Just ordered a Radeon 7870 !

[jameswh]

Just ordered a Radeon 7870(Sapphire OC edition @ 360 from amazon) !! Not sure if this is the right forum topic, but its PC gaming and thats why I ordered this BEAST. I'm really excited, since I have amazon prime I paid an extra 4 dollars to have it 1 day shipped(still not here till monday.) Its the most i've ever dropped on a video card, number 2 being a ATI Radeon x800 all in wonder @ ~300 dollars. Im upgrading from a sapphire radeon 4870 2gb. Mostly posting due to excitement, but also have a couple questions :)

I built my whole setup about 1.5 years ago, asus p55 extreme MOBO, core i5 750(NOW OC to 4.0ghz w/coolermaster heatsink+fan) 8gbyte ddr 1600, corsair 750 psu,128 MB Crucial SSD, radeon 4870, and plenty of fans.

My questions are, does anyone know how crazy of a difference ill see in games; the games im playing right now are SC2 which runs decently on high, too laggy for my taste on ultra, battlefield BC2 which runs on medium perfect but anything higher laggy, and im looking at DOTA 2, Diablo3, and battlefield 3 as my future games. My resolution is 1080p on a 23 inch. Im an oldschool CS player so a constant 60 fps+ is more important than graphics.

My other question is, will my i5 750 @ 4.0 eventually bottleneck, or my g.skill ram? I guess im at the end of the line. I've OC my cpu pretty far(or maybe i could do a tad further with liquid cooling), my memory is higher than needed, my HD is SSD, and my graphics is now top of the line. Will next step(hopefully not for a couple years) be rebuild, or is there anything worth doing(raid my ssd with another?, will 7870 x2 be worth it or will my processor be the bottleneck, thats the big question. In that case should i look at liquid cooling or complete overhaul?)

After my big excitement for the day, which is ordering my new card, and having a good ole cheap bottle o wine, i hope my post makes sense. Anyways good day everyone. Thanks for the response :)

[drazen11]

I hate you! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

i7 will do the trick

for now i5 is enough

[Amarok]

Your i5-750 shouldn't be a bottleneck. It's still a very solid CPU, and GPU tech hasn't leaped that far ahead since the i5-750 was in it's prime, and back then much older CPUs weren't even close to being a bottleneck for the top of the line GPUs around that time.

[jameswh]

Your i5-750 shouldn't be a bottleneck. It's still a very solid CPU, and GPU tech hasn't leaped that far ahead since the i5-750 was in it's prime, and back then much older CPUs weren't even close to being a bottleneck for the top of the line GPUs around that time.

Awesome ! So wait a year or two, Crossfire 7870, wait another year or two, rebuild, and im set ? Im so excited :D

[(Spork)]

should be in hardware :D

[Order_66]

Sold my pair of gtx 580's a short while back and bought a pair of 7970's, worst mistake I ever made, drivers are the worst, I mean they are just plain horrible.

[Vandalsquad]

The games you currently play you won't see that much of a difference but it will be there, a lot smoother crisper. I would boot up games like BF3 etc take them for a spin maxed ;)

[Kondrath]

Sold my pair of gtx 580's a short while back and bought a pair of 7970's, worst mistake I ever made, drivers are the worst, I mean they are just plain horrible.

Yeah... Can't wait to get rid of AMD. These drivers suck. But good luck, James. Maybe you'll get lucky!

[jameswh]

Yeah... Can't wait to get rid of AMD. These drivers suck. But good luck, James. Maybe you'll get lucky!

Thanks ! I've had good lock with ATI/(AMD now) drivers in the past, I hope it will continue, I've had goodluck with nvidia too just for the record, I've always been about price per performance and AMD or ATI usually wins but my I5-750 was smashing bencharks in this build, and i have a laptop that has nvidia card and a intel processor that i got a great price. I try not to tie too much to brands but the best bang for my buck has usually been AMD/ATI and no driver issues yet :)

[BumbleBritches57]

I only haz an 6700 :(

The drivers ARE absolute **** though, who uses a XP esque custom gui? wtf? the ****s buggy, slow, and horribly laid out.

[Jeston Veteran]

I've been using ATI since the x1950 and I've never understood all the crying about the drivers. I seem to have a pretty much flawless experience with them.

Good job with the 7870, you won't be disappointed with it, especially when you get into crossfire! I love my 2 7970s to death :D

[Muhammad Farrukh]

750 shouldn't be a bottleneck. It's still a great CPU, and current-gen GPUs aren't that advanced.

[PC EliTiST]

Thanks ! I've had good lock with ATI/(AMD now) drivers in the past, I hope it will continue, I've had goodluck with nvidia too just for the record, I've always been about price per performance and AMD or ATI usually wins but my I5-750 was smashing bencharks in this build, and i have a laptop that has nvidia card and a intel processor that i got a great price. I try not to tie too much to brands but the best bang for my buck has usually been AMD/ATI and no driver issues yet :)

You don't have to worry for anything. There are a few problems if you have multiple GPUs ( CrossFire ) and they become more if you have 3 monitors. It doesn't apply to everyone... There you need the 'luck'. Since the series is new, the multiple GPUs problems will get ironed in a while.

I got one 7950 and haven't seen a single problem. I'll get a second 7950 when the price will drop, later, and all the problems I mentioned will be gone.

[BumbleBritches57]

6770* Sorry.

[Amarok]

I've been using ATI since the x1950 and I've never understood all the crying about the drivers. I seem to have a pretty much flawless experience with them.

Good job with the 7870, you won't be disappointed with it, especially when you get into crossfire! I love my 2 7970s to death :D

It's not that they're bad really. It's just that nVidia's drivers tend to be better.

[ToneKnee]

It's not that they're bad really. It's just that nVidia's drivers tend to be better.

That's funny because people say it's the other way round. I think the problem is specific setups people have, drivers will either work or they won't. Saying nVidia is better at drivers and vice versa only comes down to a matter of opinion and not actual fact. Another thing to point out is that these cards are very new and even with the latest nVidia graphics cards they need time to get the drivers right. Crossfiring and SLi-ing seem to be a big problem since I see a lot of issues with those implementations.

[Emn1ty]

That's funny because people say it's the other way round. I think the problem is specific setups people have, drivers will either work or they won't. Saying nVidia is better at drivers and vice versa only comes down to a matter of opinion and not actual fact. Another thing to point out is that these cards are very new and even with the latest nVidia graphics cards they need time to get the drivers right. Crossfiring and SLi-ing seem to be a big problem since I see a lot of issues with those implementations.

It might be more along the lines of nVidia drivers being compatible with more hardware combinations. Either way, I'm going strong with my FX6600 and GTX 560 / 8800GT. I'm still a little miffed with my processor and its interactions with Shogun 2, though.

[spaceelf]

I went from an 8600GTS to a 4850 and to a 6870 and the only time I had any problems with drivers was when the 6870 had just released.

Though there was a glitch with certain texture formats on the 4850, it only affected Elemental so who cares.

I'll check the prices when I'm ready to buy, of course.

[Amarok]

That's funny because people say it's the other way round. I think the problem is specific setups people have, drivers will either work or they won't. Saying nVidia is better at drivers and vice versa only comes down to a matter of opinion and not actual fact. Another thing to point out is that these cards are very new and even with the latest nVidia graphics cards they need time to get the drivers right. Crossfiring and SLi-ing seem to be a big problem since I see a lot of issues with those implementations.

What? That nVidia's drivers aren't that great it's just that AMD's suck? Is that what you're saying that people are saying? If so that's mostly because we're in an age where the consumers pitch a fit if something doesn't work absolutely perfectly or the way that they think it will. AMD's drivers work, they're just more prone to running into errors. They're also very barebones and they don't come in a pretty looking package, where nVidia's drivers come in a very professional looking installer and a very flashy control panel. The drivers themselves though are close enough.

[MillionVoltss]

I read on a review website, forget which one, but they now use the i7 as the default chip for benchmarks as the top graphics cards are being bottle necked by the i5.

[djdanster]

I know it's not the 7870, but this review I did on the 7850 OC Edition might give you some help :)

[systemx]

I know it's not the 7870, but this review I did on the 7850 OC Edition might give you some help :)

Thanks for the review! I've been considering to get a 7850 OC when Ivy comes out. Are you still using it or did you return it to Sapphire? :p