AMD Radeon HD 7850 review

Pint-sized pixel-pusher with performance to burn

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AMD Radeon HD 7850
AMD's new pint-sized pixel-pusher

TechRadar Verdict

These pint-sized cards pack some impressive punch for sub-£200 GPUs, but only if you take the risk overclocking them.

Pros

  • +

    Feature-packed with Southern Island goodness

  • +

    Serious overclocker

  • +

    Decent price

Cons

  • -

    Needs overclocking to make its case

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The Pitcairn little lad has arrived in the shape of the AMD Radeon HD 7850 and it could well be a pint-sized powerhouse.

The HD 7850 pretty much finalises AMD's current plans for the Southern Islands line up, bar the crazy-expensive dual-GPU New Zealand card which is likely waiting on Nvidia's new cards.

We may see some other odd little revisions once Nvidia's Kepler cards start trickling out, just to fill some gaps, but this is going to be the last standard card for a while.

The AMD Radeon HD 7850 is also the card that's arguably got the most chance of being successful out of this family. At the price it looks likely to retail at, the sub-£200 mark, it could well be the highest-selling of AMD's enthusiast-class cards.

Like the AMD Radeon HD 7870 that we've already seen, the HD 7850 is though going to face a lot of stiff competition at this price-point.

Can it make a name for itself in the face of the opposition?

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Dave James