Which one to buy? 7870-vs-660

[DoctorVader]

Und hallo, everybone!

I need your opinion on those two:

(1) asus GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 ( core 1020MHz )

(2) msi R7870-2GD5T/OC ( core 1050MHz, 10% cheaper than (1) )

I'm planning to pick one of those by the end of the month, but I can't decide which is better. The purpose: Battlefield 3, ultra preset, 1920x1080. My psu is thermaltake TR2 RX 550W with two +12V, each 19A.

 

[Durvelle27]

I chose the R9 270X since its about the same price as the 7870 GHz but a little faster

 

[Termie]

No question here, the 7870 is faster, cheaper, and has more overclocking headroom.

 

[Techhog]

I chose the R9 270X since its about the same price as the 7870 GHz but a little faster

The R9 270X is literally a slightly overclocked 7870 GHz.

@OP: The 7870 is faster and I believe a better overclocker, but what games do you play?

EDIT: I suck at reading. BF3 is an Nvidia optimized game, but BF4 will be AMD optimized. Get the 7870 so you can run BF3 now and BF4 with Mantle in the future.

 

[GaiaHunter]

They are both very similar, probably with a little edge to the 7870.

 

[24601]

If you can get a 7950 for the same price, get that instead.

 

[DoctorVader]

Thanks, guys. It's great to see this live feedback, b/c I got confused while reading the reviews. Some of them say that 7870 is better, the others recommend 660. About that R9 270X: there is Sapphire Dual-X at our local store, but I can't find any detailed info on the internet, so, I thinks it's too early to pick it. Also, it's core clock loses to Msi variant of 7870.

P.S. 7950 has much greater price here

 

[Termie]

Thanks, guys. It's great to see this live feedback, b/c I got confused while reading the reviews. Some of them say that 7870 is better, the others recommend 660. About that R9 270X: there is Sapphire Dual-X at our local store, but I can't find any detailed info on the internet, so, I thinks it's too early to pick it. Also, it's core clock loses to Msi variant of 7870.

P.S. 7950 has much greater price here

The R9 270X should have exactly the same core clock as the MSI HD 7870: 1050MHz. The memory clock will be much higher, at 1400MHz instead of 1200MHz. The good news is that the HD 7870's memory should overclock to that level anyway. There's no other way to put this: the R9 270X models are simply overpriced.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Thanks, guys. It's great to see this live feedback, b/c I got confused while reading the reviews. Some of them say that 7870 is better, the others recommend 660. About that R9 270X: there is Sapphire Dual-X at our local store, but I can't find any detailed info on the internet, so, I thinks it's too early to pick it. Also, it's core clock loses to Msi variant of 7870.

P.S. 7950 has much greater price here

Nah.
At best, out of the box the GTX 660 might be as fast. Once you OC the 7870 will be faster.
These are already overclocked models.

The 7870 you linked will be slightly slower than this R9 270X same 1050 core but the the R9 270X is 4800 vs 4400 memory.

Additionally you will most likely be able to OC to 1150 MHz easy,

 

[DoctorVader]

GaiaHunter
Impressive!
But the Sapphire dual-x variant I've mentioned is clocked like this "core=1020MHz, memory=5600MHz", (not the same as Msi) plus, the 660 from the first post is factory oc'ed version.

 

[Termie]

GaiaHunter
Impressive!
But the Sapphire dual-x variant I've mentioned is clocked like this "core=1020MHz, memory=5600MHz", (not the same as Msi) plus, the 660 from the first post is factory oc'ed version.

There's no way an R9 270X would be clocked at 1020GHz. That's below reference. Maybe you are looking at the base clock and not the boost clock.

Anyway, here's a listing of the model you mentioned, which states that the boost clock is 1070MHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202050

None of this changes the fact that the best deal out there right now is the HD7870, unless you can get an HD7950 for close to the same price.

 

[Headfoot]

Unless you're getting a really good deal on the 7870, it's only $30 more for the frequent ~$180-190 AR 7950 deals, and that is a definitely solid step up plus another free game. Not worth going for the 7870 unless you can get it for around $130 AR

 

[DoctorVader]

Headfoot
Termie

Well, the prices at our local store go like this:

(1) asus GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 ( core 1020MHz ) 286$

(2) msi R7870-2GD5T/OC ( core 1050MHz ) 261$

(3) sapphire ( 7950 Boost OC 3GB - core 850 MHz Eclk/ with Boost: 925 MHz ) 317$

Plus, all the gtx660ti oc have disappeared yesterday from the store...

 

[raghu78]

Headfoot
Termie

Well, the prices at our local store go like this:

(1) asus GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 ( core 1020MHz ) 286$

(2) msi R7870-2GD5T/OC ( core 1050MHz ) 261$

(3) sapphire ( 7950 Boost OC 3GB - core 850 MHz Eclk/ with Boost: 925 MHz ) 317$

Plus, all the gtx660ti oc have disappeared yesterday from the store...

its a no brainer. get the sapphire hd 7950 boost. HD 7950 boost even at stock speeds of 925 mhz destroys a HD 7870 and GTX 660.

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Battl...-4-Beta-Test-Grafikkarten-Benchmarks-1090869/

HD 7950 is a GTX 670 equivalent in terms of perf. when overclocked with votage tweaking to 1100 - 1150 mhz HD 7950 matches HD 7970 ghz performance.

HD 7950(1150 mhz) vs GTX 660 Ti (1346 mhz) vs GTX 760(1280 mhz)
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/07/02/msi_n760_tf_2gd5oc_gtx_760_overclocking_review/5/

you can see the HD 7950 is easily the faster card. the perf gap over GTX 760 varies from 7 - 8% in farcry 3 ultra 4x msaa , crysis 3 high setting settings 4x smaa to 25% in tombraider highest settings tress fx fxaa. also the latest 13.11 beta drivers have improved performance by 10% in Metro last light.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013..._directcu_ii_video_card_review/4#.Ul99MVP3x8E

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/10/07/asus_r9_280x_directcu_ii_top_video_card_review/4

see the apple to apples performance for hd 7970 ghz improve from 40.6 to 45.0 fps

moreover 3GB VRAM is recommended for BF4 and next gen games even at 1080p. without a doubt grab the sapphire hd 7950 :thumbsup:

 

[DoctorVader]

its a no brainer. get the sapphire hd 7950 boost. HD 7950 boost even at stock speeds of 925 mhz destroys a HD 7870 and GTX 660.

Thanks for the info, mate. But, 7950 destroys my budget as well, forcing me to put extra 31$, and, very probably - to upgrade my psu ( thermaltake tr2 rx 550w ). This price segment has msi 760oc, which is better at any possible aspect. Btw, I personally don't like the production and the components' quality of sapphire. Also, the overclock is implemented as physical button, which makes me hating it even more.

I'm still choosing between those two...

(1) asus GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 ( core 1020MHz ) 286$
(2) msi R7870-2GD5T/OC ( core 1050MHz ) 261$

 

[fralexandr]

you won't need a new PSU, the tr2 550w (rated for ~30A on the 12v) can handle a 7950 boost. Doesn't fix the out of budget issue, but if you can scrape together $31 it might be worth it to you.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/857?vs=856

In your budget, the 7870 would get my vote. If you're only playing battlefield 3, the 660 performs a bit better though
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU13/583

 

[Schmide]

Dude check the Hot deals form now!!!

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2348122

 

[GaiaHunter]

In your budget, the 7870 would get my vote. If you're only playing battlefield 3, the 660 performs a lot better though
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/398

I'm not sure if that is true.
The Techpowerup shows a different story and so does guru3d.

Unfortunately the latest AT review doesn't include the GTX660 and the 7870, only the R9 270X which is an OCed 7870.

When the GTX 760 launched the results looked like the following.

So I don't know if AMD didn't gain a few % points with their drivers recently.

Anyway the difference doesn't seem to be as big as the AT bench.

 

[fralexandr]

hmm i was using gpu 2012, I should've used the 2013 i guess. I know my brothers 7870 (stock) can play bf3 maxed 1920x1200 smoothly for singleplayer.

 

[RussianSensation]

Thanks for the info, mate. But, 7950 destroys my budget as well, forcing me to put extra 31$, and, very probably - to upgrade my psu ( thermaltake tr2 rx 550w ).

7870 and 660 use about 115-118W of power in games.
HD7950 uses about 144-150W of power.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/MSI/R9_270X_HAWK/images/power_peak.gif

You honestly think your PSU won't be able to handle 32W more power?

This price segment has msi 760oc, which is better at any possible aspect.

How much is the 760 and how much are 7970s there?

7950 has a lot of overclocking headroom too and 3GB of VRAM. It's worth the $31 extra over 7870/660.

7950 can get a 40% increase in performance from stock speeds with overclocking, taking it past GTX680/HD7970GE/GTX770 in performance.

The $31 premium you are paying over 660 will result in a card 35-40% faster should you decide to OC.

http://www.legionhardware.com/artic...z_edition_7950_iceq_xsup2_boost_clock,13.html

Btw, I personally don't like the production and the components' quality of sapphire. Also, the overclock is implemented as physical button, which makes me hating it even more.

I am pretty sure BIOS 1 already boost to 925mhz. If you do have to press the button, you'll only have to do it once.

I'm still choosing between those two...

(1) asus GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 ( core 1020MHz ) 286$
(2) msi R7870-2GD5T/OC ( core 1050MHz ) 261$

What types of games do you play specifically?

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2013/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-im-test/4/

 

[DoctorVader]

RussianSensation

You honestly think your PSU won't be able to handle 32W more power?

I've been told @msi forums that my psu has relatively low +12V cable output. Although it has two of them, it is not clear wether they can sum their power.

How much is the 760 and how much are 7970s there?

Cheapest 7950 by sapphire costs 376$. Cheapest 7970 is about 552$ (sapphire).

What types of games do you play specifically?

3D shooters mostly. I'd like to run games like Crysis1, Arma2 and BF3 @ultra preset, 1920x1080 res.

Schmide

Dude check the Hot deals form now!!!

Mate, I live outside the US )) Not an option, unfortunately.

 

[Teizo]

Get the 7870. It's cheaper for you, and while it is a few fps slower in BF3, you won't notice it in gameplay unless you are a Fraps user who watches fps while he plays. Plus you will have Mantle support for BF4.