MSI TF GTX 660 vs. Sapphire Radeon HD 7870

[nottrolling]

I am looking for a good graphics card that is future proof, and I am on a budget build. I selected these 2 cards because they suit the budget and I think they may be very good cards. I am getting into PC gaming, and leaning away from console gaming now. I know that the 7870 will net about 65 FPS on high settings (Battlefield 3), but I cannot find any statistics on the GTX 660. I will be running either of these cards with an i5-3570k and Patriot Viper 3 Series 8GB 1866MHz memory. I play games like Minecraft and Team Fortress 2, and I will play games like Battlefield 3, Planetside 2, and when it comes out, Battlefield 4.

(What's up with Corsair bumping up the Vengeance memory prices?)

 

[Norlag]

The two are fairly equal cards, the difference being only a few frames in different games. I'd say if you plan on playing games that use physx (not many unfortunately), go for the 660. If not, the 7870 will give you better performance.

As for the ram, I don't know why they suddenly decided 8 gb of ram needed to be $15-$20 more expensive. But hey, there's always other brands (go capitalism!).

 

[nottrolling]

The two are fairly equal cards, the difference being only a few frames in different games. I'd say if you plan on playing games that use physx (not many unfortunately), go for the 660. If not, the 7870 will give you better performance.

As for the ram, I don't know why they suddenly decided 8 gb of ram needed to be $15-$20 more expensive. But hey, there's always other brands (go capitalism!).

I have not a single clue what PhysX is. So, I'll go with the 7870. If I wanted to keep the same budget, but still get Corsair memory (I heard it works wonders compared to other memory brands.), should I downgrade to a 7850? Would it make a substantial difference in performance?

 

[huilun02]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/powercolor-deal-coupon-code-newegg,21692.html

Or if you can't get it, the 660 and 7870 perform about the same.

The 7870 overclocks really well and will get you Bioshock and Tomb Raider for free

 

[nottrolling]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/powercolor-deal-coupon-code-newegg,21692.html

Or if you can't get it, the 660 and 7870 perform about the same.

The 7870 overclocks really well and will get you Bioshock and Tomb Raider for free

I'll be OC'ing my 3570k as well, so how much of a framerate gain will I get?

 

[Norlag]

The two are fairly equal cards, the difference being only a few frames in different games. I'd say if you plan on playing games that use physx (not many unfortunately), go for the 660. If not, the 7870 will give you better performance.

As for the ram, I don't know why they suddenly decided 8 gb of ram needed to be $15-$20 more expensive. But hey, there's always other brands (go capitalism!).

I have not a single clue what PhysX is. So, I'll go with the 7870. If I wanted to keep the same budget, but still get Corsair memory (I heard it works wonders compared to other memory brands.), should I downgrade to a 7850? Would it make a substantial difference in performance?

Physx basically makes games that use it look better. Most games don't use it, but those that do (such as borderlands 2) do benefit from it.

I have corsair vengeance ram, and it is awesome, though I haven't compared it with anything else.

I would stick with the 7870 and either buy different ram or just save up a few extra dollars and not have to compromise.

Since you plan on overclocking your cpu, get a good cpu cooler, such as the cooler master hyper 212 evo. It's cheap yet awesome and will give you some low temps even at high clocks.

 

[huilun02]

I'll be OC'ing my 3570k as well, so how much of a framerate gain will I get?

The gain in framerate will depend on the resolution of your monitor, and how much you overclocked your graphics card.

In theory you should expect a percentage increase in framerate a little lower than the percentage you overclocked your card's core and memory speeds. For example if I overclocked my card from 1000Mhz to 1100Mhz I would see performance increase of over 7% but no more than 10%

There are many other factors that can affect how much you gain out of overclocking your card.