7850 vs 660

xpygmy · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:00

Which of these graphics cards are the best?

MSI 660

EVGA 660

Gigabyte 7850

KFA2 660

I don't use After effects or anything like that so CUDA support is not needed. All I want to know which of the cards above is the best, preferably the cheapest but fastest possible.

tommybhoy · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:06

7850 best bang for buck by a country mile and doesn't collapse as much as the 660 when you throw on the IQ.

If you like PhysX however, the 660 is the obvious choice.

What is the rest of your spec in case it can't utilise these gpu's?

You may get away with something cheaper if you have an older rig.

NightSt@lk3r · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:07

660 seems to be the faster card and is not a ticking time bomb like the AMD 7xxx series.

kissenger · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:09

I would say the MSI 660, because of the quality brand, good warranty/customer service and quality cooling system. EVGA is always a good choice, but that's a reference design. The MSI would run cooler.

kissenger · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:10

NightSt@lk3r said:
...a ticking time bomb like the AMD 7xxx series.

What does that mean?

xpygmy · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:13

tommybhoy said:
7850 best bang for buck by a country mile and doesn't collapse as much as the 660 when you throw on the IQ.

If you like PhysX however, the 660 is the obvious choice.

What is the rest of your spec in case it can't utilise these gpu's?

You may get away with something cheaper if you have an older rig.

My system will be:
i5 3570k
8GB ram
500w PSU
gigabyte z77-d3h mobo
1920x1080 monitor

Cleeecooo · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:14

Which make and model is the PSU?

arc@css · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:14

xpygmy · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:15

Cleeecooo said:
Which make and model is the PSU?

I have been thinking this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS

but if you have any better suggestions for around this money then please say.

Gregster · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:29

tommybhoy said:
7850 best bang for buck by a country mile and doesn't collapse as much as the 660 when you throw on the IQ.

If you like PhysX however, the 660 is the obvious choice.

What is the rest of your spec in case it can't utilise these gpu's?

You may get away with something cheaper if you have an older rig.

+1

My only concern is the amount of 7850s being reported recently with faults. I am sure it is just a bad batch, as many other 7850s are working well

tommybhoy · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:57

Yes greg, some sapphire ones were identified as faulty .

The sheer amount of 78's getting sold will probably account for the increased amount of problem threads.

@xpy, your spec will have no problems with any.

You cant go wrong with any of them tbh, if you have any presonal preference, go with that.

xpygmy · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:03

I am still unsure, the 660 are faster on benchmarks, but amd just released a new driver update that improves the amd cards by a lot. Then again the 660 seems to have more support like physx, CUDA and game.

Gregster · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:18

tommybhoy said:
Yes greg, some sapphire ones were identified as faulty .

The sheer amount of 78's getting sold will probably account for the increased amount of problem threads.

@xpy, your spec will have no problems with any.

You cant go wrong with any of them tbh, if you have any presonal preference, go with that.

Agreed Thomas and they have been selling like hot cakes so this could be why we are seeing a few bad cards. Rare to see people say "Nothing wrong" but common to see "Something wrong" if they have a problem.

xpygmy said:
I am still unsure, the 660 are faster on benchmarks, but amd just released a new driver update that improves the amd cards by a lot. Then again the 660 seems to have more support like physx, CUDA and game.

The 7850 is the faster, especially since the latest drivers but if you prefer the 660, go for it. Neither will perform bad in games.

xpygmy · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:32

gregster said:
Agreed Thomas and they have been selling like hot cakes so this could be why we are seeing a few bad cards. Rare to see people say "Nothing wrong" but common to see "Something wrong" if they have a problem.

The 7850 is the faster, especially since the latest drivers but if you prefer the 660, go for it. Neither will perform bad in games.

Here ( http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=660 ) it says that the 660 is faster on the majority of the games.
Does anyone know whether it is actually worth having physx for games, does it immerse you any more?

kissenger · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:32

Anandtech says the 660 is faster, but I suppose they are using 7850 benchmarks from when the card was released and the drivers were less mature.

Gregster · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:35

xpygmy said:
Here ( http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=660 ) it says that the 660 is faster on the majority of the games.
Does anyone know whether it is actually worth having physx for games, does it immerse you any more?

They use older drivers and not the updated ones. Your decision and your money, we can only give you the stats

xpygmy · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:43

gregster said:
They use older drivers and not the updated ones. Your decision and your money, we can only give you the stats

Is the physx support worth it, will it make the game look nicer and improve the gameplay or is it just better off getting the 7850

delta0 · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:51

Since 12.11 drivers the 7850 is faster. The 7850 also overclocks easily. 860 core 1200 memory to 1200 core and 1450 memory.

Gregster · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:55

xpygmy said:
Is the physx support worth it, will it make the game look nicer and improve the gameplay or is it just better off getting the 7850

If you like Games that run PhysX (Borderlands 2/Batman Arkham city-asylum/Metro2033/Mirrors edge/Star-Trek DAC/Arma 3) then the 660 is the way to go but if you are happy to play these games without the pretty effects, a 7850 is the way to go

Griff7520 · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:57

I have the MSI 660 and it is superb