For me to get the best frames, quality (AA, AF, ect), what card would be better, an ATI HD 7850 or an ATI 7570? I also play MW2\3 GTA IV on my PC, so I'd want the card that works all around best.

My question is, is the 7850 worth the jump from the 7570?

For CE? Not at all. For other Games? Absolutely. Unless you don't get good FPS in GTA/MW you shouldn't bother.
I'm using 2 cross-fired 7550's and I can play anything with 30+ fps on max and no drops.

In GTA IV, I get around 25 FPS on high or even medium settings. I DO want to play GTA IV at least at 30 consisten FPS, though 60 would be very nice.

I can't imagine the difference mattering in CE, but for other games... get an Nvidia card (or two).

So in GTA IV at max settings, I get around 7 - 10 FPS...

How would Nvidia be better? Do tell.

Is my 7570 equal to or better than your GTX 570? It doesn't help much to tell me that the 7850 is better than yours though.



Dat framerate :o

Max settings, but if I dumb it down to the minumum, it gets 60 all the time (probably more)
Edited by Jesse on Apr 11, 2013 at 05:46 PM

The 7850 is ultimately better, but will it exactly be more performance for the amount of money? They cost about 200 dollars, I'm buying one this weekend actually, but I'm jumping from a 5850 so I will most likely have alot better performance overall due to the previous cards age. From what it sounds like, the 7850 will probbaly be a big impact and help you alot like in GTA 4. So yes, its probably worth it, but not for Halo CE.
Edited by Higuy on Apr 11, 2013 at 05:40 PM

I edited my post just before you posted, but I quoted your post to tell you about my edit right after you edited your post, so now I am quoting your edited post. Brain teaser, eh?

EDIT: My system specs:
Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (9200.win8_gdr.130108-1504)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: h8-1534
BIOS: v8.10
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-6200 Six-Core Processor (6 CPUs), ~3.8GHz
Memory: 10240MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 10032MB RAM
---------------------------------------------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 7570
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x675D)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Type: Full Device
Display Memory: 6792 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2032 MB
Shared Memory: 4759 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: HP Pavilion 22bw IPS LED Backlit Monitor
Monitor Model: HP 22bw

I also want to enable AA for Halo CE, but anything higher than 2x gives me weird errors.
Edited by Jesse on Apr 11, 2013 at 05:44 PM

7850, overclock to 7870 speeds. Whatever you want to do with it. It's much better than my old PC's 5670 and my current 6850. You'd be able to play GTA 4 at constant frame rates. Enabling AA for Halo CE using Catalyst Control Center doesn't work because AA isn't supported by Halo CE when forced. That's why people use morphological filtering or FXAA. Personally I use SMAA, works better than FXAA in my opinion.
Edited by XlzQwerty1 on Apr 11, 2013 at 05:48 PM

@ QWERTY
How did you get that working? Are you fairly certain that it would get significantly better performance than my current 7570? I don't want to shell out 200$ for just 5 FPS more, lol.

@ The other guy
What are the rest of your system specs? I believe that the bottleneck on my system is the graphics card...


Video of the game on my PC with the lowest possible settings

http://www.xfire.com/video/5f1f44

It seems to manage fine.
Edited by Jesse on Apr 11, 2013 at 05:58 PM

Data disc transfer rate on yours is 7.3? Aren't pretty much all PCs using 7200 RPM HDDs (unless you use a SSD)

After looking at the specs, I think the 7850 should be far more powerful than the 7570.

You'd probably have at least 20fps higher. So if you've got 25fps at the moment, it might be worth it to move up to 45/50fps. The difference is pretty noticeable I believe.

However, if you're only playing oldish games like GTA 4 and Halo and (outdated) games like COD, it might not be worth it. Getting a modern card's usually only worth it if you're going to be playing either heavily moddable games or fresh new games. Though GTA is quite easily moddable I believe, I doubt you'll be playing for more than a couple of years. You can probably play it on tolerable settings for at least another year before you find a game that is worth buying a new PC for.(or have to upgrade due to the real next gen, hehe)

With my 6850, I'm getting average frames of 30-40 in GTA 4 with a few tweaks here and there, but definitely on 1680x1050, using 1.0.7.0 with most settings on high/max ('cept for dem lods, kept them at Xbox360/PS3 values).

GTA IV is a real pain. I have a GTX 580 and q9650 @ stock 3 ghz and some settings just don't play nice. Shadows if I remember correctly are the real killer. And water reflections. Play around with it a little, because you have a pretty good card that should be able to run it smoothly.

The game is a huge hog, if you're looking for the ideal setup to play it on absolute max settings I would recommend looking at a YouTube vid of someone showing it off and see what specs he lists in the description.

The GTX 570 should theoretically come close to the performance of a 7850, but the 7850 is more powerful.

I personally like Nvidia much better than ATI, but the 7850 is definitely a very good card.


I use 2 GTS 250s in SLI and I can run anything I want even though its a relatively old card. I run Crysis, Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed III, etc... at mid-high settings with perfect framerates.

Personally, I've always went for ATI/AMD cards as I never sought PhysX capabilities and have always felt that NVIDIA was a bit overpriced compared to AMD. Don't get me wrong though, Nvidia cards are also good and I'm not saying that Nvidia sucks. Just personal preferences. Anyways, yes Jesse, you should go for a 7850 over the 7570. The performance increase is substantial, probably more than a 2x performance increase.

If you plan on playing newer games along with Halo, go with the 7850
If you want to only play Halo and nothing else, 7570 is fine. The 7570 is comparable to my 5670 and I have to say that upgrading from the 5670 to the 6850 made a huge difference for my Skyrim frame rates on maximum visual settings.

I'm probably planning to upgrade to a 7000's series card or waiting for the 8000's series to come out during autumn this year.

Mhm. The shadows are the killer for my PC. at low settings, I easily manage 30 FPS, but the shadows look like CE.

How do you know what the xbox values are for GTA IV?

Also, how is Mw3 outdated, the game engine?
Edited by Jesse on Apr 11, 2013 at 10:11 PM

If you really want a genuine halo experience, you need a Ypbpr/Composite 480i downscale filter on a cathode ray tube display.

PhysX is overrated imo, it was a cool idea... but it just seems to be a performance hog. But the price thing can go both ways really, it just depends on the specific card.

For example, getting a second GTS 250 to run SLI the one that I already had cost me $20. With those two ~4 year old cards in SLI I am playing modern games at mid-high settings. I would say that is pretty cheap (and great bang for my buck).

Well, I'm talking about the latest cards out every year. I don't really like microstutter through SLI and Crossfire; it also consumes a lot more power with two cards.

I gets about 45 - 60 fps on MW2 with max settings, and about 45- 60 fps on almost max settings in MW3 (but max settings gives me around 30 fps.)

EDIT: turns out that GTA IV seems to be a bad port, and not the best game to judge your system by.

Also Thorolf, did you have max detail and distance rendering? What about shadows, those are the ones that really murder my FPS.
Edited by Jesse on Apr 12, 2013 at 02:38 AM

I'll be sure to give those a try. If not, I may have to spring for that 7850 or whatever. Aren't there also different manufacturers that make the cards? Which manufacturer would be best? I know a 7850 from GIGABYTE wouldn't necessarily be the same as whatever other manufacturer is out there.

I'll post some of my system specs with pritty pictures tomorrow. I want to make an informed decision before buying anything.

Mirror's Edge and Borderlands 2 PhysX looks insane. The amount of particles on screen (especially in borderlands 2) blew my mind. Then again, I can't talk about performance issues, I have a fairly high end card, but wasn't the whole purpose of PhysX that it had its own dedicated physics processor? So it shouldn't bog down FPS?

The best brands are usually Asus and MSI. Both have the best cooling for mid-end cards like the 7850 and usually at the best price.

However, the cooling doesn't really need to be that good so if any of the other brands of the 7850 are on sale, I'd say go for it unless there are any reports of major issues.

here is a great card, its what im putting in my next build
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2941929&CatId=7387

or you could wait a lot longer and buy this
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5311995&CatId=7387

I admit, Mirror's Edge was quite impressive with PhsyX. As for Borderlands... I assume you are talking about Borderlands 2 in which case I wouldn't know because I haven't got that one yet.

PhysX *can* have its own dedicated card, but it doesn't have to. What card/cards do you use?

Does anyone know how using two graphics cards at the same time works? Would it be double the framerate? Can the cards be different, or do they have to be the same?

Don't forget about the amount of power consumption that is increased when you have two cards instead of a single higher tier card vs a lower level one. And also the possibility of microstuttering persists.

I'd go for one card.

A single card solution would be cheaper and more stable. SLI and Crossfire (depending how you're going to use them) are either a) gimmicks or b) projects for enthusiasts. As far as I know (for SLI, anyway), both cards have to be the same model with the same specs (ex: gtx 580 1.5 GB - you can't combine a two cards with different VRAM values, afaik) but don't need to be the from the same manufacturer (ex: eVGA or ASUS).

It all depends on the game. Some games are optimized for SLI/Crossfire. Other's aren't. Other games are broken by setups like this.

Think about how much time you want to spend setting it up and troubleshooting. Like I said, a single-card solution will give you extremely good results for cheaper. The benefits of dual-card setups are reliant on the game and other specs in your system (PSU, CPU).

My advice: go single-card.

I have 2. Crossfired. Framerate is much higher, They have to be the same generation (at least for ati) but I'm pretty sure they can be different model gpu's.

The temperatures don't really change on high loads.

Edited by Banshee64 on Apr 18, 2013 at 09:27 PM

Powered by a Corsair GS700
Edited by Banshee64 on Apr 18, 2013 at 09:27 PM

More Power/Energy = More Heat

It all depends on the size of the computer and the air flow you provide.

You can have millions of fans blowing in your computer, but airflow is the most important. The cooler air will become hot air, and it will need a place to escape.

Have a fan that directs air in, and another fan that directs air out. So if you have two fans to direct air in, and two fans to directs air out, you will have greater air flow.

Also, air flow will help with dust management if setup correctly.

Also Also, chasis size is important because you wouldn't want heat to be condensed into a smaller area depending on how much power you're running.

Yes, GPU cards these days have their own cooling mechanism, but that cool air becomes hot air within the computer, and it ultimately needs to escape.
Edited by InsaneNapkin on Apr 18, 2013 at 10:13 PM

my framerate is maximum

I swear, I once opened my cousins computer and that thing was caked with dust. It was ALL gray, you couldn't even see any green from the motherboard, black from the fan, or see through the grille of the fan blowing into the PC. It was lulzy, but the computer still ran quick