Radeon HD 7870 12.10 performance

[Colin.B]

So I just upgraded to a GTX 660 and love it so far. I went with Nvidia due to reported black screens and instability with the 7870 as well as very comparable performance between that card and the 7870 for less money. (204.00) for the GTX 660 after 10$ off. I heard however a lot of issues were fixed and performance increases made with the Catalyst 12.10 drivers.I was wondering if anyone has some hands on experience with the 7870 and the new cat drivers as I'm thinking of exchanging my GTX 660 and just paying the extra twenty dollars if the performance is there. My usage is mostly gaming at 1080p and HD movie watching.

[Detection]

12.10 as in CCC version or 12.10 as in Ubuntu ?

I have the Sapphire GHz OC edition of the 7870 and have never experienced any of the problems people report

I follow the threads about the cards on different forums and it seems certain models seem to have issues and other models don't, it has even come down to the different stickers on the fans showing which do and don't have the problem

I can't remember the stickers that are reported to be on cards with the problems, but this is my card and every post I have read about these cards displaying the Dual-X stickers are faultless, mine included

1080p gaming is great with CCC 12.11 Beta 11 (Latest atm)

1080p movie watching on 1 screen only is fine for me, but I do have a stuttering issue watching on a 2nd display via HDMI to my TV while I also have my 1st DVI LCD enabled but I`m sure drivers will eventually sort that out

If you only use 1 display it is fine for movies

EDIT - CCC 12.10 only allows the card to ramp up to 62% GPU use in gaming, 12.11 Beta 11 fixes that issue

[LaP]

Why would you change a 660 for a 7870 ? There's no point imo unless you play at high resolution. But to be honest if you are playing at high resolution you should aim at something better.

And this is not coming from one of the many nVidia zealots out there (and god knows there's many of them). It's coming from someone who owned many ATI cards in his life. ATI problems are overrated by haters. Since the day of the Rage Fury (one of the worst card i ever owned) ATI drivers have come a long way and for the most part are working as fine as nVidia ones. ATI will work better in some games and nVidia in others. It's really up to the games you play these days. I actually kinda like Overdrive though. You should always buy the card that will offer you the most for your money whether it's ATI or nVidia. This generation the best buy is in most of the case nVidia. And this is what you have bought. nVidia architesture this genaration is better and you will get more for your money with nVidia. Not to say that ATI cards are not good. In some games the 7870 will beat the 660ti. But in many others it will get beat by the 660. Personally unless you play at high res i would stick with the 660 and would overlock it if possible. But if you play at high res i would aim at something better than 660 or 78xx.

Starting next generation at 1080p the 660 will probably be borderline in some games if you want to max the settings and use high AA (games like Crysis 3 or the new Metro). But so will the 7870 probably.

I say if the card is good enough for the games you are curently playing at 1080p there's no point in doing a slide upgrade. I only upgrade my computer when it can't do what i want it to do.

[Luc2k]

@OP I think you mean 12.11 beta which gives the 7870 gets a 10% boost overall.

Here's the TechPowerUp review of the driver.

I've been using it with a 7850 for a while now, no issues.

[Colin.B]

Why would you change a 660 for a 7870 ? There's no point imo unless you play at high resolution. But to be honest if you are playing at high resolution you should aim at something better.

And this is not coming from one of the many nVidia zealots out there (and god knows there's many of them). It's coming from someone who owned many ATI cards in his life. ATI problems are overrated by haters. Since the day of the Rage Fury (one of the worst card i ever owned) ATI drivers have come a long way and for the most part are working as fine as nVidia ones. ATI will work better in some games and nVidia in others. It's really up to the games you play these days. I actually kinda like Overdrive though. You should always buy the card that will offer you the most for your money whether it's ATI or nVidia. This generation the best buy is in most of the case nVidia. And this is what you have bought. nVidia architesture this genaration is better and you will get more for your money with nVidia. Not to say that ATI cards are not good. In some games the 7870 will beat the 660ti. But in many others it will get beat by the 660. Personally unless you play at high res i would stick with the 660 and would overlock it if possible. But if you play at high res i would aim at something better than 660 or 78xx.

Starting next generation at 1080p the 660 will probably be borderline in some games if you want to max the settings and use high AA (games like Crysis 3 or the new Metro). But so will the 7870 probably.

I say if the card is good enough for the games you are curently playing at 1080p there's no point in doing a slide upgrade. I only upgrade my computer when it can't do what i want it to do.

Yeah and that's what I was wondering - If the hassle of returning the 660, paying the extra bit of money, waiting for a new one to ship is worth it for a few fps. I guess I was just curious what the 12.11 (thanks Luc2k) brought to the table. A little discomforting to think the 660 or 7870 will perhaps struggle with the next gen of games coming out at 1080p. Then again, I don't have the eyes to notice a difference between 4x or 16x aa so I may be fine.

And seeing that TechPowerup review, I don't feel it's that big of a difference. I'll just stick with what I have and be happy. Thanks for the non biased, non fanboy responses!

[LaP]

A little discomforting to think the 660 or 7870 will perhaps struggle with the next gen of games coming out at 1080p.

Well i would not go as far as to say they will struggle at 1080p. I'm sure you'll be able to play the next gen games at 1080p with a 660 or 7870. Just maybe not with all the settings maxed out like you can curently do with those cards in almost all the games. 2560 will surely be a no go with those cards for next gen though.

I agree with you about AA. Over 4x i just don't think it is worth it. In some games going over 4x even makes the game slightly blurry.