GTX 660 or HD7870

Justin Swan · Mar 25, 2013

I've been offered a HD7870 (1 month old) or I can get a brand new GTX 660. Radeon will be £140 and new Nvidia is £165
Which would be the better deal? Bearing in mind I mostly play sim racing games.

Matt Horst · Mar 25, 2013

Justin Swan said:
I've been offered a HD7870 (1 month old) or I can get a brand new GTX 660. Radeon will be £140 and new Nvidia is £165
Which would be the better deal? Bearing in mind I mostly play sim racing games.

I would go for the 7870 over the GTX 660 unless its the GTX 660ti then there about the same.I have a GTX 660ti and love it.It's plenty strong unless you want to run tripple screens at max settings then you may need a little more like a 680 or 7970.

Justin Swan · Mar 25, 2013

Matt Horst said:
I would go for the 7870 over the GTX 660 unless its the GTX 660ti then there about the same.I have a GTX 660ti and love it.It's plenty strong unless you want to run tripple screens at max settings then you may need a little more like a 680 or 7970.

It's only the 660 but I've been reading the ti isn't worth paying the extra 50 for. Also, does the 7870 use more power than the nvidia? I read somewhere that the radeon cards are more power hungry and this will be replacing my GT545 in an Alienware x51 console, so wattage is an issue to consider too. Finding it all a little mind boggling lol

Calum McLure · Mar 25, 2013

If you search for it on Dabs.com it will tell you what wattage power supply you will need and a lot of other info you might need

http://www.hwcompare.com/13140/geforce-gtx-660-ti-vs-radeon-hd-7870/

According to this site your best bet is the 7870, only 25w extra but out scores the 660 on everything else.

Simon Bacon · Mar 25, 2013

7870, power consumption is good as it consumes next to nothing when in idle/desktop and (if you're that way inclined) overclocks like a monster. I've got 2 overclocked in crossfire, so I am being biased, but for the money...

Dennis Phelan · Mar 28, 2014

@Justin Swan did you go for the 7870 or the GTX 660?

Justin Swan · Mar 28, 2014

I got the PALIT GTX 660OC 2GB and very pleased with it. Runs everything I throw at it at MAX detail (1080p). It is backed up by an i5 3750 (3.4ghz) which helps too.

I de-shackled myself from the limitations of the Alienware X51 and have completely built a gaming rig with enough cooling to shame the arctic circle lol

BTW, the TAG didn't work, I just stumbled in here

Dennis Phelan · Mar 28, 2014

I have to stick with my old everything else:
PROCESSOR-Intel® Core™2 DuoProcessor E8500 at 3.16GHz,e
POWER SUPPLY-CoolerMaster 850Watt
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 DDR2
MEMORY-8GB Kingston HyperX

but I need a newer GPU, the GTX 285 is acting too strangely and I'll eventually need dx11.

Justin Swan · Mar 28, 2014

@Dennis Phelan
To be honest, I think anything along the lines of a GTX660 will be overkill in your system and you won't get the benefit of it's power. Maybe in your case, it's worth looking at the newly released Nvidia GTX750. Great specs at a great price.

EVGA Example

I want to say, you'll get Nvidia ShadowPlay with this card too but I'm not sure if the Core2Duo will negate this awesome feature.

Dennis Phelan · Mar 29, 2014

Actually, I've heard that the 750 will be held back by my processor. It's certainly priced better.

Justin Swan · Mar 29, 2014

Dennis Phelan said:
Actually, I've heard that the 750 will be held back by my processor. It's certainly priced better.

That is quite a possibility but at a lower price, is the point I was trying to make. Anything less than what a 750 would cost isn't something you'd probably want to transfer to a newer build somewhere down the line. It all depends on what your future plans are? If you think you're going to stick with your current build for quite some time then maybe a GTX640 will suffice your needs?

I've just put one of THESE into my sons PC which is only a AMD 64x2 4600 dual core (probably less powerful than your Intel Core2) and it runs Race 07 just fine @ 1080p, Bargain price for a DX11 card but there is no way it's going to handle the new boys in town.

*EDIT* Actually, looking at your current build and the 285 specs (Huge memory bandwidth there! wow) I don't think you're gonna go too far wrong with a GTX 750 and it will transfer nicely to a newer build later on. Go for the GTX 640 if you're looking for something a little more disposable.