Smaller or no SSD to allow for a 670?

[SlurmsMckenzie]

I'm currently speccing a gaming build, and the plan at the moment is to go with a 7950.

A techy (but slightly know it all) friend is of the opinion that a gtx 670 is worth the extra £60 or so over a 7950.

Problem is to allow for this I'd have to either cut the SSD size in the build from 128 gb to 60gb, or do away with it entirely. His attitude is that's a worthwhile sacrifice, but I'm not so sure.

I'm not really clued in on GPUs so I'd really appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

[KeyboardDemon]

Here's a comparison of the two cards.

Check out the graphs and if you find you prefer the GTX670 then I would recommend you check behind the sofa etc... and dig deeper for the extra £60 to get a larger SSD, maybe dig deeper still and get a 256gb model, or look at a slightly older model of SSD where the prices have dropped a bit as even a slightly slower SSD will still be blisteringly fast compared to a high performance HDD.

[shaithis]

I'd get the 7950 and an SSD.

[ajones]

You can live with 60 gig SSD as the system drive, but don't expect to put much other than the OS on there. 1 or 2 apps and it'll be full. The 7950 is a fine card, so given the choice, I'd stick with it.

[watercooled]

Something I'd like to point out, those Anandtech benchmarks are based on old drivers - current drivers have the HD 7000 series more than proportionately faster vs updated Nvidia drivers e.g. here's a more recent test http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/

You can always 'spend a bit more' for more more performance (to a point), you just have to decide what's right for you. It's quite easy to recursively spend a bit more and end up at something like twice your original budget.

[SlurmsMckenzie]

That's very true about the spending. I really am at the top end of my budget already! And if my wife ever finds out how much I'm spending, graphics cards will be the least of my problems....!

[Oswald]

If you plan to use this system for gaming, then drop the ssd in favor of a better gpu.
I have an ssd as a boot drive and can garantee you that it does nothing for gaming.
If you do get an ssd for a game rig, get a small cheap one and use it only as a boot drive. That's what I did.