Systeminfo
Windows 7 64bit
case: Antec P150
cpu: CORE2 DUO E8500 3.16GHz
gpu: 512 MB RADEON HD 4850
ram: OCZ 2x2 GB DDR2 PC2-8500/1066 MHz
psu: Antec Neo HE 430 Watt (I also have a Seasonic S12-430w, Rev. 1a, but apperently it has lower amperage on 12v)
ssd: Samsung 830 Series MZ-7PC256N
motherboard: ASUS P5Q PRO


Hi, long time user on spcr. I've been in the FireFall beta for a while, and getting increasingly annoyed with not being able to get a stable 60fps. Apparently my 512 MB RADEON HD 4850 is below the minimum requirements, (and it's an insane power/heat hog regardless) so I started looking around for replacement. I had my sights on an nVidia gpu but it seems their good lowpower/lowheat/lownoise start at gtx660-680? and that's too expensive. I then looked at gtx560 which seemed interesting until I saw http://tpucdn.com/reviews/XFX/HD_7770_B ... t_1920.gif


and it seems the Radeon 7770 blows it out of the water performace/watt wise probably due to 28nm?

And HD 7770 are also quite cheap in Denmark: http://www.edbpriser.dk/hardware/grafik ... %A7&qt=Fql
50% cheaper than gtx560ti.

My question is whether HD 7770 would be a good upgrade or if there are any better upgrades?

I don't really care "too" much about load noise, since I wear headphones while gaming. It's more about idle noise. And power usage, and performance ofc.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and even more thanks if you choose to help me figure out my upgrade

I don't know anything about that game and whenever a single game is of special interest I'd read up on others experiences with it. But in general the HD7770 is certainly a very good option and as you say the performance per watt is much better than your current card(had one myself, but the 1GB version). Overall gaming performance isn't necessarily that much higher though unless you hit that 512MB graphics memory ceiling. A HD7850 would be a much higher step performancewise and not a bad choice even if it draws a bit more power. A HD7850 would also be a bit more "future proof" with its higher overall performance and 2GB of graphics memory. I'm quite happy with my 1GB HD5850 which performs similarly to a HD7770, but can certainly push the settings beyond that 1GB limit in games with the hottest graphics of today.

You could run GPU-Z in the background and see how much graphics memory your current game settings require, and dial it down until it gets below 512MB with some margin(some areas of a game may be more demanding than others).

The fun thing about games in beta - seldom have any benchmarks for comparison. So, you have to take matters in your own hands and build a baseline to see if it's CPU limited, GPU limited, VRAM limited, etc...

As mkk suggested run gpu-z and see how the vram is being allocated. It could be the 512MB RAM or it might not be...Also, download FRAPS to capture a log of your frame rates as you play the game. Finally, and boy this is a lot easier if you have 2 monitors, run windows task manager performance tab while playing the game and see how much your CPU cores are being loaded.

Once you have a baseline, we can estimate the bump you'd see in fps by moving to a current generation $100, $200, or $300 video card. Gut feeling, is if you want decent fps @ 1920 x 1200 and any level of bling turned on, the 7770 may be marginal.

I'm currently playing the game at 1364x768 at ultra-low settings with everything at low or off setting.

My cpu cores are getting loaded ~50-60% on cpu1 and ~35-50% on cpu2.
My gpu memory is 439mb dedicated and 75mb dynamic. I assume that would be higher if i didn't play in low resolution with ultra-low settings

Sorry for bump ;=

I took your advice to heart and have decided to get a 7850.

Below are the 27 choices in my region of the world. It seems there's no difference between the 1gb and the 2gb versions until you get into the 2048x1536 and above resolutions, which I wont be doing.
I've read some reviews of the cheapest on the list Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen (1 GB) and all the tests said the noise was "fine" which is quite subjective. Any experiences with this particular brand or any of the others available?

http://www.edbpriser.dk/hardware/grafik ... %A7&qt=Fql

Thanks for your help in advance

I've been tracking HD 7850 reviews here. I like the MSI Power Edition with Twin Frozr IV. Yeah, you don't need 2GB unless you have higher resolution or have 3 monitors running the game. But, some mfgrs are also reducing the cooling along with the 1GB RAM reduction...which means a louder card.

Note: Nvidia GTX 660 is due out on Thursday....and possibly the GTX 650. The 660 is expected to be in the $240 range...that implies the 650 will be sub-$200. So, you might wait a week and see if the answer changes.

Thanks for the heads-up regarding new gtx's. I would prefer having an nvidia card since the catalyst drivers are weird. Half the resolutions are only filling 85% of the screen.

Here's hoping for a gtx competitive to 7850

I bought a http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N660-TF-2GD5-OC.html and I can certainly recommend it. Even inside my rather old Antec P150 case it's silent and doesn't get too hot. Thanks for the advice to wait a bit.

(Sorry for mini-bump)

Hey, it's your thread - post as much as you like

Congrats on the MSI GTX 660 and glad to hear it's as quiet as it seems from the reviews.

How about some performance stats? What are your game settings and what kind of fps are you getting?

Getting 60fps in high setting at 1920x1080. Still getting some really annoying micro stutters, but it seems it's a bug they're working to fix.

And yeah it's pretty ridiculous... My old 4850 was +80 degrees idling in windows and +90 in-game. gtx660 is 30 degrees idling and 40 ingame heh

Nice.