Gtx660 vs amd 7850/7870

[DrKenobi]

Hi there, first post from me

I'm getting a new video card and I'm having trouble deciding

I'm looking at
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4805060&csid=_61
or
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-R7850-Twin-Frozr-2GD5/dp/B009LZ1JYQ/ref=sr_1_45?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1353250300&sr=1-45

I've looked around and it appears out of the box the 660 is faster BUT I've also heard when you overclock em the 7850 takes the lead. The memory and core clock speeds (stock) are higher on the 660, but the 7850 has a 256bit interface vs 192bit on the 660.

And then there's this guy:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2318242&CatId=7387

they're all very close in price, preformance tho... I'm not sure.




I play MWO all the time and use photoshop cs5 a lot.

System specs:
CPU- intel quadcore 9550 2.83 ghz, 12mb cache, 1333 fsb
Mobo- EVGA nForce 790i Ultra
ram- 4gb pc16000 ddr3, 2000mhz
psu- 650watt
monitor res: 1920x1200
Current video card: Sparkle GeForce GTS 250 Video Card - 1024MB DDR3
SLI/crossfire: no
Overclock: maybe, I need to oc my cpu and ram first I think

 

[sam_p_lay]

Don't worry about bus width. A lot of people use it as an argument for 7800 series cards over the 660/660 Ti but it's pretty much a myth. While it IS true that the 660/660 Ti uses a 192-bit memory bus, and also true that we're more used to seeing this from less high-end nVidia hardware, the real factor in determining memory performance is bandwidth, not bus width.

Bandwidth is the product of bus width and the memory clock speed. You could think of it like a road, where bus width is the number of lanes of traffic, while memory clock speed is the speed that traffic is moving. Every lane is full of cars moving at the same speed. To double the number of cars reaching the end of the road per second, you can either double the number of lanes, or you can double the speed the cars are moving. Two methods, same result. Similarly, to achieve an increased memory bandwidth, you could either increase the memory clocks or increase the bus width. Again, two methods, same result.

Now the GTX660 and GTX660 Ti use memory clocked at 1500MHz (6000MHz effective) vs 1200MHz from the 7800-series cards. That 25% clock speed gain goes a long way to closing the bandwidth gap. The 7800 cards still have the bandwidth lead, but only by ~5%.

Anyway at the end of the day, even if I hadn't explained bandwidth, I could make the same point by simply referring you to the benchmarks, where you'd see just how capable a card the GTX660 is. All the ROPs, MHz and GB/s in the world don't count for a thing next to frames per second. These numbers are a means to an ends, the end result being framerates. Using these other numbers for comparison is akin to basing a processor purchase on clock speed alone - it's an uninformed and inaccurate way of doing things. So don't worry at all about specs - just look at the results ;-)

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a GTX660 in your situation (not so much the Ti - not really worth the added cost).

 

[krazyjamus]

Yeah the GTX 660 is a better deal than the GTX 660 Ti I agree. The 7850 and 7870 are good deals too though. AMD and Nvidia are so close in performance at nearly every price point it's hard to definitely pick one over the other. I tend to lean towards AMD and prefer them, but I suppose that's just my own biases.

If you look at this chart:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

You'll see they are matched against each other in both cases. Pick your poison

PS: I think for GPGPU stuff like photoshop you're better off with the AMD card.

 

[bigcyco1]

I vote 660 or 7870 no to 660 ti and no to 7850.

 

[rudy2112]

I just bought 660, and i'm going to return it. every single game i play stutters, even though I have high frame rates. Even if I put setting to low, and turn off vsync, nothing will stop the stutter. While my old 4890 played the same games perfectly fine.

 

[bigcyco1]

Watch these video comparing different cards http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDcQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurogamer.net%2Fvideos%2Fbattlefield-3-1080p-max-settings-gtx-660-ti-vs-radeon-6870-video&ei=dh6pUOSxGuHvigL1r4DgAw&usg=AFQjCNE_JOx1qnSFUkfqBlbQ-RzGt5HYEQ&sig2=-eHJrLI9vi_meLFPY7U2OQ

 

[bigcyco1]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CD0QtwIwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurogamer.net%2Fvideos%2Fskyrim-1080p-max-settings-gtx-660-ti-vs-radeon-6870-video&ei=ph2pUILEIsbJiwLmjIDIBQ&usg=AFQjCNEUt3quWpy_SpoEJbQEtssbSEc0tA&sig2=P9ipZ1NhbEZpOyHypThMvg

 

[spentshells]

I just bought 660, and i'm going to return it. every single game i play stutters, even though I have high frame rates. Even if I put setting to low, and turn off vsync, nothing will stop the stutter. While my old 4890 played the same games perfectly fine.

You have driver issues.

 

[DrKenobi]

Best answer selected by DrKenobi.

 

[DrKenobi]

Thanks for all the help guys! Definitely coming back to this forum next time I need tech help