PowerColor PCS+ AX7850 2GBD5-2DHPP Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Victor Wu
April 2, 2013
AMD, Hardware, Reviews & Articles, Video Cards/Graphics Cards
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The PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ is the fastest factory overclocked HD 7850 on the market. The card features PowerColor’s own custom cooler with 5+1+1 phase power design, DrMos and IR Digital PWM that allows enthusiasts to push it even further. And the mixture of ports and the bundle makes it one of the best HD 7850 available on the market today. Let’s check it out.
The PowerColor PCS+ stands for the Professional Cooling System as it features the company’s unique cooling technology and attractive cover design.The HD 7850 PCS+ comes with the company’s Gold Power Kr design where it uses 5+1+1 phases board power design to enhance power efficiency and stability. Additionally, DrMos and IR Digital PWM are used to minimize switching loss and maximize the power efficiency. For average consumers, it means that the card consumes less power and runs cooler and quieter. For overclockers it means that it will have a higher overclocking potential.
Typical fashion with the HD 7850 PCS+ box where we get plenty of marketing information highlights the various features of the card such as its custom cooler, 2GB of onboard memory, and the Eyefinity support.
Inside, the usual brown cardboard is used to box the card with the accessories placed on the bottom of the GPU in a separate compartment to prevent any damages during shipping.
The bundle that is included with the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ includes a quick installation guide, driver disc, a flexible CrossFire bridge, a DVI to VGA adapter, and a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapater. The included bundle is pretty nice especially considering that PowerColor toss in the mini DisplayPort to the DisplayPort adapter.
The PCS cooler that PowerColor puts on the HD 7850 features a single 92mm fan placed above the GPU core.
Underneath the fan is a large heatsink with two pieces of S shaped heatpipe extending out of the heatsink. The two curved heatpipes direct the heat away from the heatsink from the GPU to the cooling fins. One minor issue we found with the SS shape heatpipe design is the slight protrusion above the top of the card. The tallest portion of the heatpipe extends about 0.7 inches above the card that potentially can have some issue with cases that feature a side panel fan. Other than that, the cooler looks great and the large 92mm fan should be able to keep the card running cool while keeping the noise-level down.
At 230mm x 117mm x 38mm, the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ is actually slightly longer and taller than the reference HD 7850 but it is still shorter than an ATX motherboard. If you plan to use it in an mini-ITX case, then you definitely want to check the length and height of the card as it is about 1.5 inches longer than the mini-ITX motherboard.
A single 6-pic PCIE power connector located on the front edge of the board to supply additional power since the HD 7850 has a maximum TDP of 150W, the 75W coming off the PCIE slot is not sufficient to keep it running.
The plastic shrouds that PowerColor uses on the card is not the cheap plastic that sometimes comes with video cards that can easily break off. It feels durable enough and has a rubbery feel. If we look the card from the above, we can see the a race car design that is rather common for a lot of gamer cards. We do like that PowerColor reinforce the PCB of the card with a stripe of metal on the top. This prevents the card from flexing and less prone to damages.
Not much to see on the rear of the card but we can see the red PCB board is being used here.
On the rear, we got two dual-link DVI-I connectors, an HDMI connector, and two DisplayPort connectors. The inclusion of the second DVI port makes the OowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ stands out among other HD 7850. As far as we know, other HD 7850 cards only come with one DVI port. We actually appreciate what PowerColor has done here. Since the HD 7850 is targeted toward mainstream market, it is more likely that buyers would already have monitors with DVI port instead of a DisplayPort.
Thus, if you already have multiple monitors setup with your existing card via DVI, you would not need to seek for an adapter or buying a new monitor. Obviously, since the card supports AMD’s Eyefinity technology, you can possibly hook up to six monitors.
Every single ports and the PCI Express and the CrossFire connector are all covered with a plastic tab. While this may not necessary, we do like having them as they prevents dusts and any potential damages.
| Specifications | AMD HD6850 | AMD HD7850 | MSI R7850 Power Edition | PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ |
| Chipset Version | ATI Radeon HD 6850 | ATI Radeon HD 7850 | ATI Radeon HD 7850 | ATI Radeon HD 7850 |
| Process | 40nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Stream Processors | 960 | 1024 | 1024 | 1024 |
| Texture Units | 48 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| GPU Clock | 775 MHz | 860 MHz | 950 MHz | 1000 MHz |
| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit |
| Memory Clock | 4 GHz (1000 MHz) | 4. 8 GHz (1200 MHz) |
4.8 GHz (1200 MHz) | 4.9GHz (1225 MHz) |
| Memory Size | 1 GB | 2 GB | 2GB | 2GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Minimum Power Supply Requirement | 500 Watt | 500 Watt | 500 Watt | 500 Watt |
Not only that we got a different cooler than the reference design, the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ is also factory overclocked to 1000 MHz core and 1225 MHz memory, which is up from 860 MHz and 1200 MHz from the reference card.
In fact, this is one of the fastest factory overclocked HD 7850 on the market. The card also comes with 2GB of GDDR5, which should definitely come in handy not only in games but also in multi-monitor setup.
Build with the AMD 28nm Graphic Core Next (GCN) architecture, the HD 7850 PCS+ supports all of the latest technology such as DirectX 11.1, Shader Model 5.0, AMD Eyefinity, PCI Express 3.0, AMD CrossFire, AMD PowerTune, AMD App Acceleration, and AMD HD Media support.
All these goodies comes at a $219.99 retail price, which is s $35 than the cheapest HD 7850 2GB. Considering the fact is the fastest factory overclocked HD 7850, the custom cooler, and the included mix of ports and the mini DisplayPort adapter, it is actually quite a nice bundle. The only thing that maybe slightly against the card would be the two year warranty as some other manufacturers like XFX offers limited lifetime. Though, two year is still within many other manufacturers such as Sapphire and HIS so the PowerColor is at least keeping up with other manufacturers.
System Setup
| Test Rig | |
| Case | Cooler Master Storm Trooper |
| CPUs | Intel Core i7 3770K (Ivy Bridge – LGA 1155 -Z77) |
| Motherboards | Intel DZ77GA-GD65GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H |
| Ram | Kingston HyperX Gray 4 GB (2x2GB) |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 Max |
| Hard Drives | Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB |
| SSD | 1x OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SATA III 6Gb/s SSD |
Results
3DMark 11
Based on the HD 7850 PCS+ is about 15% faster than the reference HD 7850.
Unigine Heaven 3.0
Unigine Heaven is a benchmark program based on Unigine Corp’s latest engine, Unigine. The engine features DirectX 11, Hardware tessellation, DirectCompute, and Shader Model 5.0. All of these new technologies combined with the ability to run each card through the same exact test means this benchmark should be in our arsenal for a long time.
Metro 2033
Just Cause 2
Lost Planet 2
Dirt 3
Currently, midrange graphic cards like the HD 7850 has plenty of power to run any games on the market at 1080p resolution with high setting. You really cannot go wrong with either NVIDIA or AMD if you are simply going to be running games with single display.
As expected, the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ offers on average about 10~15% faster than the reference HD 7850. When games are not shader bound, the card can even performs just like HD 7870 due to its overclocking speed.
The extra overclocking also helped the card to perform much closer to the similarly priced GeForce 660.
| GPU Temperatures | Celcius (ºC) |
| Idle | 31 |
| Load | 65 |
PowerColor advertises the card to run about 15% cooler and the result we have seen certainly is not disappointing. Idle, the card runs at 31ºC and under load, it reaches to just 65ºC. Equally impressive is the noise-level of the card. Idle the card runs whispering quiet and even under load, it is just barely audible in our open air test bench. The use of open-air cooler as oppose to the blower certainly helped out with the noise reduction along with the SS-shaped heatpipe.
| System Power Consumption | Watts(W) |
| Idle | 63 |
| Load | 260 |
Unfortunately, the additional performance does cost a little bit of extra power consumption.
Under load, the card consumes about 20 more watts than the stock HD 7850. We think the trade-off is worth it since you get about 10% additional performance out of the box and the fact that it runs cooler and quieter than the reference card.
Overclocking AMD GPUs can be achieved with AMD’s own Catalyst Control Center (CCC) though its option is often limited where it does not voltage control and have limited range. With the CCC, we were able to overclock the card to 1050 MHz core and 1450 MHz memory. Pretty decent result but it is obviously that the card has more potential. PowerColor did not include any overclocking utilities with the HD 7850 PCS+ so we have to use other manufacturers tools. We tested with MSI’s Afterburner but could not get anything higher than what AMD’s own tool offers. Luckily Sapphire’s TriXX allows us to push the card even further and even offers the ability to adjust the voltage.
We did not touch the voltage setting with our overclocking but even at the default voltage, we were able to push the ard to 1250 MHz core and 1540 MHz memory, which is 25% higher than the already overclocked card.
Not bad at all. There is definitely more headroom available since even at this speed, the card still runs cool with Furmark and we have yet to up the voltage.
For $200, the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ has a lot to offer. Being the fastest factory overclocked card, it is able to yield about a 10% improvement over the reference HD 7850. Many people simply want a video card that works and play well in games. The fact that the HD 7850 PCS+ is already overclocked means that buyers can just toss it into the rig and start to enjoy the extra performance. As always, overclocking permits some amount risk so buying a card that is factory overclocked with full full manufacturer warranty always puts an ease of mind for those who do not like the hassle of tinkering with a $200 piece of hardware that potentially can ended up in a dumpster.
The custom cooler with its SS-shaped design does its job really well at keeping the noise-level to bare minimum at idle and low under load. It also helped to leave plenty of overclocking potential for those who are inclined to push it even further.
In our limited time of testing, we could easily push the clockspeed to 25% from the already overclocked setting, which is pretty impressive.
Despite the fact that the PowerColor HD 7850+ is slightly more expensive, we think it is one of the best HD 7850 on the market. We like the display ports mix on the card and the included mini DisplayPort adapter is handy to have for those who are seeking to run multiple monitors. The added value bundle along with the factory overclocking is well-worth the extra $35. The card is not perfect as the protrusion on the top of the card may presents problem for small form factor PC but we do not think it will affect most people. The lack of overclocking tool and two year warranty is also minor complain. However, all in all, the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ certainly worth your consideration if you are on the market for a midrange graphic card.
| OUR VERDICT: PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
Summary: All in all, the PowerColor HD 7850 PCS+ is one of the best HD 7850 on the market considering its mix of ports, the bundle, and the fact it is one of the fastest factory overclocked card for the HD 7850. We award the card with the coveted Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award. |
Please note that the final score isn’t an aggregate average of the new rating system.
Tags 2GB HD 7850 PCS+ DrMOS powercolor Radeon HD 7850
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MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB review
Written by
Matthew Lambert
November 5, 2012 | 08:16
Tags: #7850 #hd #overclock #radeon
Companies: #msi
1 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB Review2 — Test Setup3 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Battlefield 3 Performance4 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Crysis 2 Performance5 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Skyrim Performance6 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — The Witcher 2 Performance7 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Unigine Heaven 3.0 Benchmark8 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Power and Thermals9 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Overclocking10 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Performance Analysis and Conclusion
As MSI has only given their HD 7850 1GB a small overclock, we were keen to see what more the card could do, so took to MSI’s own Afterburner tool to stretch the card to its limits.
Once we’d settled on a stable overclock, we re-ran the Battlefield 3 1,920 x 1,080 test as well as the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark to gauge the impact of it.
Despite voltage adjustments not being possible with this card in Afterburner, we were still able to run the card at the program’s core clock limit of 1,050MHz without problem, which is the same 22 per cent overclock we were able to achieve with the HD 7850 2GB. We were also able to increase the memory clock by 9 per cent to 1.31GHz (5.24GHz effective), before the card started to show artefacts. At these settings, the card increased our system’s total power consumption under GPU load to 189W.
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB
- MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB (OC)
- MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB
- AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
- EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB SSC
-
-
44
-
53
-
-
-
42
-
52
-
-
-
36
-
45
-
-
-
35
-
44
-
-
-
30
-
37
-
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
-
Minimum
-
Average
- MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB (OC)
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB
- MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB
- AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
- EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB SSC
-
-
1297
-
-
-
1267
-
-
-
1132
-
-
-
1081
-
-
-
868
-
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
Score
-
Score
Read our performance analysis on the next page.
1 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB Review2 — Test Setup3 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Battlefield 3 Performance4 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Crysis 2 Performance5 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Skyrim Performance6 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — The Witcher 2 Performance7 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Unigine Heaven 3.0 Benchmark8 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Power and Thermals9 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Overclocking10 — MSI Radeon HD 7850 1GB — Performance Analysis and Conclusion
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MSI Radeon HD 7850 Twin Frozr OC 2GB Review
Introduction
The MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC is a compact, dare we say stylish, midrange video card, first introduced in March 2012 at a pricepoint of $259.99. It’s MSI’s highest-end model of HD 7850 – other models include the non-overclocked version of this design, as well as a more basic single-fan model.
Perhaps it’s evident from the photo that the HD 7850 is a very handsome piece of technology. The brushed metal fan housing of the “Twin Frozr III” cooler has the look of titanium, and the chrome heatpipes below it give the video card an almost automotive appearance.
Mounted in the fan housing are twin 80mm fans, relatively compact for an open air cooler, but remarkably effective. While the official specifications of the MSI Radeon HD 7850 indicate that it’s about 7.76″ long, that is in fact not correct. That may well be the length of the printed circuit board, but the card with the cooler installed is actually closer to 8.4″ long. For those looking to fit this card into especially small systems, the true dimensions could be a letdown. Also keep in mind that the PCIe power connector hidden under the housing points towards the front of the card, and thus plugging in a power cable effectively makes the card a bit longer than 8.5″. Overall, this is still quite compact for a video card of this performance class.
Features
The unique features of the MSI Radeon HD 7850 are its cooler and its factory-overclock, with the cooler being the real stand-out feature. We found that the factory overclock of 900MHz on the core (versus 860MHz reference) was sufficient to produce a 3 percent boost in most of our benchmarks.
Because that isn’t all that significant, we instead tested at 860MHz and 1000MHz, to show a broader range of performance. It’s the Twin Frozr III cooler that really impressed – at no time during our testing did we even hear it, and the hottest the card ever got, even in unfairly warm ambients of 28C, was 66C, and this was in the system-killing game Crysis 3. Note that while we didn’t formally bench that game, it averaged around 45 frames per second at 1080p, maximum settings, with 1xSMAA, at default clocks.
Performance
The test bench we used for this review consisted of an Intel Core [email protected], 16GB RAM, Windows 7, running AMD Catalyst Version 13.2 Beta 7.
We thought we’d try something a bit different for this test. As we mentioned above, the default clocks of this card are 900MHz core, 1200MHz memory. While the 900MHz clock is a 4.5 percent increase from reference (860MHz), and is quite a bit more than many manufacturers are willing to do, it still isn’t much of an overclock, producing only a 3 percent performance increase in our testing.
Thus, we decided to give the card a bit of a workout, testing it first at default HD 7850 clocks, and then at default HD 7870 clocks. We knew the card could handle it, and we thought it would be interesting for anyone looking for clock-for-clock comparisons. First up – 3DMark Fire Strike, focusing on the Graphics Score:
We’ve included a scaling indicator in orange, so that you can see for yourself exactly what the performance difference is for the 16 percent overclock we tested – here it’s 11 percent. This is in line with what we found in previous GPU core overclocking tests – core overclock performance scaling is generally around 2/3 of the clock increase. Notice that the HD 7850 still trails the HD 7870 by about 10 percent when at the same clocks. We added HD 7870 Crossfire benchmarks just for comparison’s sake – obviously that’s a much higher-cost solution. Next up, Battlefield 3 Single-Player:
Here we can see about the same pattern. The HD 7850 is more than capable of playing this game at maximum settings even in its reference state, but overclocking to 1000/1200 gives the card a bit more breathing room – again about 11 percent.
The HD 7870, however, nearly touches 60fps, which is closer to optimal, and the 7870 Crossfire again runs away from the single cards. Very impressive. Finally, we’ll look at Hitman: Absolution:
These results are based on a built-in benchmark, rather than an actual run through the game world, as in the Battlefield 3 benchmarks above. The reference-clocked HD 7850 definitely struggles here, and even at the MSI model’s default 900/1000, it only picked up 1fps (not shown). At 1000MHz, however, it inches closer to 40fps, which is an ideal target in this game, and a target the HD 7870 can hit. The HD 7870 is about 10 percent faster than the equally-clocked HD 7850 here, and 20 percent faster than the reference-clocked HD 7850.
Overclocking
So we’ve already shown you some of the performance data we collected at speeds of 1000MHz core/1200MHz memory. But that’s not the limit of this card. In our testing, we easily pushed the card all the way to the Catalyst Control Center limit of 1050/1450, which produced average results nearly 20 percent faster than reference 860/1200 speeds (or 17 percent faster than the shipped clocks), and in fact nearly equaled our HD 7870.
Unfortunately, that’s actually where the fun ended, because when we enabled unofficial overclocking using MSI Afterburner (do so with caution – we’ll let you look up how to!), the card could only hit 1075MHz before crashing hard. Given the limited benefit of the extra 25MHz, we’d just call it a day at the Catalyst limits of 1050/1450. Note that despite our best efforts, we could not enable any voltage modification on this card.
And now to dispel one myth – that an overclocked HD 7850 can outrun an HD 7870, let alone an HD 7970. Early in the days of HD 7850 sales, many enthusiasts claimed that the HD 7850 could easily hit 1200MHz and thereby reach the speeds of an HD 7970 (a card that costs twice as much). By our estimation, 1200MHz would require a lot more power than even this circuit board can deliver, and furthermore, based on our scaling results, at least 1125MHz core/1200MHz memory clocks would be required to match a stock-clocked HD 7870 (or 1075/1450, which we did achieve).
Catching an HD 7970, which is at least 20 percent faster, would be entirely impossible. So, if you want that kind of speed, you’ll have to pay for it!
Conclusion
At its original price, the MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC was a hard sell versus existing cards like the Radeon HD 6950 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti. But at its current price, it’s a very viable option, although it certainly has competition from the new GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB. We think it’s also just a bit too close in price to the HD 7870, so try to catch it on sale. That being said, we think that the MSI Radeon HD 7850 with the Twin Frozr III cooler is just about the best HD 7850 on the market, both because of its good overclocking ability and its excellent cooler, along with its very compact size. While core overclocking was somewhat limited, memory overclocking was above-average, leading to results that would be competitive with most models out there.
The MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC is available from Amazon and Newegg for approximately $150, as of our publication date.
XFX’s Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 Black Edition graphics cards
We’re already well acquainted with AMD’s Radeon HD 7870 and 7850 graphics cards. We studied them, and the Pitcairn graphics processors that dwell within them, about three weeks ago. In that initial encounter, we learned that these cards have all the makings of successors to the popular Radeon HD 6800 series: similar-sized GPUs and memory interfaces, with lower power requirements. The newcomers are quite a bit faster, too. Thanks to a new 28-nm chip fabrication process and a revised graphics architecture, dubbed GCN, they even outpace the old Radeon HD 6900 series cards, which are based on larger chips.
Unfortunately for bargain hunters, AMD has priced the Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 at $249 and $349, respectively, well above the $180-240 price range the 6800 series occupied when it arrived in October 2010. Whispers around the industry suggest the higher prices can be attributed the limited supply of 28-nm wafers coming from TSMC, the Taiwanese foundry that manufactures chips for AMD, Nvidia, and other firms like Qualcomm.
Nvidia charges a pretty penny for its freshly released GeForce GTX 680, too, which has a smaller GPU and the same memory interface width as the GeForce GTX 560 Ti yet sells for twice as much.
In a nutshell, the 7800-series Radeons deliver only slightly better performance per dollar than the prior-gen Radeon HD 6900 cards, though they have the potential to be much cheaper. Not much of a consolation prize, I know.
The new Radeons therefore have to play up their other advantages in order to seduce prospective buyers. One of those advantages is a rather substantial amount of overclocking headroom. Our reference Radeon HD 7870, which came to us directly from AMD, had no trouble climbing from its stock 1000MHz clock speed all the way up to a blistering 1275MHz. We were able to overclock its memory from 1200MHz to 1375MHz, as well. Those settings yielded substantial performance gains without huge increases in power consumption.
Unsurprisingly, board makers have jumped on the opportunity to serve up customized, higher-clocked versions of the Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850.
(Such cards are sometimes referred to as “overclocked in the box,” but that’s a bit of a misnomer, since no overclocking actually takes place. The cards ship with the higher clocks and are fully supported by the manufacturer.) Today, we’re looking at a couple of hot-clocked cards, both hailing from XFX.
Behold, the XFX Double D HD 7870 Black Edition and Double D HD 7850 Black Edition:
Which one is the 7850, and which one is the 7870, you ask? Well, have a look at a couple more pictures, and see if you can guess:
Yes, the only identifiable difference is the writing on the top of the cards. The two products otherwise look identical, with the same board-and-cooler length (9.76″), the same number of six-pin PCI Express power connectors (two), and the same cluster of display outputs (dual DVI, dual mini DisplayPort, and a single HDMI port). Both cards also feature the same cooler, whose four copper heat pipes make direct contact with the GPU and spread out into an array of aluminum fins.
The whole shindig is kept chilly by a pair of “dust-proof” fans. In this case, “dust-proof” means dust shouldn’t get inside the motor, not that you won’t have miniature dust bunnies collecting on the fan blades after a few months. XFX claims its cooler design enables lower temperatures and noise levels than the competition.
XFX uses a similar shroud on its Double D HD 7970 Black Edition, which performed exceptionally in our testing, but the underlying coolers are actually quite different. The 7970 features a vapor-chamber heatsink with a copper base and, from what we can tell, more aluminum fins. XFX’s Double D branding seems to refer to the presence of dual fans and not to a specific cooler design.
XFX touts the card’s other perks, such as solid-state capacitors, ferrite iron core chokes, and a circuit board containing two ounces of copper. And it offers lifetime warranty coverage, provided you register the cards on its website within 30 days of purchase; otherwise, the warranty drops to two years.
Those are the similarities. Now for the differences: the Double D HD 7870 Black Edition runs at 1050MHz, and its memory ticks away at 1250MHz for an effective transfer rate of 5000 MT/s. That’s a step above the GPU and memory speeds of the reference AMD card, which are 1000MHz and 1200MHz, respectively. The difference between the Double D HD 7850 Black Edition and the reference Radeon HD 7850 are greater: the Black Edition runs at 975MHz with a 1250MHz memory speed, while the AMD card is clocked at 860/1200MHz.
The 7870 and 7850 Black Edition otherwise have the same internal resources as their reference counterparts: 1280 ALUs and 80 texture units on the 7870, and 1024 ALUs backed by 64 texture units on the 7850. Both are complemented by 2GB of video RAM.
As you’d expect, those clock speed increases don’t come free of charge. XFX prices the 7850 Black Edition at $279, about 30 bucks above stock-clocked cards. The 7870 Black Edition will set you back a cool $389, which is equivalent to a $40 markup over vanilla models.
XFX is asking a fair bit for speed increases that, based on what we’ve seen, may be easily attainable with cheaper offerings and a little manual tweaking. However, the XFX cards have fancy coolers and might have further overclocking headroom in store. Let’s have a look, shall we?
Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least three times, and we reported the median results. Our test systems were configured like so:
| Processor | Intel Core i5-750 |
| Motherboard | Asus P7P55D |
| North bridge | Intel P55 Express |
| South bridge | |
| Memory size | 4GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Kingston HyperX KHX2133C9AD3X2K2/4GX
DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz |
| Memory timings | 9-9-9-24 1T |
| Chipset drivers | INF update 9. 2.0.1025
Rapid Storage Technology 10.1.0.1008 |
| Audio | Integrated Via VT1828S
with 6.0.1.8700 drivers |
| Hard drive | Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB SATA |
| Power supply | Corsair HX750W 750W |
| OS | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition
Service Pack 1 |
| Driver revision | GPU core
clock (MHz) |
Memory
clock (MHz) |
Memory
size (MB) |
|
| Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II | GeForce 295. 73 |
830 | 1000 | 1024 |
| Asus GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II | GeForce 295.73 | 742 | 950 | 1280 |
| Asus Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU | Catalyst 8.95.5-120224a | 915 | 1050 | 1024 |
| XFX Radeon HD 6950 | Catalyst 8.95.5-120224a | 830 | 1300 | 1024 |
| Asus Radeon HD 6970 DirectCU II | Catalyst 8.95.5-120224a | 890 | 1375 | 2048 |
| Radeon HD 7850 | Catalyst 8.95.5-120224a | 860 | 1200 | 2048 |
| Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition | Catalyst 8.95.5-120224a | 1000 | 1200 | 2048 |
| XFX Double D HD 7870 Black Edition | Catalyst 8. 95.5-120224a |
1050 | 1250 | 2048 |
| XFX Double D HD 7850 Black Edition | Catalyst 8.95.5-120224a | 975 | 1250 | 2048 |
Thanks to Asus, Corsair, Kingston, Intel, Samsung, and Western Digital for helping to outfit our test rigs with some of the finest hardware available. AMD, Nvidia, and the makers of the various products supplied the graphics cards for testing, as well.
Unless otherwise specified, image quality settings for the graphics cards were left at the control panel defaults. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
We used the following test applications:
- Batman: Arkham City
- Battlefield 3
- Crysis 2
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Fraps 3.4.7
- GPU-Z 0.5.8
Some further notes on our methods:
-
We used the Fraps utility to record frame rates while playing a 90-second sequence from the game.
Although capturing frame rates while playing isn’t precisely repeatable, we tried to make each run as similar as possible to all of the others. We tested each Fraps sequence five times per video card in order to counteract any variability. We’ve included frame-by-frame results from Fraps for each game, and in those plots, you’re seeing the results from a single, representative pass through the test sequence.
-
We measured total system power consumption at the wall socket using a P3 Kill A Watt digital power meter. The monitor was plugged into a separate outlet, so its power draw was not part of our measurement. The cards were plugged into a motherboard on an open test bench.
The idle measurements were taken at the Windows desktop with the Aero theme enabled. The cards were tested under load running Skyrim at its Ultra quality preset with FXAA enabled.
-
We measured noise levels on our test system, sitting on an open test bench, using a TES-52 digital sound level meter.
The meter was held approximately 8″ from the test system at a height even with the top of the video card.
You can think of these noise level measurements much like our system power consumption tests, because the entire systems’ noise levels were measured. Of course, noise levels will vary greatly in the real world along with the acoustic properties of the PC enclosure used, whether the enclosure provides adequate cooling to avoid a card’s highest fan speeds, placement of the enclosure in the room, and a whole range of other variables. These results should give a reasonably good picture of comparative fan noise, though.
- We used GPU-Z to log GPU temperatures during our load testing.
The tests and methods we employ are generally publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
Batman: Arkham City
To warm up this latest batch of Radeons, we grappled and glided our way around Gotham, occasionally touching down to mingle with the inhabitants.
We tested at a 1080p resolution with DirectX 11 effects enabled, normal tessellation, high FXAA antialiasing, and everything else cranked up. Those settings seemed to yield the best compromise of image quality and smoothness on the 7870.
We should preface the results with a little primer on our testing methodology. Along with measuring average frames per second, we delve inside the second to look at frame rendering times. Studying the time taken to render each frame gives us a better sense of playability, because it highlights issues like skipping, stuttering, and microstuttering that can all occur—and be felt by the player—within the span of one second. Charting frame times shows these issues clear as day, while charting average frames per second obscures them.
For example, imagine one hypothetical second of gameplay. Almost all frames in that second are rendered in 16.7 ms, but the game briefly hangs, taking a disproportionate 100 ms to produce one frame and then catching up by cranking out the next frame in 5 ms—not an uncommon scenario.
You’re going to feel the game hitch, but the FPS counter will only report a dip from 60 to 56 FPS, which would suggest a negligible, imperceptible change. Looking inside the second helps us detect such skips, as well as other issues that conventional frame rate data measured in FPS tends to obscure.
We’re going to start by charting frame times over the totality of a representative run for each card. That should give us an at-a-glance impression of overall playability, warts and all. (Note that, since we’re looking at frame latencies, plots sitting lower on the Y axis indicate quicker cards.)
We can slice and dice our raw frame-time data in three ways, as you’re about to see. By the way, we should caution that none of the graphs below can be construed as self-contained scoreboards; instead, they each show a different facet of the cards’ performance, and they should be viewed as a whole along with the raw frame-time plots above.
Our first graph shows average frames per second.
Though this metric doesn’t account for irregularities in frame latencies, it does give us some sense of typical performance.
In our second graph, we’re demarcating the threshold below which 99% of frames are rendered. The lower the threshold, the more fluid the game. This metric offers a sense of overall frame latency, but it filters out fringe cases.
Our last graph tells us how long each card worked on frames that took longer than 50 ms to render. Ideally, the result should be “0” for every card. That’s because the illusion of smooth motion is likely to begin breaking down once frame latencies rise into that territory. (For reference, 50 ms frame times would work out to a 20 FPS average.) In a nutshell, this metric tells us how badly each card skips during gameplay, if it does at all.
Well, our XFX cards are off to a nice start. The 7870 Black may not be a great deal faster than its reference counterpart, but the 7850 Black edges out the vanilla 7850 by a big margin—especially in our “time spent beyond 50 ms” metric.
Lower scores there indicate fewer latency spikes and thus more fluid overall gameplay.
Battlefield 3
We tested Battlefield 3 by playing through the start of the Kaffarov mission, right after the player lands. Our 90-second runs involved walking through the woods and getting into a firefight with a group of hostiles, who fired and lobbed grenades at us.
The game was run at its highest detail preset, Ultra, which couples MSAA and FXAA antialiasing as well as snazzy DX11 effects and tessellation.
Things get a little strange here. The 7870 Black continues to do well, but the 7850 Black actually falls slightly behind the reference 7850. The difference amounts to less than half a frame per second, so for all intents and purposes, we can say the two cards perform identically. But that doesn’t make sense—the Black Edition is clocked 115MHz above the reference card, and its memory is 50MHz faster.
We re-tested, tweaked PowerTune settings, checked for overheating, and poked and prodded trying to find the source of the problem, but nothing seemed out of order. We even tried clocking the XFX card at the same speeds as the vanilla 7850, and performance declined further. Suspecting a memory latency difference, we called XFX for comment. The company said that, save for clock speeds, the Black and reference cards should be identical at the firmware level. Any straightforward explanations for the performance discrepancy were suddenly ruled out.
Later that day, the company got back to us again. They’d spoken to another reviewer, and guess what? The 7850 Black’s higher-than-normal clock speeds didn’t seem to “do anything” in some cases, he said.
In other words, we may be looking at a bizarre, presently unresolved bug with this particular card. Maybe the bug lies in the drivers, or maybe it’s some hidden firmware kink. The question is, does it rear its head in other games?
Crysis 2
We tested Crytek’s latest shooter by running and gunned through the game’s rendition of Battery Park, sticking to the same path through the level to avoid drastic differences between samples.
The game was set to run at a 1920×1080 resolution with the “Extreme” detail preset. Both the DX11 “ultra upgrade” and high-res texture pack were installed, and both were enabled.
The 7870 Black tops the charts yet again, but the 7850 Black is in a similar position as in Battlefield 3: its substantially higher clock speeds don’t seem to help very much, if at all.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Our Skyrim run involved running around the town of Whiterun, starting from the city gates, all the way up to Dragonsreach, and then back down again.
Like BF3 and Bulletstorm, Skyrim‘s detail settings were maxed out. We selected the Ultra preset, which includes 8X MSAA, and then we enabled FXAA in the advanced options for good measure.
The 7850 Black makes a comeback in Skyrim, where it nips at the Radeon HD 7870’s heels (and actually pulls off slightly lower 99th-percentile frame times). That leaves us with two games where the card behaves as it should, and two games where it’s no better than the reference model. Hmm.
Power consumption
The XFX cards’ higher clock speeds don’t impact idle power consumption. Only under load do they draw more power, and not by all that much. The Radeon HD 7870 Black still consumes less power than the old Radeon HD 6870.
Noise levels and GPU temperatures
We weren’t terribly thrilled with the coolers on the reference 7800-series Radeons, which are a little loud under load. The XFX cards take care of that problem rather nicely—they’re wonderfully quiet under load.
Unfortunately, the lower noise levels come at a cost: higher temperatures. The 7870 Black runs a whopping 15°C hotter than its reference cousin.
Overclocking
Superclocked as they might be, these XFX cards surely have some headroom left under their hoods. Rather than bore you with a verbose description of our overclocking attempts, I’m going to paste my notes verbatim. I overclocked using AMD’s Catalyst Control Center application, tweaked voltages with MSI’s Afterburner utility, and tested stability with Kombustor, another MSI app. (XFX doesn’t provide its own overclocking tools for these Radeons.)
Ready? Here’s how the 7850 Black Edition fared:
Core:
1000MHz — OK after 5 min burn-in
1025MHz — OK after 5 min burn-in
1050MHz (max) — OK after 5 min burn-in
Memory:
1250MHz — 6506 kombustor — stock
1350MHz — 6925 kombustor — ok after 5-min burn-in
1400MHz — 6690 kombustor — reverted
1375MHz — 7072 kombustor — ok after 5-min burn-in
Overvolt: no go.
afterburner hard-locks system
Max: 1050/1350 (vs 975/1250 stock).
Temperature around 75C during kombustor burn-in.
And here are my results with the 7870 Black Edition:
Core:
1200MHz — OK after 5 min burn-in
1300MHz — crash
1275MHz — crash
1250MHz — display coruption
1225MHz — crash
Memory:
1250MHz — 6721 kombustor — stock
1350MHz — 7194 kombustor — OK after 5 min burn-in
1400MHz — 6959 kombustor — reverted
1375MHz — 7354 kombustor — OK after 5 min burn-in
Max at stock voltage: 1200/1375 (vs 1050/1250 stock).
Temperature around 87C during kombustor burn-in.
Overvolt:
1300/1375MHz — 1.300v — crash
1275/1375MHz — 1.300v — overheat
1250/1375MHz — 1.300v — overheat (over 105C in kombustor)
These results are a little disappointing. Neither card seemed to tolerate overvolting; the 7850 Black froze when we launched MSI Afterburner to tweak voltages, and the 7870 Black overheated quickly, with its GPU getting hot enough to boil water and subsequently shutting down.
We’d excuse that behavior if the settings we tried had been particularly daring, but our reference Radeon HD 7870 handled itself just fine at 1250MHz with 1375MHz memory and 1.30V.
Clearly, the AMD cooler is better equipped to handle high overclocks than its XFX Double D counterpart. Our findings suggest the difference may hinge on the amount of metal under those cooling shrouds. Fan control didn’t appear to be an issue—the XFX 7870 ramped up its two fans without fault as temperatures climbed, hitting a speed of 73% at 95°C and 100% at 101°C. After that point, though, the card started throttling itself to stay cool, even with the fans pegged.
Happily, when overclocked by hand, the 7850 Black emerged out of its torpor in Battlefield 3. It outran the reference-clocked 7850 handily, nestling itself not far below the Radeon HD 7870. Load power consumption only increased by about four watts, as well, which is negligible.
As for the 7870 Black, even though its overclock didn’t match that of our reference card, it still put on a good show.
The temperature we measured in our Kombustor burn-in (87°C) makes us a little wary of applying the same overclock in a cramped PC build, though. Honestly, if you’re going to overclock a 7870 at all, we’d recommend getting one with a more capable cooler than what XFX provides.
Conclusions
Up for a couple of value scatter plots before we call it a day? As is our custom, we’ve laid our performance results (based on the overall average performance from our game tests) along the Y axis and the cards’ pricing (obtained from Newegg, when possible, or from the manufacturer’s suggested e-tail price) along the X axis. The most desirable offerings will be the ones closest to the top left of the plot. The least desirable ones will be at the bottom right.
We can also compile a value scatter plot out of our 99th percentile frame time data. For consistency’s sake, we’ve converted the frame times to frame rates, so desirable offerings are still at the top left.
No doubt about it, XFX demands a sizable premium for somewhat modest performance increases—perhaps not in the case of the 7850 Black, which underperformed due to a potential bug that’s probably temporary, but definitely for the 7870 Black.
$40 is a lot to pay for such a small jump over stock performance, and the fact that the card doesn’t overclock as well as the reference model makes it even harder to recommend.
The XFX 7870 does have a couple of redeeming features. Its cooler, though ill-equipped for high overclocks, is much quieter than AMD’s design at stock speeds. That might sweeten the deal for folks who care about noise levels—although we should point out that other cards with large, dual- or triple-fan coolers can be had for as little as $360. We haven’t tested those, however. Also, there’s the lifetime warranty to consider. XFX is one of very few vendors to offer that particular perk.
Nevertheless, considering our past experience with XFX’s Black Editions, I must confess to being a tad disappointed by these two cards. Even if you don’t mind paying a premium, there are deal breakers in both cases: the 7870 cooler’s inadequacy when it comes to overclocking, and the 7850’s weird performance issues, which negate the benefits of its higher clock speeds in Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, and perhaps other titles.
If XFX can resolve the latter, the 7850 Black could be a tantalizing choice. We’ve seen in Arkham City and Skyrim that it comes awfully close to the stock Radeon HD 7870—and we’ve also seen that it overclocks effortlessly at the stock voltage, without its power consumption increasing a whole lot. $279 may not be cheap for a 7850, but it’s definitely not bad for a card that can come so close to the $349 Radeon HD 7870. If it weren’t for the (admittedly minor) performance issue we encountered, the 7850 Black would be an Editor’s Choice for sure.
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Sapphire HD 7850 OC Video Card Review and Test (page 3)
Overclocking
The overclocking process of Radeon 7000 series graphics accelerators is very simple, but at the same time requires some knowledge. Firstly, they do not have any auxiliary algorithms that increase the frequency depending on the load.
The exception is the recently released «GHz Edition». Secondly, the overclocking ceiling directly depends on the maximum power consumption level, which in turn depends on the vGPU voltage. That is, the higher the voltage, the higher the thermal package of the video card. Thirdly, the voltage range has a much larger margin than NVIDIA video cards, which is a significant plus.
And finally — one interesting feature related to the firmware of different BIOS versions. For some time now, I began to both notice myself and receive letters that say that it is impossible to run CCC (Catalyst Control Center) on flashed video cards. After several similar operations, it was concluded that AMD strangely protected the model ID entry from flashing. Some non-reference cards can still be fully flashed, but most accelerators have lost this ability.
In turn, this indicates the constant work of engineers to prevent the alteration of video cards and unlocking the CCC overclocking limit, which is naturally very sad.
Practical methods of bypassing protection have not yet been found and are unlikely to be found in the near future. Thus, some buyers have lost the opportunity to remake the reference models in the GHz Edition version. Of the accelerators present in the laboratory, neither the reference AMD Radeon HD 7970 (red PCB), nor HIS, nor MSI have been modified. The attempt to modify the Radeon HD 79 also ended in failure70 GHz in Radeon HD 7970. The BIOS is flashed with the replacement of the vendor ID and name, but when installing the drivers, a warning is issued that it did not find compatible hardware.
It is worth saying a few words about overclocking through the CCC panel. In it, you will surely find the percentage band, which is responsible for overclocking. But there is no point in hiding the real meaning of this setting from you. And she is responsible for a simple GPU voltmod. We are not talking about + 20% to the voltage relative to the nominal value. In terms of the normal view, and also depending on the series of the video card, the maximum voltage increases by 0.
05-0.07 V. The reverse side of the coin is that, having reached the maximum frequency in the CCC panel (the frequency that is set in the BIOS as the maximum allowable), the power limit setting is no longer in effect.
So how to unlock the maximum frequency, is it not by the method that the Power Tune system is turned off? Yes, after that you can continue overclocking the video card, but forget about the added voltage (up to 20% through the power consumption limit). Your vGPU will be set to default. The situation is complicated and is solved by changing the BIOS (such versions get extreme overclockers for video cards at competitions), hardware volt mod, software voltage increase using third-party utilities.
Unlike NVIDIA GPUs, Radeon does not have a fixed TDP. The heat pack of each card is individual, and its maximum value turns into a relative value. For example, let’s analyze the overclocking of several NVIDIA video cards with different potentials. Card «A» normally operates at a frequency of 900 MHz, and a voltage of 1 V, Power Limit is set at 125%.
Card «B» operates at a frequency of 1000 MHz and a voltage of 1.1 V, Power Limit is set at 110%. But after overclocking and measuring power consumption, you can get approximately the same value. What do all these calculations say? But just that NVIDIA voluntarily-compulsorily limits GPU overclocking by introducing a certain maximum TDP value for all cards at the same time! Initial frequencies and voltages may be different, but the practical limit is the same for everyone.
And this is the essential difference between Radeon video cards. The starting point of movement for each instance is individual. Depending on the quality of the silicon crystal, the voltage is in a certain range, and its maximum value is limited by software. Formally, any used PWM VRM controller allows you to set values up to 1.6 V. Just do not forget about the protection system, which works much earlier, although it is easily eliminated by hands and a soldering iron.
Radeon clocks are reset in full analogy with NVIDIA products.
When the maximum power consumption level and temperature are reached, the frequency starts to drop. I note that in the process of overclocking, I use strict methods for determining stability, in particular, the Furmark program. So, the frequency is considered stable if, during the test, it did not fall for at least 10 minutes after reaching the highest temperature. And lastly, by moving the slider in the CCC panel and in the overclocking programs, the total number is not summed up. And in gaming scenes, the final GPU frequency can easily be 50 MHz and even 100 MHz higher than what was determined by testing at Furmark.
recommendations
Unfortunately, most HD 7850 graphics cards do not have the ability to change the vGPU voltage due to the too simple PWM controller. In the end, the model with the highest initial voltage overclocks best, and it often lies in the range of 1.15-1.25 V.
The potential of the graphics core depending on the voltage applied to it.
Overclocking of most AMD HD 7850 video cards directly depends on the starting voltage — the higher it is, the greater the potential.
And since the HD 7850 was deprived of a smart PWM controller, success is directly proportional to the voltage value.
The Sapphire model has slightly increased frequencies initially, which does not prevent it from successfully accelerating to 1200 MHz, which is 25 MHz more than the V2 version. The merit mainly lies on the shoulders of good cooling and moderately high voltage.
- AMD Radeon HD 7850 v1 — 1.153-1.157 V, 860-1075 MHz.
- AMD Radeon HD 7850 v2 — 1.239-1.23 V, 860-1175 MHz.
- Sapphire HD 7850 OC — 1.206 V, 920-1200 MHz.
Maximum overclocking for all cards is additionally limited by TDP. After reaching this bar, it doesn’t matter if you use a higher voltage or cool the GPU to 50 ° C, the process will be terminated.
Power consumption depending on overclocking.
It’s easy to see that the maximum power consumption of the Radeon HD 7850 is limited to ~220-250 W ( for the test system as a whole ).
This is practically the ceiling of TDP cards. And this number is limited to overclocking, taking into account proper cooling. Do you want more? You will have to make a hardware voltmod and remove the current protection. Overclocking Radeon itself is quite unusual. Power consumption does not depend much on the frequency of the GPU, as well as its heating. The video card seems to reserve a certain volume in advance and completely uses it during overclocking.
Temperature of the graphics core depending on overclocking.
GPU temperature directly depends on several conditions. Firstly, the efficiency of the cooling system and its settings play a big role. Secondly, the Vgpu voltage is equally important. Since the voltage on the test participants did not change so much, the maximum heating was stably constant.
VRM temperature versus GPU frequency.
An important part of any video card is its power section. If you do not monitor its temperature, then the life of the product is greatly reduced.
The maximum temperatures depend on many factors, such as: the efficiency and speed of the fans, the calculated maximum temperature of the mosfets. Sapphire cooling can rightly be considered the leader, which does not allow the VRM to heat up above 55°C.
Fan/s speed depending on the frequency of the graphics core.
The Sapphire HD 7850 OC fan control algorithm does not notice the change in frequency at all. There is a reason for this, the TDP of the card remains constant throughout the overclocking process.
Overclocking results
AMD Radeon HD 7850 v1
|
GPU frequency, GHz |
0.850 |
0.875 |
0.  900 |
0.915 |
0.930 |
0.950 |
0.975 |
one |
1.015 |
1.030 |
1.045 |
1.060 |
1.075 |
| Power consumption limit, % |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Voltage, MSI Afterburner, V |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,200 |
| Voltage, multimeter, V |
1.  153 |
1.156 |
1.160 |
1.160 |
1.160 |
1.159 |
1.159 |
1.158 |
1.158 |
1.158 |
1.157 |
1.157 |
1.157 |
| Delta V |
0.047 |
0.044 |
0.  040 |
0.040 |
0.040 |
0.041 |
0.041 |
0.042 |
0.042 |
0.042 |
0.043 |
0.043 |
0.043 |
| GPU temperature, °C |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
74 |
| VRM temperature, °C |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
66 |
| Fan speed (max), rpm |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
19fifty |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
1950 |
| Energy Consumption, Furmark, W |
212 |
213 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
214 |
AMD Radeon HD 7850 v2
|
GPU frequency, GHz |
0.  850 |
0.875 |
0.900 |
0.915 |
0.930 |
0.950 |
0.975 |
one |
1.015 |
1.030 |
1.045 |
1.060 |
1.075 |
1.100 |
1.125 |
1.  150 |
1.175 |
| Power consumption limit, % |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Voltage, MSI Afterburner, V |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
| Voltage, multimeter, V |
1.  239 |
1.240 |
1.241 |
1.241 |
1.241 |
1.241 |
1.241 |
1.227 |
1.228 |
1.228 |
1.229 |
1.229 |
1.23 |
1.23 |
1.23 |
1.23 |
1.  23 |
| Delta V |
0.011 |
0.010 |
0.009 |
0.009 |
0.009 |
0.009 |
0.009 |
0.023 |
0.022 |
0.022 |
0.021 |
0.021 |
0.020 |
0.020 |
0.  020 |
0.020 |
0.020 |
| GPU temperature, °C |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
79 |
| VRM temperature, °C |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
| Fan speed (max), rpm |
2850 |
2850 |
2900 |
2900 |
2900 |
2900 |
2900 |
2900 |
2900 |
2900 |
3000 |
3000 |
3000 |
3000 |
3000 |
3000 |
3000 |
| Energy Consumption, Furmark, W |
240 |
240 |
241 |
241 |
242 |
242 |
242 |
242 |
242 |
242 |
243 |
243 |
243 |
243 |
243 |
243 |
243 |
Sapphire HD 7850 OC
|
GPU frequency, GHz |
0.  915 |
0.930 |
0.950 |
0.975 |
one |
1.015 |
1.030 |
1.045 |
1.060 |
1.075 |
1.100 |
1.125 |
1.150 |
1.175 |
1.200 |
| Power consumption limit, % |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Voltage, MSI Afterburner, V |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
1,250 |
| Voltage, multimeter, V |
1.  206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
1.206 |
| Delta V |
0.  044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
0.044 |
| GPU temperature, °C |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
63 |
| VRM temperature, °C |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
55 |
| Fan speed (max), rpm |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
2300 |
| Energy Consumption, Furmark, W |
240 |
241 |
242 |
242 |
243 |
243 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
244 |
The frequency limit set in the BIOS of the video card indicates 1050 MHz, and disabling the Power Tune service allows you to continue overclocking.
Summary
Sapphire HD 7850 OC
As supplied.
Flaws:
- None (let’s leave the disappearance of the CrossFireX bridge and the driver disk on the conscience of the previous authors).
Nice little things:
- HDMI cable.
- Wide range of adapters.
PCB design.
Drawbacks:
- Simple power system compared to the first revision of the AMD Radeon HD 7850.
- Inability to regulate voltages due to the installation of a simplified PWM controller.
Nice little things:
- Compact dimensions.
- Dual phase memory and PLL power supplies.
- High initial vGPU voltage setting.
- The use of quality elements — coils and capacitors.
By cooling system.
Faults:
- Difficulty cleaning the cooling system.
- Both memory heatsink and VRM heatsink are missing.
- Heated air only partially escapes the system unit.
Nice little things:
- Silent operation in 2D.
- High-quality radiator assembly.
- Fairly quiet fan operation in 3D.
- Full contact of heat pipes with base and fins.
- The cooling efficiency of the graphics core is at a high level.
Overclocking.
Disadvantages:
- There is no support for softvolt mod by common overclocking programs.
- In a particular case, I was lucky with the initially high voltage of the GPU, otherwise fortune may turn away from you.
Nice little things:
- Sapphire TriXX proprietary overclocking software.
- High overclocking potential, up to frequencies above 1200 MHz (specifically for this sample without volt mode).
In general.
Flaws:
- Overclocking is highly dependent on the instance.
Pleasant little things:
- Regular factory overclocking.
- Silent cooling system.
- Potentially fast card with good GPU headroom.
Conclusion
The delivery set, rich for a graphics accelerator of this class, shocked me. I got the second knockdown after turning on the test system, not hearing the expected noise level. The video card is really silent in 2D mode, although there are still some questions about 3D mode. The algorithm of the cooling system can be called more or less normal, but with such a margin it would be worth significantly reducing the fan speed without compromising the temperature results.
On the other hand, it’s sad that the developers, using the standard PCB design, deprived their product of one of the main tools for overclockers — the possibility of software voltage control.
Dmitry Vladimirovich
We express our gratitude for the help in preparing the material:
- AMD and Sapphire for providing the Radeon HD 7850 video cards for testing.
- And personally donnerjack .
Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen or telegram channel @overclockers_news — these are convenient ways to follow new materials on the site. With pictures, extended descriptions and no ads.
Hd 7850 overclocking
Competition in the market of discrete video accelerators quite naturally intensified after the introduction of new generations of graphics adapters from the NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon lines, which are based on chips manufactured in compliance with the 28 nm process technology. This situation is certainly beneficial for AMD, because for those users who need a modern gaming graphics card with an optimal balance between price, performance and power consumption today, Radeon HD products are one of the most attractive options for purchase. Of the many similar products, this graphics accelerator primarily distinguishes the use of an alternative cooling system ASUS Direct CU II, as well as the presence of noticeable factory overclocking.
Whether this decision will be a good purchase for a rational gamer, we will try to find out today. There is Support for Unified Video Decoder 3 protocols. Fresh drivers can be downloaded from: — the GPU manufacturer’s website — from the support site.
Data search for your request:
Databases of online projects:
Data from exhibitions and seminars:
Data from registers:
Upon completion, a link will appear to access the found materials.
Content:
- Overclocking Radeon 7850 HD
- PowerColor Radeon HD 7850 PCS+ review. Overclocked version of mid-range solution
- Club3D Radeon HD 7850 (CGAX-7856)
- Overclocking video card based on AMD
chipset
- Review: ASUS AMD Radeon HD 7850
graphics card
- Reviews ASUS Radeon HD 7850 860Mhz PCI-E 3.
0 2048Mb 4800Mhz 256 bit 2xDVI HDMI HDCP
- Codename «Pitcairn»: testing AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7850
- Big test of Radeon HD 7850 and review of MSI R7850 Power Edition 2GD5/OC
- Sapphire HD 7850 OC video card review and testing (page 3)
WATCH RELATED VIDEO: How to overclock Nvidia and AMD Radeon graphics cards. How to increase FPS in games
Go to this topic Topic moved Thanks for this post: yasino. iXBT conference. Maxim, What is this wonderful overclocking bug? Never seen anything like it and never heard of it. In general, the situation is as follows. Kombustor’s stress test goes well.
As much as you want. The temperature is 63 degrees. At the same time, there are no crashes or artifacts or errors.
The interval is always the same — I understood from the tests in OCCT — let’s start with fps, then it drops, then up to And keeps it strictly. Not left or right. Even below par. At the same time, the voltage drops up to! That is, the decrease does not change anything, and the increase worsens the situation! In general, what can be wrong? Why are there no artifacts or anything else, but the frequencies just drop? Dimenice, Thanks, it helped.
Forgot about this new parameter. Didn’t overclock the new hardware. K Gor, Do you feel the difference? And in overclocking, the price of one frame in watts. Soooo shtaaa More expensive; Well, this is understandable After it is worth taking, it just doesn’t work. Adding from Because of this, there will be no cards or with a frequency higher than Mts. In general, I overclocked it to at 1. For, it seems, not bad. I will continue the experiments later Adding from Maxim there is no point in driving memory. Vktor Vktor, As I understand it, a radical can be dispersed, but a zhyrafa?
And not really a giraffe.
You sent links where they already have the same prices, respectively, they are preferable for your case, since stock is better in stock Excellent advice. And if you play and watch SD movies on 23 inches, then the bit of Zhyraf is enough? Vktor Vktor has already answered you 10 times, the one that is cheap, otherwise it’s more profitable to take No load about 1.
Well, in the recall, I also got over 80. Heat pipes are not visible in the design. So absolutely «any and the cheapest» I would not recommend. As far as I can judge, even a simple msi is not bad 1. Zotac is not particularly favored in comparison with the others, but quite a middle peasant. And Giga sings too often with chokes and a casing frame, although the second is fixable.
Tohis , I actually brought this card from abroad, so I can’t return it under warranty. Actually what is my problem. In 2D mode, the artifacts that have been since the installation of the drivers have tried different ones. In 3D mode, everything runs ok, there are no artifacts, but as soon as I exit the game to the slave.
If you remove the drivers, Windows puts the default drivers, then everything is ok in 2D mode, but you can play games. As I wrote above, if you remove the driver, then the memory frequency is increased.
I decided to edit the BIOS, but along the way I realized that now for hd6xxx and 7xxx series, there is no such possibility. I know that bios from other products. In general, we need good advice, what can be done to remove such a jamb? Has anyone come across this problem and can suggest a solution? Tohis And why not try to set the frequencies from the ATI control panel? I think I saw such a setting there. In general, after rebooting Peck, for some time there are artifacts on the Windows welcome screen when the entire system is loaded.
But it’s much better than it was, now you can not only play, but also work normally. I just didn’t quite get it. He himself set a fixed value of revolutions and drew a different temperature graph, but the card point-blank does not notice this.
How can I calm the heat of the cooling system? Skyner , Skyner Many thanks, now the process of exchanging the card will go faster. The store is interested in your link .. Today they called from the store and said that they would return the money for the video card, recognized the black screen as defective.
Tell me which video card to buy so that there are no problems with a black screen? I understand you need to take from asus? After 45 days of torment without a video card, the price was handed over for repair to me now does not play such a big role as reliability. But sapphire also heard with a black screen a large percentage of marriage comes across.
Due to the fact that almost half a year has passed since I bought my video card, the prices for the current ones have fallen and there is enough money even for HD, if only it was reliable. If a couple of days ago I was tormented by the question of which vidyuhi to take or, now everything is clear. In Ukraine, it is not clear why radiks have almost doubled in price now it’s definitely to take Vctor Vctor and in Ukraine it’s not clear why radiks have almost doubled in price Bitcoin Gold Fever K Gor Bitcoin Gold Fever Vctor Vctor What is Bitcoin?
BorodkO , BorodkO And they say through an analogue all modern maps lather, friezes, artifacts.
In principle, it is true, but «friezes and artifacts» have nothing to do with the analog output. In fact, even with pickups, if there is a picture, it will still be normal. K Gor, thank you. Well, good. How I was tormented by the question between and Vktor Vktor In Ukraine, it is not clear why radicals have risen in price almost twice Byrygi fight.
Now I looked at the «main market», there are bucks higher, but the bulk of the cards are not available. But a section appeared, there, judging by the absence and relative cheapness, all the cards were swept away at one moment.
BorodkO Vktor Vktor seems to be simply out of stock. So how long will they be expensive? I noticed that from Gigi. Vktor Vktor Rows of 1GB s will soon thin out and should come to replace them, hence the release of residues at such a price and cheating on 2 gigs. Of course, IMHO, but I do not see another option. Vctor Vctor what is better or? Kgor. Until that time, and often lost to ke.
PowerColor Radeon HD 7850 PCS+ review.
Overclocked mid-range solution
Unanswered topics Active topics. It is currently Dec 14 Unanswered Topics Active Topics 1Upgrade. Post Added: 27 Sep How much is an adequate price tag for a 2gb radio today?
Overclocked to GPU = and memory up to Voltage did not increase. If you drive higher, then everything hangs with a gray screen and.
Club3D Radeon HD 7850 (CGAX-7856)
Minecraft receives a Cross-Play update Minecraft is now receiving an update for the PS4 platform that allows all PlayStation users Xiaomi Redmi smartphone live photos which was released in n Translator in Google Assistant is now dos Google has added a real-time translation function to smartphones with Android and iOS. Indestructible smartphone Blackview BV bu
Overclocking video card based on AMD
chipset
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Review: ASUS AMD Radeon HD 7850 Video Card
Customer Reviews Specifications.
Who has problems with this video card, most likely the rest of the PC parts simply fail. With my assembly, all the details of the same level of GTA 5 work at maximum speeds without problems, I don’t see the point in changing FPS. TAZovods will like the video card — they like constantly what to upgrade and make noise :. Against: The cooling system is like on a Zhiguli, that is, it constantly rattled and the cooler itself, if you touch it, it walks with such backlash horror!
Reviews ASUS Radeon HD 7850 860Mhz PCI-E 3.0 2048Mb 4800Mhz 256 bit 2xDVI HDMI HDCP
Registration Login. Mail answers. Questions — leaders The screen rarely flickers and games crash 1 bet. Where to buy PC components in Belarus? Help me choose a laptop from 4 budget options. Will RAM work?
Video card PCI-E Sapphire AMD Radeon HD MB bit GDDR5 Overclocking — operation of the equipment at a higher frequency, outside the nominal.
Codename «Pitcairn»: testing AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7850
To this topic The topic has been moved Thanks for this post: yasino.
Large testing of Radeon HD 7850 and review of MSI R7850 Power Edition 2GD5/OC
Tanks vs video cards 2. Performance testing in War Thunder and World of Tanks. On the pages of our site, we have already reviewed almost all AMD video cards of the new generation Radeon. We managed to get acquainted with many non-standard versions of older video cards. But the Radeon HD has somehow not yet been featured in the reviews. And in this article we will correct this omission by fully concentrating on the youngest representative of the HD 9 series.0005
Country of origin: China. The price has been changed.
Sapphire HD 7850 OC Video Card Review and Test (page 3)
FCC and Industry Canada certified products will be distributed in the US and Canada. Refer to the respective regional ASUS websites for information about them. Specifications subject to change without prior notice. You can get the exact information about them from the seller. Product availability varies by region.
Specifications vary by product model — see All images are for illustrative purposes only.
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Review and test Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC — i2HARD
January 8, 2013
Today we will present a review and test of the Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC video card.
Today we will present a review and test of the Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC video card.
Specifications Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC
| Graphics core | Pitcairn PRO |
| Interface | PCI Express x16 3.0 |
| Process technology | 28nm |
| GPU frequency | 920MHz |
| Memory frequency (physical (effective)) | (1250(5000))MHz |
| Video memory bus width | 256bit |
| Amount of video memory | 2048MB |
| Video memory type | GDDR5 |
| Number of general purpose processors | 1024 |
| Number of texture units | 64 |
| Number of ROPs | 32 |
| The need for additional power | 6-pin |
| Additional interfaces | DVI, HDMI, mini Display Port x2 |
| Recommended PSU Wattage | 500W |
| Video card length | 210mm |
Factory overclocking on this model from Sapphire is only + 60 MHz for the core.
Still not very big, but it will slightly add performance.
Packaging and contents
The packaging of the video adapter is very small. When compared with ASUS of the same model, it seems that you have a budget product in your hands, the cost of which does not exceed 5 thousand.
The front side depicts a warrior familiar to Sapphire. There is also a brief information about the capabilities of the video card, presented in the form of icons. Among all the data, OC Version should be highlighted.
On the reverse side there is some information about the technologies used in this video adapter.
The video card is delivered in papier-mâché, which ensures safe transportation of the device.
Equipment:
- Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC graphics card;
- CD with drivers and utilities;
- Installation and operating instructions;
- Sapphire product registration card;
- CrossFire Bridge;
- Molex to 6-pin auxiliary power adapter;
- DVI to VGA adapter;
- mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter;
- Sapphire branded sticker;
Appearance and cooling system
The video card has a proprietary cooling system called Dual-X and a small radiator, to which two heat pipes with a diameter of 8 mm are soldered.
They are in contact with the graphics chip through a copper heat sink plate and allow you to evenly distribute heat over the entire area of the radiator. All this is covered by a black plastic casing with two 72mm fans. Power elements and memory chips are cooled only by the air flow created by the fans.
Externally, the video card is very small.
The printed circuit board differs significantly from the «reference»: the arrangement is noticeably denser, and the length of only 210 mm allows the board to be installed in any modern case, large and small. The GPU power subsystem, located closer to the interface panel, is made according to the same 4+1 phase system.
This is what the Pitcairn Pro graphics chip looks like, which is made using a 28 nm process. This chip has 1024 unified processors and 32 ROP units, and data exchange between the graphics core and memory occurs through a 256-bit bus.
The board has 2GB GDDR5 video memory with eight 256MB chips manufactured by Elpida.
The memory runs at 1250 MHz.
The reverse side is almost devoid of elements. Only a few components of the VRM module are present. This feature should affect the cooling of the video card as a whole.
The presence of a connector for connecting a CrossFire bridge allows you to combine up to two video cards based on the graphics processors of this board.
For additional power supply of the video card, in addition to the PCI-Express 3.0 bus, a 6-pin connector is used, which is located at the back of the printed circuit board. Nearby, one more “seat” for the additional power connector is noticeable. Let’s clarify that the peak power consumption of the card, based on the specifications, does not exceed 150W.
Interfaces on Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC:
- DVI
- HDMI
- Mini DisplayPort x2
Testing
Test bench
| CPU |
Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4. 5GHz (1.256V)
|
| cooler | IceHammer IH-4500 (Thermalright TY-140) |
| Motherboard | ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 |
| RAM | 2 x 4GB Kingston HyperX Red Limited Edition 1333MHz (8-8-8-21) |
| HDD | 2 x Seagate ST3250310AS (250GB, 7200RPM, SATA-II) in Raid 0 |
| Power Supply | Chieftec CFT-700-14CS |
| Frame | Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced |
| Reobas | Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus |
| Monitor | ASUS VE247H 1920×1080 (23.6′) |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit DirectX 11 |
| Drivers | AMD Catalyst 12.7 Beta, VSync off. |
Test software. All measurements were carried out at a resolution of 1920×1080
| 3D Mark 11 | Settings Performance, Extreme |
| 3D Mark Vantage | Settings Performance, Extreme |
| Dirt 2 | Ultra high settings |
| Dirt 3 | Ultra high settings |
| Metro 2033 | Super High Settings |
| Battlefield 3 | Ultra settings |
| Grand Theft Auto 4 | High-Ultra settings, draw distance 100% |
FurMark 1. 10.0
|
Warming up the video card. |
| Fraps 3.4.5 | FPS meter |
Without raising the voltage, we managed to achieve stable frequencies of 1080/1400 MHz for the core and memory, respectively. Overclocking was carried out by the Sapphire TriXX proprietary utility version 4.3.0. We will find out the temperature difference later. There will also be a temperature measurement with the replacement of thermal paste with a more efficient one, namely Arctic Cooling MX-2. Comparative benchmark charts:
In the overclocking of Radeon HD 7850 shows excellent results bypassing the older brother Radeon HD 7870.
Games:
Cooling:
Cooling system performs its function for hard 5. Small 5. Small ones. temperature with little noise — ideal. In auto mode, at 2800RPM (52%) there was no CO noise. In the maximum mode, at 4300RPM, the noise of the video card stood out slightly from the entire computer.
Replacing the thermal interface with Arctic Cooling MX-2 was simply amazing, since the video card heated up less during overclocking than with standard factory overclocking.
Conclusion
The Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC is a great product for the casual gamer with overclocking skills. By increasing the frequencies on this video card, you can play with a comfortable FPS at the level of top AMD and Nvidia solutions of past generations. Quiet and efficient — that’s about Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC.
Pros:
- Excellent performance;
- High overclocking potential;
- Compact;
- Factory overclock;
- Efficient cooling system.
Cons:
- Not found
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HD 7850 mining AMD RX 570 video cards Overclocked
Feb 10,2020 Leave a comment btc Bitcoin
AMD RX video cards have shown good efficiency in mining and proved themselves in the field of ether mining.
For AMD RX, mining can give a good profit, but for this you need to carefully master the selection of products from different manufacturers and correctly overclock the video card.
In the post, the overclocking of the RX 8gb video card is described in full, for the purpose of mining, which video card model is more suitable and how it is possible to reduce the consumption of RX in mining.
- characteristic data and relevance AMD RX
- Selection of modification and which is cooler RX
- calculator of algorithms and hash on them
- Ethereum+decred Duel mining
9003 900 9003 for mining
900 Undervoltage and power consumption RX
Characteristic data and relevance AMD RX
The revenue that the owner of the coin mining farm can provide depends on the power of the video card. Therefore, the need for new products among video cards appears more among miners than among gamers. Miners, at 1 opportunity, evaluate and provide advice on the latest graphics cards, give them performance ratings, and describe the reality of the accessory’s memory and processor overclocking potential. RX subsequently attracted the owners of farms, and those who only intended to take up mining.
In order to somehow compensate for the lack of video cards, various manufacturers have made their own modifications of video cards based on the provided chip. This guaranteed the popularity of RX video cards among miners and the need in the computer technology market. They slowly began to take leadership positions in this field of activity and stood close to the close ancestor of the RX series.
On the RX 570 card, ether mining proved to be excellent and as a result, it became the main device that earns coins on algorithms that do not use the ASIC architecture. The structure and principle of activity does not differ from its predecessors.
Typical properties of the RX 570 look like this:
- number of processors — 2048 pieces
- interface slot — PCI-E ;
- number of texture units — 128 pieces ;
- processor core frequency — 1255 MHz.
; - clock memory frequency — 7000 MHz. ;
- memory bus width — 256 bits ;
- maximum power consumption — 150 W .
Selection of modification and which is cooler RX
The RX card was published in 2 versions: 4 GB and 8 GB of memory. But as it turned out, this parameter became the main one only for gamers. Miners, due to the characteristics that do not change due to the amount of memory, when mining on the DaggerHashimoto and Equihash algorithms, they selected the one that is cheaper, i.e. the version with 4 GB. Sometimes the exchange rate began to change, almost everyone had to strain about purchasing a version with a considerable amount of memory. Therefore, it’s more correct to immediately overpay slightly and take the version with 8 GB. To this, after all, the difference in price at the moment of the 2 models is small.
Even if the rate does not change for the worse, at any time a fresh algorithm can appear or the existing one can change, which will require the largest amount of RAM to increase the hash rate.
RAM sticks from Elpida and Hynix have quite good overclocking potential and are supplied in RX 570 cards from most manufacturers. But there are also video cards with memory from Samsung, which, after flashing the timings, have every chance of guaranteeing a very large hash rate. These memory chips are supplied in Gigabyte RX 570 and Sapphire Nitro+ RX 570.
Another important parameter when choosing a card is not a bad cooling system. This is exactly what is available in the PowerColor RX 570 Red Devil. As many as 3 coolers are installed on this video card, due to the fact it remains very cool.
calculator of the profitability of algorithms and hash on them
RX 570 with factory settings, coins with this speed:
| Algorithm | Hashrate | 9260EV2610 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethhash | 27.9 Mh/s | 120 | |||||||
| Zhash | 19 H/s | 100 | |||||||
| CNSaber | 640 H/s | 110 | |||||||
| CNHeavy | 640 H/s | 110 | |||||||
| CNHaven | 640 H/s | 110 | |||||||
| CryptoNightV8 | 730 H/s | 120 | |||||||
| Aion | 85 H/s | 100 | |||||||
| NeoScrypt | 700 Kh/s | 140 | |||||||
| BCD | 7. 3 Mh/s |
110 | |||||||
| TimeTravel10 | 8.0 Mh/ s | 115 | |||||||
| X16R | 5 Mh/s | 100 | |||||||
| Lyra2Z | 0.42 Mh/s | 110 | |||||||
| Hex | 2.1 Mh/s | 85 | |||||||
| Progpow | 6.7 mh/s | 130 W | |||||||
| x222i | 3.4 MH/S | 110 W |
9000 . No GPU can compare with ASIC performance. In general, AMD cards are still considered the most cost-effective mining devices compared to Nvidia due to the tighter cost.
RX with factory options, will be able to earn coins at the provided speed:
Significance data demonstrates that mining Ethereum, Metaverse, Ethereum Classic and other coins will give a good income. To find out what video cards are ready for, you can find out how they show themselves on different algorithms.
Ethereum mining
Updated drivers for AMD RADEON RX 570 video cards allow you to earn ether at a speed of 24 Mh/s.
The speed of mining RX 570 increases after flashing the timings and with overclocking the RAM bus 27.9Mh/s. This significance may depend on the manufacturer of the video card and RAM. For example, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 570 can deliver 27.5 Mh/s. This will allow you to reach revenues of $ 10 per month. Taking into account the cost of electricity, you need to pay back the device within 1.5 years. The indicator calculated at the beginning of publication, the correct profitability can be calculated on the Whattomine website
Mining Zcash
To calculate the hashrate and calculate the profitability, there is a special mining calculator, thanks to which it is possible to find out the payback of the card in advance. If the speed is only 310 Sol / s, then in a month it will be possible to get only -10$. Using the calculator, it turned out that Zcash fishing is unprofitable due to the highest complexity and ASIC devices, which appeared on sale relatively recently. The initial cash investment in the devices will pay off only after 3 years.
Therefore, getting Zcash is useless. Focusing on less popular coins is only necessary if we are talking about dual mining, which the card will be able to cope with without problems.
Ethereum + Decred Dual mining
Most of all, to earn money on the RX 570, ETH and DCR are dual-mined. They can very well be mined at once, without interfering with each other. So, the value of the Ethereum hashrate does not fall when Decred is mined. On a properly overclocked and flashed RX 570 card, it turns out to earn ETH at a speed of 26.7 MH/s and DCR at a speed of 800 MH/s at once. Earnings per month will be more than $ 13, which is a little more than when mining the 1st ether. At the same time, consumption increases, because if the price of electricity in the region of the owner of the farm is more expensive than the average, then this approach should be resolved based on profitability.
For dual mining use Claymore’s Dual Ethereum AMD+NVIDIA GPU Miner v15.0 (Windows/Linux) download .
When setting up, special attention should be paid to the power consumption of the card, it should not exceed 140 W and the core voltage should not exceed (VDDC 0.9700 V in the GPU-Z program).
How to flash RX for mining
Flashing RX for mining is a necessary operation. Without this, it is impossible to reach the upper hash value. Any miner will be able to flash the Bios rx 570 card, based on the instructions. The correct firmware of the RX 570 for mining has the ability to become a transitional factor in the course of mining, which affects the revenue and makes it possible to get more money. Stock firmware for video cards can be found on specialized websites and forums for Techpowerup miners.
It is necessary to focus on the compliance of the program with the highest characteristics of the equipment in order to get rid of the overload of the card after overclocking. It is recommended to keep 5% of the total performance unused, so as not to ruin the accessory. This will increase the life of the equipment and get rid of freezes and errors just right for mining.
Overclocking RX 570 8GB card, for mining, will require bios firmware. To do this, you need to download the program from AMD «ATIWinFlash». With her assistance, it is permissible to save the original BIOS from the video card on the computer. There are 2 versions of programs text and with a shell, the first is easier to use, and the second is much more functional, but two are very good for firmware.
For Polaris video cards, you can use the free SRB Polaris BIOS Editor program.
With her help, you can change the timings of RAM, increase the processor frequency, adjust the cooling system and reduce energy consumption.
The Polaris BIOS Editor is also very good at handling these add-ons. It is also distributed as a gift. In use there is an automatic selection of the best timing value for a particular manufacturer.
In the end, you will need to use the Atikmdag patcher to avoid errors when installing drivers.
Flashing the card entails the loss of warranty time, but there are «Specialists» who can teach how to avoid such moments. Be careful.
Overclocking AMD Radeon RX 570
Overclocking the RX 570 8gb card for mining, as well as for games, comes with the support of the MSI Afterburner program. It is famous among gamers and miners due to its ability to fix and overclock equipment for sure. But unlike other software, it can adjust all the modified options among themselves, which allows you to avoid imbalance in the operation of the card.
One of the advantages of the program is its free distribution on the Internet. All options for configuring characteristics and overclocking are taken into account by the developer and are easily accessible to users in the original version of the program.
Overclocking of the video card for mining is performed properly: First, the importance of the core is set, and only later you can add the memory frequency.
Good values during overclocking are selected manually by +30 Mhz to avoid overclocking.
When mining Ethereum, video card memory is used and processor overclocking practically does not work. The best value of the video card processor is around 1050 Mhz.
To overclock the memory, you first need to figure out what timings were wired. When updating the BIOS with timings from 1500, the rational options for the video card will become 1850 Mhz.
How to reduce the power consumption of the RX 570
The card, functioning in Dual-mining, has the ability to heat up to 75 degrees and use the fans at high speeds. Firstly, it creates quite noisy, and secondly, it means that the vidyukha has started to use more electricity.
MSI AfterBurner has the ability to display 130W. This can happen if the downvolt was committed by mistake or was not done at all.
The best Power Limit value is -50%, with such options, the vidyukha works very well and wastes about 110 W of electricity.
Asus hd 7850 2gb gddr5 • Web cheat sheet for internet entrepreneurs!
Contents
- 1 Buy from store:
- 2 Order with delivery:
- 3 Specifications
- 4 Reviews
- 5 Performance comparison and test results
- 6 Technical specifications:
- 7 Packaging and contents
- 8 Appearance, design
- 9 Testing
- graphics cards:
- 12.1 Recommended reading
‘> ✔2 GB ✔PCI Express 3.0 16x ✔GDDR5 ✔DisplayPort, DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI, D-Sub adapter included ✔RADEON HD 7850 ✔256 bit ✔DirectCU II
Graphics cards with 2GB video memory SKU: #142758 Compare Back Forward
Buy at store:
Order with delivery:
Not expected to be available for sale, usually this condition of the product means that it is discontinued.
- Features
- Video
- Options and Consumables
- Photo examples
- Reviews (no)
- Leave a review
- Tests
- Information
Features
| Active promotions | ✔ Discount on purchase of GIGABYTE motherboard, GIGABYTE graphics card and Intel |
| Key features | |
| Manufacturer | ASUS |
| Model | HD7850-DC2-2GD5-V2 find similar graphics card |
| Equipment type | Video card |
| API | DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.x |
| Length | 278 mm |
| OS support | Windows XP x64, Windows XP, Windows MCE 2005, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 |
| Scope of supply and options | |
| Software included | GPU Tweak |
| Video | |
| RAMDAC | 400 MHz, 10 bits per channel. |
| Maximum screen resolution | 4096 x 2160 when connected to DisplayPort or HDMI, 2560 x 1600 when connected to DVI, 2048 x 1536 (when analog monitor is connected) |
| CrossFire support | Card merging possible with CrossfireX |
| Max. number of connected monitors | 3 directly connected or up to 5 monitors using DisplayPort splitters |
| Video card configuration | |
| GPU | RADEON HD 7850 |
| GPU clock | 860 MHz |
| Number of Shader Processors | 1024 |
| Video memory | 2 GB |
| Video memory type | GDDR5 |
| Video memory bus width | 256 bit |
| Video memory frequency | 1200 MHz (4.8 GHz QDR) |
| Number of pixel pipelines | 64, 32 texture sampling units |
| Configuration | |
| Process | 28 nm |
| Interface, connectors and outputs | |
| Interface | PCI Express 3. 0 16x (compatible with PCI Express 2.x/1.x) with the ability to combine cards using CrossfireX. |
| HDCP support | Yes (1080p) |
| Ports | DisplayPort, DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI, D-Sub adapter included |
| Other features | |
| General purpose GPU support | AMD APP, OpenCL 1.1, DirectCompute 11 |
| Cooling | |
| Video card cooler | Active cooling (heatsink + 2 DirectCU II fans on the front side of the board) |
| Cooling system name | DirectCU II |
| Cooling system design | Dual-slot cooling system |
| Compatible | |
| System requirements (recommended) | 500 W power supply |
| Power connector | 6 pin suitable power adapters |
| Low profile card | No |
| Logistics | |
| Package dimensions (measured in NYX) | 40. 72 x 23.51 x 9.1 cm |
| Gross weight (measured in NYX) | 1.28 kg |
| External sources of information | |
| Manufacturer Hotline | (495) 231-19-99 — in Moscow; 8-800-100-27-87 — a free call from any region of Russia. Mon — Sat: from 10.00 to 18.00 |
Reviews
We tried to make the description as good as possible, so that your choice was unmistakable and conscious, but because we may not have exploited this product, but only felt it from all sides, and after you buy it, try it in work, your feedback can make this world a better place, if your feedback is really useful, then we will publish it and give it you the opportunity to make the next purchase with us on the 2nd column.
Performance Comparison and Test Results
In order to give you an idea of the performance of the selected product (not yet in our test lab, but we are working on it), the chart shows the test results for 10 products that are similar in price to the selected product.
Percentages indicate an approach to the maximum of the recorded results.
Only items currently in stock are used for comparisons.
ASUS recently updated its Radeon HD 7800 series product line with some technical changes to its graphics cards. Our first acquaintance was with an updated version of the older card — ASUS HD7870-DC2TG-2GD5-V2. Impressions from this model were extremely positive. Instead of the old cooler, the V2 version has got an updated DirectCU II, which proved to be excellent on the GeForce GTX 660 Ti and GeForce GTX 670. Now we will see what changes have been made to the Radeon HD 7850.
ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5-V2
The video card is delivered in a massive box. On the front side there is an image of the cooling system, which has nothing to do with the new dual-slot version of DirectCU II, but resembles an old cooler.
The scope of delivery is as follows:
- DVI/D-Sub adapter;
- CrossFire Bridge;
- software disk;
- instructions.
This model is indeed equipped with an old cooling system, which was present on the first revisions of ASUS HD7850 and ASUS HD7870. So, at first glance, there seems to be no differences between ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5-V2 and HD7850-DC2-2GD5.
There is a lot of empty space on the left side under the cooler cover. In this case, the radiator protrudes beyond the board for a considerable distance. The fee itself is small. Externally, it is very similar to ASUS GTX650TI-DC2T-1GD5.
Monitors can be connected via Display Port, HDMI and two DVI.
The cooler used in this case was actively used in the previous generation of ASUS graphics adapters. It’s a combination of a solid aluminum heatsink, three direct-contact heatpipes, and a section of fins that are strung above the board.
On a GeForce GTX 560 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti, this cooler worked perfectly. But already for the Radeon HD 7870 it was not enough.
The ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 we tested earlier turned out to be quite noisy even at nominal. But the Radeon HD 7850 is still colder, so there are chances that the younger card will be quieter.
Due to the raised side section, fans of different thickness but the same diameter are used in the design. They also differ in the shape of the blades and their number. The thicker fan is labeled Everflow R128015SU, the thin fan is Everflow R128010SU.
If the cooling system remains the same, then what is the difference from the old ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5? They are in the board design. The first version completely copied the reference. V2 has increased the number of GPU power phases from four to six. Higher quality components are used.
The GPU power system is based on the Digi+ ASP1215A controller.
The Pitcairn processor is placed on a substrate at an angle and surrounded by a protective frame.
Two gigabytes of memory are typed with Hynix H5GQ2h34MFR T2C chips.
Operating frequencies correspond to the standard — 860/4800 MHz for the core and memory. It is noteworthy that the first version of ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5 had a tiny factory overclock to 870/4840 MHz.
The GPU-Z utility estimated the ASIC Quality to be 80.4%.
At 22.5°C, the card demonstrated low operating temperatures with negligible noise levels. Crysis 12-minute test: Warhead did not warm the core above 63 ° C, and the fans did not spin up above 1160 rpm.
MSI Kombustor’s stress test reached 66°C, but the card remained quiet.
With such excellent cooling performance, you can hope for good overclocking. But in reality, everything turned out to be somewhat more complicated. To begin with, it is worth noting that in MSI Afterburner you cannot adjust the operating voltage. This feature is only available in the ASUS GPU Tweak utility, which does not allow you to raise the core frequency above 1050 MHz. And the graphics processor at the initial voltage works quietly at frequencies up to 1050 MHz.
So ASUS GPU Tweak is not the best choice for overclocking this video card, because you still have to use third-party utilities to exceed the 1050 MHz threshold. In this case, you need to follow a certain procedure: first set the voltage in the GPU Tweak, and then proceed with the adjustments in MSI Afterburner. In the latest versions of ASUS GPU Tweak, overclocking above 1050 MHz can be unlocked by activating the Overclocking range enhancement option in the Tune Settings tab in the settings menu.
Yes, and softvoltmod gives minimal benefit. By increasing the voltage from the initial 1.135 V to a maximum of 1.225, we were only able to achieve stability at 1110 MHz. Even on HIS and MSI cards without the possibility of programmatically changing the voltage, it was possible to achieve large values. By the way, from here we can conclude that the excellent temperature and noise performance in the nominal value is largely associated with low operating voltage. Pleased only with memory overclocking — 5860 MHz.
Characteristics of tested video cards
We will compare the ASUS video card with the participants of the recent large test of mid-range video cards, namely: Radeon HD 7850, Radeon HD 7870, Radeon HD 7950, GeForce GTX 660 and GeForce GTX 660 Ti. Since ASUS factory frequencies fully meet the recommended specifications, and such a card has already been tested before, the tests for HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2 were carried out only in overclocking.
The Radeon HD 7870 is 22-24% faster. But when overclocking the younger card, it manages to slightly outperform the Radeon HD 7870 in nominal terms. 
And when overclocked, the ASUS card slightly outperforms the stock-clocked GeForce GTX 660 Ti. 
But overclocking was not impressive. The maximum memory frequencies are good, and the potential of the GPU turned out to be low despite all the changes in the design and increase in power phases. In fact, this is the lowest result of overclocking the core among all the Radeon HD 7850s that we have previously visited. But if we limit ourselves to the standard voltage and a frequency of about 1050 MHz, then such overclocking will be easy in quiet mode. Moreover, in reviews of other Radeon HD 7850s, we have repeatedly noted the need to improve cooling for maximum frequencies. So if we talk only about practical everyday overclocking at a low noise level, then ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5-V2 will be no worse, if not better, than many competitors. 
But do not worry those who do not know how to overclock. ASUS there is also TOP version with good factory overclocking. It will not be difficult for me to disperse it a little and test it. 
ASUS does not save on such things. 
Also on boards of the latest generations of ASUS graphics solutions there is a stiffening rib to protect the video card from all sorts of kinks. 
6’) 
The frequencies of the graphics core and video memory were raised. In total, + 180 / 240 MHz were raised for the core and memory, respectively. At the same time, the video card worked stably and there were no problems. At the same time, the temperature regime did not increase much, you will learn about it below during the testing itself. 
Now let’s see how the temperature regime has changed during overclocking, compared with the standard frequencies. 
With more overclocking, it is possible to achieve the level of Radeon HD 7950 , or just catch up with it. I advise taking this product to those people who want not to spend much, but at the same time get good performance in modern games. GeForce GTX 750 Ti: overclocking, performance and power consumption . We offer a more detailed assessment of the performance, overclocking potential and energy efficiency of the reference adapter with the GM107 GPU.
Zmist
- 1 Overclocking
- 2 Performance
- 3 Power consumption
- 4 Results
Overclocking
As we mentioned earlier, the reference adapter’s GPU has a base frequency of 1020 MHz.
Thanks to GPU Boost 2.0 technology, this value changes dynamically and, as practice has shown, during load it can increase up to 1150 MHz.
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Let’s see how much we can increase the GPU frequency ourselves. Using the MSI Afterburner application, we were able to increase the base value to 1155 MHz (+13.2%). The Power Limit setting for the reference adapter cannot be changed. This is not surprising, given that this model does not provide an additional power connection. The TDP of the video card is 60W, while the PCI Express x16 slot can provide up to 75W. It is important that the adapter’s consumption does not exceed the latter value, and some power reserve is also needed.
The memory clock speed was increased from 5400 MHz to 6524 MHz (+20.8%). The power consumption of a video card also increases with an increase in the frequency of the memory, so a certain balance is needed here.
For sure, for devices equipped with an additional power connector, the frequency limits will be even higher, but the reference adapter gets a good boost.
After overclocking, the temperature of the GPU increased slightly. GPU temperature under load increased to 69C. These results are more of academic interest, since video card manufacturers will use, at a minimum, original cooling systems, and often also PCBs of their own design. At the same time, we note that after additional forcing, the GPU clock frequency increased up to 1284 MHz. That is, the frequency potential of GM107 is quite good.
Performance
Performance of the GeForce GTX 750 Ti we started to consider in the first part of the material devoted to the new product based on the chip with the Maxwell architecture. For a more complete assessment of the capabilities of the device, we also included the GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST in the review. A popular solution in its class has now practically disappeared from the sale, perhaps by comparing the results, the situation will become clearer.
It will be interesting to compare the performance with those for the Radeon R7 265, which recently expanded the line of AMD graphics adapters. The model is actually based on the Radeon HD 7850. Considering the declared price of $149, it is obvious that the company opposes this particular model to the novelty of its main competitor. Since the Radeon R7 265 is not yet commercially available, this position is modeled with the HD 7850, which received higher chip/memory frequencies (925/5600 MHz) characteristic of the «new» model.
The diagrams also show the results of the Radeon R7 260X operating in two frequency modes — 1000/6000 MHz and 1100/6500 MHz. In the second case, we are not talking about overclocking. The fact is that for the Radeon R7 260X, equipped with 1 GB of memory, the first formula is standard, while for versions with 2 GB of memory, 1100/6500 MHz are recommended. We had an adapter with 1 GB of local memory, but, for experimental purposes, we increased the clock speed of the chip/memory to a level corresponding to the 2 GB version.
Double the amount of local RAM would have improved the results of the Radeon R7 260X, but in the graphics modes used, this would have affected less than the impressive difference in clock frequencies.
The obtained indicators are rather difficult to average. In general, the performance of the GeForce GTX 750 Ti is higher than that of the Radeon R7 260X, however, as before, a lot depends on the specific game engine. The difference can range from 5-7% in FutureMark synthetics to an impressive 31% in Bioshock Infinite. Moreover, in some cases, the AMD solution looks even more preferable — a 5% difference in Total War: ROME II, about 2% in GRID 2, and almost equal results in Battlefield 4.
The performance of GeForce GTX 750 Ti and Radeon R7 265, which are equal in declared price, is quite interesting. In nominal modes, AMD’s model turns out to be 15% more productive on average. Again, the advantage varies depending on the game. In the worst case, in the game Bioshock Infinite, the Radeon R7 265 even marginally lost to the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, but this is an exception to the rule.
Comparing the performance of GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GeForce GTX 650 Ti, we can observe a significant advantage of the new video card — 20-25%. Using these models as an example, we can talk about the advantages of the Maxwell architecture. With more compute units (768 vs. 640), the Kepler-based GTX 650 Ti is noticeably inferior to the GTX 750 Ti. Although, of course, we should not lose sight of the difference in the base clock speeds of the GPUs, as well as the fact that the GTX 750 Ti has a GPU Boost engine that accelerates the chip up to 1150 MHz. Whereas the GTX 650 Ti is content with 925 MHz.
Tests have shown that Geforce GTX 750 Ti in many cases can replace not only GTX 650 Ti, but also compete on equal terms with faster GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST. Not surprisingly, NVIDIA has no plans to offer something to replace the video card leaving the market. Often the performance difference is very small, up to 5%. The exception is when the application is very sensitive to memory bandwidth.
In these cases, the GTX 650 Ti BOOST’s 192-bit bus comes in handy.
Additional overclocking improves the performance of the GeForce GTX 750 Ti by 11-15%, sometimes closing the gap with the Radeon R7 265, although the latter also has a good headroom for frequency tuning, which can be used if necessary.
Power Consumption
Starting to evaluate the power efficiency of a video card based on a Maxwell architecture chip, we expected interesting results. Indeed, the claimed TDP level of 60 W for a device of this level is an impressive figure. Competitors classmates have thermal packs of 100+ watts.
We have measured the maximum total power consumption of the PC when used under the same conditions with various graphics cards. In the game Battefield 4, the difference in the consumption of systems on the GeForce GTX 750 Ti and Radeon R7 260X was about 30-35 W, while the PC with the new NVIDIA was 40-50 W more economical than platforms with the Radeon R7 265 and GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST.
To reduce the impact of processor power consumption on the final result, we measured the performance after running the FurMark stress test, which creates an exorbitant load on the video card and a minimal load on the CPU. Under such conditions, the difference in indicators increased to 50–60 W.
Results
The GeForce GTX 750 Ti is an interesting solution in terms of a whole set of parameters. Using the new graphics architecture, NVIDIA managed to significantly increase the performance of computing units, along with improving the energy efficiency of Maxwell devices. Obviously, the GeForce GTX 750 Ti becomes the best solution in its class in terms of performance per watt. This is the fastest video card that does not require additional power supply. A very interesting option for a fairly economical universal PC compact form factors. At the same time, the capabilities of the device quite allow you to get a comfortable level of performance in games.
As part of classic gaming platforms, the obvious advantages of the novelty based on the GM107 will somewhat offset the rather high declared cost of the device. The suggested price of $149 is the same as the Radeon R7 265, which is significantly faster than the GeForce GTX 750 Ti. The struggle of two concepts. On the side of the NVIDIA novelty is a progressive architecture, much better energy efficiency and support for proprietary technologies. AMD offers more performance for the same money, the promising Mantle API and the ability to use adapters in CrossFire mode.
In this case, the real retail cost of specific devices may become the most weighty argument when choosing. GeForce GTX 750 Ti are already on sale at a price of 1700 UAH. The Radeon R7 265 is still out of stock, although they were nominally introduced a few days earlier. Radeon HD 7850, which differ from the Radeon R7 265 only in lower frequencies, are available, but are offered from 2200 UAH. Alas, these models are already in the sphere of interests of cryptocurrency lovers, therefore, in practice, they are greatly overestimated.