# Sapphire 7850 Performance Thread



## Darren (Sep 21, 2012)

7850 Performance Thread

Borderlands 2 

All max settings except Physx is on low since I don't have an NVidia card. 

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Shogun 2 

Benchmark at highest settings yielded 56.95 average FPS. My old card doing the same bench got about 33 if I remember correctly. Not OC'd.

Battlefield 3

MAX Settings. Average of 55 fps using a 3 minute benchmark. Recording obviously is lower.

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Just Cause 2


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Benchmark results with no Overclock






Skyrim 

I'm pretty sure most of the hiccups were my CPU and the recording process. Game runs at 60 fps on ULTRA. Drops to 40s and 50s in combat and long distance views. Read the description for more info. I'd upload a higher quality video but it would take several hours on my slow internet. Not OC'd.

FRAPS FPS was all over the place and not very reliable.

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Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. 

Not super demanding but did drop my 5770 down into the 30's fairly frequently with shadows down the medium and everything else on highest setting. Bumped up the shadows on this and runs 60 FPS and never drops. Not OC'd.

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Guild Wars 2

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Average of 47 FPS in 3 mins. Video has 25-30 due to FRAPS. Had to change a few settings in CCC to make it run better. See description of video.


3D Mark Results at Overclock of 1000 core and 1300 memory







Card and Installation Pictures








Old 5770 on top. I'm surprised the newer card isn't that much longer.


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## Darren (Sep 22, 2012)

OP edited. More to come tonight and tomorrow.


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## AlienMenace (Sep 22, 2012)

So, how do you like it. I am planning to get this one in November:
SAPPHIRE 100355OCL Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card OC Version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999

To finish out my build.


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## Darren (Sep 22, 2012)

AlienMenace said:


> So, how do you like it. I am planning to get this one in November:
> SAPPHIRE 100355OCL Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card OC Version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999
> 
> To finish out my build.



Haven't done much testing yet but seems much better. Don't get OC version though. You can do the OC yourself for free in about 15 seconds.

Edit: NFS Hot Pursuit video added.


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## spirit (Sep 22, 2012)

Good to see NFS HP runs really well! Hopefully going to get that game soon, should max out on my PC. 

Does appear that, like expected, you got quite a big performance gain, yes?


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## Darren (Sep 22, 2012)

spirit said:


> Good to see NFS HP runs really well! Hopefully going to get that game soon, should max out on my PC.
> 
> Does appear that, like expected, you got quite a big performance gain, yes?



Yes, most definitely. Honestly I don't have any more demanding games than Skyrim. I tried Crysis but it was only getting 30-45 fps. Game is horribly optimized... The card will also help with doing game recordings too.


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## spirit (Sep 22, 2012)

Denther said:


> Yes, most definitely. Honestly I don't have any more demanding games than Skyrim. I tried Crysis but it was only getting 30-45 fps. Game is horribly optimized... The card will also help with doing game recordings too.



Seems like you got yourself a nice card.

Was considering upgrading to a 7850 from a 5870, mainly for the extra RAM, but after seeing the numbers on Anandtech I just couldn't justify the cost to performance benefit of upgrading from a 5870, especially when the 5870 is working nicely for me it seems.

Looks like it was a big upgrade from a 5770 though.


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## Darren (Sep 22, 2012)

spirit said:


> Seems like you got yourself a nice card.
> 
> Was considering upgrading to a 7850 from a 5870, mainly for the extra RAM, but after seeing the numbers on Anandtech I just couldn't justify the cost to performance benefit of upgrading from a 5870, especially when the 5870 is working nicely for me it seems.
> 
> Looks like it was a big upgrade from a 5770 though.



Yeah. I get the feeling I'll really notice it when I play some more demanding games. I tried some more Crysis and tweaked a few settings. Still not sure why it's so low. Still, it's plenty playable and looks amazing. I also OC'd the card so may go back and try Crysis again. Not sure how I feel about overclocking. Seems like I should use it as it was designed rather than making it better. I may drop the clocks back down again. GW2 (see OP if you haven't read that part yet) is frustrating me though. Surprised my CPU isn't up to scratch for it... 

Any other games or tests I should run?


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## claptonman (Sep 22, 2012)

3DMark 11 and Unigine heaven benchmarks are the ones most people use.


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## Darren (Sep 22, 2012)

claptonman said:


> 3DMark 11 and Unigine heaven benchmarks are the ones most people use.



Alright I'l run both at stock clocks and the OC I have now at 1000 core 1300 Mem.


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## wolfeking (Sep 23, 2012)

I have a feeling your processor is holding you back. And graphics score is slightly better than a 480. : )

You could test that by overclocking a little bit. Try bumping the multi by one or 2. If the score improves then you know it is holding you back.


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## Darren (Sep 23, 2012)

wolfeking said:


> I have a feeling your processor is holding you back. And graphics score is slightly better than a 480. : )
> 
> You could test that by overclocking a little bit. Try bumping the multi by one or 2. If the score improves then you know it is holding you back.



I'm afraid of OC my CPU since I have the stock HSF. Granted I don't think I ever get above 60 degrees Celsius in gaming. 

I may try tomorrow. Use BIOS or Vision Control Center?


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## wolfeking (Sep 23, 2012)

use the BIOS. And don't go far, just one or 2 multi. That will be enough to tell if your CPU is holding you back.


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## Darren (Sep 24, 2012)

My card is idling at 45 Celsius. Too high? 

My CPU is at 33. Plenty of air flow and cooling going on. Knocking up the fans on the GPU brought be down to 35 but letting it go back to automatic fan speed, it climbed back up. Core clock is at 300 while idle and memory is at 1300. Guess it doesn't downclock the memory when not in use.


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## wolfeking (Sep 24, 2012)

45 should be fine.  you will probably have to make a call between running the fan high enough to cool it well and slow enough to be quiet. On my 480 that magic number right now is 60%, makes it idle at 48* or so. It can be cooler if I pushed it higher, but then I have a jet engine. 

CPU sounds like it is cool enough.


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## spirit (Sep 24, 2012)

Yeah just go for a small overclock on your Phenom, just a couple of hundred of megahertz or so. If the temps get too high but the FPS improves, then you know it's time to get yourself an aftermarket cooler and overclock further.


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## Darren (Sep 24, 2012)

Well I bumped up my CPU to 3.4gHZ. About 15 mins of Guild Wars got it up to 55 degrees Celsius and never went higher than 56. About to run 3DMark and will post back.

Performance in GW seems increased but it's hard to tell since I modified a bunch of settings yesterday as well.


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## wolfeking (Sep 24, 2012)

3dmark11 will be able to show better if your processor is holding you back.


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## Darren (Sep 24, 2012)

Results are a tad worse actually. I'm sure there's some deviation between each run but I guess my Proc isn't holding me back in terms of 3DMark.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4477639

On the plus side my temps only reach 57 so I'll keep the OC as is.

GPU got up to 63, I think that's safe.


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## wolfeking (Sep 24, 2012)

actually, if you look at the graphics score it went up. The ever so small OC did improve the graphics power. 

Physics score however, will always be in the hole  for you. It is a AMD system which does not handle physics well as is.


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## Darren (Sep 24, 2012)

wolfeking said:


> actually, if you look at the graphics score it went up. The ever so small OC did improve the graphics power.
> 
> Physics score however, will always be in the hole  for you. It is a AMD system which does not handle physics well as is.



I think that's why GW2 struggles. It's got a lot of physics stuff going on.


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## wolfeking (Sep 24, 2012)

Chances are then that it would run better on an intel system (as I understand it Physics is aided a bunch for higher IPC processors). Even a Nvidia card would help a bunch with physics.


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## Darren (Sep 24, 2012)

So Arenanet hates AMD. Awesome.


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## wolfeking (Sep 24, 2012)

They don't hate AMD. Just a certain bit of computer science hates AMD on your setup.


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## StrangleHold (Sep 25, 2012)

The reason your PhysX is so low is because your running a AMD video card. It forces all the PhysX to be run on the CPU. PhysX score will suck if forced to run only on the CPU with Intel or AMD. Your PhysX score will really jump up if you had a comparable Nvidia card as your 7850 with PhysX running on the Nvidia card.


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## jonnyp11 (Sep 25, 2012)

Of course isn't all the PhysX stuff just really good drivers for handling physics? wonder how good amd gpus would be with equally good drivers


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## wolfeking (Sep 25, 2012)

Physx is a Nvidia tech jonny. It is not drivers, they own the rights to it.  Assuming that they could do the same thing, it would not perform as well because they are new to it. If they had teh same amount of time at it as Nvidia, then they would probably do just as well.


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## Darren (Sep 25, 2012)

I filed a nicely worded question to the support team of Guild Wars 2 to see what they had to say on the matter. 

As follows.


I've got the following specs on my system that are relevant to my question.

Phenom II 955 Overclocked to 3.4 gHZ
Sapphire 7850 Overclocked to 1000mHZ Core and 1300 mHZ Memory
4GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Seagate 72000 RPM 1TB HDD
MSI 970A G45 Motherboard
Corsair 600 Watt PSU
1600 x 900 resolution

Now my computer clearly meets the recommended requirements and should easily run the game at full settings but I can run medium settings at best. I recently upgraded my video card from a 5770 to a 7850 and saw maybe 10 fps increase overall while my other games almost doubled in performance. I know the game is fairly new and performance is being ironed out but I'm still slightly incredulous as to why I'm getting such poor performance.

If it's relevant, when my Processor and Graphics card were at stock clocks, the performance was lower, so Overclocking did help a little but not a whole lot.

Drivers are all up to date and my computer is in perfect working order. Just Guild Wars 2 does not run as well as it should.

A friend said something about the Physics engine being what bogs me down as AMD isn't the best at doing physics based calculations in comparison to Intel. Still, not sure what it is.

If you can offer any insight on how to go about fixing this or if anything is being done about AMD optimization that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to help me. 

Game is awesome by the way. 

*removed signature*



Edit: After reading a couple settings they recommend changing for AMD cards my performance skyrocketed. Not sure why.

Settings as follows that I changed.


For AMD cards:

1. Right-click on your desktop and select "Catalyst Control Center."
2. Select "Preferences" and left-click "Advanced mode."
3. Click the "Gaming" tab on left.
4. Select "3D Application Settings."
5. Under the heading "Anti-Aliasing" checkmark "Use application settings" but do not check "Morphological filtering."
6. Under the heading "Anisotropic filter" checkmark "Use application settings."
7. Under the heading "Tessellation" checkmark "AMD Optimized."
8. Under the heading "Catalyst A.I." move the slider to "Performance."
9. Under the heading "Wait for vertical sync" move the slider to "On, unless application specifies."
10. Under the heading "Anti-Aliasing Mode" move the slider to "Performance."
11. Click "Apply" to save these changes.
12. Start Guild Wars 2.

Once loaded, access the "Graphic Options" window and make the following changes:

1. Change "Refresh Rate" to "60 Hz"
2. Change "Frame Limiter" to "60."
3. Change "Reflections" to "None."
4. Change "Render Sampling" to "Native."
5. Enable "Vertical Sync" at the bottom.


Not sure why that changes anything. I turned up the reflections back to sky because it looks horrible otherwise and performance didn't change, however turning in to all totally crippled my system. After doing these changes I selected auto detect settings and it bumped everything up to high, while before those changed it gave me a mix of medium and a little bit of high. So basically V Sync and locking my framerate at 60 helps. A lot of the CCC changes were already the way they were supposed to bed. 

WHY YOU NO MAKE SENSE?!?!


*EDIT EDIT: GW2 video added to OP.*


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## spirit (Sep 30, 2012)

Denther said:
			
		

> WHY YOU NO MAKE SENSE?!?!


That's computers and technology in general for you Denther!


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## Darren (Oct 1, 2012)

spirit said:


> That's computers and technology in general for you Denther!


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## wolfeking (Oct 1, 2012)

not to say it is true, But I agree with jason there. If it makes sense, chances are you are doing it wrong in computers.


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## Darren (Oct 11, 2012)

Just ordered BF3 today. Will post back in about a week with performance results.


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## Darren (Nov 1, 2012)

Battlefield 3 video added to OP.


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## AlienMenace (Nov 1, 2012)

I just ordered my 7850 today, will be getting it on Tuesday. This is the one I've decided on.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102984
Then my System will be complete.


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## Darren (Nov 2, 2012)

AlienMenace said:


> I just ordered my 7850 today, will be getting it on Tuesday. This is the one I've decided on.
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102984
> Then my System will be complete.



I think that's identical to what I have except mine didn't have a factory overclock. Great card. You'll enjoy it.


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## Darren (Nov 28, 2012)

Just Cause 2 Benchmark added.


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