NEED HELP IN CHOOSING A GRAPHICS CARD: 7870 VS 660 OR 7950 vs 660Ti

[siddhanthgupta]

If I were in your shoes I'd save a bit of money and get the 660Ti. 7950 is a better card, but it really makes it known only when oc'd. The 660Ti is a great card regardless of the 7950's edge.

The 7950 is only marginally more expensive (The difference being about INR 1000 or USD 18 approx).

So, I would like to go for the better card, or more importantly, the card that will easily last me 3 years. That means its performance will be good even after 3 years, and the card won't conk out in that time due to over-heating or anything.

The only reason I was inclined towards the 660Ti earlier is because of its manufacturer: ASUS. However, many people here seem to vouch for sapphire's quality, so I suppose the 7950 is the better choice here.

Another thing I'm noticing based on other online reviews/blogs: frame latency. Nvidia seems to have lower latencies than the AMD. I personally hate the sudden FPS drop, so, is that going to be a problem on the 7950? Please answer the questions based on stock clocks. I repeat: I will not overclock, nor do I have any desire to. And also CF/SLI is also kinda out of the question, although I'm given to understand that the Nvidia has better SLI performance in general.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 7950 has 2x as wide a memory bus and 50% more memory. Those 2 specs should make it age more gracefully.

 

[siddhanthgupta]

The 7950 has 2x as wide a memory bus and 50% more memory. Those 2 specs should make it age more gracefully.

The wider bus is certainly a plus, but I'm not so sure about the memory. For a single monitor setup, shouldn't 2 gigs be more than enough?

And if anyone wants it, here is the frame latency thing I was asking about: http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/404...a-geforce-gtx-660-frametimes-review-far-cry-3

Does it make a difference in real-life? I'm dislike sudden frame-drops, but if its minor (and very temporary), I don't really care.

 

[toyota]

The wider bus is certainly a plus, but I'm not so sure about the memory. For a single monitor setup, shouldn't 2 gigs be more than enough?

it should yes. my gpu runs out of power long before it gets anywhere near 2gb of vram usage. I will need to upgrade my gpu from lack of power long before the 2gb of vram will be an issue.

 

[3DVagabond]

The wider bus is certainly a plus, but I'm not so sure about the memory. For a single monitor setup, shouldn't 2 gigs be more than enough?

Now? Sure. For how long though? The new Playstation is going to have 8gig of RAM (shared cpu and gpu) In a year or so I think we'll see games start to push that 2gig threshold. Even if they don't end up doing that, you won't regret having the extra memory.

 

[toyota]

Now? Sure. For how long though? The new Playstation is going to have 8gig of RAM (shared cpu and gpu) In a year or so I think we'll see games start to push that 2gig threshold. Even if they don't end up doing that, you won't regret having the extra memory.

again the gpu will run out of power before vram becomes an issue. do you really think 99% of cards will be obsolete when the consoles come out?

 

[siddhanthgupta]

again the gpu will run out of power before vram becomes an issue. do you really think 99% of cards will be obsolete when the consoles come out?

One more question....and this has been bugging me since the start. Are nvidia drivers superior? I am currently using an AMD, and I have no problems with their drivers. My only gripe is that the catalyst control centre takes a while to load and slows down my startup a bit.

AMD regularly updates its drivers (every 2 or 3 months). So, how exactly is nvidia superior?

 

[toyota]

One more question....and this has been bugging me since the start. Are nvidia drivers superior? I am currently using an AMD, and I have no problems with their drivers. My only gripe is that the catalyst control centre takes a while to load and slows down my startup a bit.

AMD regularly updates its drivers (every 2 or 3 months). So, how exactly is nvidia superior?

lol thats a can of worms right there. I personally prefer to use nvidia as I have had much better luck. the few times I have used ATI/AMD, I have had issues that really ticked me off. that being said some people claim to have never had an issue. of course that is 100% bs if you play current games a lot because both camps will have an issue at some point. anyway if you have been happy gaming with AMD then I would not worry. you can use Radeon Pro instead of CCC and that might give you a better overall user experience.

 

[siddhanthgupta]

lol thats a can of worms right there. I personally prefer to use nvidia as I have had much better luck. the few times I have used ATI/AMD, I have had issues that really ticked me off. that being said some people claim to have never had an issue. of course that is 100% bs if you play current games a lot because both camps will have an issue at some point. anyway if you have been happy gaming with AMD then I would not worry. you can use Radeon Pro instead of CCC and that might give you a better overall user experience.

Of course there are issues.....but nothing so bad that I would regret my decision.

In fact, based on the various debates in different forums, it seems that the issues on AMD are mostly related to older games with DX9, and also frame latencies. I really don't replay older games (not when awesome games come out every year), so I really don't care about DX9. The frame stutter however worries me. If it is negligible, and the spikes are rare, then I really don't mind them, but if FPS drops from say 60 to 40 for second every 5-10 seconds, then its really gonna be a problem.

It'd help if someone could confirm that this is not the case. I'm really not biased towards either company (the only thing I'm biased towards is ASUS over sapphire, but even that's negotiable), so if someone who has used both could tell me that smoothness isn't an issue, I could go ahead and get it.

 

[DownTheSky]

DUDE. That framerate latency problem is for Multi-GPU. So it doesn't concern you. Just buy the damn card already and enjoy.

 

[siddhanthgupta]

DUDE. That framerate latency problem is for Multi-GPU. So it doesn't concern you. Just buy the damn card already and enjoy.

No...I'm not talking about the micro-stuttering in multi-GPU config. I'm talking about framerate latency in single GPU setup.

And I'm sorry if I seem to frustrate you. Its just that I've never really bought a graphics card this expensive before, and I want to clear all my doubts before I go for it.

 

[R0H1T]

No...I'm not talking about the micro-stuttering in multi-GPU config. I'm talking about framerate latency in single GPU setup.

And I'm sorry if I seem to frustrate you. Its just that I've never really bought a graphics card this expensive before, and I want to clear all my doubts before I go for it.

Just go with the 7950, there isn't so much of a problem of frame latency as you think there is & its alot more subjective(that particular issue) IMO !

 

[Will Robinson]

I tend to agree,if he's not going to overclock the 660Ti is a very good card.
Sounds like he'd rather stay with a lower price bracket however in which case I'd go for the Gigabyte 7870.

 

[siddhanthgupta]

I tend to agree,if he's not going to overclock the 660Ti is a very good card.
Sounds like he'd rather stay with a lower price bracket however in which case I'd go for the Gigabyte 7870.

I really don't mind spending a little more to get the 7950 over the 7870.
My question is whether the 7950 is better than the 660Ti if I won't be overclocking it. I'm asking if it is BETTER, not if it is VERY GOOD (at this price point, both cards are very good). But most people are inclined towards the 7950, and very few mention the frame-latency thing I've come across. It may just be a very minor thing blown up out of proportion, I really do not know.
Either way, I want to be well informed before I make my purchase. Right now, I myself am leaning towards the 7950.

And the reason I do not want to overclock is that the room temp in my city is usually kinda high all year round, and I do not want to stress the card and damage its longevity by overclocking it.

 

[Jaydip]

Unfortunately there is no "best" card.You have to take this decision yourself.Unless you need cuda,physx go with 7950.

 

[KingFatty]

Also you can consider the financial/economic argument. How much it will either card depreciate? I could see how the AMD cards might depreciate differently because they can be used for Bitcoin, but also there is a chance that Bitcoin bubble pops and then the market will be flooded by used AMD cards driving their price down. However, looking at the past behavior, seems like it's rather safe to get the bitcoin-capable card and it's resale value is more protected by being able to resell to a bitcoin miner?

I guess it's the concept that a depreciating asset is more valuable if it can have multiple uses, besides just gaming. If a newer video card comes out, the current value of your video card will depreciate, but not as much if it still has value to mine bitcoins?

 

[Durvelle27]

definitely go with a HD 7950

 

[siddhanthgupta]

Unfortunately there is no "best" card.You have to take this decision yourself.Unless you need cuda,physx go with 7950.

OK. Why do people need cuda? Will I require it for programming? Ever? Because only Nvidia uses it.

And game devs have been diminishing the use of physX of late. So I really don't think physX matters anymore.

 

[R0H1T]

OK. Why do people need cuda? Will I require it for programming? Ever? Because only Nvidia uses it.

And game devs have been diminishing the use of physX of late. So I really don't think physX matters anymore.

OK lemme put this me bluntly ~ you're overthinking about this & only trying to save a few pennies(metaphorically speaking) here ! As for CUDA, chances are if you haven't heard about it you won't need it anytime soon & if you do anytime in the future you can always buy an Nvidia card then !

 

[Jaydip]

OK. Why do people need cuda? Will I require it for programming? Ever? Because only Nvidia uses it.

And game devs have been diminishing the use of physX of late. So I really don't think physX matters anymore.

I use CUDA for medical imaging.It is a general purpose GPU programming language.I think ROHIT is spot on.

 

[siddhanthgupta]

OK lemme put this me bluntly ~ you're overthinking about this & only trying to save a few pennies(metaphorically speaking) here ! As for CUDA, chances are if you haven't heard about it you won't need it anytime soon & if you do anytime in the future you can always buy an Nvidia card then !

I use CUDA for medical imaging.It is a general purpose GPU programming language.I think ROHIT is spot on.

Thanks guys.

I guess the 7950 is the best choice then.