New graphics card

[narasimhan1990]

Hi guys. I am back after a long time. I ran into problem with my graphic card(hd 4870). My PC takes long time to boot with graphics card inserted and even before I could enter windows it has BSOD. Without the graphics card the PC boots and works fine without any BSODs. So the problem is most probably due to the card. Since it is out of warranty I am planning to buy a new card for my rig(below)
Processor: amd phenom quad 940BE
motherboard: BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GXB
Ram: Transcend 4GB ddr2 800mhz
Graphics card: Powercolor hd 4870 1GB(Dying/dead)
harddisk:Seagate barracuda 1TB and Western digital green 640GB
smps: Corsair VX450

I have my eyes on Sapphire HD 7850 2GB OCd edition. So my questions are
1. Will Corsair vx450 be enough to power it. I guess the Corsair VX450 will be able to power it since it has even lesser consumption than the HD4870.
2. Will my processor, ram bottleneck. I can add additional 4GB ddr2 ram if that helps. But I hope my processor does not bottleneck cause then I'd have to change proc,mobo and ram(which is technically a new rig)
3. Any other better card at the same/lower price

 

[rajan1311]

how much you getting the HD 7850 for? I think there is a 1GB version on sale for Rs13,000. But then I saw the GTX 660 2GB for 14k on prime, so thats a better deal than the 7850 imo...but IIRC, VX450 has just 1 6pin power connector right?

 

[Cilus]

Sapphire 7850 2GB model is available at MD Computer, Kolkata @ 13.2K. Check their website mdcomputers.in. Regarding power consumption, 7850 consumes lesser power than HD 6850 can be operated safely with VX450 unless you're planning for very high overclocking, both in CPU and GPU front. You can get another 6 pin connector from your PSU by using Molex to 6 Pin converter which normally comes with the GPU package.

 

[narasimhan1990]

I already have 2 6-pin connectors( my old 4870 needs 2 6-pin connectors so I converted a molex to a 6-pin connector). The HD7850 2 GB OC model is priced 16k in flipkart. After your comments it seems mdcomputers.in has an gigabyte HD7850 2GB oc version for 13.2k GIGABYTE GRAPHIC CARD RADEON HD 7850 2GB DDR5 OC.

While the gtx660 2GB oc costs 14k GIGABYTE GRAPHIC CARD GTX 660 2GB DDR5 OC

The gtx660ti 2GB costs 19k so I guess we can rule that out.
Is gtx660 better than 7850 given that I have a AMD CPU?

And what about my 2nd question

2. Will my processor, ram bottleneck? I can add additional 4GB ddr2 ram if that helps. But I hope my processor does not bottleneck cause then I'd have to change proc,mobo and ram(which is technically a new rig)

 

[Cilus]

It is not like that AMD cards work better with AMD CPU. Nvidia Cards will work just fine with AMD CPU.
Gaming performance wise, GTX 660 is slightly better than HD 7850 in most of the cases, provided you are not using high Anti aliasing and Anisotrophic filtering. In that case 660 gets bottlenecked due to its shorter 192 bit Memory bus compared to full 256 bus of Radeon 7850. But in Computing performance or GP-GPU computing, HD 7850 is miles ahead of GTX 660 as all the 600 series cards suffer from very poor compute performance.
ANother thing, with every major driver updates, AMD is bringing some noticeable performance improvement in gaming. With the latest 12.11 beta Driver HD 7800 series has 7% to 11% performance improvement over the 12.10 driver. Now actually 7850 is almost equivalent to GTX 660 in gaming performance in most of the titles.

 

[narasimhan1990]

So your post leans me towards "gigabyte HD7850 2GB oc version for 13.2k". My sole purpose is gaming(at 1080p with almost all settings high if possible). I do have Anti aliasing x8 and Anisotrophic filtering x2(0r x4) for most games. Since probably the latest AMD driver has made the two cards at par(as per your comment), I'll stick with HD7850 for its lesser price. And I have not yet got an answer for my question 2.
2. Will my processor, ram bottleneck. I can add additional 4GB ddr2 ram if that helps. But I hope my processor does not bottleneck cause then I'd have to change proc,mobo and ram(which is technically a new rig)

And here is one more question
Can I go with gigabyte? Are there any known problems with gigabyte HD7850? (it seems to have the lowest price. All other 7850s are 16-18k)

 

[Cilus]

Phenom II 940BE is a very capable processor but I suggest you to overclock a little, like 3.2 to 3.4 GHz. You can do that with the stock AMD cooler. 4 GB is enough for all the games n I don't think you need to upgrade the Ram right now. One thing, try to use 16X Anisotrophic filtering, they are not that heavy on GPU.

 

[narasimhan1990]

Ok thanks. Ya. I'll try and overclock processor a bit. I've not overclocked yet but have read a lot of guides long back when I got this rig. But I guess before buying new card I'll overclock and check if the rest of the rig is ready/stable and healthy for the next couple of years

 

[Cilus]

Since your Processor is a Black Edition CPU, you can very easily overclock it by just increasing the Multiplier. For 400 MHz overclock, I don't think you need to increase voltage or Core clock speed of the system.

 

[narasimhan1990]

After reading this thread I found one question unanswered
"Can I go with gigabyte? Are there any known problems with gigabyte HD7850? (It seems to have the lowest price. All other 7850s are 16-18k)"

 

[The Incinerator]

You can very safely buy the Gigabyte card,it is a well made card.