Which would be more bang for the buck?

Joined
Mar 22, 2007
Messages
21
I'm looking to upgrade my video card, and I was wondering which option would give me more bang for my bucks. My budget is around 300ish.

I'm currently running:

Intel i7 920
Evga X58 mobo
6GB DDR3 1600
BFG GTX 260 (216)
500GB Segate HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate

I mostly play FPS at 1920 x 1080.

Option 1: I'm looking at the ASUS GTX 660 Ti

or

Option 2: Asus GTX 660 & Samsung 840 120GB SSD

So, what do you think would be the best upgrade path for what I have to work with?
 
Option 2.

An SSD will make your life a bit easier outside of games too, so whenever possible, it's a great upgrade.

The 660 is still pretty good for that resolution, even if I would (and did) make the choice to go up to -Ti.

Still, both cards are going to become long in the tooth around the same time (around next year when new mid-range cards come out), so the difference is muted. Good luck!
 
I also say option 2.

An SSD is probably the most noticeable performance boost you can buy for a computer. It just makes everything more snappier.
 
Option 2; replacing an HDD with an SSD is easily the most noticeable upgrade you can make in my opinion.
 
Option 2 for sure, but get an 830 128GB or M4, or anything really besides an 840 non-pro if it is an OS drive. I just sold my 250GB, while it is a nice drive for sure it doesn't compare very well to the faster MLC units.
 
660 is a decent card.

I did a BIOS edit on my GTX 660 with the below tool. I flashed it in from a DOS prompt
using a bootable USB drive + nvflash. I set the USB drive as my first boot device in my
mobo BIOS before I flashed so if my card got "bricked" I could easily blind flash it back
to my original BIOS.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...25-f%FCr-GTX-6xx-Reihe-680-670-660-650-UPDATE

I set my def power to 139, my max power to 146, my memory
to 3392, and my boost limit to 1306.

Now the card does its best to hold a 1215MHz boost clock @ "stock".

It gets 7317 graphics in 3dmark11. That's not uber and it's decent for what it is.
 
if you currently do not have a ssd in a rig that does not uses IDE cables, an SSD should be your very first upgrade. SSD's are by far the most life/pc changing upgraded experience you'll get and immediately notice.

so option 2
 
well I care nothing about an SSD and would just go for the faster card since gaming is really my only concern. other than that my pc is just for basic web surfing and watching a little porn so I see no need for an SSD.
 
Option 2.

An SSD will make your life a bit easier outside of games too, so whenever possible, it's a great upgrade.

The 660 is still pretty good for that resolution, even if I would (and did) make the choice to go up to -Ti.

Still, both cards are going to become long in the tooth around the same time (around next year when new mid-range cards come out), so the difference is muted. Good luck!

I kinda disagree. If you aren't doing anything disk intensive everyday there's really no difference other than benchmarks. I kind of regret I bought an SSD now.
 
I kinda disagree. If you aren't doing anything disk intensive everyday there's really no difference other than benchmarks. I kind of regret I bought an SSD now.

I thought the same thing when I first started using an SSD. I'd not wiped my data drive, just set it as the secondary drive and the SSD as a boot drive. When booting, I would get a prompt for both versions of Win7, my SSD and my data drive. After using the SSD for a couple of weeks, I chose the data drive by accident. First of all, it took 2 or 3 times as long for windows to load. Then I noticed that once it was finally loaded up to the desktop, it took almost a full minute before I could click on the Start Button and have it respond. Finally, I noticed that when clicking on anything, there was a pause before anything happened. Switching back to the SSD I noticed none of those things. When Windows was loaded, if I clicked on something it popped up right away and programs launched right away. Shut down and boot up times were cut in half. If you really don't notice a difference, switch back to a HDD for a while. If you don't notice anything at that point, I'd say you must have a bad SSD.

In case you can't tell, I also vote for option 2. Like you, I game at 1920x1200. I just went from a GTX 560 ti to a GTX 660 and I think the performance is great. I read a lot of reviews between the 660 and 660 ti and it seemed like there was only a small performance difference between the two, for $70 - $90 in cost difference. To me the regular 660 was the better choice. It was recently on sale for ~$170 after MIR and that was a great price. Even at the $190 it usually is, it's worth it. Good luck ;)
 
I thought the same thing when I first started using an SSD. I'd not wiped my data drive, just set it as the secondary drive and the SSD as a boot drive. When booting, I would get a prompt for both versions of Win7, my SSD and my data drive. After using the SSD for a couple of weeks, I chose the data drive by accident. First of all, it took 2 or 3 times as long for windows to load. Then I noticed that once it was finally loaded up to the desktop, it took almost a full minute before I could click on the Start Button and have it respond. Finally, I noticed that when clicking on anything, there was a pause before anything happened. Switching back to the SSD I noticed none of those things. When Windows was loaded, if I clicked on something it popped up right away and programs launched right away. Shut down and boot up times were cut in half. If you really don't notice a difference, switch back to a HDD for a while. If you don't notice anything at that point, I'd say you must have a bad SSD.

In case you can't tell, I also vote for option 2. Like you, I game at 1920x1200. I just went from a GTX 560 ti to a GTX 660 and I think the performance is great. I read a lot of reviews between the 660 and 660 ti and it seemed like there was only a small performance difference between the two, for $70 - $90 in cost difference. To me the regular 660 was the better choice. It was recently on sale for ~$170 after MIR and that was a great price. Even at the $190 it usually is, it's worth it. Good luck ;)
and did you not notice in those same reviews that going from 560ti to a plain 660 is only about a 25% upgrade? that is not even worth the hassle unless you got a killer deal and someone paid you top dollar for the old card.
 
and did you not notice in those same reviews that going from 560ti to a plain 660 is only about a 25% upgrade? that is not even worth the hassle unless you got a killer deal and someone paid you top dollar for the old card.

The reviews I read didn't compare it to the 560 ti. For me, it made a huge difference. With my 560 ti card, I was playing Skyrim at 1920x1200 with all settings on high and getting pauses, stuttering and lots of glitching. With the 660 card I have absolutely none of that, with everything that can be set to ultra. The doubling of the RAM is probably what makes it such a big difference (2GB on the 660 vs 1GB on the 560 ti). I'm sure I won't see the same difference in all of my games, but it was certainly enough for me to justify the upgrade. Plus, I needed to replace the 460SC card that's in my HTPC that's failing and the 560 ti card will go there and save me from spending money on replacing that card, while giving me a performance bump in my main rig.
 
a 660 is what around 200ish? you could of got a better card. etc.. like a 7870 for around 200-250.... somebody didnt do there reaserch ;-)
 
a 660 is what around 200ish? you could of got a better card. etc.. like a 7870 for around 200-250.... somebody didnt do there reaserch ;-)

I did, I bought the best nvidia card for the money. I don't buy AMD/ATI as I've had issues with them in the past. Even now there are tons of articles about stuttering and frame issues with AMD cards. I've bought only nvidia cards for years and have been perfectly happy doing so. That said, to each their own. If AMD does it for you, they are great performers for the money.
 
that is a load of bullshit. some cards are faulty that do that. AMD sent out a bad batch by mistake. nvidia also have lots of faults in there products but i wont detail into that. eitherway i use bot AMD and nvidia. *currentlying running a GTX 280 will Sli in a few months maybe a year tops
 
that is a load of bullshit. some cards are faulty that do that. AMD sent out a bad batch by mistake. nvidia also have lots of faults in there products but i wont detail into that. eitherway i use bot AMD and nvidia. *currentlying running a GTX 280 will Sli in a few months maybe a year tops

If it were bullshit why are there several articles on different sites detailing the issues?

In any case, as I said, it's my personal preference. I was responding to someone saying I didn't do my homework. I did, but only for nvidia cards. I'm perfectly happy with my decision. If you like AMD and/or both vendors, then good for you. You have a broader array of choices ;)
 
I think you did fine, considering either of my 660's at 1200mhz almost matched the 7870 I had at 1200mhz. You would have to get a 7870LE to see enough improvement to justify the extra $50.
 
SSD samsung 840 or corsair both are awesome

wait who said that 660 Vs ti and its only a 25% difference. Only ? That is quite a difference
 
no way are you serious? only good when a 7950 Crossfired VS Gtx 680's Sli'ed *the 7950's win ;-) hehe and there around $400 cheaper compared to two 680's lol. and apperantly AMD will have new drivers realesed. the date was set. but i cant spoil it. the word was 2-3 months. that was a week or more ago. so were looking at about agust for some new kick ass drivers that wil fix slutter etc. *well its meant to atleast*
 
Definitely option 2 or you could just wait and save up little more money and get option 1 with ssd
 
wait for the new drivers then see ;)

He said he doesn't want AMD, coming in to try and convince us that the 7950 (he doesn't want it due to personal preference) beats the 680 (also not in the price range stated) is pretty useless.
 
SSD samsung 840 or corsair both are awesome

wait who said that 660 Vs ti and its only a 25% difference. Only ? That is quite a difference
25% is NOT a huge difference at all to go from last gen card to a next gen card.
 
25% is NOT a huge difference at all to go from last gen card to a next gen card.

It isn't a huge gap to be sure, but with overclocking factored in and the benefits of 2GB vram it is probably a little more than 25%. Considering we're comparing what would be the last gen equivalent of a 660ti it makes sense that it isn't 50% or something.
 
It isn't a huge gap to be sure, but with overclocking factored in and the benefits of 2GB vram it is probably a little more than 25%. Considering we're comparing what would be the last gen equivalent of a 660ti it makes sense that it isn't 50% or something.
so why do some people consider overclocking the new card as if the old card did not oc?
 
so why do some people consider overclocking the new card as if the old card did not oc?

Nobody ever said that, but the 560ti didn't have a whole lot of headroom on stock cooling if I remember correctly. If you read up, my worst clocking 660 evenly matches against the 1000mhz 580 Matrix Platinum I had in most games and benches. I had a 560ti for a little while and it was nowhere near a 580.
 
If the OP would consider used items, you can snag a 670 for $300-350 on various sites / locally in the classifieds. I know that is more money, but well worth it if you are a gamer (future proofing).

If I were to pick one of the 2 options presented, I would go with number 2 due to the SSD.
 
I just converted over to a Samsung 840 250gb and absolutely love it. It's so much faster than my old HDD and getting it for $145 made it that much better.

Now I need to upgrade my GPU and I should be good for a while. My GTX 460 is showing its age.
 
When you go to resell the card is where you will get the best bang for your buxs and it ain't Nvidia..
 
For single GPU cards, you cannot beat the 7950, specially when overclocked.

For Multi-GPU, AMD cannot touch Nvidia. I couldnt even run my Crysis 3, bioshock or Tombraider properly in crossfire, or Tri-fire. So last week I sold my 3 7950's, and went to 670 in SLI.

Did I pay more? yes. Is my experience in gaming better? No fucking joke about it.

I can play Crysis 3 Bioshock and Tombraider with smoothness, and no stuttered (not MS).

Money well spent if you ask me. I didnt have to fuck with my Radeon pro, or Cap my FPS, or use some absurd way to get my multi-gpu experience to work.

Nvidia just works better when it comes to Multi-GPU.

But if you plan to stick with 1 card period, the 7950 when overclocked is the best bang for the buck period.
 
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