660 vs. 760 - worth the 100$ difference?

[djcoder]

Hi!
My uncle is building a new PC, and is on a budget. Basically, he wants to play Battlefield 3 at full ultra settings no problem - which I know both of these cards will do, maybe not at 120 but close - and he's running an 120Hz monitor. He would like to SLI two of them.

I'm running two 760 4GB cards from EVGA which I got for 289$. The problem is, they've now upped the price of the 4GB cards from 289$ to 329$ - at least in Canada... which makes it 660$ when he uses SLI. He has an 800$ MAX budget, and factoring in the fact that he wants an SSD boot drive, a 1TB or 2TB HDD for games, 16GB RAM and an AMD FX 8350, two of these 760 4GB cards would NOT be an option, it would obliterate his budget.

So it's been narrowed down to two cards:
The EVGA Geforce 760 2GB card. This retails for 259.99$.

And, the ASUS Geforce GTX 660 OC DirectCU which retails for 214.99$ or 194.99$ with the rebate.

Seeing as it's in SLI, that would make it 260*2=520 for the 760 SLI and 195*2=390 for the 660 SLI.

HardOCP did a review of the ASUS 660 I referenced and gave it just over 40FPS average in Far Cry 3 Ultra, and a similar card to the EVGA (an MSI 760) was given just 4FPS more than the 660.

So essentially.. does the small difference in performance give the 760 any justification for the 130$ price tag extra when SLI'd?

Thanks,
-Cameron

 

[KILLER_K]

It doesn't matter what you sli, it doesn't double anything. But it honestly sounds great for a sales pitch. You will only have 256bit for both 760's in sli. Same with the 660, it will only be 192bit. As everything on the video card is mirrored not pooled.

I would go with the newer gpu. If you are going to buy something, don't get as old product get the newer one.

 

[Liger88]

Sometimes the budget out ways the newer generation of cards. If the budget is as strict as he's saying and if he already plans on going SLI, you're not going to lose out on too much going either 660 or 760. Many, myself included, were disappointed to see the final results on the 760 that it wasn't going to be a 670 in disguise like the 680 was for the 770. Instead it's a 660 Ti which shows negligible differences at stock to the 660, certainly wasn't worth the $100 back then in the 600 Series, but now that its a $50 difference (660 > 660 Ti - $100 while 660Ti vs 760 - $50 less for same performance) it might be worth it. It's a tough call.

I really don't think the 2GB vs 4GB is even necessary. I think for the most part the comparisons are blown way out of proportion and in the end it's more of a way Nvidia/AMD to milk an extra $50-$100 by upselling you the same product. Very few situations will you notice much of a difference and that all depends on the games and resolutions you play at.

The big thing you need to consider is overclocking. There is next to NO room on the 660's. Most of the factory OC's are as high as they go and the power limit is really low. You basically get what you're buying and thats that. With the 660Ti/760 they aren't worth the price to performance stock against the 660, but they do have a MUCH HIGHER OC'ing headroom with significant gains. Something to consider.

If it were me I'd go for the 2 x 660 SLI. I'm very impressed myself and it's probably the cheaper solution, although limiting. With an $800 budget and his plans on getting an SSD, RAM, a HDD, and a CPU it may be very difficult to go SLI at all. Have you calculated the price that everything comes to without any GPU's? Would make it a little easier to gauge the situation. Then there's a single 770 for about the same price as 2 x 660 and higher performance than a 680 before overclocking. This is getting messy so I'll stop lol.

 

[djcoder]

Sometimes the budget out ways the newer generation of cards. If the budget is as strict as he's saying and if he already plans on going SLI, you're not going to lose out on too much going either 660 or 760. Many, myself included, were disappointed to see the final results on the 760 that it wasn't going to be a 670 in disguise like the 680 was for the 770. Instead it's a 660 Ti which shows negligible differences at stock to the 660, certainly wasn't worth the $100 back then in the 600 Series, but now that its a $50 difference (660 > 660 Ti - $100 while 660Ti vs 760 - $50 less for same performance) it might be worth it. It's a tough call.

I really don't think the 2GB vs 4GB is even necessary. I think for the most part the comparisons are blown way out of proportion and in the end it's more of a way Nvidia/AMD to milk an extra $50-$100 by upselling you the same product. Very few situations will you notice much of a difference and that all depends on the games and resolutions you play at.

The big thing you need to consider is overclocking. There is next to NO room on the 660's. Most of the factory OC's are as high as they go and the power limit is really low. You basically get what you're buying and thats that. With the 660Ti/760 they aren't worth the price to performance stock against the 660, but they do have a MUCH HIGHER OC'ing headroom with significant gains. Something to consider.

If it were me I'd go for the 2 x 660 SLI. I'm very impressed myself and it's probably the cheaper solution, although limiting. With an $800 budget and his plans on getting an SSD, RAM, a HDD, and a CPU it may be very difficult to go SLI at all. Have you calculated the price that everything comes to without any GPU's? Would make it a little easier to gauge the situation. Then there's a single 770 for about the same price as 2 x 660 and higher performance than a 680 before overclocking. This is getting messy so I'll stop lol.

I have a decent amount of the build in front of me - a 64GB Samsung SSD (which are dirt cheap nowadays). an ASUS motherboard, and an FX8350. But he already has 8GB RAM which I can probably convince him is enough and a HDD so really it *just about* fits into budget.

It doesn't matter what you sli, it doesn't double anything. But it honestly sounds great for a sales pitch. You will only have 256bit for both 760's in sli. Same with the 660, it will only be 192bit. As everything on the video card is mirrored not pooled.

I would go with the newer gpu. If you are going to buy something, don't get as old product get the newer one.

I never said it would double the performance. It's only for the next 2 years, as long as it lasts that long and runs on high/ultra for that time he's happy.

 

[RamonGTP]

I'd get a used 680 instead. Same price as the 760 and faster.

 

[murkris118]

I'd get a used 680 instead. Same price as the 760 and faster

The 680 is waay faster than a 760. It is almost as fast as a 770 once you overclock it. I would go with the 680 if you can get it at 760 price.

 

[rhaylols]

Hi!
My uncle is building a new PC, and is on a budget. Basically, he wants to play Battlefield 3 at full ultra settings no problem - which I know both of these cards will do, maybe not at 120 but close - and he's running an 120Hz monitor. He would like to SLI two of them.

I'm running two 760 4GB cards from EVGA which I got for 289$. The problem is, they've now upped the price of the 4GB cards from 289$ to 329$ - at least in Canada... which makes it 660$ when he uses SLI. He has an 800$ MAX budget, and factoring in the fact that he wants an SSD boot drive, a 1TB or 2TB HDD for games, 16GB RAM and an AMD FX 8350, two of these 760 4GB cards would NOT be an option, it would obliterate his budget.

So it's been narrowed down to two cards:
The EVGA Geforce 760 2GB card. This retails for 259.99$.

And, the ASUS Geforce GTX 660 OC DirectCU which retails for 214.99$ or 194.99$ with the rebate.

Seeing as it's in SLI, that would make it 260*2=520 for the 760 SLI and 195*2=390 for the 660 SLI.

HardOCP did a review of the ASUS 660 I referenced and gave it just over 40FPS average in Far Cry 3 Ultra, and a similar card to the EVGA (an MSI 760) was given just 4FPS more than the 660.

So essentially.. does the small difference in performance give the 760 any justification for the 130$ price tag extra when SLI'd?

Thanks,
-Cameron

Newer generation + shadowplay (assuming nvidia ever gets that going) means I'd go for the 760 over the 660.

Are you against buying used? If budget is an issue, that would help a lot.

 

[tran1981]

+1 for get used 680.

 

[KILLER_K]

I actually misread the sentence you used. As I thought you meant the 256/196 bit *2. As I didn't see any dollar signs. I took it as perhaps you missed the correct bit rate on both cards. So my mistake on that.

What card did you finally decide to go with for your uncle?

Seeing as it's in SLI, that would make it 260*2=520 for the 760 SLI and 195*2=390 for the 660 SLI.

I never said it would double the performance. It's only for the next 2 years, as long as it lasts that long and runs on high/ultra for that time he's happy.

 

[djcoder]

I actually misread the sentence you used. As I thought you meant the 256/196 bit *2. As I didn't see any dollar signs. I took it as perhaps you missed the correct bit rate on both cards. So my mistake on that.

What card did you finally decide to go with for your uncle?

Ah, I see. Sorry, I don't generally put $ signs in mathematics, that's why I said that.

He's at work right now (he's on night shift) so I haven't purchased anything yet. To be fair he's leaning towards the 660s. It'd be better to get a 680 but I have no clue where people are getting those prices from, unless they are talking about the price of a 680 = the price of both 760s, which to be honest is too much for a single card setup (the dual 760s would be much better really)

 

[RamonGTP]

Here's a guy asking $300 for a 680 which is about the going price for used 680's or less if they want to sell it fast

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1770263

 

[djcoder]

It doesn't matter what you sli, it doesn't double anything.

Ahem:

I never said it would double the performance. It's only for the next 2 years, as long as it lasts that long and runs on high/ultra for that time he's happy.