Worth it....

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:19

Is this really worth the upgrade.

GTX660 to HIS HD 7850 iPower IceQ Turbo 4096MB

Blackwhite · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:46

7850 is a bit better, but not worth it to upgrade IMO

PaulyD · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:50

Agreed, more of a sidestep than anything. Go for 7950 if you can for an upgrade

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:50

Blackwhite said:
7850 is a bit better, but not worth it to upgrade IMO

Ok. I'm looking to upgrade, but not sure what to go for. I like the idea of 4gb VRAM, but not willing to pay the premium, also not sure if it's needed. The only obvious upgrade path I can see would be to a HIS 7970 as the performance is almost double on my 660.

I see this as a comfortable upgrade allowing me to see all the sexyness of Crysis 3

Wh00pS · 20 Feb 2013 at 10:07

At 230 quid it's really expensive another 70 would get you the MSI 7970.

Doomedspeed · 20 Feb 2013 at 10:23

660 to 7850 is a sidegrade.

Go/save for a 7950/7970...

ubersonic · 20 Feb 2013 at 10:24

As others have said its not really an upgrade, in fact depending on what games you play you may even lose performance, I echo the HD7950/70 idea.

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 10:41

I really love the look of that card (MSI 7970). Desperately need to sell my 660 and make the difference.

Now, with the performance of the 7950 and 7970 being marginal, would it be better to get the 7950. I know I should get the 7950 and o/c it, but I'm a complete pussy when it comes to o/c'ing g/cards as I've had bad experiences previously. Is it easier to o/c than the 660 is.

ubersonic · 20 Feb 2013 at 10:58

You can just buy a factory overclocked card if your timid about doing it yourself, you can get close to stock 7970 performance ones and maybe even some that match/exceed? /shrug.

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 11:23

ubersonic said:
You can just buy a factory overclocked card if your timid about doing it yourself, you can get close to stock 7970 performance ones and maybe even some that match/exceed? /shrug.

I may just give it a shot anyway. I'm not sure on the overclocking capabilities of nVidia cards, but I've heard & read that the ATI's are much much better.

I think I'll go for a grade-B 7950 to save some cash. Come on payday! Oh and providing I can sell my 660 or at least make some of my money back.

Update: Which version, MSI or HIS?

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 14:51

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So hard to make decisions!!!

I've been looking at alternative options over getting the 7950/70 untill the 8 series & Haswell (maybe wait longer) has come out and instead, get another 660 for SLI (I've only had it 4 months :rolleyes:

). Reviews on the web and benchmarks regarding the SLI are very very positive.

Would it really be that bad of an investment!! All the games I play would benifit and I've got the PSU to power them.

opethdisciple · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:14

snips86x said:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So hard to make decisions!!!

I've been looking at alternative options over getting the 7950/70 untill the 8 series & Haswell (maybe wait longer) has come out and instead, get another 660 for SLI (I've only had it 4 months ). Reviews on the web and benchmarks regarding the SLI are very very positive.

Would it really be that bad of an investment!! All the games I play would benifit and I've got the PSU to power them.

Cant you just hang on to the 660 untill the new cards come out?

Sure get another card, it wont be so bad if you can afford it. But then your be in a position to need to sell off two cards rather than one and make double the loss on the cards.

I dont think SLI should be seen as a short term solution.

I bet two 660 will be pretty decent, and maybe you can skip the new cards altogether?

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:22

opethdisciple said:
Cant you just hang on to the 660 untill the new cards come out?

Sure get another card, it wont be so bad if you can afford it. But then your be in a position to need to sell off two cards rather than one and make double the loss on the cards.

I dont think SLI should be seen as a short term solution.

I bet two 660 will be pretty decent, and maybe you can skip the new cards altogether?

I've got so many idea's going round in my head, I have no idea where to go.

I love the idea of the 7950 and it's cheaper than the 7970, but I really like the 7970 as it's just a beast and would be perfect for a good number of years like my old 8800GT was and in xFire, it would be unstopable!

rolypolyman · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:33

7950 is the rather obvious choice.

Bacon? · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:36

I'd rather get the 7950 than SLI 660 seeing as how its only got a 192 memory bus.

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 16:40

rolypolyman said:
7950 is the rather obvious choice.

Bacon? said:
I'd rather get the 7950 than SLI 660 seeing as how its only got a 192 memory bus.

OK. I think I'll go for the MSI 7950. I already have the TwinFrozrIII on my GTX660 and even under load, BF3, Crysis & benchmarking it is so so silent.

Just need to wait for pay day now. Seriously excited!!!!!!!

Gregster · 20 Feb 2013 at 16:48

Just showing the performance of 660 SLI against a 680 and 7970. Give that some consideration before you make the jump, especially as you already own a 660 and have a PSU capable of powering 2.

imginy · 20 Feb 2013 at 16:53

Yes 660 are not too bad in sli they are equal to 660ti sli

snips86x · 20 Feb 2013 at 17:05

gregster said:
Just showing the performance of 660 SLI against a 680 and 7970. Give that some consideration before you make the jump, especially as you already own a 660 and have a PSU capable of powering 2.

imginy said:
Yes 660 are not too bad in sli they are equal to 660ti sli

Where did you find that?

I'd be interested to see what the graph would be like with CryEngine3 & Frost Bite2.

This is what I meant earlier about SLI, the benchmarks looked really promising despite a 192bit bandwidth.

And PSU, I've for a 1000w modular with 4 PCI-e rails.

imginy · 20 Feb 2013 at 17:16

snips86x said:
Where did you find that?

I'd be interested to see what the graph would be like with CryEngine3 & Frost Bite2.

This is what I meant earlier about SLI, the benchmarks looked really promising despite a 192bit bandwidth.

And PSU, I've for a 1000w modular with 4 PCI-e rails.

Yes the 660 seems to get pretty good scaling in sli from what I have seen in benchmarks.
If I had a 660 I would probably get another one for sli but I own the 660ti which doesn't scale so well in sli so I'm selling mine and going for a 7970.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-14.html
http://lanoc.org/review/video-cards/5953-nvidia-gtx-660-sli-performance?start=2
http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/312...li-kepler-for-p179-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim