Xithemonas Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 (edited) I am certain that somewhere on this site this question has been answered but I didn't find an answer based on a cursory search so I will, at the risk of being redundant ask it again ( or maybe for the first time). I am going to upgrade my video card from a Radeon hd 5570 with 1mb ddr3 memory to another Radeon with a little more under the hood. I have decided to stay with the Radeon line because I really like that they tend to draw less power and run cooler and are less expensive than the nVidias, in my experience (and no, I am not an ATI 'fanboy'). I was at first drawn to the xfx hd7850 2gb gddr5 card, which would be a great improvement over my current card, but then I found that the hd7850 1gb ddr5 card could be safely overclocked to a point where it will out-perform the 2gb ddr5. I am hoping that someone who has experience with the HD 7850 1gb ddr5 card can either validate that I have made a good choice or suggest something better in the same price range ( currently I have seen them for $179.00). I just don't want to put out a chunk of change for marginal performance improvements. Thanks! My System Specs: AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.6MhzMSI Motherboard16GB DDR3 memoryCorsair 128GB SSDWindows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Edited September 24, 2012 by Xithemonas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hangarspace Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Overclocking results can't be guaranteed, each individual card will vary on how much it can be overclocked and how it performs as a result, you may also run into power and heating/cooling issues. If you are going to upgrade your card, then I would strongly advise you to look at increasing the amount of video ram to 2GB as this will improve performance when using large HD texture packs, something which overclocking doesn't really resolve in the same way. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gawin Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I don't know about the 1GB card. But I have a Sapphire HD 7850 2GB GDDR5 without overclocking and I run Skyrim at 1920x1080 with the highest settings; except for shadows, which I use high; and no AA and Anistrotopic Filtering since I personally can't tell the difference with or without. I also use ENB and I get almost always 60 fps without much performance issues. The game would run at 45-60fps with the x16 AA and AF IIRC. So it should be more than enough to run Skyrim. :smile: With that said I am only a novice PC builder so someone else might be able to give you better advice on whether your specs are suitable for the card. Might want to post your specs on mobo and psu in case you run into power issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frein Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 (edited) I definitely agree with hangarspace. You should go with at least 2GB memory if you want to ensure smooth gameplay while using large textures. Also, I believe there are now 7850s with GDDR3 memory for sale, so make sure you don't buy those pieces of junk. If heat/power draw is a significant factor for you and you're looking to upgrade to the GTX 660 Ti price range, I'd probably go with that one instead of an ATI card because the new Kepler cards (such as 660 Ti) are much more efficient. I personally run a 7950 and it overclocks like a beast, but even with a pretty decent Gigabyte cooler the heat can make it run quite loudly. If I disable power tune I can make the power draw so ridiculously high my PSU of high quality but relatively modest output actually isn't enough. In Skyrim if I max out all the graphics settings, including the view distance settings, and use a heavy ENB profile, I don't always get a solid frame rate even with my rather powerful rig, so don't expect a 7850 to necessarily crush the game. Edited September 26, 2012 by Frein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProjectVRD Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 I have the 7970 and it is hard to crush the framerate, with a plethora of graphics and immersion mods, ENB etc the game runs very smoothly. But it is an expensive card and requires a good power unit. I use the following mods that I can remember off the top of my head: Bethesda's HD packSkyrim HD 2KImproved NPC ClothingBella Better FemalesApachi Sky HairENBClaralaxSerious HD RetextureGlorious GrassLush GrassLush Trees Enhanced Night Skyrim WATEREnhanced Distant TerrainRealistic Smoke and EmbersHigh Quality EyesBetter Dynamic SnowLively Inns and Taverns SIM NPC Immersion Even during battle the card can handle it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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