Windows 7 - Radeon HD 6850 or HD 7850?

Hello and Merry Christmas everyone!

I was not sure whether to post this question because I sort of made up my mind and came up with a final decision, but I decided that a piece of advice cannot harm me anyway.
I may have posted questions about PSUs and GPUs here before, but I had "financial difficulties" and wasn't able to buy them. Now I am. Or at least I'm closer than ever.

I want to buy the ASUS EAH6850 (1GB GDDR5, DirectCU, etc., etc.) but having waited for almost a year now I think that it could actually not be a bad idea to wait for the HD 7850 to come out and buy it instead--as it will most likely be better on so many levels and it will be worth the wait. Simple as that. For you anyway.

What's your opinion on my choice (reasons for the opinions, too)? Should I wait or should I buy the HD 6850 now? Why? I don't play stuff like Crysis, but I play Assassin's Creed (my favorite) and I'd like to max it out in 1080p. Both cards will do the trick anyway, but the main idea is to find out if the HD 7850 will be so much better that it will be worth the wait. Its release date is about February or March 2012.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I like how Assassin's Creed is in the example of a "proper thread title"...

The $$$ is going to be the big factor, you can get a 6850 between $150 ~ $200 and the 7850 is probably going to be $300 ~ $500. From what I have read the 7850 is going to out perform anything out there right now but it will also require a much larger power supply as this is going to be a power hog, you will be able to put your coffee mug ontop of your pc and it will stay piping hot all day

go for a 6870 instead of a 6850 or a 7850 unless you really need that much power from a card which i doubt unless your going to be say playing games on like a resolution higher then 1080p which i see no need for heres ( 6850 cost 139$) Newegg.com - VisionTek 900486 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (6870 cost 179$)Newegg.com - XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card And the 7850 cost 300-500$ at launch i say go with a 6870 instead of a 6850 or 7850

Stuff is more expensive here, I can buy the ASUS EAH6850 for $225 and the HD 6870 is $270 (no DirectCU, and it's already hard to find), and I don't have extra $50 for not so much more performance. I have done a bit of a research and according to those websites I checked, the HD 7850 is expected to be $199 in the US, which means it will be around $230 here.

I was told that I wouldn't get stable 60FPS in games if I max them out in Full HD with the HD 6850. It's hard to believe that as other people say it will be fine... in Assassin's Creed in particular (latest titles like Revelations and Brotherhood).

My PSU will be the Corsair TX650, if I am lucky enough to find it here. It disappeared again.

P.S. If it will be the HD 6850, I will buy it from ASUS as they have DirectCu top and 1 year extra warranty (i.e. 2 years of warranty for the GPU).
P.P.S. No XFX in my country. I know, it sucks.

Yeah, it seems I'll have no further advice. I have decided to wait nevertheless. Thanks everyone who posted here, I think I added rep.

It will be more expensive, new versions usually are. However it may worth the extra not only due to the performance increase etc - but also AMD have a track record of focussing driver support on the newest series of cards. Previous generations start to become a lower priority which potentially means slower fixes for older cards. Just another angle to consider.


Chances are you'd see 60FPS often, but with a lot of dips when panning etc. To some people that is 'fine', but it's not 60FPS 'stable'.




This is just personal bias here, but the lack of XFX isn't necessarily a bad thing

Well I will not have more money to spend so if it's more expensive I may have to go with the HD 6850.

I think the minimum FPS I want is 40 or more... But I am not sure. I haven't compared myself the difference between 40 and 60, etc.

You know, shortly after the release of the 7850, the 6850 will get a serious price drop...most of the time anyways.

ye thats why im wating for that card to release so the price on the 6870 drops also