My 1st PC Build - Advice please? (:

[cball1311]

WOW!! You weren't lying about Aussie prices! I'd go for the 660 Ti.

 

[bigcyco1]

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X would be my choice between the two because HD 7950 boost makes 7950 faster a little bit than GTX 660ti,.

both cards perform almost the same unless the game is specifically tweak to favor one of the architecture. If you play at 1080p both will give you good result in most games. If you still can't decide which card to take try looking at the games that you play or specific features that you want. If cost really matter to you then you might want to go with whatever is cheaper to you.

 

[bigcyco1]

This might help http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/27/nvidia_geforce_gtx_660_ti_at_high_aa_settings_review/ Quote: GALAXY GTX 660 Ti GC 3GB vs. Radeon HD 7950 w/Boost

After we tested the 2GB GTX 660 Ti against the 2GB GTX 670 to see what the 33% memory bandwidth difference does in games, we then wanted to find out how the 3GB card compares to 3GB completion with the new clock configuration. We used a GALAXY GeForce GTX 660 Ti GC 3GB video card in comparison to a Radeon HD 7950 3GB w/Boost video card. We also used the new PowerTune with Boost on the Radeon HD 7950 to benefit from AMD's new clocks speeds in gaming of 925MHz.

When we look at the specifications between both video cards we find that the Radeon HD 7950 has a 66% memory bandwidth advantage. The Radeon HD 7950 has a 384-bit memory bus with 240GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The GALAXY GTX 660 Ti GC 3GB has a 192-bit memory bus with 144GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The Radeon HD 7950 has 66% more memory bandwidth than the GALAXY GTX 660 Ti. The AA performance results we tested though didn't show this, and in fact reinforce how memory bandwidth and bus width is not everything in gaming.

Our performance results were not too far apart in most of our gaming between the Radeon HD 7950 w/Boost and GALAXY GTX 660 Ti GC at high AA settings. We often found both video cards with fewer than 10% performance difference. We saw a few instances where the Radeon HD 7950 w/Boost was faster, and we even saw a few instances where the GALAXY GTX 660 Ti GC was faster at higher settings. So much for the extreme memory bandwidth advantage on the Radeon HD 7950.

So what does it all mean? It means that there is more to performance than just the width of the memory bus and the bandwidth available to the memory. There are other factors involved that determine gaming performance, and the widest memory bus with the most bandwidth isn't always going to be the winner in actual gaming performance.

 

[cball1311]

That's why I respect you bigcyco1 . Nice reply and Happy New Year!

 

[bigcyco1]

That's why I respect you bigcyco1 . Nice reply and Happy New Year!

Thanks bud. Happy New Year!

 

[AntarcticHorizon]

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X would be my choice between the two because HD 7950 boost makes 7950 faster a little bit than GTX 660ti,.

both cards perform almost the same unless the game is specifically tweak to favor one of the architecture. If you play at 1080p both will give you good result in most games. If you still can't decide which card to take try looking at the games that you play or specific features that you want. If cost really matter to you then you might want to go with whatever is cheaper to you.

Thanks for the recommendation, after extensive research I can see why the 7950 is overall a better GPU. However, given that I'm mainly going to be playing starcraft 2, the 660Ti is a better option. Apparently even the 2GB GTX 660Ti is better than the 3GB HD 7950 for starcraft 2. :S It's a shame though, I would've liked to save the extra few dollars.

Source: http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/original/2012/08/Geforce-GTX-660-Ti-SC2-1920.png

 

[bigcyco1]

No problem.Happy new year enjoy!

 

[liquidchild]

Less CPU... more GPU.

 

[jsagaga02]

Okay so given the information provided (which I thank you all for!), I guess I'm choosing between these two cards:

1. http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-aa77663-galaxy_geforce_gtx_660_ti_gc_3gb

and

2. http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-ab47634-sapphire_radeon_hd_7950_vaporx_3gb_video_card

The price difference is close to negligible to me, and I'll mostly be playing Starcraft 2 if that changes anything! Which should I go for?

Found an XFX 7950 for $339 @ this store in Melbourne:

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/795a-tnfc-radeon-7950-core-edition-p-56303.html

and a Gigabyte 7950 for $325 at the same store:

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/r795wf3-gigabyte-radeon-7950-overclocked-p-56327.html

Up to you which one you want to go for. Happy New Year!