Question Should I Upgrdae my 660ti

Mikado_Wu

Junior Member
Aug 18, 2017
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Hello all, I am currently using a 660ti on an old 3rd Gen i7 system.

If I upgraded to a new video card, and I really going to see a big difference in performance? I have not studied up on bus bandwidth and the new ports in years.

Thanks,
 

Harry_Wild

Senior member
Dec 14, 2012
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I have a 4th gen Intel 4790 with full 32GB memory and Samsung 860 1TB SSD. I upgrade from the IGP Intel HD4600 to Nvidia LP 1050 TI 4GB GDRR5 card and it really did not notice any difference in boot up time, web browser speed or 4K streaming video.

The biggest increase in speed occurred for me when I upgrading my internet line from 40 mps to 160 mps business class and couple years ago, switch out the WD Raptor HD to (256GB 840 Pro to 512GB 860 EVO and then to 1TB 860 EVO last year). The 512GB to 1TB size seem to be faster for me but others here said no noticeable difference.

I hope you are still using a conventional HD still as you boot drive and you will be amaze by upgrading to the latest SSD. It will appear like instantaneous fast! LOL!

I think it will make a “big” difference if you do gaming, video editing and stuff like that!

I have a thread on the 1030 on this topic already shown below:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/any-benefit-in-upgrading-to-the-geforce-gt-1030-card.2540445/
 
Last edited:
Feb 25, 2011
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I have a 3rd gen i5; I upgraded from a 660Ti to a 970 a while back and it was a noticeable improvement in games.

But that was a while ago; I'd be less interested in putting money into my box now, since I know it's relatively close to being replaced.
 

Mikado_Wu

Junior Member
Aug 18, 2017
7
1
51
I have a 3rd gen i5; I upgraded from a 660Ti to a 970 a while back and it was a noticeable improvement in games.

But that was a while ago; I'd be less interested in putting money into my box now, since I know it's relatively close to being replaced.

Working of a teachers salary, I upgrade in stages. I am planning to upgrade next year once Intel releases the 10nm family of desktop processors. I figure the new Video cards, like the 2060 or AMD equivalent would be good for some years to come. Thank for the info.
 
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Mikado_Wu

Junior Member
Aug 18, 2017
7
1
51
I have a 4th gen Intel 4790 with full 32GB memory and Samsung 860 1TB SSD. I upgrade from the IGP Intel HD4600 to Nvidia LP 1050 TI 4GB GDRR5 card and it really did not notice any difference in boot up time, web browser speed or 4K streaming video.

I have a thread on the 1030 on this topic already shown below:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/any-benefit-in-upgrading-to-the-geforce-gt-1030-card.2540445/

Thank you for the reply. Yes, upgrading to any video card over the on board video is going to show huge improvements. I already have a 660ti, which is still a decent and a huge upgrade to the onboard. I was more curious if the new boards had maxed out the bandwidth on the older systems.
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
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Working of a teachers salary, I upgrade in stages. I am planning to upgrade next year once Intel releases the 10nm family of desktop processors. I figure the new Video cards, like the 2060 or AMD equivalent would be good for some years to come. Thank for the info.

I'm assuming you're running at 1080p resolution? I could see upgrading to a 1060 card or a rx580 8gb and that lasting you well enough for 3-4 years with a system/cpu upgrade in the next year or two if you're itching to upgrade the gpu now. I would hold off on anything over $300 (2060) to wait and see what shows up later this year though.
 

Harry_Wild

Senior member
Dec 14, 2012
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Thank you for the reply. Yes, upgrading to any video card over the on board video is going to show huge improvements. I already have a 660ti, which is still a decent and a huge upgrade to the onboard. I was more curious if the new boards had maxed out the bandwidth on the older systems.

The PCI 16X 3.0 is still good at keeping up with the latest graphic cards. The PCI 16X 4.0 is going to be release soon which 2X that of the current bandwidth.

At CES, Intel just announced their 10nm line. I think the new CPUs have massive increase in speed and lower heat generation.

I would work on picking a new motherboard, MvMe, memory sticks, case and CPU and buy it all at once on Black Friday! If money is tight buy this generation on Black Friday 2019.
 

Guru

Senior member
May 5, 2017
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I upgraded from 3rd gen cpu and IGP to a GTX 1060 6GB, the difference is night and day. 660ti is old as hell, you will gain massive performance with a new GPU. With your cpu you can actually go as high as a GTX 1070 without the CPU being too big of a bottleneck .

Also AMD is much better now for CPU's, and their latest 7nm cpu's will be coming out very soon, should be out by March, so you should definitely switch to AMD, Intel won't even really have any 10nm CPU's until the end of 2019.
 

Mikado_Wu

Junior Member
Aug 18, 2017
7
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I upgraded from 3rd gen cpu and IGP to a GTX 1060 6GB, the difference is night and day. 660ti is old as hell, you will gain massive performance with a new GPU. With your cpu you can actually go as high as a GTX 1070 without the CPU being too big of a bottleneck .

Also AMD is much better now for CPU's, and their latest 7nm cpu's will be coming out very soon, should be out by March, so you should definitely switch to AMD, Intel won't even really have any 10nm CPU's until the end of 2019.

I have spoken to a few people about switching to AMD. In my younger days, it was to much work to keep AMD working. I work on networks all day, when I get home it want 100% trouble free and reliable systems.

Is AMD processors there?

Same question about AMD Video Cards, I left them around the time the bought out ATI. The driver support was terrible, hence my move to Geforce.
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
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the 660 ti is still adequate for most titles at 1080P low I think, so it depends on what you are playing, but yes, if you can get a cheap 570 it will be a huge upgrade (unless you only play old games) and it doesn't cost much.
 

Guru

Senior member
May 5, 2017
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I have spoken to a few people about switching to AMD. In my younger days, it was to much work to keep AMD working. I work on networks all day, when I get home it want 100% trouble free and reliable systems.

Is AMD processors there?

Same question about AMD Video Cards, I left them around the time the bought out ATI. The driver support was terrible, hence my move to Geforce.
AMD haven't had major driver issues in almost a decade. In fact most recently it's been mostly Nvidia that have been in the negative spotlight for numerous reasons, including not fixing very old bugs and having a lot of issues with multi monitors and the sort of weirder setups, while AMD have been better.

Second gen Ryzen processors are amazing, and I'm certain their 7nm 3rd generation is going to be even better. I would have definitely upgraded to a R5 2600x if I had the money, but I would save up till the summer and upgrade to a 3rd gen AMD processor.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
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Forget the 2060, you can buy a second-hand 970 for pocket change and your system will run perfectly.

Edit: or what ozzy said.
 

Mikado_Wu

Junior Member
Aug 18, 2017
7
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AMD haven't had major driver issues in almost a decade. In fact most recently it's been mostly Nvidia that have been in the negative spotlight for numerous reasons, including not fixing very old bugs and having a lot of issues with multi monitors and the sort of weirder setups, while AMD have been better.

Second gen Ryzen processors are amazing, and I'm certain their 7nm 3rd generation is going to be even better. I would have definitely upgraded to a R5 2600x if I had the money, but I would save up till the summer and upgrade to a 3rd gen AMD processor.

So what are your thoughts about Intel better on single threaded applications v AMD on Multi thread? Think of real world application. Most of what I run is business application, Virtual servers, and when I game with my son it is on SWTOR, WoWS and Destiny. The articles out there suggest, Intel better for my application.
 

Mikado_Wu

Junior Member
Aug 18, 2017
7
1
51
Forget the 2060, you can buy a second-hand 970 for pocket change and your system will run perfectly.

Edit: or what ozzy said.
I see some 970's out there for 125-150, double that and I get the faster 2060, warrenty and knowing it should last 5-7 years. Where the 970, I be worried it last 1-2. Like buying a card, what hell did the previous user put it through and why are they getting rid of it.
 

Guru

Senior member
May 5, 2017
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So what are your thoughts about Intel better on single threaded applications v AMD on Multi thread? Think of real world application. Most of what I run is business application, Virtual servers, and when I game with my son it is on SWTOR, WoWS and Destiny. The articles out there suggest, Intel better for my application.

There is no more 'single threaded' applications, these are usually 5-6 years old. There are some apps for example that utilize less cores and the focus is more one a single core, in those cases Intel is obviously better, but virtual servers, dedicated servers, hosting computers, etc... actually run generally better on Ryzen processors.

Again you should look up your specific software and judge on a case by case basis, but in terms of value, price and performance the Ryzen processors are great.

Again AMD drivers are NOT bad, this is literally a decade old misinformation, their drivers are solid and their Zen processors are really competitive with Intel's offerings. In fact in terms of value per dollar Ryzen 2000 series processors generally beat most of the Intel's offerings.

Their 3rd generation Ryzen 3000 is coming out in mid 2019, so if you are not upgrading soon, then you should definitely wait for them, they should at least equalize Intel in single threaded apps, and from the reports so far it seems that that is indeed the case.
 
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