Which Graphics Card? Gigabyte 660 OC or 660 Ti?

[markbrown83]

I'm going to buy graphics card this week. I've noticed the gigabyte 660 OC version as it's only 171 quid. Hexus review is great and at that price a bargain.

Should I get that or a Ti version which is at least £50 extra... In my opinion the performance doesn't justify the extra cost...

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

[Willzzz]

I would agree, the regular 660 is a bargain, the Ti version is only really worth it in a few special cases.

[ABCx86]

I have the 2GB Gigabyte 660 Windforce II OC and it is a great card, it idles at a very low temperature as the Hexus review says.

Can play Crysis 2 at 1920x1200 almost locking 60fps with extreme settings + hi-res texture pack.

I was also considering the 660Ti but as you say it is £50 more than the 660 and not THAT much more powerful, so I would get the 660, or wait for prices on the 660Ti and 670 to come down.

PhysX makes a big difference in some games, too. I used to think it was just a gimmick but try BL2 with PhysX on High, and Arkham City too. So that is another reason to choose 660 over similar cards like the 7870.

The memory bandwith on these cards is the only worry for me, 144GB/s, is that really future proof?
edit - (My 4870 had approx 115GB/s and that was released mid 2008, not much of an increase after 4 years, in memory bandwith terms).

[Willzzz]

AMD always overspec memory bandwidth, that 4870 never really needed 115GB/s, it didn't have the rendering power to back it up.

Future games will need more of everything, unless we think that bandwidth requirements are going to increase much faster than other requirements there is little point in having excess capacity now.

Have a look on GPUz how much you are using, I bet you have loads of headroom.

[KaKTy3]

I've got MSI's 660 two weeks ago, and I love it: quiet, powerful and energy-efficient (relatively speaking ). Don't think an extra £50 on the Ti version are justified.

[markbrown83]

Cheers everyone. You've basically just said what I thought. I will be ordering the gigabyte one tomorrow and hopefully get another in a month or two.

Can't wait to play battlefield 3 with some decent frame rates.

[markbrown83]

What are peoples thoughts on the EVGA 660 Super Clocked card? I hear it gets a little hot but should be ok or should I stick with the gigabyte? Price difference is tiny. Evga one is a little faster.

[Willzzz]

Stick with Gigabyte, you can easily up the clocks a little if you need the extra speed.

[KaKTy3]

Stick with Gigabyte, you can easily up the clocks a little if you need the extra speed.

I second that. Gigabyte card will overclock a lot better, due to custom cooling design vs. EVGA's stock. Legitreviews did a comparison between MSI and EVGA here (the former similar to Gigabyte's card), the temps difference is very noticeable and translates to a better OC.

[markbrown83]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I ended up going into Scan yesterday and bought the Gigabyte 660 OC and a set of 2.1 speakers (which are awesome).

If any one is interested in which ones I bought it was these http://www.scan.co.uk/products/micro...nd-rca-45w-rms.

Thanks again

Mark

[maklabouhlel]

depends how much you wanna pay.

[cerebral744]

i'd vote for 660gtx too a great card