

[Mjolnir]

Out of the box 570's are faster. But place into account the lower power consumption of the HD 7850; the 2GB VRAM; and the fact they OC very well.. They're the better choice IMO.

Why that board? Save some money and grab an Asrock Extreme 4 Z77 or GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H

What 700W PSU are we talking about here...

Any particular reason he needs 2? For 1080p; sounds silly to me. When for the price of two of those; he could save money and get a single GTX 670 instead; which obliterates anything at 1080p... If he's going multi-screen; fine; its' warranted; in which case the HD 7850 is still the better option for the extra VRAM.

 

[Dakyris]

There's a 3gb version of the 570, didn't check the price recently but I think it was pretty much the same. It might be insteresting to know what he plans on doing with that because there may be more reasons to go with NVidia or AMD (CUDA, games that favor nvidia or amd, bitcoin mining, etc.)

 

[EarthDog]

7850's are as fast as 570's. 7870's are as fast as 580's. 7950 spanks them all. The cheapest 7950 on Newegg runs $350, while the cheapest 7870 runs $310($299 with MIR).

LOL @ "upper lower middle class" WTH?

Anyway, now that the facts are straight... One thing I didnt see mentioned or asked what what resolution is your friend on? If its 1920x1080, A single 7870 will charge through games at full tilt (Even BF3). Personally, when I build PC's for people that dont know much about computers, I try to K.I.S.S. Going SLI/CrossfireX is not keeping it simple.

 

[Niku-Sama]

because we dont have the bottom end spectrum of the 7 series yet

i dont know why that mobo, and its a corsair PSU but i dont know the exact model. its modular i know that for sure.

i have the twin frozor III 7870 and its pretty kick *** (for $275) but its hard to compare with out knowing any one with a 570

 

[Knufire]

Benchmarks?
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-570-review/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-570-gf110-performance,2806.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_570/
-----------------------------------------------------
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-radeon-hd-7850-and-7870-review/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/


Same three websites (so you know testing methods are the same), reviews of the 7850, 7870, and 570. That should give you a pretty good indication of the performance differences between the two.

 

[Niku-Sama]

ok i'll send him that info. at the rate its going there should be a price drop again or something new comming out, nvidia seems to be lacking in affordable 6 series upper lower middle class stuff so far

 

[wingman99]

+1 i would not SLI or Crossfire for a friend.

 

[Niku-Sama]

its his wanting to do. i never brought it up i'm just thinking he could save a bit and be more current at the same time

 

[Mjolnir]

Single GTX 670. Kgo.

 

[xander89]

+1 for the previous comments.

Yep stay away from SLi unless you are doing it for yourself. Getting two subpar cards and SLIing them for a minimal gain isnt worth it. You'll just be ramping up your energy bill . The 670 will be ample to run any game maxed out @ 1080 . You can pick up a 670 for dirt cheap too. I would suggest going with a 670 with a 680 pcb ( either the giga windforce, EVGA FTW or Asus DCUII) With a decent oc youll be surpassing 680 stock speeds with ease.

 

[txus.palacios]

For a new build, always take a powerful mono GPU instead of any multi GPU solution (whether it's a GeForce x90 or a Crossfire of 7850s).

Then, you can get another powerful mono GPU like the one you have, when you feel like you need to upgrarde, and run a multi GPU solution easily. Or sell the GPU and get another one. It's harder to sell a couple of low/mid range multi GPU array than it is to sell a "flagshipish" mono GPU.

 

[xander89]

For a new build, always take a powerful mono GPU instead of any multi GPU solution (whether it's a GeForce x90 or a Crossfire of 7850s).

Then, you can get another powerful mono GPU like the one you have, when you feel like you need to upgrarde, and run a multi GPU solution easily. Or sell the GPU and get another one. It's harder to sell a couple of low/mid range multi GPU array than it is to sell a "flagshipish" mono GPU.

+1 sold my gtx 480 SOC for £200 a year after i had bought it for £250 and then grabbed a gigabyte gtx 670 windforce £340. £140 for an upgrade to possibly the second best single gpu solution! bargain!

 

[Niku-Sama]

reselling isnt an issue these probably wont be resold ever.
i've tried telling him to check and see how one would work and add another later but hes stuck on it so i'm just looking for a better pair

 

[Mjolnir]

Why does he want 2 cards... Just cos? To say 'yeahhhh I've got two cards in my system'. I'd be more impressed with him saying he has a GTX 670 over 2 mid-end cards.

"Wont be resold ever". Pretty sure at some point they'll be sold.. Computers age pretty quickly.. Just saying.

 

[xander89]

again, no offence to you mate but he is being rather pig headed if he just wants sli/crossfire to maximise his computer penis. If he actually wants to go SLi tell him to get a single 670 wait a month or two then whack a second 670 in. That card is by far the best bang for your buck at the moment!!! to get two mid end cards for the sake of just having it just shows his lack of knowlage on the subject. Slap him upside the head like so....



Then tell him whats what. He should listen to you/people on this forum as we have ALOT more knowlage on it. Not to be arrogant but hes just wasting cash at the moment and limiting his choices later down the line. Or just get two 670's to start with

 

[txus.palacios]

It isn't my rig, so I don't care what he chooses.

Just, that I'd go 670 against a pair of 7850s any day.

 

[xander89]

also not to mention he will have a lot more potential issues with xfire/ sli, maybe even micro stutter etc etc. I dont see the need for sli graphics cards when you have enough to buy a high end card. Fair enough if you were going for a top of the line one and going sli 670's or something. But sli two mid range cards when you can get a high end one. Silly silly man

 

[txus.palacios]

also not to mention he will have a lot more potential issues with xfire/ sli, maybe even micro stutter etc etc. I dont see the need for sli graphics cards when you have enough to buy a high end card. Fair enough if you were going for a top of the line one and going sli 670's or something. But sli two mid range cards when you can get a high end one. Silly silly man

Yup. Sometimes, all of a sudden, one of my GPUs disappear.

I do then have to uninstall the device, restart my computer without the SLi bridge so that both get recognised, shut down, reinstall the bridge, and enable SLi again.