7870 GHz edition or GTX 660 FTW Signature 2?

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PhilNye618

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Hello, all. Recently been looking to upgrade my graphics card for 1080p gaming and I've had my eyes on two in particular -

GIGABYTE GV-R787OC-2GD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125418

EVGA 02G-P4-2663-KR GeForce GTX 660 FTW Signature 2 2GB 192-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130833&Tpk=gtx%20660%20ftw%20signature%202

At the moment, price isn't an issue as they are within $5 of eachother, so my main concern is performance. I plan on playing with a single 1080p monitor (though I may purchase another in the future) and an i5 3570k at stock speeds (plan on overclocking in a few months or so). I play games like Battlefield 3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Assassin's Creed series, various titles based on the Source engine, and more. So which GPU will give me the best performance on these games at 1080p (and possibly higher if I ever do upgrade) with high to max settings?

 
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Tom Burnqest

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Both are good cards and for Sleeping Dogs, Deus Ex, Hitman Absolution all those games will run a bit better on the AMD card but I think the GTX 660 will be getting you close enough to 60fps in those games anyway so flip a coin I presume.
 

PhilNye618

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Sorry for the double post, but I'm also interested in Far Cry 3, which seems to be very much "AMD" from what I saw with the promotion. Right now I'm leaning towards the 7870, but I have a lot of friends who prefer Nvidia and they say it's great and all, so I don't know.
 

PhilNye618

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Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Then I noticed that the model I was looking at had a length of 13 inches XD

If anyone can suggest a good model around 10 inches in length I would greatly appreciate it.
 

revro

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i would have taken 7870 if only i didnot already got Farcry 3 insane edition for 50eur, so i took my first nvidia to get me AC3 :)
but yes please support amd :) as even nvidia ceo is their biggest fan :)


best
revro
 

BossRod

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I had the 7870 ghz edition, for a month and traded for a gtx 580 yesterday, only to find out AMD has just released 12.11 "never settle" drivers which have HUGE gains over nvidia right now. id go with 7870 ghz over GTX 660 FTW

http://blogs.amd.com/play/2012/10/22/never-settle-driver/

ALL GCN-based AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series
 

PhilNye618

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Thanks for all the answers. Still undecided as I've seen many recommendations for both cards and they seem to perform pretty similarly. Does anyone with a 7870 GHz edition mind doing some benchmarks with the card while recording the screen with a camera (with the FPS on screen of course)? Haven't found any like this yet and that would be really nice.
 

BossRod

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the games i played with an MSI R7870 HAWK.

Far Cry 3 - ultra w FXAA no AA 35-45 frames on the island 60+ inside caves etc
Black Ops 2 - ultra wFXAA and x8 AA 90-120 everywhere any map
Diablo 3 - High w/ AA 140 fps+
Borderlands 2 ultra w FXAA x8 AA 60-90 FPS
Battlefield 3 ultra w x4AA 35-43 FPS

PC specs
Core i7 3770k
8gb corsair 1600mhz
asus p8h61m- lx plus
500gb hdd
msi hawk r7870 when i had it.
 

revro

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i do, tough 3gb version, keep in mind i was ati guy till now, so i am being objective :) :
Far Cry 3 - ultra w FXAA no AA 35-45 frames on the island 60+ inside caves etc
i have 37-45 avg fps but on ultra with 4 msaa, hdao instead of hdao which was causing a darker lower part of screen. the caves are also like that 60+
now with OC on my Q9550 from 2.83GHz to 3.4GHz its average 41+fps so lets say 41-47

Battlefield 3 ultra w x4AA 35-43 FPS

running latest nvidia driver 310.90

best
revro
 

cmstormscouts

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Thanks for telling us what game you play was really helpful
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/660?vs=548

AMD 7870 win in some
Nvidia 660 win in some

Doesn't have all that game you listen but 660 wins in Bf 3
 
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PhilNye618

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Wow, that's actually really helpful! Thanks for posting that.

Paying a bit more attention to the 660 now that I see the performance on Battlefield 3, as well as the difference in power consumption (however minimal it may be) but I'm still leaning towards the 7870 as of now as it seems to win out in higher resolutions on most of those games. Obviously it runs the source engine just fine (though I'm sure barely anything doesn't). And I can always turn some of the settings on BF3 or Arma 2 down to High. Considering the price gap between these cards and a 680 I think I can deal with that ;)

Really appreciate the answers. I think I'll go with the 7870.
 
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