660 vs 7870 vs 7770 XFire

[Squeeky]

I'm hoping to build a gaming/CAD rig with the following components:
Either i3 3220 (3.3 GHz) or i5 3570K (3.4GHz, 3.8 turbo)
16 Gb (4 X 4Gb) 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
650-700W PSU
120 GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD
500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD

I'm contemplating, as the thread title suggests, putting any of these in my system:
EVGA GTX 660 FTW Signature 2 2GB
XFX Core Edition 7870 GHz Edition 2GB
2 Sapphire 7770 GHz Editon 1GB in Crossfire

Which of these cards would give the best price/performance in most games at 1080p? Which would be ideal for CAD programs like Autodesk Inventor?
I've heard that Crossfire gives some games and programs problems without certain drivers. Would that negate the alleged performance benefit of two cards running in tandem?

 

[Squeeky]

UPDATE: No longer considering crossfire 7770s. After a bit more review scanning and forum browsing, it seems that option is more of a headache than I want.

 

[amuffin]

UPDATE: No longer considering crossfire 7770s. After a bit more review scanning and forum browsing, it seems that option is more of a headache than I want.

Spot on!

Now, the 7870 would be the best choice for games.

 

[timil]

dont xfire 2 7770s its like duct taping 2 lawnmowers together

 

[Squeeky]

Spot on!

Now, the 7870 would be the best choice for games.

How about CAD programs? Or would the 660 have a small advantage in Autodesk with only slightly lower performance (2-3 fps difference) in games?
Also, for more added fun, how does the GTX 660 FTW edition fare against the SC edition?

 

[Squeeky]

My apologies for having so many questions and changes to these circumstances, but would a 6870 be comparable at all to the 7870?

 

[TheAterix]

7870 all day walks all over the 660 and is best compared to the 660ti or the GTX 580 if you like higher end cards you should get the 7870 i just got mine and its insane

 

[Squeeky]

7870 all day walks all over the 660 and is best compared to the 660ti or the GTX 580 if you like higher end cards you should get the 7870 i just got mine and its insane

Let's say I want to try to save a little bit of moolah on this build. Would a 7850 be a good compromise? I know it won't be as powerful as the 7870, but i'm sure it could handle what I'm doing (1080p gaming at high/max settings) without paying the price of a 7870. Also, would a 6870 be better or worse than the 7850, and could it even be compared to the 7870?

In other words, prices aren't what I hoped they would be. Is there a cheaper solution within the performance ballpark of the 7870?

 

[TheAterix]

the 7850 is a fantastic card and oc's really well you can get 7870 performance on the 7850 with a bit of oc and even at stock there is not a massive difference anyways so yeah if u wanna save go for a 7870

 

[Squeeky]

Do you recommend any specific 7850? I'm considering the MSI R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127663

I'd like to keep it around $200, but less is always better.
Also, I can download and use MSI Afterburner on almost any card I want, right? It doesn't have to be an MSI card, does it?

 

[TheAterix]

i think msi frozr is a nice card and will oc very well i bought myself a club 3d 7870 and on monday and it is here but for power reasons (not big enough psu, i had 300w) and i bought a 550w today and its broke xD so hopefully tomorrows my day anyways aha if i ever come out of game ill give you some stats like fps and the r7850 will perform like a 7870 with oc because its a factory card made for oc and if im correct it will oc like a boss and keep really cool with the twin frozr

Cheers

 

[Squeeky]

Turning to my penny-pinching nature, if I wanted to save even more money, could I OC a different 7850 using MSI Afterburner to perform as well as the card I listed in my last post?

Considering:
Non-factory OC MSI card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127706

Sapphire factory OC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999

Any other twin fan cards that please the budget-conscious consumer?

 

[Squeeky]

This thread is already all over the place, but:
Would this card be bottlenecked by a 2.9 Ghz Pentium II g850?
Should I get an i3 3220 or save for an i5 3450 or similar processor?

 

[lhbuild]

Get an i3 3220 and a hd 7870(or 7850), always look at gpu>cpu when it comes down to gaming.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

7870 all day walks all over the 660 and is best compared to the 660ti or the GTX 580 if you like higher end cards you should get the 7870 i just got mine and its insane

your wrong, really wrong. the 660 compares well to the 7870 depending on game, for example the 660 is better for bf3, the 7870 is better for skyrim. the 660ti compares to the 7950 with siilar results, nvidia better for bf3 amd better for skyrim (that is just one example but they trade blows depending on game)

and yes you should get the i3.