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  1. #1

    7850 vs 7870 vs 660 help me finish and decide my last upgrade piece

    Well i have made a thread before asking about a few good GPU's and after looking about it seems like the below are the best choice for the price range;

    - amd 7850
    - amd 7870
    - gtx 660

    My price range is around £150. can go up a bit / down a bit.

    i mainly play wow, and at the moment i am dual screening, (Extended) displays.
    I play wow at 1920x1080 on1 screen at ultra graphics, with shadows on low and Vsync on.
    The other is a 1440x900 which is used for youtube and such.

    Wow i want to be on a stable 60 fps, in LFRs i want around 40 (my setup currently does this)
    I also Fraps a bit.

    Reason for this upgrade is because my current setup might be pushing the limit:
    -mobo Asus p8z77 v lx
    - cpu i5 3570k
    - ram kingston 1333 8gb
    - gpu xfx 6770
    - psu 650w corsair tx

    Reason i say it might be pushing it is because sometimes randomly my xfx 6770 goes from normal speeds which is 850 clock and 1200 clock(even tried it with the OC settings to be active and at 850/1200clock speeds) to 400 gpu clock 900 memory clock, this makes wow run 30-47fps until it goes back to normal. It never use to do this, but i also see the activity of the GPU be quite high, 80-99% at some times!. I think this may be due to dual screening/card going bad but anyway i believe a new GPU will push better/smoother performance.

    Long story short: in replace of a xfx 6770 1920x1080 resolution wow ultra graphics / to fraps with, whats better, not just the best card, but which could do what i want, if the worst card below can pump a stable 60 fps on wow at ultra / extended displays, i'll have that 1 ^^.
    7850 or the 7870 or the gtx 660, also which model? i was looking at the 7870 but i had no idea about which model, E.G. EGVA, xfx, Asus etc.

  2. #2
    The 660 is good enough to play on full ultra settings, and should be cheaper than the 7870. Remember to completely uninstall the AMD drivers from your computer before installing the nVidia graphics card, should you buy it.

  3. #3
    Cheers for the reply, which model would you say is the best though? i've heard of models having worse coolers/performance etc.

  4. #4
    Gigabyte windforce, MSI twin frozrII, Asus DCuII are all good coolers.

  5. #5
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    I wouldn't touch a Twin Frozr based cooler with a 10 foot pole after my experience with a 6870 that had that cooler. The Sapphire Dual X coolers are quieter and move better air then the Twin Frozr's in my opinion, as I am running a Sapphire Dual X 7850 2GB card.

    However, with AMD slated to release a new line of cards starting early in the new year or possibly late this year, there is a possibility that current gen cards will drop in price. If you can hold off buying until AMD does another price drop in conjunction with the release of the next gen cards, you won't regret it as you will get more for your buck like a 7950. If not, the 7870 Ghz edition is one of the best value cards on the market for price and performance. I honestly would stay away from the GTX 660 unless it's a Ti, it's just not worth the price to be honest, when the 7870 out performs it for about 20 dollars more. The GTX 660 falls short due to it's memory bus problems since it only has a 192-bit memory bus, same goes for the Ti which is just slightly faster for speed, but still has a crappy memory bus.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Gigabyte windforce, MSI twin frozrII, Asus DCuII are all good coolers.

    Non reference 7870's = $229 Reference 660 = $229

    I'd go w/ a 7870, I love AMD but this round they simply smashed Nvidia. Gk110 if as powerful as claimed, ill be switching to nvidia regardless of price.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Milkshake86 View Post
    Non reference 7870's = $229 Reference 660 = $229

    I'd go w/ a 7870, I love AMD but this round they simply smashed Nvidia. Gk110 if as powerful as claimed, ill be switching to nvidia regardless of price.
    If GK 110 is ever released. But yeah, after looking again, get the 7870.

  8. #8
    The 7870 beats the 660 and overclocks well. Get it!

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Milkshake86 View Post
    Non reference 7870's = $229 Reference 660 = $229

    I'd go w/ a 7870, I love AMD but this round they simply smashed Nvidia. Gk110 if as powerful as claimed, ill be switching to nvidia regardless of price.
    Surprisingly, 660 is currently lower than the 7870 in price for ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte: http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-...t=a5&m=8,18,27

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by yurano View Post
    Surprisingly, 660 is currently lower than the 7870 in price for ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte: http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-...t=a5&m=8,18,27
    Yes, but it's also an inferior card against the 7870 in every single regard aside from using slightly less power. A smaller memory bus and slower clock speeds across the board make it a really bad choice for the price that it's at. If it were priced around the same as the 7850 or 7770, it would be a better option then those two, but it's not.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Rennadrel View Post
    Yes, but it's also an inferior card against the 7870 in every single regard aside from using slightly less power. A smaller memory bus and slower clock speeds across the board make it a really bad choice for the price that it's at. If it were priced around the same as the 7850 or 7770, it would be a better option then those two, but it's not.


    I've been picking Nvidia centric games, but you get the point. The 7870 is not better in 'every single regard', definitely not in performance for all games.

    When the 7870 is $10-15 (5%) more expensive than a 660 of the same manufacturer, you have to consider what games you play.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by yurano View Post
    I've been picking Nvidia centric games, but you get the point. The 7870 is not better in 'every single regard', definitely not in performance for all games.

    When the 7870 is $10-15 (5%) more expensive than a 660 of the same manufacturer, you have to consider what games you play.
    What driver revision is this? as the Ghz edition 7970 is uhh yea not losing to the 670/

  13. #13
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    I would say, when looking at dual screens (even though it isnt eyefinity) the membus might help on the 7870?(not sure)

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Milkshake86 View Post
    What driver revision is this? as the Ghz edition 7970 is uhh yea not losing to the 670/
    The benchmark pic from TechPowerUp shows both with and without Catalyst 12.11 (aka the new one where AMD undoes their driver sandbagging).

    Again, I picked the two games that heavily favors Nvidia cards.

    Anandtech benches seem with TechPowerUp http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=618 . 670 is better for certain Nvidia games.
    Last edited by yurano; 2012-11-11 at 11:57 PM.

  15. #15
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    Compare them in a game that doesn't favor Nvidia PhysX technology or isn't designed for AMD cards and the 7870 is a better card for pretty much the same price. AMD cards are not that good in Borderlands 2 if you attempt to simulate PhysX with forced activation on the 7870 or lower. The differences are also negligible as well, you aren't going to see a 14 FPS difference, it's just going to run a tiny bit smoother.
    Last edited by Rennadrel; 2012-11-12 at 12:06 AM.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Rennadrel View Post
    Compare them in a game that doesn't favor Nvidia PhysX technology or isn't designed for AMD cards and the 7870 is a better card for pretty much the same price. AMD cards are not that good in Borderlands 2 if you attempt to simulate PhysX with forced activation on the 7870 or lower. The differences are also negligible as well, you aren't going to see a 14 FPS difference, it's just going to run a tiny bit smoother.
    So basically you're reiterating what I said and contradicting what you said earlier. Just to refresh your memory:

    Quote Originally Posted by Rennadrel View Post
    Yes, but [660] also an inferior card against the 7870 in every single regard aside from using slightly less power.
    So no, the 660 is not inferior in every single regard. The 660 does better in Nvidia games.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by yurano View Post
    So basically you're reiterating what I said and contradicting what you said earlier. Just to refresh your memory:



    So no, the 660 is not inferior in every single regard. The 660 does better in Nvidia games.
    what per say are Nvidia games? Typically AMD has ran on par or better in Crysis which has a massive Nvidia logo.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Milkshake86 View Post
    what per say are Nvidia games? Typically AMD has ran on par or better in Crysis which has a massive Nvidia logo.
    Battlefield 3 is the obvious candidate. See any other "the way it is meant to be played" games. WoW is also supposed to be optimized for nVidia graphics.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by yurano View Post
    The benchmark pic from TechPowerUp shows both with and without Catalyst 12.11 (aka the new one where AMD undoes their driver sandbagging).

    Again, I picked the two games that heavily favors Nvidia cards.

    Anandtech benches seem with TechPowerUp http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=618 . 670 is better for certain Nvidia games.
    Im not seeing the 7870 falling that far behind a 6970 on most if any benchmarks and destroys the 6970 in SCII, so quite honestly im not seeing reliable benching from that image at all, its skewed poorly aswell.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Milkshake86 View Post
    what per say are Nvidia games? Typically AMD has ran on par or better in Crysis which has a massive Nvidia logo.
    Blizzard games, BF3, Portal 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Borderlands 2.

    Although, the gap seems to have closed somewhat with Catalyst 12.11.

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