GIGABYTE GTX 660 OC -vs- XFX Radeon HD 7870 GHz

BBartow

Honorable
Dec 12, 2013
4
0
10,510
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 Overclocked:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443

XFX Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150605

I'm looking for a graphics card to complete my first build. I originally was going to go with the GIGABYTE GTX 660 OC, but saw the XFX Radeon HD 7870 GHz offered for the same price and was curious as to which would perform better in my build. I plan to play a variety of games (such as Skyrim, BF4, Witcher 2, MineCraft, and DayZ) as well as watch movies. I would greatly any feedback I get on this as I could not find any information comparing these exact cards. Thanks again.

My Specs for reference:
Intel Core i5-3570K
ASRock Z77 Pro3
G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB 1600
Antec Neo Eco 620W 80+C
 

lokblaze

Distinguished
Sep 23, 2010
18
0
18,510
I just got the XFX 7870 yesterday and installed it today. It is an awesome card so far at this point, a massive upgrade over what I had. I loaded up Skyrim and it auto detected the card and automatically set everything to max graphics that could be set. I will mention this since I didn't catch it mentioned on Newegg is that you need at least at 500w PSU with 2 free 6 pin connectors for the card.

I went up to Micro Center to pick one up and the techs I talked with both recommended a Corsair 600W modular one that had a little extra power to make sure everything was stable plus if I want to upgrade anything in the future I'll have the power as well.. After rebate it's only $55 right now which was only $6 more than the 500w PSU. So if you have one near you might be a good option. But at any rate, just be aware of it's power requirements.

Card is running just fine temp wise. I don't know what the complaints were on Newegg with it. Right this moment it's running at 69 degrees celsius running Civ 5 Brave new world. Which according to the manufacturer is right where it should be under load, no more than 70 degrees. Fan is only running at 53% max speed so it definitely has adequate cooling it would seem.