What would be a better gpu setup?

[SL97]

hd 7970
or
2 gtx 660 cards
or
2 hd 7870 cards
or
2 hd 7850 cards
or if there are other, more cost effective gpu setup's that people know about it would be great to know, budget won't allow a 680.

 

[ASHISH65]

2 x hd 7870 beat all those gpus.

 

[david cassar]

I would go with a single 7970 because you could face micro stuttering. The hd 7870x2 are better in performance.

 

[SL97]

2 x hd 7870 beat all those gpus.

Would the 2 x hd 7850 come close to the 7970 in performance?

 

[SL97]

I would go with a single 7970 because you could face micro stuttering. The hd 7870x2 are better in performance.

What is micro stuttering? How can it be prevented?

 

[david cassar]

2 x hd 7870 beat all those gpus.

Would the 2 x hd 7850 come close to the 7970 in performance?

They would also beat the 7970

 

[david cassar]

I would go with a single 7970 because you could face micro stuttering. The hd 7870x2 are better in performance.

What is micro stuttering? How can it be prevented?

It can be with driver support and also some games that come out could not support sli/crossfire on release date and so basically you would be playing with a single 7870 instead of two.

 

[ASHISH65]

yep single gpu is alwys better.get hd 7970,it is really best for you

 

[SL97]

okay so every gpu setup in the list is better than the 7970 but the best one is the x2 7870 and what about the x2 gtx 660? thanks for the answers
:/ games not supporting an sli/crossfire setup would be a real problem... even big titles like battlefield 4, gta v, the next call of duty and watch dogs? :S

 

[17seconds]

GTX 660's in SLI are the best out of those options for less than $400. Nvidia drivers are considerably better for SLI, while AMD has a history of not supporting new releases for weeks and even months after the game's release.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/01/17/amd_crossfirex_drivers_opportunity_lost/#.UVydbBPn-Uk
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/04/2012_amd_nvidia_driver_performance_summary_review/

Also as mentioned, Crossfire is plagued by micostutter/frame latency issues. Nvidia has for years employed a frame smoothing technology that works really well, while AMD is just now waking up to the reality that their cards in Crossfire have stuttering issues. More information:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-benchmarking-frame-rate,3466-13.html

The big orange area for the 7950's in Crossfire is not good and shows the lack of consistency in the frame times, which leads to jittery gaming experience. A nice tight line, like the GTX 660 Ti's in SLI is what you want to see.
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-and-Radeon-HD-7950/Summary-and-Conclusions