Asus GTX660 TiDirectCU II OC Edition Or XFX Radeon HD 7950 Double D Black Edition

[pats478]

Hey Folks,

I had a post over the weekend looking for an upgrade to my graphics cards. I've been looking over the last week and found the two cards listed above. Still searching for the right card; I'd like to play games such as BF3, Skyrim, GW2, Crysis 2-3, on high if not max.

Which card would be more ideal as they're both priced in similar values?
_________________________
Here's my current PC Rig:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AM3 CPU 3.4GHzm 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (40000 MT/s)----> (Upgraded from the Phenom II X2 550 AM3 CPU 3.1GHz recently)

MB: Asus M4A785TD-V EVO (AM3)

RAM: HyperX blu 8GB DDR3-1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 4GB)

HD's: HyperX 3K Series SATA III Solid State Drive, 120GB w/ 2.5" Adapter &
Seagate SATA II 500 GB Hard drive @ 7200 RPM

VC: 1GB ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU with DirectX11 1GB at standard clock (790 MHz)

PS: Antec Earthwatts 650 Watts

Chassis: Antec 300 Gaming Tower (2 Factory fans included, I added 3 additional ones)

Monitor: LG W2353V (23 inch) @ 1920 X 1080 (HMDI cable)

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
_________________________

 

[Duke Nucome]

The 7970Ghz and 670 are both good choices, just DO NOT get ripped off by the 680 (Robbery in a nutshell) if you want you green (pun intended) to stay in your pocket. The drivers on the 670 (like almost all nVdia drivers) are honestly better and in some cases get game release day updates (a major +) also Kepler has some exclusive features such as TXAA (although I have not seen a game using it). The 7970 is a 680 competitior with no doubt better overall performance, albeit with less frequent support, although AMD has been on a steamroll (even more puns) with Catalyst recently. If you want performance+value for money with a bit less support, go for the card that brought the GTX 580 to its knees and made it surrender (7970). If you like nVdia's great driver support and perhaps TXAA/Kepler go for the 670 FTW (basically stock 680). If the 670 FTW is really $340 where you are and no 7970 is that price, GO FOR IT!

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

 

[The Q6660 Inside]

The 7970Ghz and 670 are both good choices, just DO NOT get ripped off by the 680 (Robbery in a nutshell) if you want you green (pun intended) to stay in your pocket. The drivers on the 670 (like almost all nVdia drivers) are honestly better and in some cases get game release day updates (a major +) also Kepler has some exclusive features such as TXAA (although I have not seen a game using it). The 7970 is a 680 competitior with no doubt better overall performance, albeit with less frequent support, although AMD has been on a steamroll (even more puns) with Catalyst recently. If you want performance+value for money with a bit less support, go for the card that brought the GTX 580 to its knees and made it surrender (7970). If you like nVdia's great driver support and perhaps TXAA/Kepler go for the 670 FTW (basically stock 680).

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Well, either way he will still get quite good performance, it is not like he can tell 82 FPS from 75, until it all comes crashing down in 2015 . On my updated post I mentioned the superb Never Settle Bundle, it is like they had a brainstorm and made the best bundle known to man.

 

[Mousemonkey]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

 

[Duke Nucome]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go

Please cite the sources of this claim of yours please ...

 

[RussK1]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

Sorry, but that is funny!

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

You probably need to investigate the new testing methodologies.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=7950+vs+660ti+FCAT

 

[Duke Nucome]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

Sorry, but that is funny!

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

You probably need to investigate the new testing methodologies.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=7950+vs+660ti+FCAT

The only thing funny is nvidia biased ignorance to the hard facts that AMD is just faster and better this generation of cards. nvidia and Apple fans are in the same level of fog.

 

[Duke Nucome]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

Sorry, but that is funny!

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

You probably need to investigate the new testing methodologies.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=7950+vs+660ti+FCAT

How does being ignorant make nvidia cards perform better ?

 

[Mousemonkey]

There is only one person here blissful in their ignorance it seems.

 

[RussK1]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

Sorry, but that is funny!

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

You probably need to investigate the new testing methodologies.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=7950+vs+660ti+FCAT

How does being ignorant make nvidia cards perform better ?

Ignorant? Who? You're the one that is saying AMD drivers are perfect when new results show otherwise... AMD engineers have supposedly reviewed the data and have admitted there is an issue... and this is coming from a somewhat "PRO-Radeon" guy. It is what it is...

 

[The Q6660 Inside]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

AMD Drivers are not bad, just IMO worse than nVdia's, I did have a few problems with my 5870 (although the Crossfire drivers must have blown). The 7970 is honestly a better GPU in terms of Value for Money over the 670, I've always recomended its little brother 7950 (due to OCing) over the somewhat price jacked 660ti, but that has great performance as well. To be honest, I would actually get a SAPPHIRE 7950 OC or MSi TFIII 7950 and well OC it some more until it is right next to the 7970. You cannot also go wrong with the 670 FTW either since the difference is negligible (~7 FPS), although Borderlands 2 has some HUGE nVdia bias, so you might as well go Team Green if you play BL2 often. By the way, get yourself a decent cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO and OC the Phenom II 965BE to 4.2GHz until you can get a Haswell/Steamroller Mobo+CPU where the H212 will also be able to transfer.

 

[Duke Nucome]

The drivers are not better on nvdia. Look at AMD after the new Never Settle drivers they are out performing nvidia across the board. I wonder what would happen if AMD got the drivers straightened out LOL put nvidia out of commission.

Why would they need to be straightened out if they are so good already? Why do you contradict yourself with your own nonsense? AMD themselves have admitted that they are behind the curve as far as drivers go so fanboys like you who deny reality are just funny! :lol:

Sorry, but that is funny!

It was "The Q6660 Inside" that contradicted not me. AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia. AMD Neversettle drivers really pushed Radeon HD into the #1 spot as far as performance goes. I don't see all this negative talk about AMD drivers when AMD Radeon out performs nvidia at almost evey price point and if not it is a match.

You probably need to investigate the new testing methodologies.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=7950+vs+660ti+FCAT

How does being ignorant make nvidia cards perform better ?

Ignorant? Who? You're the one that is saying AMD drivers are perfect when new results show otherwise... AMD engineers have supposedly reviewed the data and have admitted there is an issue... and this is coming from a somewhat "PRO-Radeon" guy. It is what it is...

AMD drivers are just as good as far as stability goes as nvidia.

AMD engineers have supposedly reviewed the data and have admitted there is an issue...

Supposedly if you post a link it will make you opinion validated depending on of course if the link you post is from the horses mouth like you are claiming.

 

[Duke Nucome]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

 

[Mousemonkey]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

June 2012! Oh please. :lol:

 

[Duke Nucome]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

June 2012! Oh please. :lol:

Yes old driver and the new one is much better. See it's hard to find up to date reviews on a card that has been out for a while. This is the same for nvidia cards.

 

[The Q6660 Inside]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

This was in the days of Catalyst 12.11 even 12.8, which was a great driver, but nVdia honestly has better support.
Final: OP go for the 670FTW, or 7950/70 (particularily the SAPPHIRE Vapor-X OC and MSI Twin Frozr III ones)
670 FTW:
Pros: Great driver support, amazing overall performance and Kepler features may be nice in the future
Cons: Slightly slower than the 7970 in general at an equal price
7970:
Pros: Even more power/FPS currently and 3GB GDDR5 in case it magically becomes beneficial for 1080p overnight and an equal price point
Cons: Driver support is not as good in general as nVdia's , nVdia biased/optimized games may favor the 670
680:
Pros: 2 more FPS?, Backplate? oh wait the 670 FTW can mount it
Cons: Robbery unless sold on ebay for ~420 USD or less

 

[Duke Nucome]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

This was in the days of Catalyst 12.11 even 12.8, which was a great driver, but nVdia honestly has better support.

Now we are getting closer to the truth. First it was nvidia has better drivers and now that it is shown that that's not true your story changed from nvidia has better drivers to nvidia has better support LOL. I don't know when the last time it was that I needed to call up nvidia for help with driver installation etc ...

 

[The Q6660 Inside]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

This was in the days of Catalyst 12.11 even 12.8, which was a great driver, but nVdia honestly has better support.

Now we are getting closer to the truth. First it was nvidia has better drivers and now that it is shown that that's not true your story changed from nvidia has better drivers to nvidia has better support LOL. I don't know when the last time it was that I needed to call up nvidia for help with driver installation etc ...

I am refering to the driver response time, to help with for example TXAA being unable to work in X game at X time or Framerate issues with X game.

 

[Duke Nucome]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

This was in the days of Catalyst 12.11 even 12.8, which was a great driver, but nVdia honestly has better support.

Now we are getting closer to the truth. First it was nvidia has better drivers and now that it is shown that that's not true your story changed from nvidia has better drivers to nvidia has better support LOL. I don't know when the last time it was that I needed to call up nvidia for help with driver installation etc ...

I am refering to the driver response time, to help with for example TXAA being unable to work in X game at X time or Framerate issues with X game.

Really ? In my experience Tomb Raider, Bioshock 3, Crysis 3, Hitman Absolution, Far Cry 3 all had great working drivers on "Graphics by AMD Radeon HD". TXAA is ugly IMO. MSAA or nothing IMO. Was TXAA in anymore games than just the one I know it's in being The Secret World ?

 

[The Q6660 Inside]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

This was in the days of Catalyst 12.11 even 12.8, which was a great driver, but nVdia honestly has better support.

Now we are getting closer to the truth. First it was nvidia has better drivers and now that it is shown that that's not true your story changed from nvidia has better drivers to nvidia has better support LOL. I don't know when the last time it was that I needed to call up nvidia for help with driver installation etc ...

I am refering to the driver response time, to help with for example TXAA being unable to work in X game at X time or Framerate issues with X game.

Really ? In my experience Tomb Raider, Bioshock 3, Crysis 3, Hitman Absolution, Far Cry 3 all had great working drivers on "Graphics by AMD Radeon HD". TXAA is ugly IMO. MSAA or nothing IMO.

I know they did, but nVdia has overall better drivers,
BTW: FXAA>MSAA IMO since MSAA is another way of saying kill my FPS once I do 4x

 

[Duke Nucome]

News FLASH AMD got the drivers straitened out and are back on top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232.html

This was in the days of Catalyst 12.11 even 12.8, which was a great driver, but nVdia honestly has better support.

Now we are getting closer to the truth. First it was nvidia has better drivers and now that it is shown that that's not true your story changed from nvidia has better drivers to nvidia has better support LOL. I don't know when the last time it was that I needed to call up nvidia for help with driver installation etc ...

I am refering to the driver response time, to help with for example TXAA being unable to work in X game at X time or Framerate issues with X game.

Really ? In my experience Tomb Raider, Bioshock 3, Crysis 3, Hitman Absolution, Far Cry 3 all had great working drivers on "Graphics by AMD Radeon HD". TXAA is ugly IMO. MSAA or nothing IMO.

I know they did, but nVdia has overall better drivers,
BTW: FXAA>MSAA IMO since MSAA is another way of saying kill my FPS once I do 4x

FXAA is blurry and lowers quality. Basically FXAA is a poor man replacement option when they can't run normal AA. Cite the links to where nvidia has better drivers LOL. AMD outperforms nvidia so that would indicate that AMD has better drivers would it not ?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Didn't someone already spoon feed you some links?

 

[17seconds]

2012 AMD and NVIDIA Driver Performance Summary Review
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/04/2012_amd_nvidia_driver_performance_summary_review/

 

[The Q6660 Inside]

2012 AMD and NVIDIA Driver Performance Summary Review
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/04/2012_amd_nvidia_driver_performance_summary_review/

^This

 

[Duke Nucome]

2012 AMD and NVIDIA Driver Performance Summary Review
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/04/2012_amd_nvidia_driver_performance_summary_review/

Those performance numbers and price points are skewed. They had the 7950 up against the GTX 670 instead of 660ti up against the HD 7950 and they had the 7970 up against the GTX 680 instead of GTX 680 up against the 7970GHz Edition.

 

[Mousemonkey]

@Q6660, any chance you could edit the posts you quote instead of posting everything from several people time and time again?