GTX 660 VS HD 7850

[pis13]

Hi guys, I m about to order my budget gaming pc! Specs:

Intel i3 3220
Asus P8B75-M LX Motherboard
Antec High Current Gamer 520W Power Supply
Corsair Vengenace 1600mhz (2x4gb) 8gb

For VGA I m between these two:

GTX 660 - http://www3.pny.com/GTX-660-2048MB-PCIe--P3233C506.aspx

HD 7850 - http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7850-Twin-Frozr-2GD5-OC.html

They are the same prices on amazon uk!

Please help me choose the best one!

I will be playing on 1600x1200 resolution!

Thanks

 

[alvine]

660 sucks be a man and pick up a 7850 (inb4 ati fanboy)
you will be held back by the dual core, try to get the cheapest i5 as they are quad cores

 

[pis13]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/1.html - GTX 660 wins in these benchmarks

 

[determinologyz]

660 sucks be a man and pick up a 7850 (inb4 ati fanboy)
you will be held back by the dual core, try to get the cheapest i5 as they are quad cores

sounds like fanboyism..To op look at benchmarks reviews and go with your best choice honestly but i believe also the 660 will beat the 7850 also i do agree the i3 will bottleneck the 660 so best to go with a i5

 

[pis13]

can I keep that motherboard and replace my i3 to an i5 3470? the motherboard - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8B75M_LX/

 

[djangoringo]

Get the 660 gtx, your psu can do for the card, the 660 gtx is better, if at the same price, get the 660 gtx.
The i3 won't bottleneck either of those two...

 

[stickmansam]

The stock 660 will generally perform in between the stock 7850 and the stock 7870. The 7850 is a great overclocked though since it's clocked at 900 but GCN can hit 1100 easy and 1200 with a bit of work. The MSI 7850 is also factory overclocked so it will perform closer to the 660 than a stock 7850 will.

At the same price its a bit of a tossup since with the 660 since you get some extras from Nvidia but the 7850 is OC and has a arguably better cooler.

You might want to take a look at this website. It aggregates all the pricing info for pc parts.

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/parts/video-card/#c=114,113,81,82&sort=a5

I've selected the 660, 660ti, 7850 and 7870 and sorted them with price.

Looking at that list, the 7850 come out the cheapest with the MSI 7850 OC
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/msi-video-card-r7850twinfrozr2gd5oc

The 660 I would get is this one.
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn660oc2gd
It has quite a bit better cooling (on par with twin frozr) than this one here which is cheaper
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/msi-video-card-n6602gd5oc

Paying slightly more than the gigabyte 660 would get you the 7870 with decent specs
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/xfx-video-card-fx787acdfc

At this pricing I would get the 7870 over the 660 or just grab the 7850 and stick with it or OC it a bit to 660 levels (no guarantees but very likely). If you aren't too worry about cooling, you can grab the MSI 660. I would not get the gigabyte 660 since it is priced too close to the 7870.

 

[stickmansam]

can I keep that motherboard and replace my i3 to an i5 3470? the motherboard - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8B75M_LX/

Yes you can but unless you are playing heavy CPU games like BF3 64 man multiplayer, no need to grab an i5.

 

[determinologyz]

Why be limited tho..i3 is nice and all but eh..

 

[alvine]

ati for the win b*tches

 

[pis13]

I m not playing BF3 or that type of online fps games! I m playing hitman, gta iv, alanwake, mafia II, far cry 3, sleeping dogs.... 3rd person games mostly! The cheapest GTX 660 is that PNY, all others 660 s on Amazon uk are 40 gbp more!

 

[stickmansam]

is amazon your only vendor because some other sites/stores have more choice and are sometimes cheaper like I posted above.
The i3 is fine for most of your gaming needs then.

 

[pis13]

yes mate, only Amazon Uk ships to Malta!! i m going for the i5 3470 to be more futureproof too About the vga i think i m going for that pny xlr8 gtx660 oc

 

[djangoringo]

I m not playing BF3 or that type of online fps games! I m playing hitman, gta iv, alanwake, mafia II, far cry 3, sleeping dogs.... 3rd person games mostly! The cheapest GTX 660 is that PNY, all others 660 s on Amazon uk are 40 gbp more!

The i3 is suffice, get that 660 gtx, it's a pretty good deal, free shipping(for euro countries) and probably the lowest price 660 gtx in your area, get it.
If you can pay for the 660 gtx, get it.

 

[pis13]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009ANT09U/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE this is it

 

[Derza10]

yes mate, only Amazon Uk ships to Malta!! i m going for the i5 3470 to be more futureproof too About the vga i think i m going for that pny xlr8 gtx660 oc

Sounds like a solid build, that is probably what i would do to if i was on a budget.

 

[YJM]

I was also thinking about getting the GTX 660 but a TI; i have seen cheap 660s from PNY but i dont know much about this company. I also hear some nasty things about them too, so i am hesitating to buy from PNY.

 

[Azn Cracker]

PNY is fine. Every company has had nasty things said about them. Generally nvidia cards are a little more expensive than ati radeon cards for the performance. (probably because of phys x capabilities). Also the i3 won't bottleneck much but its a good idea to get the i5 to be future proof.

 

[djangoringo]

It's a reference card, there's nothing wrong with it, either the 660 pny or the 660 ti pny.
They also offer same warranty as other brands (3 years) in Europe :

http://www.pny-europe.com/s/g/Guarantees/

 

[pis13]

till now all i ve seen is very good reviews about modern PNY vga like the 660 and 670 - http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2012/pc/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-review-pny-xlr8-performance-edition/

this is one of them

 

[iam2thecrowe]

660 sucks be a man and pick up a 7850 (inb4 ati fanboy)
you will be held back by the dual core, try to get the cheapest i5 as they are quad cores

you are insane. the 660 is far better than the 7850, it is more similar to 7870, and has lower frame latency than the 7870 (meaning games will run smoother)

 

[stickmansam]

The 660 does perform but it's a reference cooler which I don't really reccomend. The 7850 is a great overclocker which can hit stock performance between the 7870 and 7950. This card is a 7850 and it's cheaper than the 660 by a bit, better choice to consider than the MSI 7850
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11200-14-20G-Card-HD7850-GDDR5/dp/B008HV63F0/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1357599980&sr=1-1

 

[sam_p_lay]

you are insane. the 660 is far better than the 7850, it is more similar to 7870, and has lower frame latency than the 7870 (meaning games will run smoother)

+1 to that. If you do choose the Radeon, I'd personally steer clear of Sapphire. They're often cheap, but I've had a history of bad experiences with them, not gonna risk it again. I was probably just unlucky though, they obviously can't all be faulty. Still, GTX660 is a way better choice.

 

[djangoringo]

The 660 does perform but it's a reference cooler which I don't really reccomend. The 7850 is a great overclocker which can hit stock performance between the 7870 and 7950. This card is a 7850 and it's cheaper than the 660 by a bit, better choice to consider than the MSI 7850
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11200-14-20G-Card-HD7850-GDDR5/dp/B008HV63F0/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1357599980&sr=1-1

And what's about the reference cooler ? the 660 gtx reference runs cool, and in no point a 7850 will beat a 660 gtx/7870/7950 even oc...that's just speculating...a 660 gtx is better than a 7850 no matter what version of the card, also cause it's a reference card it doesn't mean you can't oc the card...

 

[pis13]

Sapphire VGAs are famous for black screens and crashes, I ve read alot about them! No way I cant choose a cheap sapphire!