tweaktown review GTX660Ti

[Red Hawk]

CUDA will be the last killer feature touted.

GPU transcoding in Rage!

 

[RussianSensation]

BTW, has anyone seen Metro Last Light screenshots yet?

As well as wiping your mask you also have to charge your torch, physically count how many bullets you have left, change your gasmask filter, monitor how much time is left before you run out of clean air.

Metro Last Light Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db5wWJ1C_1I

32 ROP / 384-bit 7950 vs. 24 ROP / 192-bit 660Ti. Place your bets!

 

[Grooveriding]

Metro Last Light is using the same engine with some tweaks as 2033 does. The 7970 will almost certainly be faster than the 680 in that game given the large lead it has over the 680 in Metro 2033. Same should hold out for 7950 vs 670 etc. Not up to date on 7870/7850 benches in 2033 though.

Metro 2033 is pretty ridiculous with that DOF feature on though. Doesn't matter what card you have it is a performance killer. Hopefully that gets optimized/removed. It just hammers your performance.

 

[ElFenix]

so what's the price on this thing?

 

[SirPauly]

CUDA will be the last killer feature touted.

I don't think anyone offered killer feature or an absolute must have. For me, personally underwhelmed by the amount of content actually but it still belongs into the conversation and how relevant it may be is up to the individual considering their choice. To not include it in the conversation is not objective to me.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Did Anandtech ever go back to recommending crossfire? I know in one their last reviews they recommended people stay away from crossfire because it was broken.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Red Faction Guerilla has a great destruction model. Here is a quick look at some of the games that try to use realistic physics effects. Mafia II effects are not very good at all with excessive debris.

Game Technology: Best Destruction On Games, top 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=377h3l6K3hk&feature=related

P.S. After we have exhausted HD7950's 3GB of VRAM, 32 ROPs, 384-bit bus, 30-40% overclocking, addressed that NV and AMD both have driver problems on both sides, the discussion has finally narrowed itself down to PhysX. It's been a while since we found ourselves revisiting this "killer" NV feature. Good times.

I guess we could discuss Nvidia 3D vision? Did AMD ever get the crossfire fixed or a working 3D solution that wasn't a 3rd party hack job?

 

[SirPauly]

AMD did address that and was very welcomed.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

The real question is how much will it matter, or how much will it be passed around like B3...

Neither BF3 nor Metro 2033 were very good games indicative to the amount of standing they get in regards to gpu choices.

Perhaps I'm just getting out of touch, but I find most my enjoyment/time goes into games that poor their heart and soul into the actual design/lore/fun factor instead of how good the graphics are.


According to http://bf3stats.com/ there are only 58,000 PC gamers playing BF3 right now, pretty sad considering how much it's used around here. I imagine there are probably less than 100 people playing Metro 2033 right now, and less than 100,000 PC gamers will actually buy Last Light.

I just don't see the point in these discussions when the market is trumping everything being said, nobody really cares.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

AMD did address that and was very welcomed.

I guess better late than never.. Well until the next big game release and AMD falters again..

 

[Silverforce11]

Looking forward to Metro, i enjoyed the first a lot. @Balla, thats why performance in a wide range of new games matters more than a few specific titles, whether they be AMD-E or NV sponsored. Benchmarks that take into account as many games as possible = the most valid jugement on GPU.

 

[RussianSensation]

Some overclocking results. Nothing real world, but something.

http://wccftech.com/geforce-gtx-660ti-benchmarks-leaked-overclocked-performance-exposed/

3DMark 11 Extreme Preset:

GeForce GTX 660 Ti (915/980/1502 MHz) – X2730
GeForce GTX 660 Ti (1015/1080/1502 MHz) – X2880
HD7970 GE (1050/6000 Mhz) - X2980
GeForce GTX 670 Stock (915/980/1502 Mhz) - X3002
GeForce GTX 680 (1006/1058/1502 Mhz) - X3276
GeForce GTX 680 (1111/1176/1502 MHz) – X3621

NV does really well in 3dMark11:

Based on 3dMark11 scores a stock GTX670 should beat HD7970 GE.

The reality is GE beats it by 10% at 1080P and by 19% at 1600P.
GTX670 beats HD7970 by 10% in 3dMark11 in Extreme setting but a 925mhz 7970 beats it by 8% at 1600P. 3dMark 11 = worthless bench.

 

[Silverforce11]

3DMark 11 Extreme Preset:

GeForce GTX 660 Ti (915/980/1502 MHz) – X2730
GeForce GTX 660 Ti (1015/1080/1502 MHz) – X2880
HD7970 GE (1050/6000 Mhz) - X2980
GeForce GTX 670 Stock (915/980/1502 Mhz) - X3002
GeForce GTX 680 (1006/1058/1502 Mhz) - X3276
GeForce GTX 680 (1111/1176/1502 MHz) – X3621

NV does really well in 3dMark11:

It actually shows weak OC gains for the 660ti. Pretty piss poor *if true*.

 

[SirPauly]

I just don't see the point in these discussions when the market is trumping everything being said, nobody really cares.

Conversations and debate, at times, is informative and entertaining, too. Personally allow the market to decide what is best for all. Can only offer my subjective tastes and tolerances, which may differ from someone else. It's all good though to have so many different view-points.

 

[RussianSensation]

It actually shows weak OC gains for the 660ti. Pretty piss poor *if true*.

Think about it logically, a stock GTX670 has 33% more memory bandwidth and 33% more ROPs than a stock GTX660Ti. It's going to take a huge overclock for the 660Ti just to catch up to a stock 670, unless the game is shader bound where ROPs and memory bandwidth aren't that important.

 

[blackened23]

3DMark 11 Extreme Preset:
uld beat HD7970 GE.

The reality is GE beats it by 10% at 1080P and by 19% at 1600P.
GTX670 beats HD7970 by 10% in 3dMark11 in Extreme setting but a 925mhz 7970 beats it by 8% at 1600P. 3dMark 11 = worthless bench.

Yeah, nvidia does really well in 3dmark while AMD tends to do better in heaven. It doesn't perfectly align with performance like you said.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Depending on the price, the 660Ti could be a good choice for SLI?

 

[Silverforce11]

Think about it logically, a stock GTX670 has 33% more memory bandwidth and 33% more ROPs than a stock GTX660Ti. It's going to take a huge overclock for the 660Ti just to catch up to a stock 670, unless the game is shader bound where ROPs and memory bandwidth aren't that important.

You dont have to convince me.. if its 24rops and 192 bus, NV don't want you to easily crank up the OC and get higher tier performance. It's too crippled to achieve that (except at low res, no AA etc).

 

[SirPauly]

I guess it is a fine line -- to offer compelling choice to consider for its intended price-point, but not to deflate too much the GTX 670 and GTX 680 premiums. To try to bring more compelling 28nm competition for gamers than just the HD 7870 and HD 7950.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I guess it is a fine line -- to offer compelling choice to consider for its intended price-point, but not to deflate too much the GTX 670 and GTX 680 premiums. To try to bring more compelling 28nm competition for gamers than just the HD 7870 and HD 7950.

7870 is still a bit too high to be a real gamers choice card, 7950 an enthusiast card with an enthusiast price tag, both are in niche markets.


I think once you start looking at cards that cost more than entire console systems you've gone outside the realm of mainstream gaming, current consoles are around $200 for entry new, of course you can get them much cheaper (like graphics cards) second hand as well on forums, ebay, even local stores like gamestop (rip) :thumbsup:


Edit: As for the 660 Ti I'd be shocked (well not really) and appalled if it retails at anything higher than $250.

 

[Silverforce11]

None of AMD's products have been attractive outside of the 7850 and 7950. The others are either crap or too expensive compared to these models for the perf gains (pretty much nil when u factor in OC).

Likewise, only the gtx670 is attractive so far.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Overclocking a 7970 isn't attractive? For about $50 more than a GTX 670 if a single card at 1080p is all you're after it's gotta be the best one around. I prefer Nvidia's drivers but a $460 7970 like a Sapphire with heatpipe cooler, getting to really high overclocks is very simple.

Granted power consumption is a possible concern but none of these cards are marketed or generally geared toward those who would not have a beefy PSU.

 

[Silverforce11]

No because I could get almost the same performance with an OC 7950 and I got it for $330.

Let's assume I did buy a $460 7970 and ran it at the same clock, I'm getting negligable performance increase thats actually pretty damn hard to notice outside of benchmarks getting a few % difference. Now, I would paid $130 extra for what? Negligable perf increase along with a sizable power use increase??

 

[cmdrdredd]

No because I could get almost the same performance with an OC 7950 and I got it for $330.

Let's assume I did buy a $460 7970 and ran it at the same clock, I'm getting negligable performance increase thats actually pretty damn hard to notice outside of benchmarks getting a few % difference. Now, I would paid $130 extra for what? Negligable perf increase along with a sizable power use increase??

No you can't get the same performance. That's just not true. An overclocked 7970 will always be faster than a 7950. It's very close, but it is not the same.

 

[Siberian]

The aspect I like about nVidia is their pro-active nature and oddly, is what some gamers complain about in this forum. nVidia's developer relations, flexibility of settings, features and support like 3d Vision, GPU Physics, willing to spend resources for their customer base, while trying to improve the gaming experience for their customers and continued by offering adaptive V-sync, frame limiters, GPU Boost and TXAA. They're not the same to me.

Some may hear gamers clamoring on some of these features as gimmick, going to die, foolish, waste of resources but this pro-active nature as a whole is the reason for the strong Brand-name to me. Not because nVidia buyers are dumb.

On game forums people tend to think of NVIDIA cards as gamer cards and AMD as a budget brand. AMD seems to be trying to break that by overpricing their cards. They don't offer any extra features and so they don't sell well.