660 Ti vs HD 7950

[BrightCandle]

Just wanted to note that now AMD has admitted that there is a frame latency problem on the 7000 series cards caused by several problems in the drivers that a lot of the hyperbole above has been proved false. TechReport's review has been verified by other places, and reported by other people in this forum. There is a problem with all GCN cards.

The 7950 is still faster and cheaper than the competition, but it also stutters. You could buy it in the hope AMD fixes the problem soon and like many others on this forum and the reviewers you might never notice the motion isn't smooth. At least 95% of people don't notice or care about microstutter from very unscientific thumb in the air count I have done so you might be lucky.

But the 7950 is not smooth, it has frame latency issues and many people when shown the high speed cameras of both side by side can notice the difference. There are only two strategies I would recommend really
1) Buy the 7950, if it stutters send it back and get a 660ti.
2) Just buy the 660ti

But having a 7950 that stutters and you perceive it is a horrible feeling, especially considering how much money you put into buying a high end graphics card.

 

[Final8ty]

Baumann himself said in a post afterwards

"You can also pick another set of titles and you may find very different results between the two companies as well.

 

[hodgenutts]

Sounds like a typical fanboy article and a typical fanboy posting to me lol

 

[thephew]

I used to be the type that would always buy the higher-performance option (for any tech product), even if it meant I had to tweak to make it work properly.

Thousands of "tweaking hours", thousands of dollars worth of failed components, and a new baby later, now I just want stuff to work out of the box, without needing a "fix" or "tweak". I'm still not to the point where I would would buy an Apple product or game on a console, but at least I now empathize with those people (whereas before I would scoff at them).

The me from a couple years ago would have bought a 7950, but the current me bought a 660Ti.

P.S.-Glad TR appears to have been vindicated on the frame latency approach. Enthusiasts have been misled by "average fps" numbers for too long, only to see their expensive multi-GPU systems deliver headache-inducing motion. This isn't an AMD vs. NVIDIA issue; TR's finding will ultimately improve the PC gaming experience for everyone.

 

[parvadomus]

7950 hands down. And it uses the same power as 660TI.

The boost versions consumes 40watts more on average, as linked above, but are faster on average than the non boost version (which was faster already than 660TI).
And what can I say about techreport, they had to record and play a low motion video to see "something" which was not noticeable at standard speeds, so, who cares? Also, they noticed that on a boost version, I would really like to see the same benchmark on a non boost version, I remember something like this was noticed at 7950 boost launch: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6152/amd-announces-new-radeon-hd-7950-with-boost/3
Maybe that is the cause of stutter (pstates continuously changing which I think is fixed increasing powertune limit to prevent GPU going back and forth to boost state), we dont know, as techreport was so unprofessional that benched 1 product of GCN family and interpolated the results to every other.

 

[Face2Face]

I think just having the extra 1Gb of vram is worth the small $ difference. Playing modded Skyrim and seeing my usage over 2GB of vram. I can only imagine that future game titles will like extra vram as well. GTA 5 anyone?

I also haven't found the need to overclock the 7950 yet. But it's good to know it's there just in case.

 

[BrightCandle]

Maybe that is the cause of stutter (pstates continuously changing which I think is fixed increasing powertune limit to prevent GPU going back and forth to boost state), we dont know, as techreport was so unprofessional that benched 1 product of GCN family and interpolated the results to every other.

Nope and nope. Tech report tested boost and not boosted cards. They used powertune +20% and a whole host of things to resolve the problem. Then what happened was AMD admitted schedule pressures on gcn meant the driver was rushed out the door in a poor state in some regards and they believe they know what is causing the issue.

So let's be clear, tech report said its on the 7950, AMD said it applies to all their GCN cards. I tested just the 7970(s).

But almost none of your speculation or claims about their test are true. Stop spreading misinformation please. Let's raise the quality of our discussions beyond political lies.

 

[Hitman928]

Then what happened was AMD admitted schedule pressures on gcn meant the driver was rushed out the door in a poor state in some regards and they believe they know what is causing the issue.

Link to quote?

 

[parvadomus]

Nope and nope. Tech report tested boost and not boosted cards. They used powertune +20% and a whole host of things to resolve the problem. Then what happened was AMD admitted schedule pressures on gcn meant the driver was rushed out the door in a poor state in some regards and they believe they know what is causing the issue.

So let's be clear, tech report said its on the 7950, AMD said it applies to all their GCN cards. I tested just the 7970(s).

But almost none of your speculation or claims about their test are true. Stop spreading misinformation please. Let's raise the quality of our discussions beyond political lies.

Well, I found this now: http://techreport.com/news/24136/driver-software-to-be-tweaked-to-reduce-radeon-frame-latencies-in-series-of-updates

 

[f1sherman]

Well, I found this now: http://techreport.com/news/24136/driver-software-to-be-tweaked-to-reduce-radeon-frame-latencies-in-series-of-updates

you have mad internets skillz

 

[Hitman928]

Trying to keep the discussion to one thread, I'll just share a link to my post in the other where the TR stuff should go:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34448916&postcount=113

 

[willomz]

And what can I say about techreport, they had to record and play a low motion video to see "something" which was not noticeable at standard speeds, so, who cares?

Something which was not accurately noticeable on a low framerate youtube video.

 

[zlejedi]

Can you disable boost on new 7950 ?

 

[willomz]

If nothing else I guess you could flash the bios to a non boost version.

 

[BrightCandle]

Can you disable boost on new 7950 ?

Why would you want to? All the evidence suggests it improved performance at the cost of some power consumption.

 

[MTDEW]

Can you disable boost on new 7950 ?

I know why you're asking and what you're thinking.
You don't want your card constantly boosting back and forth between 850mhz and 925mhz while gaming.
You just set the power limit to +20 and the card will stay at a solid 925mhz while gaming. (or whatever speed you've OC'ed it to)

 

[3DVagabond]

[H] has reviewed the 7870 Myst edition (7900LE or 7930 depending on your perspective). You can read the whole review HERE.

From the conclusion of the review...

<snip>
If it was the intent for this card to be a "GTX 660 Ti Killer" then it has been successful at carrying that out. If you are in the market for a card capable of delivering a great game play experience at 1920x1080 resolutions, then look no further than the PowerColor HD 7870 MYST as it provides near Radeon HD 7950 level performance for Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition pricing.

Personally, I would go for a custom cooled 7950. Although you can't argue with the perf/$ of this model. The bold part I think answers the OP's question. As a side note, the 660 ti wasn't smoother, just slower.