Graphic Cards Nvidia GTX 660 Ti or AMD Radeon HD7850
- Thread starter Detox101
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It is a better card but why are you comparing these two, the HD7870 comes across as the direct competitor to the nVidia card. Both have things for an against them, here is a low down --
- over-clocking potential: spending so much on a graphics card and not over-clocking is not unheard of but most people will dabble with it sooner than later, in this field the AMD HD7870 rules the roost, the GTX660Ti thanks to being a 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party based offering will see card with highest possible factory over-clocks doing the rounds, this with aggressive binning for the Turbo-clocks hampers over-clocking.
- 1080p and above performance: Above 1080p resolution and in multi-monitor setup V-RAM and associated bandwidth account for a lot, here again nVidia's asymmetrical distribution of V-RAM starves the GPU for performance over 1080p and in future games when texture load will only increase the performance will suffer considerably.
- power consumption: Here the cards are evenly matched the nVidia card and AMD offerings are at par at load consumption while in idle states the AMD card pulls ahead.
- GPGPU performance: nVidia's Forceware drivers castrate the compute performance of the GeForce cards out-the box so AMD literally walks over nVidia here.
- overall value and availability: Pretty much upto the end user here, if he is biased to AMD OR nVidia either card is good for current generation HD gaming though the AMD HD7870 2GB will definitely age better in my views. Availability is another call, nVidia cards are coming in a myriad variety of cooler type and PCB while the AMD comes in stock as well as souped up versions.
Hope this helps, Cheerio!
Detox101
Contributor
@ALPHA17: I was hoping some cool-off in the prices of HD7850 once 660 Ti is launched. However, the exorbitant pricing will make sure that HD7850 prices won't be coming down in a hurry. I seldom game at resolutions beyond 1080p as I have a 20" monitor and I prefer it that way.. so for me 7850 is the card of choice...
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That is your best bet then, even I have a 20" screen =].
The problem with the nVidia lineup is that it has a massive hole in its current offerings nothing bridges the gap between the GTX660Ti and GTS640. Hoping that the GTX660 shows up sooner than later.
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harry_houdini
Contributor
Even at 20 inch and 1080 p and heck even 900p ( 1600x900 ) the 7850 wont give the best performance out there . Whenever you see those reviews check out for the Anti Aliasing settings , XXAA ( XX= MS , FX , etc ) . This things are there for a reason , they do matter ! . Specially people say FXAA is better . In the future more and more technologies will come out .
Why do you want to buy a GPU which is not even performing the best even currently . Some games even get 34 fps , what do you think will be for future games ? . Consider atleast a 10 fps drop ( assumed ) . 12-15 months later you might feel your current GPU is not upto the task .
PS : This is just my opinion , am not trying to be a moron here and making you spend more on something you dont need . I said it because when you can afford a 660ti , then may be a 7870 or even 7950 .
If I were in your place , I am actually in the same situation , I would go for the GTX 670 or HD 7950. The cheaper 660ti cards are reference cards , not worth it specially in case of 660ti .
660ti is simply not worth it in India , except if your are happy with a reference PCB , which is approx 22-23 k , then its fine . It wont give you overclocks but is still an awesome stock card . Even non reference 660ti have very less margin for overclocking except the MSI card , I forgot its model name . Then except the MSI , if a person is going for a non reference card , it will be for better cooling .
So going for the reference 660ti I dont think is wrong because I have seen people going for reference cards , and still happy with it .
Edit : The 7870 overclocks to 7950 levels according to some reviews , thought it might help .
Why do you want to buy a GPU which is not even performing the best even currently . Some games even get 34 fps , what do you think will be for future games ? . Consider atleast a 10 fps drop ( assumed ) . 12-15 months later you might feel your current GPU is not upto the task .
PS : This is just my opinion , am not trying to be a moron here and making you spend more on something you dont need . I said it because when you can afford a 660ti , then may be a 7870 or even 7950 .
If I were in your place , I am actually in the same situation , I would go for the GTX 670 or HD 7950. The cheaper 660ti cards are reference cards , not worth it specially in case of 660ti .
660ti is simply not worth it in India , except if your are happy with a reference PCB , which is approx 22-23 k , then its fine . It wont give you overclocks but is still an awesome stock card . Even non reference 660ti have very less margin for overclocking except the MSI card , I forgot its model name . Then except the MSI , if a person is going for a non reference card , it will be for better cooling .
So going for the reference 660ti I dont think is wrong because I have seen people going for reference cards , and still happy with it .
Edit : The 7870 overclocks to 7950 levels according to some reviews , thought it might help .
Harry, I bought an AMD HD5770 card back in the day (January 24[SUP]th[/SUP] 2010) and paired it with a 20" monitor, it has performed commendably till date in all the games I have thrown at it. Exceptions exist -- METRO 2033, The Witcher 2, Crysis: Warhead but on the whole it has never let me down.
I could have bought an AMD HD5850 but thanks to an overbearing 'guilt trip' hanging on me I decided the HD5770 should do. I think spending power varies from person to person and ~35 -->40fps on Crysis Enhanced Edition is more than sufficient; unless you are a complete graphics junkie who wants everything maxed out, in that case I am very sorry you should probably aim for a HD7970 CrossFire / GTX680 SLi setup and nothing below as anything below will be a compromise on the quality.
Also there is nothing known as a GTX660Ti 'reference edition'; every card is unique, nVidia has no reference PCB / cooler design for these. The release on August 16[SUP]th[/SUP] was a virtual launch there was no card from nVidia themselves all cards were from 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] companies like eVGA, ZOTAC!, ASUS and MSi.
GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review: Nvidia's Trickle-Down Keplernomics : The Kepler Trickle-Down Continues / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti review roundup: impressive performance for around $300 -- Engadget / Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Review | bit-tech.net / AnandTech - The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti Video Card Review w/ ASUS, EVGA & MSI - The GeForce GTX 660 Ti - Legit Reviews
Every review is a roundup not focused on a single card. Apart from the Tom's Hardware review which is based on a MSi, a company which is not a exclusive board partner for nVidia.
For a 20" monitor for comfortable performance of games in the coming two years the HD7850 2GB OR GTX660Ti are more than capable, HD7870 2GB if you want to over-clock and unleash the power later on but anything over these cards is just pure bunkum, you might as well spend on an SSD to enjoy speeding up of load-times and boot ups.
harry_houdini
Contributor
@ALPHA17
Am very sorry for the wrong info , I mixed up things . I apologize to everyone for that .
The question of spending power is right , but if the gentleman can consider a 22-23 k 660ti , then the question of spending power does not come into consideration according to me . So I picked the price of 660ti as a reference .
7850 is in no comparison to 660ti , 7870 is .
Lets not consider exceptional games , they will always exist .
The only reason I was stressing on a better GPU is to make it a bit future proof . Atleast last 12-15 months more than 7850 and give best performance during the period . Again if he can go for a better card , why not . If budget was a problem there was no discussing at all . But then again you are right , I would prefer total eye candy , but someone else might be totally comfortable with some settings off .
Also have a look here ,
http://www.flipkart.com/computers/components/graphic-card-20247?_r=FBvj6zUcet8GNWkeMrh8eQ--&_l=h2lepvuq%2BWBuaAsWFTIxEA--&ref=2a920658-a25b-403b-9342-d2b397e4175d&layout=grid&sort=price_desc
7870 sapphire is priced much better and even lower than some 7850 models . So wont it be worth it getting this one instead of a 7850 ? .
PS : hope this is a healthy discussion , no offense meant . You obviously know much better than me !
Am very sorry for the wrong info , I mixed up things . I apologize to everyone for that .
The question of spending power is right , but if the gentleman can consider a 22-23 k 660ti , then the question of spending power does not come into consideration according to me . So I picked the price of 660ti as a reference .
7850 is in no comparison to 660ti , 7870 is .
Lets not consider exceptional games , they will always exist .
The only reason I was stressing on a better GPU is to make it a bit future proof . Atleast last 12-15 months more than 7850 and give best performance during the period . Again if he can go for a better card , why not . If budget was a problem there was no discussing at all . But then again you are right , I would prefer total eye candy , but someone else might be totally comfortable with some settings off .
Also have a look here ,
http://www.flipkart.com/computers/components/graphic-card-20247?_r=FBvj6zUcet8GNWkeMrh8eQ--&_l=h2lepvuq%2BWBuaAsWFTIxEA--&ref=2a920658-a25b-403b-9342-d2b397e4175d&layout=grid&sort=price_desc
7870 sapphire is priced much better and even lower than some 7850 models . So wont it be worth it getting this one instead of a 7850 ? .
PS : hope this is a healthy discussion , no offense meant . You obviously know much better than me !
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Do not apologize you had points but you were exceedingly blunt that is why I responded like that and more importantly that Sapphire HD7870 for ~19500/- is mighty tempting -- Sapphire AMD/ATI HD 7870 HDMI OC Edition 2 GB GDDR5 Graphics Card | Graphics Card | Flipkart.com (I did not know this).
@Detox101 you will not get a better deal than this in India, seems like some AMD price-cuts are finally telling.
@harry_houdini no offense meant OR taken, Cheerio!
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Jakob
Explorer
Really good price cut on HD7870,The funny part is HD7850 is listed 18.5k and HD7870-19.5k on FK.
harry_houdini
Contributor
:hippi:
Really good price cut on HD7870,The funny part is HD7850 is listed 18.5k and HD7870-19.5k on FK.
Only Sapphire seems to have implemented some cuts , its offering 7950 for 24k standard and 25k OC edition . Rest all are offering 7870 at those prices .
Thats even better as you told Sapphire has very good after sales support .
I doubt that it will have total effect , even it does it will take time . Sapphire has shown some initiative , lets see what happens
Detox101
Contributor
@ALPHA17: the pricing sounds tempting.. However, I was under the impression that with 20" display 7850 is more than enough for some time.. My cousin is using GTX 460 for a long time now and he can play most games at reasonable settings.. so it seems only plausible that 7850 with newer and better architecture should be good enough at saner resolutions.. The basis for my argument is the below mentioned link:
AMD Radeon HD 7850 - Games
and
http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu
7850 seems a good VFM card.
AMD Radeon HD 7850 - Games
and
http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu
7850 seems a good VFM card.
:hippi:
Only Sapphire seems to have implemented some cuts , its offering 7950 for 24k standard and 25k OC edition . Rest all are offering 7870 at those prices .
Thats even better as you told Sapphire has very good after sales support .
I doubt that it will have total effect , even it does it will take time . Sapphire has shown some initiative , lets see what happens
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Detox I am happy using an HD5770 at those resolutions with decent performance all around. The HD7850 is fine as long as you can live with certain compromises in performance, if you want something better the Sapphire HD7870 is a logical step-up.
Anything over is too much in my books. Cheerio!
The earlier posts were with respect to @harry_houdini's posts.
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