gtx 580 vs gtx 660?

[nk215]

Hi guys

I have a quick question about the gtx 580 vs gtx 660. I have them both at hand (currently I am using the gtx 660 to save the 8pin connector). Which one would you use? As far as benchmark scores are concern, the 2 are just neck to neck with each other.

I don't play any GPU taxing game (new FPS). I do edit pictures/video from time to time but it's all done via RDP using my more powerful computing server.

My CPU is i5-2500k running stock. Power supply is 650watts.

thanks

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I would post both of them for sale somewhere and see which you can get a better price for. Sell that one and keep the other!

I think the 660 consumes less power, but the 580 is probably a bit faster overall. 580 also likely has more OC room (due to low base clocks) if you need more performance at some point.

 

[nurturedhate]

They are extremely close performance wise but I would assume that your 660 has 2gb vram compared to the 1.5 on the 580, couple that with the 660 having far better power, heat and probably noise I would go for the 660.

 

[lopri]

The 660 is equal/superior to the 580 in almost every regard, I think. (except for theoretical bandwidth)

Since you have both, why not try them out and see which one you like better? It seems like you are in the best situation to decide.

 

[Wall Street]

I would post both of them for sale somewhere and see which you can get a better price for. Sell that one and keep the other!

I think the 660 consumes less power, but the 580 is probably a bit faster overall. 580 also likely has more OC room (due to low base clocks) if you need more performance at some point.

That is lower base clock but also:

1) 40 nm vs 28 nm
2) Hot clocks in Fermi vs. no hot clocks in Kepler and
3) pushing more power on one of the hungriest chips.

I am currently running a GTX 570. It doesn't overclock well because the overcurrent protection kicks in before the clock speeds ramp up. You can disable the protection, but then your VRMs may burn.

I would use the newer card.

 

[Termie]

Actually, the 580 will be faster in just about every game. And the extra VRAM really doesn't help the 660 much due to its unbalanced VRAM layout.

Just a few examples:
Watch Dogs: http://www.techspot.com/review/827-watch-dogs-benchmarks/page3.html
Splinter Cell: http://www.techspot.com/review/706-splinter-cell-blacklist-benchmarks/page2.html
BF4: http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page3.html
Company of Heroes 2: http://www.techspot.com/review/689-company-of-heroes-2-performance/page3.html
Metro Last Light: http://www.techspot.com/review/670-metro-last-light-performance/page4.html

Clean sweep there, and sometimes the 580 wins by a lot.

Unless the OP is concerned about heat/power draw, the 580 is the obvious choice.

 

[toyota]

whats odd is that in the guru gtx750 ti review, even it was matching the 580 is some games and its 25% slower than the 660.

 

[dn7309]

Gtx 660

 

[Anarchist420]

def go with the GTX 580 as the drivers work better with it and it has better compute performance. the only things that the 660 has over it is TXAA and lower power draw

 

[toyota]

def go with the GTX 580 as the drivers work better with it and it has better compute performance. the only things that the 660 has over it is TXAA and lower power draw

drivers work better?

 

[RaistlinZ]

I'd go for the 660 for higher VRAM and much lower power draw.

Oh, and overclock that processor homeboy.

 

[SlickR12345]

I'd go for the 660 just for the savings in power consumption. Heat and noise are also lower on the 660.

So if you only care about performance then the 580 is few frames faster than the 660 in general, but the 660 wins in every other sphere.

If you can sell them both and get a 280x that would be the best thing you can do.

 

[Anarchist420]

drivers work better?

yep. kepler has some z-buffer optimization forced whereas fermi doesnt (at least it didnt in older drivers which cant be used with kepler).

 

[dn7309]

Why dont the OP jsut use the 660 as the primary gaming card for the 2gb Vram and use the 580 for physx since it has more compute power?

 

[nk215]

Thanks. I am going to use the 660 just for its low noise. I made some test run and they are just about the same for most app with the exception of sony vegas. In sony vegas the 580 is absolutely a winner by 2x the frame rate in rendering.

 

[lavaheadache]

Now you just need to figure out how much you are going to sell me the 580 for