Graphics cards $200-$300

[time]

I can see AMD 7850, Nvidia GTX660, AMD 7870 and NVidia GTX660 Ti. Here are my observations so far:

GTX660 costs more than 7850 but doesn't add much performance.
7870 adds noticeable speed for only $30-40 over 7850.
GTX660 Ti can be much faster than 7870 in certain games, but generally isn't.

In AU$, best price for 7870 is currently $208 for a Powercolor; best price for 660 Ti is $254 for a Leadtek. But most 660 Ti are low $300's.

What do you all think? Any noisy fans to avoid, etc?

 

[CougTek]

The last two graphic cards I grabbed were GTX 580 for the FAH project. I got them for 280$ and 230$ respectively. But other than for FAH, they are not the best value in that price range.

Stickly for gaming, I would probably get the 7870 based on the prices you gave. I like the 660Ti because of its low idle power consumption and better drivers, but those probably aren't worth a 20% price premium over the 7870. The 7870 isn't that far back on energy efficiency either.

However, two of the last five ower Color cards I've bought needed to be returned. I'm not sure I would go with that brand anymore. Yes, they're cheap, but they seem to have quality control issues. I'd try MSI or the dearer Asus models instead.

 

[P5-133XL]

I would avoid any MSI-Twin Frozer models -- Their fans do not last.

 

[CougTek]

I didn't know that. You read it from the folks at the Stanford FAH forums?

 

[CougTek]

BTW, around here at least, we can get Radeon HD 7950 for less than 300$. It should beat all the above-mentioned cards.

 

[P5-133XL]

I didn't know that. You read it from the folks at the Stanford FAH forums?

I own one, I've had to send it back twice under warranty.

 

[Mercutio]

Higher-end graphics cards are a lot like Italian sports cars. They're really fast, but they break down a lot.
I'm just glad that almost everything now supports onboard video for times when the proper graphics card is crapped out.

 

[time]

Great advice all around, thanks.

Coug, you're right, I could get a Powercolor 7950 for about AU$300 (plus tax). But I'm under the impression it uses way more power than a 7870?

Can anyone make a business case for the 660 Ti?

 

[CougTek]

Great advice all around, thanks.

Coug, you're right, I could get a Powercolor 7950 for about AU$300 (plus tax). But I'm under the impression it uses way more power than a 7870?

Yes, it does.

Can anyone make a business case for the 660 Ti?

Are you using it for FAH or is it used under Linux? If not, I'd look elsewhere. Some games are more optimized for Nvidia's cards, others for AMD's, but on average, AMD offers the better deal in the price range you're targeting. Move around 350$ and that's another story. The GTX 670 is untouchable at that price IMO.

 

[Mercutio]

I noticed today that a DDR3 Geforce 630 is very literally 3x what a Geforce 210 is by performance specs. I wish it were always that easy.

 

[CougTek]

And I read that a GT 630 is just a rebadged GT 430. If you want a Kepler generation card, it starts with the GT 640 with DDR5 memory.

 

[Mercutio]

You know better than to insinuate that I want any sort of nvidia hardware at all.

 

[mubs]

We should all get together and gift Merc shares in and a complete suite of products from WD & NVidia :-D

 

[LunarMist]

We should all get together and gift Merc shares in and a complete suite of products from WD & NVidia :-D

Adobe and Sony, too.

 

[time]

Since my opening post, I've read a lot more tests. In particular, driver improvements from both AMD and NVidia have been dramatic. I need to change my summary, particularly if I exclude Powercolor (and some MSI models).

If price is critical, go for the AMD HD7850. It's significantly better than anything cheaper. For me unfortunately, it's $195 for a Sapphire.

Otherwise, the Nvidia GTX660 is a standout bargain. How about a Gainward Golden Sample 2GB for just $200?

The AMD HD7870 is still good at $226 for a Sapphire, but I can get an Nvidia GTX660Ti from LeadTek for $254. The GTX660Ti uses less power yet holds >10% performance advantage. It's a tough call, but with my current pricing I think Nvidia is the winner.

 

[Mercutio]

We should all get together and gift Merc shares in and a complete suite of products from WD & NVidia :-D

At present, my Thinkpad T420 has an nvidia chip in it. I own two other nVidia graphics cards.
I have 31 WD hard drives, mostly the WD20EADS drives I got from a customer, but with a few WD Red 3TB drives and a 500GB notebook drive.

All of that is of course entirely too much.
Also, 31 of a particular brand of hard drive doesn't even put it in 2nd place in terms of proportion of drives that I have. I think I have a problem.

My go-to graphics card resource is the TechARP guide, which usually gives me a nice, quick breakdown of exactly what the differences are between GPU revisions. I know I've linked to it before, but I think it's one of those things that people only pay attention to when they need it.

 

[Stereodude]

I found this article interesting as it pertains to SLI and Crossfire setups.

 

[ddrueding]

I found this article interesting as it pertains to SLI and Crossfire setups.

Very interesting. Still comfortable with the 690s in SLI I guess.

 

[Mercutio]

Oh yeah, well nVidia doesn't have TressFX!

 

[time]

Actually, that's pretty damn cool - is it real?

 

[Mercutio]

Yeah, there were a bunch of press releases about it yesterday.

 

[time]

Final configuration was:

Silverstone TJ08-E case
Seasonic S12II-430Bronze PSU
Gigabyte H77M-D3H motherboard
Intel i5-3470 CPU
Kingston 2x 4GB DDR1600 RAM
Leadtek GTX660Ti graphics
Intel 335 240GB SSD
Seagate 2TB 7200rpm HDD
Samsung DVD-RW

Cost was under AU$1000 plus tax.

At the wall, it pulls about 52W at idle and up to 210W while running 3D benchmarks. PSU efficiency at 50% is about 86%, so it's peaking at 180W internal. Of course, the CPU is sitting on its hands (particularly with DX11 vs DX9 it seems), but it's still an impressive confirmation of Nvidia's newfound energy efficiency.

Went for the Seasonic over Antec Earthwatts Platinum because both the regulation quality and component quality are superior. Even after wrestling the cable octopus, no regrets; the system isn't even breaking a sweat with this configuration and I figure it might even be okay for a GTX680.

 

[CougTek]

Out of curiosity, how much more is the Seasonic G-450 versus the SII-430 in your corner of the Globe? Here, it cost me the same price as the Antec Earthwatt Platinum, but it's modular and 80Plus Gold. According to JonnyGuru, it's an excellent unit.

But overall, it's an excellent small box you've built there. Well balanced and not very noisy, I presume.

 

[time]

The G-550 (modular) reviewed at Johnny Guru is $126 plus tax here.

The equivalent Antec Earthwatts Platinum 550W is only $98, but reviews suggest it's not as good.

As it happens, a couple of OEM Seasonic 80Plus Gold units popped onto my pricelist after you suggested the retail Gold:

SS-350GT for $68 and SS-450GT for $86, plus tax.

These OEM versions have fewer connectors and no sleeving, and are gray rather than black.

I picked up the 350W model because low-power units are not normally available here. Although I assume the internals are much the same as the retail SSR-360GP, it has some unusual limitations:

* ATX 12V connector cables are only 380mm long
* Although there are 4 SATA plugs, there are NO PCIe connectors and just one molex connector.

I deployed it in my low power PC by using ATX 12V 4-pin extenders. Voltage regulation is great and at-the-wall idle power draw is 28W.

The 450W model doesn't share the weirdness with connectors, so would be a good alternative to the Antec Platinum.