Thinking of selling 7850 to get 660, any thoughts?

[Guest]

I have an msi twin frozr iii 7850, it overclocks to 1100/1300(could go higher but this is what I am comfortable with heat and voltage wise). I wish i would have waited for nvidia to release their cards but I had sold my 6870 and needed a card. I want to switch to nvidia at some point because of drivers/quality. I play games like skyrim and diablo and soon borderlands 2 at 1080P. Borderlands 2 PhysX is also another reason I would like to switch, so would a 660 be enough to turn it on? all the way? What card should i go for? Evga SC or msi non-oc, which i can oc to the same levels. I have heard evga has great customer support/service but that card also runs hotter. I can provide more system specs if needed. I was thinking if i sell my 7850 for around 175 then pay the ~60 difference to go to a 660. Also, would he 192 bit memory interface hinder me in any way? Later on? Or is it nothing to worry about. Thanks for any help on the matter.

 

[esrever]

you will be downgrading your performance while spending more money. Physic in borderlands 2 is nice tho. The 660 will probably not give as much performance as a 1100 core 7850 even overclocked. Given its performance is just about a 10% gain when OC'ed. The 7850 OC'ed to 1100 gets about a 20% increase in performance.

I doubt you can sell your 7850 for $175 since its $200 new.

 

[Guest]

you will be downgrading your performance while spending more money. Physic in borderlands 2 is nice tho. The 660 will probably not give as much performance as a 1100 core 7850 even overclocked. Given its performance is just about a 10% gain when OC'ed. The 7850 OC'ed to 1100 gets about a 20% increase in performance.
http://media.bestofmicro.com/T/W/352292/original/AVG Perf HIGH.png

I doubt you can sell your 7850 for $175 since its $200 new.

correct me if i am wrong, and it may not justify the price, but 136% + 10% = 146% while 124% + 20% is 144%, still slower. The 660 pulls off a 6800 score in 3dmark11 P while my overclocked 7850 only manages a 6300

 

[tjcoops]

You're looking at a minute increase in performance (2-5%) for hassle and cost. Really not worth it, the HD7850 is brilliant for the price (can get it for £150 in the UK now!) and next year you could get another and crossfire for a really nice system Plus I've noticed a trend with poor nVidia performance in DiRT games if that affects you.

 

[Deemo13]

You could just run a Hybrid Physx setup. Get a cheap Nvidia card, like a 8800GT or 9800GT, but optimally a GTS250.

 

[esrever]

3dmark11 favours kepler chips. The actual average performance is ussually less than that.

Well it will be close to the same performance either way but percentages aren't additional.
136.5*1.1= 150.15
124.1*1.2= 148.92

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Club_3D/HD_7850_RoyalQueen/31.html
7850 gains 26.5% to OC to 1190, I'd say 1100 should be 20+

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_660_OC/30.html
the 660 gains 10.5% with a max OC

I guess I was wrong but performance of the 2 cards should be about the same.

 

[Guest]

You could just run a Hybrid Physx setup. Get a cheap Nvidia card, like a 8800GT or 9800GT, but optimally a GTS250.

For the price of hybrid physx i should just change cards. I was going to try to run physx off of my cpu but im not sure how well that will work out. And I dont see myself ever doing crossfire i would rather sell and buy a different better card than run 2 cards.

 

[Guest]

3dmark11 favours kepler chips. The actual average performance is ussually less than that.

Well it will be close to the same performance either way but percentages aren't additional.
136.5*1.1= 150.15
124.1*1.2= 148.92

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Club_3D/HD_7850_RoyalQueen/31.html
7850 gains 26.5% to OC to 1190, I'd say 1100 should be 20+

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_660_OC/30.html
the 660 gains 10.5% with a max OC

I guess I was wrong but performance of the 2 cards should be about the same.

I see your point and agree that it may not justify the cost but do any other advantages arise out of switching? Disadvantages?

 

[Deemo13]

Well, you can get a GTS250 for like $50 used. You can also get a GTS450 new for like $100.

Newegg still has 9800GT's for sale for $60. That should manage Physx fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130534

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127605

For example:

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/sys/3265371070.html

http://stockton.craigslist.org/sys/3241449819.html

Now, I know that that's not where you live, but its still a good deal. And its not really worth getting rid of your 7850 imo.

 

[esrever]

Its just if you think the physx in the few games that has it will be worth the $60. Most people seems to think its nice for about half and hour and then its mostly about the game play more than the graphics. I mean the games don't look bad without physx on but its still a nice feather to have.

 

[Deemo13]

That is true. I have mine more in there to be able to say that I do have it. Sure it looks great, and I think it should be implemented more, but hey I had an extra GTS250 lying around and an extra PCI-E slot, so I thought what the hell.

BL2 Physx looks cool though.

 

[Guest]

Another thing left out is that if you plan to use 4xMSAA or above the Radeon cards are much better. The 660 non ti is not a huge enough increase to warrant an "upgrade" and the PhysX is a non factor honestly, or at least not to me.

Look at toms best of the month graphics cards chart on the last page of all the articles. You want to move up at least 3 tiers to justify the expense. You are not doing that in this case.

 

[Dangi]

If you look at this review you will see that yes in this case 660 ti is faster BUT once you start putting AA Radeons take the lead

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-memory-bandwidth-anti-aliasing,3283.html

And a 7850 OC can match a 7870 so think your Oced card is a 7870 and compare, then realice that review is using 660 ti not the 660 so it will only be a side grade not and upgrade and not worth the money

Also 7870 is still the best bang for buck you can find now from this generation

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies and for talking me out of this crazy idea guys, it would truly just be a side grade for me all for what? Physx in one game, I may go the hybrid physx route but I'm going to wait and see how that works for people first. I think I will just wait for the gtx 700 series to be out and save up until then so that I can he the best of the best and switch to nvidia, then I will just keep my 7850 as a spare card and one day put it to use. The 7850 is giving me all the performance I need right now, and with a change in the cooler I could probably grab a little more(I think thermal paste+lack of vrm/ram sinks is holding back my oc, in addition the ungodly sound of the fans above ~55-60%). Thanks again for the replies and for not only saving me 60 but for making me not lose 100 over what I paid for my 7850 around launch, lol still wish I would have waited until 660ti and got that with borderlands 2 free.

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by guitarwiz23.