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GTX 660 vs GTX 660 Ti vs HD 7870

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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This is probably the 1 millionth post on this, but I just cannot decide. I am throwing together a first time build a i5 3570k and I need an equally badass graphics card for it.

I have been a long time Nvidia fan, hell the system I am on now has an old 8800 GTS 512 in it. Nvidia has physx and great drivers, but 192bit with the 660 and 660ti? That is somewhat of a turnoff. If I had the money I would just grab a 670.

However, I do hear some nice things about the 7870 like its 256bit memory bus and it performing better at higher AA settings, but I hear of grey screens of death and I have almost always been weary of AMD Drivers.

So I am stuck between the more expensive yet smooth ride of Nvidia, or the somewhat bumpier ride of AMD with better performance to cost ratio. I am a huge time gamer and I want reliability AND performance with something that will get atleast a few years of heavy abuse as I game. Someone just smack into my senses so I can decide on this stuff.

More about : gtx 660 gtx 660 7870

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What is the monitor resolution that you are playing at? If it is just 1080p and no surround any of the Nvidia cards will be just fine. From a pure performance standpoint at the general price point of ~250 and below. The 7870 is a bit ahead of the 660, and my recommendation at this point for pure performance. Also not including the new drivers NVIDIA just released so that remains to be seen.

The 660 TI should not be a consideration since you can pick up the 7950 at 300 which is the best buy in that bracket.

If you are going to spend 250 and below I'd say GTX 660 for driver stability and relative performance to a 7870. While Radeon driver experience vary from person to person, my experience has led me towards NVIDIA.

If you are going to spend $300, 7950 no question in spite of possible driver issues. High bandwidth, VRAM and performance. 3 games. No brainer. It's what I would buy if I were in the market for one.

Contradictory sure. But my 2 cents. Cheers.

I will be running at 1920x1080 resolution. I am planning to play games like Planet side 2, Far Cry 3, FFXIV 2.0, Guild Wars 2, XCOM, etc etc.

Damn they dont make it easy to decide. Between this and the case this is a difficult choice for a person who already has trouble deciding on things.
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gamerlana said:
Hmmm, so WHY a 7870? Care to elaborate any?

EDIT: How reliable can I expect it to be? Also, can someone recommend a particular 7870 that I should get?


Why would you pick Radeon 7870? For the pure performance and the overclocking ability.

Why would you pick GTX 660? Because of the new technologies that it has FXAA, TXAA, Physx, boost, adaptive vsync. The low power consumption during gaming, which actually is lower than the Radeon 7850.

Radeon 7870 is probably around 5% ahead in performance more or less at stock speeds. It's hard to say when Nvidia just came out with new drivers 2 days ago.

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