Radeon HD 7850 Review of Performance and Features

Radeon HD 7850 is one of those graphics cards that delivers a powerful performance and at the same time, they are very affordable. Specifically made out of the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series, which was unveiled to a lot of fanfare due to its new architectural design that uses significantly reduced power consumption and the superior quality graphics that this particular model makes possible.

In the detailed review that follows, we’ve referenced benchmarks and performance comparisons against other current-generation units for gaming and all-purpose computing. In the following review, you will find out what it is and if you are a gamer, or video editor, or if you are just curious about the advantages of a new GPU.

Introduction to the Radeon HD 7850

The Radeon HD 7850 has always been benchmarked as one of the most universal offerings in the graphics card market. This card was developed by an American multinational semiconductor company called Advanced Micro Devices or just AMD and like always intended to deliver optimal quality of performance at a reasonable price.

Due to the special GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture, it became successfully popular among regular computer users and gamers as well as business people.

That being said, this review is intended to cover the most important aspects of it: its specifications, performance, energy efficiency, and its usage in the present-day highly demanding applications. We will also look at the benchmark the card achieved for today’s gaming, rendering, and general office work.

Specifications of Radeon HD 7850

Before we dive into the performance details, it’s crucial to understand the technical specifications:

Core Clock Speed: 860 MHz
Memory: 2 GB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Memory Clock: 4800 MHz
Transistors: 2.8 billion
TDP (Thermal Design Power): 130W
DirectX Support: DirectX 11.2
Outputs: 1x HDMI, 2x Mini DisplayPort, 1x DVI

This showed that it is capable of providing most of today’s games as well as intensive applications at first instance. The 2GB GDDR5 memory makes it possible to have a smooth flow in games while the 256-bit memory interface enhances the data transfer rates, especially in high-resolution systems.

Performance Analysis

This is the best of the Radeon HD 7850 in terms of performance. For most activities associated with gaming and other forms of multimedia usage, this particular card should do the job well. The GCN architecture even encourages better parallel computing and is thereby suitable for multi-threaded applications such as video editing and 3D rendering.

Gaming Benchmarks

When tested with popular games, it provides smooth frame rates at 1080p resolution:

Far Cry 3: 45 FPS on Ultra settings
Crysis 2: 60 FPS on High settings
Battlefield 3: 55 FPS on High settings

As for the video delivery, OP3 does exceptionally well in all games that fully test the GPU, due to the high memory bandwidth and GCN architecture. However, it might get close to throttling with today’s modern ‘Triple-A’ titles at ultra-settings or 4K gaming conditions.

Multimedia and Content Creation

Besides being used for gaming, it is ideal for multimedia and content creation purposes. Due to its highly parallel architecture, it accelerates computing times for Adobe Premiere Pro, Blender After Effects, and so on. Especially for editors dealing with 1080p videos, the performance is good and does not lead to a slowing down of the system.

Energy Efficiency

Another thing that can be highlighted is that the Radeon HD 7850 is very energy efficient. In particular, it occupies only 130W TDP which is considerably lower than the feature of its competitors. It is perfect for people who need a powerful but at the same time energy-efficient build.

The lower power consumption does not include any impact on its performance as it is able to handle different games with ease and also deals with power-hungry applications with relative ease. It remains as a balance of power consumption and efficiency, a perfect choice to be used both by professional gamers and organizations seeking to diminish their carbon emission.

Comparing Radeon HD 7850 to Modern GPUs

It was released some years back, but it stands proudly having a good balance of price against what it offers. It performs rather mediocre compared to modern GPUs when it comes to today’s gaming and productivity, it may be sufficient for mid-range gaming or productivity tasks but is not suitable for 4K gaming or highly demanding VR applications.

Some modern alternatives that compete with this include:

Nvidia GTX 1650: Somewhat better performance but costs more
AMD RX 570: Provides more performance for today’s games, but at the cost of increased power consumption.
Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti: Similar performance at a higher price point.

It may be overshadowed by newer options but it remains one of the best affordable choices for gaming and content creation millennials that does not necessarily require a high-performance setup.

Radeon HD 7850 in Modern Games

Of course, the Radeon HD 7850 isn’t quite able to run every modern game at its highest settings, but it does achieve 30+ frames per second at the 1920×1080 resolution. For less demanding titles or esports games such as League of Legends, or Counter-Strike: Especially, when it’s placed in front of games like Global Offensive or Fortnite, the card offers reliable performance.

Nonetheless, current industry-superior titles like Cyberpunk 2077, or Red Dead Redemption 2 for instance, can only run with ultra settings at a much lower frame rate. Reduction of details, shadows, and reflections to medium or low can enhance the frame rate and keep the card appropriate for today’s gaming environment.

Pros of Radeon HD 7850:

Affordable pricing for the performance offered
It adopts a perfect balance of cost and quality making it a worthy rival to other high end more expensive brands, thus suitable for both the gamers and the working class.
Energy-efficient design
New graphics cards have a TDP of 130W, which can provide significant energy savings compared to older graphics cards; they will be useful for users who are concerned about the conservation of an ecological system.
Great for 1080p gaming and general multimedia tasks
It has no problem handling any 1080p gaming and multimedia tasks to make it a worthy candidate as an everyday GPU.
Good overclocking potential
Interestingly, this card has the capacity for overclocking whereby people can attempt to make the card perform even better for gaming and other related tasks like multimedia.

Cons of Radeon HD 7850:

Struggles with modern AAA games at high settings
With its hardware, it can manage most games at 1080p without many hiccups but does not run the latest AAA games on ultra or high settings.
Limited VR and 4K gaming capabilities
While the card sure comes with merely 2GB of VRAM, it is not for virtual reality nor 4K gaming, which will restrain the higher-end gaming experience.
Only 2 GB of VRAM, which is low for modern standards
This, and the many other features, make the limited size of the VRAM the biggest drawback of the product, as modern games and applications simply cannot run on less memory required for them to be displayed perfectly at high settings.

Conclusion

The Radeon HD 7850 is perfect for those who are willing to pay affordable prices for their graphics card, be they gamers or working professionals. It is capable of delivering fantastic quality with 1080p, has low power consumption, and is all right for multimedia.

Even though it has a comparatively higher core clock at 1464 Mhz it performs fairly well in its price segment and may not be suitable for high-end games and 4K resolutions as new-age GPUs offer. The card’s affordability makes it a great and cheap card especially for gaming if you want a quality and high-performing GPU.

FAQs

Is the Radeon HD 7850 still good for gaming?

Yeah, it can do 1080p gaming for most games but you will need to tune the settings a little especially on new high-end titles.

Can it support VR gaming?

However, it is not suitable for VR gaming due to its limited performance and V RAM.

How does the Radeon HD 7850 compare to modern graphics cards?

It seems to fare well against low-priced GPUs but lags significantly behind mid and high-range modern-day graphics processing units.

Is this energy efficient?

Yes, it is, because its TDP is 130W which categorized it as a relatively cool eating graphics card when compared to most other cards in this category.

Can I overclock the Radeon HD 7850?

Yes, it does but it has a very good stock frequency and this can come with a very good overclocking potential, hence the high performance of the card.