MSI R7870 HAWK vs MSI N660 Ti PE 2GD5/OC vs SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 7950

[cloudzeng]

I'm not sure which card to get i will be getting them around November during black friday. My budget (300-350)
System specs are amd x6 1600t @ 4.0 ghz, 8 gig ram gddr3 @1600, Corsair Gaming series 600 watt psu.
Thinking about overclocking the cards, i play games ranging from arctic combat to bf3. I also tend to do quite a bit of video editing, i prefer buying my cards from newegg cause they have a good return policy. I currently have no graphics card lmaooo cause i didnt have a case before and my bro dropped his guitar capo on it and it broke lmfao... I'm probably going to be playing at 1980 x 1080. My case is a Antec Three Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case. Also I am thinking about upgrading my cpu to a 8120 or a 8150 depending on how much the price is during black friday

 

[Onus]

See if your video editing software benefits from GPGPU processing. If it does, see whether it works with AMD or nVidia cards, or both. Keep in mind that Kepler is gimped when it comes to OpenCL GPGPU work loads. Especially since you are willing to overclock, I suspect you would find a HD7870 easily enough for 1920x1080. Of course, prices are certain to change by Black Friday, so you'll probably need to re-examine this question in November.

 

[cloudzeng]

Yah that's true i have seen in benchmarks that the msi 7870 beats the stock 7950 by around 5 fps, which is not a lot but there is a price difference. I don't think the prices are gonna change that much the 7000 series just got a price cut, and the 660ti recently came out

 

[master_chen]

Hm...now that's a one though decision...

MSi HD 7870 "R7870 Hawk" has performance at the level with MSi 660 Ti "Power Edition", but "Power Edition" has best cooling system of them three, Sapphire's HD 7950 has quite better performance than both of MSi's cards, can OverClock quite nice, but has worse cooling system than both of MSi's cards and it's price is still too high, even though just today AMD announced that it makes a price-cut on some of it's cards, HD 7950 including.
Personally, out of these three, I'd recommend MSi 660 Ti "Power Edition", simply because it's fresh (has better technologies used in it and overall quality of the build is higher), performance-wise it's almost the same as HD 7870 "R7870 Hawk", it's somewhat cheap, but the main point for getting it - you also get PhysX (especially it's profitable if you're be building SLI-configuration in the future), which you won't get with Radeons.
So I highly recommend getting MSi 660 Ti "Power Edition", in this particular case.

 

[cloudzeng]

I probably wont use PhysX because i rather not have a lower average frame rate when i dont even care that much about the looks, and i tend to record gameplays, and clips for montages. And since my cpu isnt that good i have read that you need a powerful cpu to cover the lower minimum frame rate for the 660ti. And i probably wont invest in sli/crossfire, cause I'm going into high school and won't be playing as many much games as before

 

[Onus]

All of those cards will do well in games, possibly so well as you won't be able to see a difference between any of them in actual use. The determining factor should be the video editing software, keeping in mind the potential GPGPU limitations of Kepler. I'm not prepared to guess at market conditions in November. If I were buying today, I would choose one of the AMD cards, UNLESS the video editing software uses CUDA GPGPU processing only, which only runs on nVidia.

 

[master_chen]

I probably won't use PhysX

Then definitely get HD 7870 "R7870 Hawk", because it has much better cooling than Sapphire's card, it's quite cheaper than Sapphire's HD 7950 and it's performance isn't that much weaker than that of a Sapphire's HD 7950 (unless you OverClock Sapphire's HD 7950).

I am thinking about upgrading my cpu to a 8120 or a 8150

Whatever you do - DO NOT get Bulldozer, it's absolute crap.

 

[cloudzeng]

Nah my software editing programs dont use cuda for processing, they mainly use cpu and ram. I use Sony Vegas and Adobe After Affects

 

[cloudzeng]

Then definitely get HD 7870 "R7870 Hawk".



Whatever you do - DO NOT get Bulldozer, it's absolute crap.

Alright but the sapphire is only 30 dollars more expensive and it's the newer model with boost technology.
I already have a am3+ mobo lmfaoooo, and not really its bad for gaming, but its good for like rendering when i do video editing. And its not that much of a difference for gaming between the bulldozer vs sandy/ivy bridge.

 

[cloudzeng]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003
^^^^ Sapphire 7950

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681
^^^ Msi 7870

 

[master_chen]

It's not that much of a difference between the Bulldozer vs Sandy/Ivy Bridge.

O RLY? Tell me that again after you watch this, and then this.
And it applies to everything, not just benchmarking or gaming.

 

[cloudzeng]

Yah yah i know its better, but i already have a am3+ mobo and its quit cheaper than a sandy bridge/ivy dridge, and its like 140 at microcenter which is like a 20 minute drive from my house and those are bench marks, not like real life performance things..

 

[master_chen]

and it's quite cheaper than a sandy bridge/ivy dridge

Watch the video at the second link that I gave you.

Those are benchmarks, not real life performance.

Re-read my previous post more carefully.
Anyway, I won't be starting typical "Intel VS AMD" holy-war here, I've already said everything that's needed to be said about choosing video cards - it's up to you to decide now.
If you can afford it - take Sapphire HD 7950. If you cannot afford HD 7950 - take HD 7870 "R7870 Hawk", simple as that. That's my last word on it.
Have a nice day/night and I wish you the best of results.

 

[cloudzeng]

Watch the video at the second link that I gave you.



Re-read my previous post more carefully.

alright alright i agree, but i HAVE a am3+ motherboard already....