intel/nvidia or amd/radeon

[Willzzz]

What I am arguing with here is your assertion that the 192bit bus is not sufficient and your implication that the 660 Ti won't be able to cope 18 months after launch.

I think it is pretty clear that the bus is NOT the huge issue everyone seems to think it is. The 660 Ti CAN cope with titles running at very high resolutions and 8xAA.

Yeah the 660 Ti doesn't run some games very well, but these tend to be the exact same games that the 670 doesn't run very well either, despite the increased bus width and ROPs.

Tessellation is something we are going to see more of in the future and the 660 Ti is very strong in this area.

Performance of the 660 Ti is not going to drop off a cliff any time in the next couple of years.

[peterb]

***cough***

Lets stick to facts and keep the veiled sarcasm away from the tech forums.

[watercooled]

What I am arguing with here is your assertion that the 192bit bus is not sufficient and your implication that the 660 Ti won't be able to cope 18 months after launch.

I think it is pretty clear that the bus is NOT the huge issue everyone seems to think it is. The 660 Ti CAN cope with titles running at very high resolutions and 8xAA.

Yeah the 660 Ti doesn't run some games very well, but these tend to be the exact same games that the 670 doesn't run very well either, despite the increased bus width and ROPs.

Tessellation is something we are going to see more of in the future and the 660 Ti is very strong in this area.

Performance of the 660 Ti is not going to drop off a cliff any time in the next couple of years.

Not off a cliff, but moving towards higher AA/res, it does dip faster than cards with higher bandwidth. Basically, I'd expect it to perform relatively worse than others in future games based on past and present trends. On the subject of tessellation, the 5870 was (and still is IMO, but I own one so may be somewhat biased) a excellent performing card, but problems arise vs newer cards when you crank up tessellation, I'm thinking about a similar situation for AA/res for the likes of the 660 Ti.

[Willzzz]

Not off a cliff, but moving towards higher AA/res, it does dip faster than cards with higher bandwidth. Basically, I'd expect it to perform relatively worse than others in future games based on past and present trends. On the subject of tessellation, the 5870 was (and still is IMO, but I own one so may be somewhat biased) a excellent performing card, but problems arise vs newer cards when you crank up tessellation, I'm thinking about a similar situation for AA/res for the likes of the 660 Ti.

The odd thing is that in many games where the 7950 has a lead at 1080p that lead actually diminishes as you crank up resolution/AA.

I won't go into too many examples, but here are the first two games I looked at:
http://www.techspot.com/review/603-b...rds/page4.html

The 7950 has a 15% lead at 1080, this decreases to a 10% lead at 1600p on BF3.
In BL2 they are dead even at 1080p, but at 1600p the 660 Ti suddenly has a lead of 16%.

Thing is it's not only bandwidth requirements that increase with resolution/AA, these also require far higher processing capacity, which the 660 Ti has plenty of.

[watercooled]

BL2 is still CPU limited (or fps capped, as I said elsewhere, it seems too close to be a bottleneck given error margin usually accounts for >1fps variance) for both cards at 1920x1200, 1fps advantage for 7950 is well within error margin.

Non-boost and Ti seem to tie on BF3, the boost version loses some margin at higher resolutions which to me suggests the extra core frequency is becoming less advantageous. The 680 starts in line with the 7970 (non-GHz) then drops off at higher res, also suggesting bandwidth may be becoming a problem.

[Willzzz]

OK, in a bid to be scientific and eliminate as many variables as possible, let's look at the 670 vs 660 ti.

In BF3, the 670 gives up a very small amount of ground as resolution increases.
In COD the gap stays the same
In DA2 the gap lowers very slightly.

Generally speaking it doesn't seem that the 670 gains a larger advantage as resolution increases, which it should in theory due to extra bandwidth.
In fact we see very small decreases, although this is probably due to random error/rounding issues.

[istanbul2013]

If you take a look at the recent threads (including this one) you find that I am recommending the 7950/7970 to people with a budget of £250+.
I'm just saying that the 660 Ti isn't as bad as many think it is and for some people it will be preferable.

[Venomz1337]

What PSU model is it?? 750W on its own means nothing if it CiT,EZ Cool or Powercool for example.

Also,the Elite 334 has limitations in the card length it takes. It was an OK case years ago,but I have known people who have ditched it for something a bit more modern.





It seems Scan should offer a free games bundle with the HD7950:

http://blogs.amd.com/play/this-holiday-never-settle/

They don't advertise it,but they should give you it according to the AMD website.

The components are from Scan and Amazon. Once you get to 20 posts,you can get free postage from Scan.

The build cannot be overclocked,but I don't even overclock TBH and a Core i5 at stock speeds is not slow IMHO.

The Merc Alpha can take cards as long as an HD6990:

http://i.imgur.com/88MYp.jpg

http://forums.iamextreme.net/f10/bit...e-review-1651/

The PSU is made by Seasonic.

The total comes to around £540 includig postage.

What's the point of a 7950 if the processor isn't all that? It's just better to go for an FX series rather than that to be honest.

[Jonj1611]

What's the point of a 7950 if the processor isn't all that? It's just better to go for an FX series rather than that to be honest.

Do explain what you mean as there isn't anything wrong with that processor.

[watercooled]

Agreed, it's only clocked slightly slower than the more expensive models and lacks an IGP, so it looks like a fairly good value CPU IMO. FX is also worth considering at that price point but there's nothing wrong with that i5.

[Venomz1337]

Do explain what you mean as there isn't anything wrong with that processor.

Honestly, I'm not a computer guy who knows everything but I'm sure, you'd be 35% better off getting a 2500k/3570k with a 7950 rather than that, being able to overclock is a huge upside!

[watercooled]

You'd pay considerably more for a k model for only slightly higher stock clocks. Overclocking doesn't always help massively with games, and realistically you'd need to spend even more on aftermarket cooling if that's what you want to do.

[Venomz1337]

You'd pay considerably more for a k model for only slightly higher stock clocks. Overclocking doesn't always help massively with games, and realistically you'd need to spend even more on aftermarket cooling if that's what you want to do.

Fair enough, but like I said, I'm not all that into pc hardware

[Jonj1611]

Fair enough, but like I said, I'm not all that into pc hardware

Which is fair enough but why resurrect a 5 month old thread and then give the wrong information.

[SwondeR]

hey all, Ive got a nvidia GTX 670 and I also have a spare radeon 6850 kicking around..

I have x2 PCI-E slots can i put them both in and use the 670 as my main card for games etc but also use the 6850 for foldinghome?? is this possible?

[watercooled]

Yeah that should be possible. I'm not sure if there's some Nvidia nonsense relating to having an AMD card in the system disabling GPU PhysX effects, or if it only applies to having an AMD card as your primary one, but it would be worth checking.