Nvidia Vs AMD

[kenshindono]

im doing a couple of builds over the next few weeks. A comp for my dad and one for my mom. I got my dad an Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition. The XFX Double D FX-787A-CDFC specifically. It was on sale for a good price a few weeks back and he wont be gaming on it much.

However for my mothers build i want a decent graphic card as both her and my niece will be playing games on it. I need to actually do a bit of research to see where i want to be but i would like to have a good basis to compare ATI and Nvidia cards. I tended to prefer Nvidia myself in the past. But i dont know what the ATI an Nvidia competitors are.

For example, what is Nvidias card that competes with the 7870? WHat competes with the 7950? 7970? Id like a chart or something showing what the Nvidia cards are that match up with the ATI ones. Im thinking i want to get her a 7950 or equivalent/higher as far as performance goes but have no idea what that would be in the Nvidia line.. something in the 700 series i would imagine

 

[kirilmatthew]

First I am going to say that AMD's 9xxx series "volcanic islands" is coming in October. For that purpose I will include them in my comparison.
Radeon 7950($210) and radeon 9870 compete with GTX 760($250) the GTX beats the 7950 by a little, but the 9870 should equal or beat it.
Radeon 7970($300) and radeon 9950 compete with GTX 770($350). Again, Nvidia wins by a bit, but the 9950 should change that. Value-wise AMD wins again.
Radeon 9970(<$600) will compete with 780($650). It is rumored to outperform the 780 at at least $50 cheaper.
Prices are estimates and there is no in for on the other 9xxx AMD series prices. Hope this helps!

 

[kenshindono]

thanks a lot Kril. One question: it seems odd that you have the 7870 and 7950 together competing with the 760. It seems the 7870 is better than the 7950? This is what i was kinda seeing in a few quick searches i did before buying my dads 7870. How is an older model card better than a newer one?

anyway that gives me the groupings as i needed, so thanks for that. I can kinda research and compare from there. One more question to bug you with if you didn't mind. where do the earlier ones fit. Particularly the 650 and 660ti i see a lot. Dont want one for this build but my sister may need a cheap build here down the road

 

[kirilmatthew]

thanks a lot Kril. One question: it seems odd that you have the 7870 and 7950 together competing with the 760. It seems the 7870 is better than the 7950? This is what i was kinda seeing in a few quick searches i did before buying my dads 7870. How is an older model card better than a newer one?

anyway that gives me the groupings as i needed, so thanks for that. I can kinda research and compare from there. One more question to bug you with if you didn't mind. where do the earlier ones fit. Particularly the 650 and 660ti i see a lot. Dont want one for this build but my sister may need a cheap build here down the road

The 7870 is not better then the 7950, but the 9870 is. As for lower range ones, I cannot recommend the 650 or 650Ti. I recommend the 7750($60), 7770($80), GTX 650 Ti Boost($130) and radeon 7850($140)
Again, prices are estimates and they are all in order from worst to best. I have the 650Ti Boost and it runs very well. They mostly depend as well, at this range, on CPU and on PSU.

 

[kenshindono]

where would the 660 ti or 550 ti boost fit as far as their competitors in the AMD market?

 

[kirilmatthew]

where would the 660 ti or 550 ti boost fit as far as their competitors in the AMD market?

660Ti compete with the radeon 7950. I don't believe the 550Ti Boost exists, but I certainly wouldn't buy it if it did.