Which Video Card is Better?

[Ace_of_Bacardi]

Hi,

I have a video card question, I know a little about everything and everything about nothing so bash Me if You must but here is my question:

I RMA'ed my video card which was:

XFX Radeon HD 4890

and I havent received it back yet but I see on the return label for tracking it states it as:

XFX FX777AZNF4 HD 7770

both cards are very similar, however, I am not sure which card is actually better. I researched them both and they both have ups and downs. The problem lies in mainly that I dont know exactly what is the most important stat(s) to compare when comparing video cards.

Any help?

 

[Supertrucker]

In the vast majority of newer games, the 7770 is going to be a bit faster, while consuming half the power. The only way getting a 7770 back from a 4890 would be a bad trade, is if you had crossfired 4890s.

 

[Ace_of_Bacardi]

Nope just a single GPU, thanks for the input.

What are the best stats to look at when comparing video cards? That's the main problem I have. I don't know what to look at/compare with.

 

[Supertrucker]

Well, between two cards of the same family, for example the 4890 was the same family as the 4870 and 4850, core speed, memory speed, memory bus, and shader count are what you want to look at. But when you have two cards of such different generations like the 7770 and 4890 your best bet is to find a gaming review that has both cards (or at least something similar) to get a general idea of performance.

 

[Ace_of_Bacardi]

Ok awesome TY, so out of:

core speed
memory speed
memory bus
shader count

In which order of importance are these ranked?

 

[Supertrucker]

Well, core speed and shader count are linked for raw gpu performance. One is meaningless without the other. Its why the 7870 can have a higher base clock speed than the 7950 but still be slower, it has less shaders.

Memory bandwidth comes from speed and buswidth, again one is meaningless without the other.

Typically, outside of the very low end cards, you wont need to worry about memory for single gpu setups, they are balanced pretty well. Its when you get to 2-4 cards (and higher resolution) it becomes important. Take the nvidia 660 ti, its essentially a 670 with a crippled memory bus (192 bit instead of 256) it performs great at 1920x1080, but if you sli a pair of them for 5760x1080 you will run into performance issues because of the lack of memory bandwidth even though you have enough raw gpu horsepower.

 

[Ace_of_Bacardi]

I think I am starting to understand how this works. Would it be a smart idea to use 1 card with a higher clock speed and 1 card with a higher memory bandwidth as opposed to two of the same cards?

Thanks Again SuperTrucker for helping me understand this without trying to sound superior.

 

[Supertrucker]

No, if you use two cards you want them to match so you can use sli or crossfire. It just comes down to knowing what resolution you plan to game at and choosing the right hardware to do the job. And the choice usually boils down to how much you are willing to spend. And if you are ever in need of help deciding, when you make a post the key information would be to say I have xxx processor and game at xx by xx resolution and I'm looking to spend $xxx.

Like in the current market, if you are looking to spend around 200$ the hands down winner imo is the 7950. But if you want the best single gpu performance, which is always more reliable than dual card/dual gpu solutions, you are currently looking at an nvidia 780 or titan. Though if you are only gaming I don't think the titan is worth the premium.

In a couple of weeks that answer might change when new amd cards hit the market. The 290x might wreck the 780, it might trade blows with it, or it might be as underwhelming as bulldozer was at launch. The answer is always changing.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I would pick the 7770 over the 4890 just because it's newer, uses far less power and probably quieter too. It'll do everything the 4890 did and probably in newer DX-11 games do better.

I miss my 4890 though. It was one beastly card.

 

[Supertrucker]

Yeah I ran a 4890 for a long time, and when I was done with it it went into a friends computer. He still uses it to play games like SIM city. They really were great cards for their day.

 

[Ace_of_Bacardi]

Besides having to RMA it twice, I agree my 4890 handled everything I threw at it which is one of the main reasons I was worried that they were shipping me an inferior product. The newest game I played on it before it finally died was BF3. I also played a good amount of RoF (Rise of Flight) and several other games as well. I already miss it, I hope this new card doesn't disappoint. <crosses fingers>

I preordered BF4 I hope to hell my new GPU gets here. As an update though it was suppose to be here Friday but my tracking said there was a delay. I called and was told the UPS train had derailed. Yep You heard that right lol.

 

[Supertrucker]

I can't find any performance numbers for rise of flight but it looks like it will play battlefield well enough on high settings with little or no aa at 1920x1080.

 

[Ace_of_Bacardi]

TY!

I couldn't find the specs for Battlefield either which was my biggest concern. Rise of Flight is definitely playable, was only BF4 that I had the question with.

I didn't expect You to go out of Your way to look that up but I am thankful that You did. I looked around and couldn't find any specs for BF4 so I just was basing my thoughts on what BF3 was figuring BF4 on low would be about equivalent to BF3 on Ultra.

Again thanks a lot for the support. Do You game at all? Origin/Steam?

 

[Supertrucker]

Well I'm assuming it will only be slightly more intense than bf3 once its optimised and released. And a 7770 review I read said it got 45fps average at 1920x1080 high preset with no anti aliasing in bf3, so I'd expect it to do somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 at similar settings in bf4. Its all guesswork until it comes out of course.

I do game, haven't any idea what my origin id is but on steam I think I'm supertrucker460.