PSU and 7850?

T

thrall

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Dec 12, 2009
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I'm currently looking at a 7850 1gb for $179 on newegg, it fits my needs at the current moment, but i am wondering will an Antec VP450W be enough for it? I'm also thinking of upgrading from a G860 to an Intel core i5 3350p which only draws 4W more.

Would it hurt it any to run on that psu? I dont mind to get the card and upgrade then get the i5 later if so. I'm just too impatient xD. I know TomsHardware had a G850 paired with a 560 ti with the same PSU.

current specs
Intel G860 3.0
4gigs ram
500GB
ati 7750
3 fans
antec VP450W 80% dual rails.
 
The 7850 is actually not too terribly power-hungry so even with the CPU upgrade in mind, you'll be just fine. :>

If I'm going to be totally honest, you could actually run the next step up and power a 7870 on that setup... even paired with the new processor you've got in mind. a 7870 would be a massively better deal than a 7850 -- if you can afford it. Something to consider IMO.

It depends on what kind of resolution you're running at and what kind of games you frequent, but the 7850 is a far ways behind the 7870 in terms of both VRAM and power. If you're not playing anything too terribly intensive or are gaming on resolutions below 1920x1080 then you won't need the extra graphical processing power, but for $25-$50 (depending on what specific model and brand of 7850 you were eyeing), the 7870 is one of the best budget cards on the market right now IMHO.

Something like this will flawlessly run most modern games at ultra @ 1080p without sweating: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131487
 
You know, I have been eyeing the 7870/GTX660 for a while, i will need another psu for the 7870 tho since it needs 2 6pin connectors.( I can wait and save up a bit more and get it all together). My max resolution is only 1600x900, I do play some graphic intensive games or plan to. Right now the only one i play is Far Cry 3. But I do plan to get BF3, Metro 2033 etc.
I know the 7870 is far better but i felt giving my resoultion and having no idea if ill upgrade since im happy with it currently, I figured 7850 was just perfect.

But the $40 difference between a 7850 and 7870 does make it tempting haha

Also my case is a Rosewill Challenger with a microatx motherboard so id have to get a card around 8-9 inches.
 
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Tbh, I would suggest upgrading the psu by getting at least a 550w psu before even suggesting upgrading the video card. I mean you got a pretty good video card right off the bat. If anything, wait for the new 8 series cards to come out, that way the higher end 7 series will be pushed down in price because of that.

Need to say 1 other thing. I just searched up your psu & it only has a 2 year warranty. Depending upon how long youve had it will depend on how much longer you can push the limits before needing to get a new 1. I highly recommend looking into something in the future that has as close to 5 year warranty as possible. Antec, Corsair, XFX, etc each make psu's w/ 5 year warranties and rather affordable at that rate. I just happened to get my Corsair when it was on sale.
 
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Well I have a 620W PSU its powering a SSD, HDD, Amd 955 and a 7870

Seems to do fine nothing bad has happen yet! Honstley get the 7870 such a good card this the one I got MSI HAWK 7870 built good never gets hot idles at 25c even thou its DISCONTINUED im sure you can find it
 
Well at most with a intel 3960X and 7870 itll only draw at most 286W or so.

Is my current CPU fine? I understand a quad is better, especially for games like metro 2033, BF3(online) Far Cry 3 are a few. But in general will it be ok to pair the G860 with 7870 or 660?

Because right now GTX 660 has dropped to $199 by zotac and 7870 is $219, 78501gb is $179. Im leaning more towars ati since it comes with Tomb Raider and Bioshock.
 
You would probably see bottlenecking pairing the 7870 with the G860. And Intel blows AMD out of the water for gaming, due to how the die works. Games only use up to 4 cores right now, Crysis 3 may use more, I have not checked, but for gaming, more than 4 cores is pointless, and Intel's die works better than AMD's. Same as ATI vs NVIDIA. But all in all, it mainly depends on the drivers. I personally always prefer Intel/NVIDIA over AMD/ATI.
 
fetterEsel said:
You would probably see bottlenecking pairing the 7870 with the G860. And Intel blows AMD out of the water for gaming, due to how the die works. Games only use up to 4 cores right now, Crysis 3 may use more, I have not checked, but for gaming, more than 4 cores is pointless, and Intel's die works better than AMD's. Same as ATI vs NVIDIA. But all in all, it mainly depends on the drivers. I personally always prefer Intel/NVIDIA over AMD/ATI.
Click to expand...

Don't let fan boys ruin your view on having a ATI/AMD card with a Intel CPU... It's all on your view on it not others. I have had Intel and AMD Nvidia and ATI
 
WitchPuncher said:
Don't let fan boys ruin your view on having a ATI/AMD card with a Intel CPU... It's all on your view on it not others. I have had Intel and AMD Nvidia and ATI
Click to expand...

That reminds me of when AMD bought ATI for, I think it was $2 Billion USD. It was such a weird buy to me because at that time, the best performance pairings were usually AMD/nVidia and Intel/ATI. Athlon64 + Geforce versus Pentium 4 + Radeon. My how time has changed.
 
Ha I know not to let fanboys ruin my view. I know both sides have issues and performance differs in certain games etc. Idk if i can hold out till 8000 series. These prices make it hard to choose xD
 
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