PowerColor AX7850 2GBD5-DH Radeon HD 7850 2GB with Bioshock Inf. &Tomb Raider $165 after $20 MIR(Free shipping with shoprunner)

I also have a 4870, but most cards in the price range I'd consider just aren't much of an upgrade when you look at the raw specs, particular memory bandwidth. Many newer cards are rebadges of earlier generations with a few tweaks at that level. I could run everything I wanted when I had a monitor at 1680x1050. Now I have a 1920x1200 monitor and it's a different story in Far Cry 3, etc.

I would say the best upgrade is at least every 2 tiers from what you have no less, because you're right on the re-badges, it's now turning into the '1 new release and the following year is a re-badge' tactic. The 8xxx series is adding a few lower end cards but aside from that it's practically a 7xxx series (check anandtech). But I'll tell you this, from a 4870 to a 7850, I'm glad I upgraded because I can now at least run BF3 on Ultra (not in Eyefinity) on a 1920x1200 monitor and at the same time I now have a card that outputs less watts. Different games will require different cards, that's a given, but maybe you're looking to venture into the x870 or x950 series for more power?

I'm on a Sapphire 4850 512 MB. Anything is an upgrade, although all games play on High + 1920x1080 with no slowdown... and I only paid $100 for the card... that is what makes these $150 prices to hard to deal with D:

Here's a chart showing benchmarks for various video cards:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net..._gpus.html

You sure you play all games in high with 4850....and no slowdown?............... like black ops 2, hitman???

PowerColor produces the worst version of this card, second to Diamond. It has the loudest fan (which is one of the the only things the mfr. has control over!). Any roundup demonstrates that. It also has one of the weakest warranty responses based on what I've read, but there's no means of quantifying that. Most hardware/enthusiast/tech support forums substantiate that, though.

I don't care, it's not skin off my back, but let's not pretend that every 2-3 year warranty is made equal. Asus, MSI, XFX, etc actually fulfill warranties in a timely way. Cheapo brands like PowerColor and Diamond give you the runaround because they operate at the margins and can't afford to actually fulfill the warranties they promise.

I'm not TDing this - but there's cost savings here for good reason. Inferior warranty, inferior fan.

Just stop.. this is a blatant threadcrap. Read Tom's Hardware review. They just reviewed Powercolor 7870 le and it looks great.