Deciding between Radeon HD 7950 and Geforce 660 Ti

Dubnoman

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I have an affinity for the Radeon brand, but I'm finding some things about the Geforce 660 Ti are better than the Radeon 7950. The 660 Ti runs quieter and cooler and has a smaller power draw. One question I have: all Geforce 660 Tis are PCIe 3.0, right?

I found this benchmark comparison page: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647

The cards are pretty much even with games (sometimes one is better than the other, and vice versa). In the benching, the Radeon far outperforms on the SmallLuxGPU 2.0d4 test. What does this mean and does this really matter? The Radeon also outperforms the Geforce on the tests for DirectX 11 Detail Tessellation Sample (for both Normal and Max). The thing is, does any of that really matter? Is the Radeon technically the better card? Nonetheless, will both do me very well for about 3 years?
 
Solution
I would recommend reading reliable professional reviews and doing much research that way you'll be able to make the best choice for you.Here a few to give you a head start hope this helps good luck!Quote: "As it stands, AMD’s position correctly reflects their performance; the GTX 660 Ti is a solid and relatively consistent 10-15% faster than the 7870, while the 7950 is anywhere between a bit faster to a bit slower depending on what benchmarks you favor. Of course when talking about the 7950 the “anything but equal” maxim still applies here, if not more so than with the GTX 670. The GTX 660 Ti is anywhere 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it, and everywhere in between. Coupled with the tight pricing between all of these cards, this...

RemixGamaah

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That is a hard decision, but I would go with the 7950 purely because I love AMD products. It really depends on what games you want to play most, because the 7950 runs faster on most, but some games were running faster on 660ti.

I doubt these would last you 3 years, not only will games get really massively graphics intensive with growing technology, but the card itself my break. The 7950 is higher fps on most games and the reason it's not as cool as the 660Ti is merely the fact it's more powerful, so I go with the 7950
 

rocktober

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I was deciding between the 660 TI and HD 7950 as well. After reading reviews and a lot of threads, it seems the 7950 is a little faster at stock speeds, but it can be OC'd to be a lot faster. The 7950 will probably be a little better in the long run since it has more memory and a higher bandwidth.

After all that, I went with the GTX 670 cause I found one on Newegg for $354 :) Also, the HD 7950's are a little too long for my case.
 

maxh22

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You don't spend $400 on a GPU just to get a free game :lol:

The 7950 is better than the gtx 660ti in most titles just like the user's above me stated.
 

neon neophyte

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if you were going to buy that game anyway, 60 dollars saved is nothing to sneeze at. certainly a factor anyway
 

Dubnoman

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So a few people recommend the Radeon. I've been leaning towards the Radeon HD 7950. I appreciate more feedback. If someone wants to recommend the Geforce 660 Ti and state some reasons for it, go for it.

Does anyone have a Radeon HD 7950? Is it really all that loud when playing games? Or is the noise from the GPU pretty bearable?

Also, someone said the Radeon HD 7950 has more memory. I want to point out that EVGA has a Geforce 660 Ti that also has 3 GB of memory.

If I get a Radeon HD 7950, I'll get this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414 (Some reviewers say it is pretty quiet for a 7950, is this true?)

If I get a Geforce 660 Ti, I'll get this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130812
 

determinologyz

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Heres some good questions what res do you play at with what type of games do you play and whats your power supply. Both cards 7950 and the 660 Ti trade blows but i can say if you planing on going over 1080p with using alot of aa then the 7950 will be a better option..Get some more opinions before you buy but those questions will help up determine which upgrade path is better
 
I would recommend reading reliable professional reviews and doing much research that way you'll be able to make the best choice for you.Here a few to give you a head start hope this helps good luck!Quote: "As it stands, AMD’s position correctly reflects their performance; the GTX 660 Ti is a solid and relatively consistent 10-15% faster than the 7870, while the 7950 is anywhere between a bit faster to a bit slower depending on what benchmarks you favor. Of course when talking about the 7950 the “anything but equal” maxim still applies here, if not more so than with the GTX 670. The GTX 660 Ti is anywhere 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it, and everywhere in between. Coupled with the tight pricing between all of these cards, this makes it very hard to make any kind of meaningful recommendation here for potential buyers. Compared to the 7870 the GTX 660 Ti is a solid buy if you can spare the extra $20, though it’s not going to be a massive difference. The performance difference is going to be just enough that AMD is going to need to trim prices a bit more to secure the 7870’s position.

On the other hand due to the constant flip-flopping of the GTX 660 Ti and 7950 on our benchmarks there is no sure-fire recommendation to hand down there. If we had to pick something, on a pure performance-per-dollar basis the 7950 looks good both now and in the future; in particular we suspect it’s going to weather newer games better than the GTX 660 Ti and its relatively narrow memory bus. But the moment efficiency and power consumption start being important the GTX 660 Ti is unrivaled, and this is a position that is only going to improve in the future when 7950B cards start replacing 7950 cards. For reasons like that there are a couple of niches one card or another serves particularly well, such as overclocking with the 7950, but ultimately unless you have a specific need either card will serve you well enough. " SOURCE: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/21

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_660_Ti_Power_Edition/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_660_Ti_Direct_Cu_II/http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/20
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/56432-gtx-660-ti-roundup-asus-evga-gigabyte-galaxy-msi.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/27/nvidia_geforce_gtx_660_ti_at_high_aa_settings_review
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/09/17/asus_geforce_gtx_660_ti_directcu_ii_top_review
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire_7950_vaporx/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7950_Vapor-X/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-with-boost-review/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/21
 
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determinologyz

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+1
 

rocktober

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The Tom's Hardware article does a good job of reviewing the performance difference between GTX 660 TI cards. In regards to the 3GB card "3 GB of GDDR5 get in the way more than they help."

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

Dubnoman

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Would the Radeon HD 7950 cards with 3 GB also be in the same boat ("the 3 GB GDDR5 gets in the way more than it helps")? Or does it only apply to that Galaxy Geforce 660 Ti? Also, the 3 GB Geforce 660 Ti I was looking at is from EVGA.
 

maxh22

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The the extra gigabyte doesn't get in the way. It's more future proof.

The 7950 and 7970 both have 3 gb V ram, games in the future will use more v ram.
 

rocktober

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The biggest issue on the 660 TI is the memory bus is more limited (only 192 bits vs 384 bits for the 7950) than the 7950. The 7950 has a larger memory interface so it can utilize the full 3GB of memory. The extra vram in the 660 TI may increase performance by a small margin, but whether it is worth any extra cost is up to you.
 

Ironslice

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The GTX 660 ti may be limited by the memory bus, but if you look closely at benchmarks, you will see that when it is limited enough so that the HD 7950 has a big advantage, the game isn't playable because the FPS is too low anyway. In several games, even with high amounts of MSAA the GTX 660 ti actually has a higher minimum FPS than the HD 7950. The minimum FPS is much more important than the average or maximum, because it evaluates how much you will dip in the major battles.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/27/nvidia_geforce_gtx_660_ti_at_high_aa_settings_review/6
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/27/nvidia_geforce_gtx_660_ti_at_high_aa_settings_review/7

Summary: When the HD 7950 wins, the game is not playable in most titles. As the settings are lowered enough for the games to become playable, the GTX 660 ti wins.
 

determinologyz

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Yall still on the bandwidth?