AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition & Radeon HD 7850 Review: Rounding Out Southern Islands
by Ryan Smith on March 5, 2012 12:01 AM ESTTotal War: Shogun 2
Total War: Shogun 2 is the latest installment of the long-running Total War series of turn based strategy games, and alongside Civilization V is notable for just how many units it can put on a screen at once. As it also turns out, it’s the single most punishing game in our benchmark suite (on higher end hardware at least).
Shogun 2 ends up being an interesting benchmark for the 7800 series today for a number of different reasons. First and foremost of course is a strong performance lead for the 7800 compared to both the 6900 series and NVIDIA’s lineup. The 7870 leads the GTX 570 by 26%, and even the GTX 580 is over 10% slower. At the same time the 7850 ties the GTX 570, while taking a smaller 14% lead over the GTX 560 Ti.
More importantly however, it’s the first test in our suite where even the 1.25GB of VRAM on the GTX 570 isn’t enough. One of AMD’s planks for marketing the 7800 series will be that they have 2GB of VRAM versus 1.25GB on the GTX 570 or 1GB on the GTX 560 Ti, and this is a showcase of that difference. Shogun 2 knows how much VRAM it needs for any given setting configuration and won’t run on cards that don’t meet the requirements – as a result the GTX 570 and GTX 560 Ti can’t even compete at 2560. This is admittedly a higher resolution than most of the cards were designed for, but it showcases the importance of moving beyond 1GB of VRAM going forward. Between Shogun, BF3, and Skyrim, we’re seeing modern games that need 1.5GB of VRAM or more to fully spread their wings.
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medi01 - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
AMD released cards that are better than competitors in all areas: pricing, power consumption, performance, yet he found a way to be "dissapointed"You can't reason with fanboi.
Kiste - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
You're the one who seems obsessed with which company releases the "better cards".I'm merely commenting on the 78xx line of cards, which I find underwhelming in terms of price/performance ration - and I am not alone wiht this if you bothered reading the other comments here.
So who's the fanboy?
formulav8 - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
You are. Your annoying as well.chizow - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
Try laying off the personal attacks and focus on the arguments instead.I don't see how anyone can defend the pricing of AMD's 7 series stack in good conscience though, if roles were reversed and Nvidia were the one doing this, EVERYONE would be disappointed too I'm sure.
Kaboose - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
wasn't it everyone who said the 6000 series was too expensive back in october of 2010 and when Nvidia released the 500 series prices would come down a lot, then Nvidia released the 500 series right in between what AMD had and neither company really lowered prices for months. I think we will keep seeing more of that when the 600 series is released. This way BOTH companies profit.chizow - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
Not sure what you're referring to, Nvidia launched GTX 570/580 before AMD launched the 6-series.And no Nvidia didn't raise prices on their 470/480 at the time which were at the same price points even though the 500 series extended that lead.
AMD priced the 6000 series accordingly, and I don't recall anyone complaining other than being disappointed it didn't offer more performance.
SlyNine - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
5870 user here. What everyone defending the 7xxx node change doesn't consider that most of us dissopointed in SI are compairing it to other fab shrinks.Iketh - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
You're on nvidia's payroll. Get off this site.sseemaku - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
Are engineers in nvidia thinking in the same way and not releasing their cards! Good for AMD.medi01 - Monday, March 5, 2012 - link
7850 outperforms 570 while costing 80$ less.nFanboi much?