Gtx 660 worth the wait?

For my new build I am considering picking up a 7850 (waiting for 660 to get a performance/price comparison, and a better deal on either one) with the intention of crossfire or sli about 2 years down the road. However, two years from now, it will probably be more viable to replace the card with a better one instead of cf or sli...

This is leaning me towards a single 7870, 680... etc

I would like to be able to play games on a 32" LCD 1080p high settings...

Stop wating and get the 7850 and oc like crazy

This is a bad idea. Overclocking your GPU can damage your card VERY easily. It isn't like CPU overclocking which is much more stable.

Well its not like its gonna explode .It's only dangerous if you don't have adequate cooling or if you increase the voltage by alot
And im sure you could reach a good 1150 core clock and 1325 memory with out even touching the voltage.(I did a little just to be safe but increased it by 15 pts in gpu tweak)

And if he gets the sapphire version which is very good im sure the highest he would get would be 60 c with those clock . All he would have to do is increase the fan speed. Also 7850 has more vram which is good for upcoming games like gta5 ( I already hit 1.5 gbs in battlefield)

A word of Caution:


Most overclock their GPUs using the overclock utilities available to run in the operating system and IMO a guide is only necessary for those seeking to BIOS flash their cards.


Anyone assuming your factory mass produced graphics card has the heat sink perfectly seated, could be making a massive mistake overclocking the graphics card with a poorly seated heat sink.


You need to know whats going on under the hood of your graphics card before you even consider overclocking it.


From my own experience overclocking a GPU can lead to either instant death or a crippled card, one reason being crappy factory installation of the heat sink, as hot as the GPUs get if you're going to overclock yours, you need to pull the heat sink and investigate the contact footprint, between the GPU/Memory Chips/ and Voltage Regulators.


Thermal pads are not to be reused, so if you need thermal pads, do not take your card apart until you have in hand what you need to replace, you may be lucky and have a perfectly fitted card, or you may be playing Russian Roulette with it with each overclock step.


All it takes is one memory chip or voltage regulator not making full contact, and you overclock and fry the card, you can think you're safe from the GPUs temperature readout, and not even be aware of how hot the memory chips are.


I've seen far more GPU failures than CPU.


I Voted No.


For the simple reason we have too many newbies that will throw caution to the wind, until they are crying about the consequences of exercising blind ignorance, (Meaning not aware of their cards contact footprint), just before the RMA.


Even if a guide is written doesn't mean they'll read it, seems everyone wants a quick fix today and bypass all the necessary steps to get there, but a quick fix may just be too far for the hardware and it's all over but the crying.


What one card can handle with a massive overclock the same brand card could fail with a one step increase, it is possible and it can and does happen.


Ryan