Radeon gfx vs. Gtx 660

[adryn]

Pretty much about as simple as the title states.
A few new systems I'm looking at have one main difference:

The one I'm leaning towards has Dual AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 3GB GDDR5

The others have Gtx 660. While I would assume the Dual AMD is better. I've really yet to grasp the real difference between AMD and Nv. Can anyone help slightly explain it? And which of these would be better for gaming/digital art?

 

[swilczak]

The 7950 is somewhere between the 660ti and the 670 so the 7950's would be better. Nvidia is a little different only because it has physx in some games but very few, and I guess the drivers are a little better. I've heard that AMD is better for overclocking but I'm not into that because I don't want to void my warranties.

 

[adryn]

So sounds for the most part one of these cards is slightly better than gtx 660? So dual would be quite a bit better... well thanks for clearing that up some, thank you.

 

[photonboy]

Two points:

1) You're far better off with a single-GPU due to micro-stutter and other SLI/Crossfire profile issues.

2) SLI works in more games than Crossfire does.

If you can afford to wait a few months there are some changes coming, especially if you decide to build your own (which is far cheaper, enjoyable and quite possible with a little research and posing questions here).
a) GTX780 is coming (possibly close to Geforce Titan performance for $500 to $600)
b) Intel's Haswell CPU in June/July (requires new motherboard)

The GTX780 should get at least 25% better performance than the GTX680 and would be ideal for building a gaming rig with one card (thus one GPU and less micro-stutter than SLI or Crossfire). Haswell CPU's will have a small boost in performance but the idle power consumption improvements are phenomenal. Also, certain features related to voltage stabilization are being moved into the CPU thus requiring a less-expensive motherboard to achieve a stable overclock.

Summary:
- avoid SLI/Crossfire
- SLI is better than Crossfire
- consider building your own
- consider waiting for Haswell CPU's and GTX780

 

[swilczak]

So sounds for the most part one of these cards is slightly better than gtx 660? So dual would be quite a bit better... well thanks for clearing that up some, thank you.

It's a step up from the 660 in these benchmark tests, but I think it's more than that in real gaming applications, especially if you get the boost version.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7950

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+660

 

[adryn]

So avoid Crossfire... noted.
I really would like to avoid waiting a few months for the 700 series. (Sorry, I'm not meaning to make it seem like not taking your advice into mind)

To get slightly more specific on computer I'm looking at it's the Alienware Aurora. I've heard plenty of bad and good things about them, the main complaint I hear is pricing, which I'm not too worried about. Looking at some of the customizeable options for the gfx card I can get a Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 4GB.

So would you say grabbing something like that instead would be a better idea?

Although http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+Titan&id=2433 is stating GTX 680 is rated above GTX 690, maybe for pricing reasons? The difference is about $300. I have the option of picking GTX 680 2GB as well

One more small edit: This is slightly off-topic, but figured I'd tag on in case while someone is helping with Gfx card can answer... Integrated 7.1 audio vs. Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCle Audio Sound Card. Small price difference, and it's something I've never heard of before, but if it's a decent improvement I'd appreciated some slight info on it :3

 

[iam2thecrowe]

So avoid Crossfire... noted.
I really would like to avoid waiting a few months for the 700 series. (Sorry, I'm not meaning to make it seem like not taking your advice into mind)

To get slightly more specific on computer I'm looking at it's the Alienware Aurora. I've heard plenty of bad and good things about them, the main complaint I hear is pricing, which I'm not too worried about. Looking at some of the customizeable options for the gfx card I can get a Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 4GB.

So would you say grabbing something like that instead would be a better idea?

Although http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+Titan&id=2433 is stating GTX 680 is rated above GTX 690, maybe for pricing reasons? The difference is about $300. I have the option of picking GTX 680 2GB as well

One more small edit: This is slightly off-topic, but figured I'd tag on in case while someone is helping with Gfx card can answer... Integrated 7.1 audio vs. Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCle Audio Sound Card. Small price difference, and it's something I've never heard of before, but if it's a decent improvement I'd appreciated some slight info on it :3

a gtx690 is 2 gpu's on the one board in SLI, so its not actually a 4gb card, its 2x 2gb cards which still only gives you 2gb vram useable as when you add cards in sli/crossfire the ram does not double, it is mirrored. the performance difference between a 680 and a 670 is about 3%, so its probably not worth the extra money, and if your gaming on 1080p, the 670 is more than enough anyway. If i were buying a pc today with that kind of money, it would be a toss up between a 7970 ghz and a gtx 670/680 depending on the price those cards could be had for. the 7970 also has the advantage of having 3gb vram, while nvidia has better driver support, physx, lower power consumption.

 

[swilczak]

I would avoid the 690 and get a 7970 or try to find a pre built computer with a GeForce titan if you aren't into building PC's. The titan is about as good as the 690 in a single GPU. I think videocardbenchmark.net only measures one of the two GPU's on the 690 that's why it says the 680 is better.

 

[adryn]

Alright I'll try to find something that has a titan if possible, if not swing for the Radeon 7970 or Nv 670/680. I guess I'll just have to decide if that extra gig of vram is worth more than the support, physx, and lower power consumption.

Thanks everyone for helping out

 

[adryn]

Best answer selected by adryn.

 

[photonboy]

Alright I'll try to find something that has a titan if possible, if not swing for the Radeon 7970 or Nv 670/680. I guess I'll just have to decide if that extra gig of vram is worth more than the support, physx, and lower power consumption.

Thanks everyone for helping out

Anything with a Titan is going to be quite expensive. It's a 33% average boost over a stock GTX680, slightly more over a stock 7970 and slightly LESS over an HD7970 GHz edition.

A GTX680 is NOT only 3% boost over a stock GTX670. It's going to VARY quite a bit though depending on how CPU-dependent a game is so in some cases yes, only 3%. In some cases it is closer to 13%.

Don't believe me?
Here's the proof:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/55064-asus-gtx-680-directcu-ii-top-review-4.html

My current favorite card is still the GTX680 DC2T from Asus (as high as 24% over a stock GTX670; proof in above link and great review as well), however the HD7970 cards are quite interesting because they currently include:
- Crysis 3, and
- Bioshock Infinite (both digital downloads)

VRAM:
There are really NO games that benefit from more than 2GB on a single monitor even at 2560x1440.

Budget:
It's hard to give advice without knowing your budget. If it's pretty high then get the Geforce Titan (if you can eventually find one for no more than $1000. If that's too much AND you favor NVidia then get the Asus GTX 680 DC2T. If you want the value that's arguably the HD7970 though some of the cards are currently sold out because of the game package.

I really love the Asus 3-slot cards and they have a DC2T version of the HD7970 though I'm not sure if you can find that.