Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 3GB 192-bit GDDR5

[Cydone]

Looking to possibly upgrade my GPU. I currently have a AMD Sapphire HD 7770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 GHz Edition and have been looking at this Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 3GB 192-bit GDDR5. Is this a decent upgrade to what I currently have?? Is it worth the $180 investment??

 

[jeffredo]

Its definitely a big upgrade. I suppose its an "OK" investment if you want Nvidia and in light of the GTX 960 not being release until the first quarter of 2015. You could get an R9 280 for the same price and it would be a good deal faster and have the same amount of memory.

 

[TheDualshock]

Here's a comparaison : http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1079?vs=1039
Seems to me like it will be quite a big boost.

 

[Cydone]

Its definitely a big upgrade. I suppose its an "OK" investment if you want Nvidia and in light of the GTX 960 not being release until the first quarter of 2015. You could get an R9 280 for the same price and it would be a good deal faster and have the same amount of memory.

While that R9 280 looks tempting, I've gone with AMD for my last 2 cards and have ALWAYS had troubles with the drivers underperforming or just being bad overall. I never ran into that problem way back when I had my 7600GT, so I was thinking about going back to Nvidia. About $200 is my budget for a new card +/- $20. So, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for improvement, when wanting to POSSIBLY go the Nvidia route.

 

[TheDualshock]

The only and best Nvidia card for your budget would be the [strike]GTX 660[/strike] 760. Knowing you would like to go back to Nvidia due to bad experiences, the R9 280[strike]/R9 270x are still the superior cards[/strike] is slightly faster.

Type in gtx 760 :
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/

 

[Cydone]

The only and best Nvidia card for your budget would be the GTX 660. Knowing you would like to go back to Nvidia due to bad experiences, the R9 280/R9 270x are still the superior cards. It's ultimately up to you.

Based on your system specs in your signature, we have a pretty similar setup. I have a AMD FX-6300 OC'd 4.1GHz, your MOBO is much better though lol. I have a GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2 AM3+ AMD 760G, 8GB GSkill Ripjaw Series 1333. What games do you run with that R9 270X?? And are you able to max out the settings?

 

[TheDualshock]

I don't play all that many games with my rig, since I've been busy but most games that are not new releases will run maxed out with smooth frame rates. In Battlefield 4 on Ultra with AA off I get about 45-50 fps avg (dips to 35-40 but goes beyond 60 at times). Starcraft II wasn't very hard to 100% max out everything. Metro Last Light ran pretty good, but had serious fps drops at certain scenes in the game (10 fps drops) 35-45 avg. Tomb Raider ran like a champ maxed settings with TressFX off (advanced hair) as it usually stayed in the 50s. Not much more to say since I don't play all that many games. You can check out benchmarks out there for the card aswell.

Here's some benchmarks :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/5

 

[Cydone]

I don't play all that many games with my rig, since I've been busy but most games that are not new releases will run maxed out with smooth frame rates. In Battlefield 4 on Ultra with AA off I get about 45-50 fps avg (dips to 35-40 but goes beyond 60 at times). Starcraft II wasn't very hard to 100% max out everything. Metro Last Light ran pretty good, but had serious fps drops at certain scenes in the game (10 fps drops) 35-45 avg. Tomb Raider ran like a champ maxed settings with TressFX off (advanced hair) as it usually stayed in the 50s. Not much more to say since I don't play all that many games. You can check out benchmarks out there for the card aswell.

Here's some benchmarks :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/5

Good to know. Thank you!

Now, has anyone run into any troubles with having an AMD CPU and MOBO, but using an Nvidia GPU?? I've heard from some ppl that it's better to use an AMD GPU if you have an AMD CPU/MOBO. Is that true?? Or is that just an urban myth?

 

[Malli Karim]

Omg are people still spewing that nonsense in 2014? No man you can use w/e u want with w/e u want. Just get best bang for buck unless u're rich and that's it.

 

[maxalge]

I don't play all that many games with my rig, since I've been busy but most games that are not new releases will run maxed out with smooth frame rates. In Battlefield 4 on Ultra with AA off I get about 45-50 fps avg (dips to 35-40 but goes beyond 60 at times). Starcraft II wasn't very hard to 100% max out everything. Metro Last Light ran pretty good, but had serious fps drops at certain scenes in the game (10 fps drops) 35-45 avg. Tomb Raider ran like a champ maxed settings with TressFX off (advanced hair) as it usually stayed in the 50s. Not much more to say since I don't play all that many games. You can check out benchmarks out there for the card aswell.

Here's some benchmarks :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/5

Good to know. Thank you!

Now, has anyone run into any troubles with having an AMD CPU and MOBO, but using an Nvidia GPU?? I've heard from some ppl that it's better to use an AMD GPU if you have an AMD CPU/MOBO. Is that true?? Or is that just an urban myth?

If i remember correctly, tom's did show that an amd cpu benefits from a nvidia gpu.

An amd cpu benefits from an amd gpu if the gpu and game support mantle.

 

[jeffredo]

I don't play all that many games with my rig, since I've been busy but most games that are not new releases will run maxed out with smooth frame rates. In Battlefield 4 on Ultra with AA off I get about 45-50 fps avg (dips to 35-40 but goes beyond 60 at times). Starcraft II wasn't very hard to 100% max out everything. Metro Last Light ran pretty good, but had serious fps drops at certain scenes in the game (10 fps drops) 35-45 avg. Tomb Raider ran like a champ maxed settings with TressFX off (advanced hair) as it usually stayed in the 50s. Not much more to say since I don't play all that many games. You can check out benchmarks out there for the card aswell.

Here's some benchmarks :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/5

Good to know. Thank you!

Now, has anyone run into any troubles with having an AMD CPU and MOBO, but using an Nvidia GPU?? I've heard from some ppl that it's better to use an AMD GPU if you have an AMD CPU/MOBO. Is that true?? Or is that just an urban myth?

Myth. You can use whatever video card you want with either camp's motherboards. As far as drivers go I guess it depends on the game. I have an HD 7950 in my main PC and a GTX 750 Ti in a secondary PC. They behave similarly save for the HD 7950 have higher framerates.