660 ti vs hd 7950

[cjcj11]

since they are around the same price point i was wondering.
my questions are:
which one is better for multi monitor?
which one has lower power consumption?
which one works better with sli/crossfireX?
which one has better performance overall?
which one runs cooler/dissipates heat better?
which one would you guys prefer?

thanks for the help in advance, also any other bits of info on these cards would be helpful.

 

[bigcyco1]

The Bottom Line

The real reason that the voices of the internet should be cheering should be for the falling prices that have been happening across enthusiast class video cards over the course of the past few months thanks to healthy competition between AMD and NVIDIA. From our perspective, the overall game play experience has improved slightly from older drivers for the cards from both the Red and Green teams, however we would not say that the performance differences have been earth shattering from the perspective of overall game play performance.

The most interesting stand out from this evaluation has been the NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti, which is priced significantly higher than the Radeon HD 7870 while turning in similar performance numbers. The GTX 660 Ti has lost its value at this point in time, lending way to the Radeon HD 7950 which has benefited from falling prices and new drivers.

If you are in the video card market today, the current offerings tend to scale very well with price and you will receive a higher level of performance for your incremental dollar spent. Source : http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/11/12/fall_2012_gpu_driver_comparison_roundup/3

 

[dscudella]

I direct you to Tom's review Seven GeForce 660 Ti's. If you go off that you'll see that a lot of your answers can be answered.

Multi Monitor: Surround or Eyefinity? Eyefinity used to be better than Surround, however with the latest round of drivers from Nvidia they gave a lot of support to Surround. It's personal preference.

Power Consumption: It's largely based upon the model & manufacturer. On average the 660 Ti has less power draw than the 7950.

Overall Performance: The 7950 is the better overall performer. There are very few instances where the 660 Ti excels but overall the 7950 is a better choice.

Heat / Heat dissipation: This largely depends on the specific model & manufacturer. Gigabyte, Sapphire, MSI & Zotac all have great non reference coolers. On average the 660 Ti runs slightly cooler.

What would I buy: Neither. I would pony up the extra cash and get a GTX 670 or 7970. Either card can be found for around $350 after rebates with the 670 being slightly cheaper (~$330). If you can't afford the extra bit the 7950 is the better choice.

 

[killerhurtalot]

the 7950 is better than the GTX 660 ti in pretty much all areas now since the new beta drivers.

7950 > gtx 660 ti in multimonitor (more vram mainly)

GTX 660 ti has lower power consumption

GTX 660 ti has better SLI performance (ATI's usually perform worse or catches up later than Nvidia's performance in terms of SLI/CFX)

7950 has better performance. (with the new drivers) Period.

GTX 660 ti produces lower heat (cause it consumes less power) but it depends on the cooler. Most manufacturers have non reference coolers anyways so it's not really a problem for either card.

All depends on your budget... if you can afford a better card, get a better card. if not, then a 7950.

 

[cjcj11]

thanks guys
@bigcyco1 thanks for being there in like, all of my threads
@dscudella yeah i definately dont need the 7970, nor can i afford it . but as i was also seeing was the 7950 was getting an extra boost in 2560x1440 resolution, so im assuming for a single card that should be the way to go?

also, ive heard bad things with amd drivers, im almost on the same boat due to catalyst control center absolutely blowing, but it might just be my cpu and gpu which is a 2.13 GHZ core 2 duo and a radeon 6450 (dont worry i am in the process of building a new computer)

 

[krazyjamus]

AMD has come a long way in improving the quality of their software and drivers. In the grand scheme off things I still think Nvidia is more reliable in this regard but it's almost at the point of splitting hairs.

 

[cjcj11]

okay thank you guys, but the big thing with the heat, my computer will eb in an enclosed area with not to much airflow, also the thermostat isnt in that room so this room will always be the hottest