660 non ti to 7950. Worth it?

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song414

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2006
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324
Hi all. I am currently using a non ti 660 and am tempted to upgrade to a 7950 for ~$250

I know there isn't too much of a performance gain but how much can I really expect?

I was planning on selling my 6 month old 660 non ti and spend a little extra $$$ for upgrading to a 7950 which is why im highly considering the upgrade.
 
i had a asus 7950 and LOVED it. the only reason i got rid of mine was because of my 3d monitor, needed Nvidia to use it :/. i still regret getting rid of it. in terms of gains? you deff notice smoother game play, and slightly higher FPS. If you can squeeze another 660 for SLI i would do that though. From what i understand (could be very wrong) SLI 660's are slightly faster then a 680.
 
It is a pretty big jump. A friend of mine did that and was very happy with the fps boost. I have a 7950 sapphire boost and have had no issues with it since the last driver update. Runs Bf3 at 1920x1080 at 100+ fps on Ultra textures and mesh with shadows medium and all else low. I use sweetfx for my aa and color correction. Game looks nice.
 
In my opinion if you can sell the 660 for a decent price then the money you have to pay in difference wouldn't be that much so I think it's worth it. The 7950 is much quicker than the 660 non ti and you also get a good boost in vram if you play at higher resolutions or like using lots of texture mods in skyrim. I myself still have a 6870 and I think I'm going to wait for the 760 ti to come out. It's rumored to have the same specs as a GTX 670 maybe even a little quicker, but only costing roughly 300 dollars so it's actually cheaper than the GTX 670. But yeah that's just my opinion.
 
OP thats a significant upgrade. a HD 7950 is on avg 5% slower (3 - 7% depending on game) than HD 7970 at same clocks. HD 7950 at 1100 - 1125 Mhz matches HD 7970 Ghz (1050 mhz) performance. HD 7950 is the best value for money card. go for it.

http://www.legionhardware.com/artic...z_edition_7950_iceq_xsup2_boost_clock,13.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7950_X2_Boost/31.html

go for sapphire hd 7950 boost, his hd 7950 iceq x2 boost or msi hd 7950 twin frozr cards. unlocked voltage and good cooler.:)
 
How well does your 660 clock? What games do you play and at what resolution? 7950 is a faster card for sure but do you really need to spend the moeny?
 
a stock 7950 is basically even with a 660ti so its not all that much faster than a plain 660. if overclocking then yes the 7950 will be a much more impressive upgrade.

OP, list ALL of your current specs including power supply and resolution that you intend to play at.
 
get a 660 sli it, dont buy the 660 for more than 200.
otherwise, sell the 660 and jus get the 7950 xD
 
SLI is not an option. I have a 1055t 6 core amd OC to 3.8.

1000w antec PSU

My mobo doesnt support SLI. I am going to upgrade to haswell when it comes out though.

In the end the upgrade will cost me 30-50$ when all is said and done.

Is that much $$$ worth the increase in performance? Keep in mind I would most likely be using a reference design cooler such as the powercolor one. I have a full tower case with like 8 case fans so airflow is not an issue in my case.


How much louder is the 7950 over 660? I remember my 270gtx and it was like a plane taking off and my reference design 660 is quiet. I don't want it to be too much louder than a reference design 660.
 
What game do you play? What resolution do you play at?

These are all important details :)
 
jahara said:
What game do you play? What resolution do you play at?

These are all important details :)
Click to expand...

I play all sorts of modern games. On my list to do is finish Skyrim with a lot of texture mods, bioshock infinite, crysis 3, etc.

Upcoming games like watch dogs, COD: Ghosts.

I play on a 42" 1080p TV.
 
song414 said:
How much louder is the 7950 over 660? I remember my 270gtx and it was like a plane taking off and my reference design 660 is quiet. I don't want it to be too much louder than a reference design 660.
Click to expand...


A reference 7950 is staggeringly loud compared to a 660, be prepared for a blow dryer. Many of the aftermarket coolers or non-ref single fan coolers aren't that bad though.
 
I can't hear the cooler on my boost 7950. It is in an open air test bench too. So it's very quiet.
 
LigTasm said:
A reference 7950 is staggeringly loud compared to a 660, be prepared for a blow dryer. Many of the aftermarket coolers or non-ref single fan coolers aren't that bad though.
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cannondale06 said:
well obviously the edit button was too difficult for you to figure out. :rolleyes:

OP, the reference cooler will be much louder than your 660.
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Thanks guys. I may try to invest 10-20 more in a quieter double fan one as I definitely do not miss the extra loud sound.
 
p3sty said:
Why don't you wait to see what the 770/760 has to offer?
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because they are rebranded 680's and are much higher than $250 which i can get a 7950 for. I only want to upgrade because $250 + 4 games I can sell on ebay nets me only ~$200 to upgrade which after I sell my card I can get for ~$30
 
If you game with a headset then what would it matter about the fan as TRIXX lets you set the % by temp reading..

If you pick the right HD7950 the card really starts hauling ass around 1050-1100 core and 1500-1700 memory and bye bye 660Ti as mine runs 1500Mhz memory without voltage adjustments which is 288.6 Gb/s of memory bandwidth.
 
song414 said:
because they are rebranded 680's and are much higher than $250 which i can get a 7950 for. I only want to upgrade because $250 + 4 games I can sell on ebay nets me only ~$200 to upgrade which after I sell my card I can get for ~$30
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normally usd 290 (270 after rebate) is the lowest price for HD 7950. but still its a very nice upgrade. you are looking at a 40% performance difference when you compare GTX 660 vs HD 7950 overclocked.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202026
 
Now that the 770 is out and priced accordingly, its easy to recommend a 7950 if u can get it for around 260-270 after rebates. Just think of the bundled games as extra bonus.
 
660 -> 7950 is pointless. You will see some improvement when you overclock the 7950, but maybe 20% max.

770 Reviews are starting to come out: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_770/27.html

770 is about $400 and the 7970 is about $350 after MIR, I'd go for either of those 2 depending on budget. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131468
I would guess that they perform about the same when overclocked, so it comes down to what games you are going to be playing.

You could also go for a second 660 and SLI them. Athough, that might be the more expensive option considering you wouldn't be able to sell your current card. It would definitely be the best bang for buck tho.
 
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My OCed 660 gets 43FPS in the Valley bench with the highest settings and 4xAA. My OCed 7950 gets 48 with the highest settings and 8xAA. So they're in the same performance area if I keep AA down on the 660. 5FPS is measurable and not that meaningful unless we're talking about something like a 30FPS min vs a 25FPS min. If I use no AA in the Valley bench with the 660 and the highest settings it will pass 53FPS. More often than not the 660 is fine for 1920x with FXAA-4xAA.

I've edited my BIOS on my 660 so it does a 1215MHz boost like it's stock. Mem is @ 3394. My mentioned 7950 is @ 1150|1630.

GTX 660 SLi is great bang for the buck. It's certainly something to consider. It would pass my OCed 7950 in everything.
 
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You are talking about a benchmark in one game.

There isn't much between them but 7950 = 660 Ti average performance wise.
 
It's one example I've picked. A 660 with a 1215MHz boost and 3394 mem can run FC3 fine with HBAO and maxed settings sans AA. I've completed the game like that. I ran it @ 1920x.
 
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you should stop being passively aggressive toward the people trying to help you. .

get a refund, buy a mobo that supports SLI (you can find pretty good asus ones for 50-75$) and save for a second 660 if you want to make a smart move... either that or actually upgrade to a card that will be a greater improvement than just 3-4 FPS..

well that or you can just enjoy the 3-4 FPS gain and the same problem
 
Exitwoundsz said:
you should stop being passively aggressive toward the people trying to help you. .

get a refund, buy a mobo that supports SLI (you can find pretty good asus ones for 50-75$) and save for a second 660 if you want to make a smart move... either that or actually upgrade to a card that will be a greater improvement than just 3-4 FPS..

well that or you can just enjoy the 3-4 FPS gain and the same problem
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I am not getting passively aggressive. I was just trying to get my point across that I am only considering upgrading to a 7950 because I could do so for less than $50 with the current deal (MIR and game bundle being sold along with my 660)

I am upgrading my amd 1055t to a 4670k next week and maybe do SLI due to buying a new mobo, but I see no need price/performance wise to invest $175 vs $50 right now on the difference.

Simply put I wasn't asking for the best upgrade from a 660 (pretty content gaming at 1080p right now.) I was just asking if going to a 7950 and OCing it would yield a good investment for only ~$50.
 
If you can do it for $50, and plan to overclock it, then why not?

It's a step up from a 660, just not a big one and I wouldn't want to spend more than $50
 
Can that 660ti push 3 LCD's in surround like the HD7950 can as that is where the AMD card is geared to go and why it has 3Gb of ram.
 
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