GTX 460 768MB upgrade -- which GPU?

[Am*]

Hello folks.


I'm currently looking for a newer GPU to upgrade from my GTX 460 768MB, as the lack of VRAM is choking my framerate with antialiasing cranked up in newer games. The new card needs to run BF3 at around 60FPS max settings @ 1080p, and I'd like to spend as little as possible of course. The new card needs to hold me over until the flagship Maxwell hits (probably 2 more years) as I've decided to skip Kepler for any flagship cards. I'm currently torn between a GTX 660 and a GTX 660 Ti. I'd like to hear your suggestions on which I should go for -- GTX 660 seems like best value for money while the Ti has the extra grunt for newer games. What do you think I should buy? Also what sort of increase should I expect from the new card in games like BFBC2 & BF3 (these are the main games I'm upgrading for)?

 

[DarkOCean]

how about a 7950?, has lots of vram.

 

[ruff0r]

Hello folks.


I'm currently looking for a newer GPU to upgrade from my GTX 460 768MB, as the lack of VRAM is choking my framerate with antialiasing cranked up in newer games. The new card needs to run BF3 at around 60FPS max settings @ 1080p, and I'd like to spend as little as possible of course. The new card needs to hold me over until the flagship Maxwell hits (probably 2 more years) as I've decided to skip Kepler for any flagship cards. I'm currently torn between a GTX 660 and a GTX 660 Ti. I'd like to hear your suggestions on which I should go for -- GTX 660 seems like best value for money while the Ti has the extra grunt for newer games. What do you think I should buy? Also what sort of increase should I expect from the new card in games like BFBC2 & BF3 (these are the main games I'm upgrading for)?

Honest? one 670 dips below 60fps with ultra in multiplayer. My 2 670´s are able to pull above 120fps but yet again not always.
If you want something for always above 60fps even in 64player you shall wait for more CPU and GPU power.

 

[Am*]

Honest? one 670 dips below 60fps with ultra in multiplayer. My 2 670´s are able to pull above 120fps but yet again not always.
If you want something for always above 60fps even in 64player you shall wait for more CPU and GPU power.

I don't mind lowering the anti aliasing a notch or two to get a higher framerate. BF3 is the exception where I can live without 4xMSAA. If I use FXAA instead, will it pull above 60FPS? I don't mind occasional dips at around 50.

Not looking to upgrade my CPU for the next 3 years at least. At low GPU settings & low res in BF3 the CPU pulled way over 100FPS with no framerate dips whatsoever (at stock clocks) so that tells me there's tonnes of headroom left for more performance, even after this upgrade. I'd like to settle for something a bit faster for now until I get the top of the line Maxwell card or whatever it's going to be that will beat a GTX 690 with a single GPU card.

how about a 7950?, has lots of vram.

Was thinking about getting it, but it seems to be getting beaten/matched by the GTX 660s and the Ti in BF3.

 

[LDNL]

Well the 650 Ti would be a better choice if youre on a budged and performs about the same as a GTX 660. The 660 Ti on the otherhand when overclocked can surpass the 680 gtx in performance.
E: Running BFBC2 about 100FPS max settings and BF3 +60-80fps ultra settings on my 660Ti with a +180core/600mem OC

 

[Am*]

Well the 650 Ti would be a better choice if youre on a budged and performs about the same as a GTX 660. The 660 Ti on the otherhand when overclocked can surpass the 680 gtx in performance.

The stock GTX 650Ti costs MORE here than the overclocked GTX 660 I am looking at.

 

[ruff0r]

I don't mind lowering the anti aliasing a notch or two to get a higher framerate. BF3 is the exception where I can live without 4xMSAA. If I use FXAA instead, will it pull above 60FPS? I don't mind occasional dips at around 50.

Then a 660Ti is your choice.

The 660 Ti on the otherhand when overclocked can surpass the 680 gtx in performance.

Aye.

 

[Am*]

Well the 650 Ti would be a better choice if youre on a budged and performs about the same as a GTX 660. The 660 Ti on the otherhand when overclocked can surpass the 680 gtx in performance.
E: Running BFBC2 about 100FPS max settings and BF3 +60-80fps ultra settings on my 660Ti with a +180core/600mem OC

What about an overclocked GTX 660? Will that perform comparably to a GTX 670? Or between GTX 670 and the 680?

Then a 660Ti is your choice.



Aye.

The 660 Ti costs about 45% more than the GTX 660 non-Ti. Is it worth the extra money for BF3?

 

[ruff0r]

The 660 Ti costs about 45% more than the GTX 660 non-Ti. Is it worth the extra money for BF3?

660: 52fps with decent OC.
660ti: 58fps none OC.

 

[Am*]

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_660_OC/images/bf3_1920_1200.gif

660: 52fps with decent OC.
660ti: 58fps none OC.

What about an OC'd 660 Ti? Where abouts does it come on that chart?

 

[ruff0r]

What about an OC'd 660 Ti? Where abouts does it come on that chart?

61fps with only 1020mhz some cards do reach 1200mhz which would probably be another 20%.

which would be around 71fps and as said 680gtx niveau.

OC chart

MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition 1075 MHz 1800 MHz 69.1 FPS

Also note:
MSI's card reaches the lowest maximum GPU clock, but ends up delivering the highest performance. Memory OC works better than on any other card which is probably due to the cooled memory chips. I am not 100% sure what causes this performance advantage that we also see in our non-overclocked benchmarks. My best guess is that MSI added some secret sauce to their BIOS, by, for example, increasing the power limit of the card, which means that the card will boost higher for longer, while other cards run into the power limiter.
by W1zzard

 

[Am*]

I think I can take the 10FPS loss. Just saw this one:

That GTX 660 is overclocked at about 80MHz above the 660 I'm thinking of getting. So OC'd GTX 660Ti vs 660 difference is 10 frames. After I lower a setting or two, especially the AA, I will get above 60FPS anyway. I think I'll go for the GTX 660 and pocket the difference, as there doesn't seem to be enough to warrant the extra cost. That Ti you've got showing above is using a custom BIOS and VRMs to run it at that level, so the stock cooled one I was considering would never hit those clocks anyway. Thanks.

 

[DarkOCean]

Was thinking about getting it, but it seems to be getting beaten/matched by the GTX 660s and the Ti in BF3.

660's are miles behind 7950's and 660ti despite having 75% more cores are only 26% better than the newly released 650ti boost because they share the same bandwidth and same number of rops wich i find ridiculous.

All 7950'S that you can buy today are boost cards wich are @ gtx 670 levels

 

[GamerGuy]

When were the charts above done? Newer benchmarks, especially those from Dec '12 onwards show a marked improvement in performance of the HD7xxx series. Look at this benchmark review by guru-
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_7950_x_iceq_review,16.html

This one is of Warfighter, which uses the same Frostbite 2 engine as BF3
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_7950_x_iceq_review,11.html

Most of the benchmarks out now are pre-Dec 2012, before the Never Settle Cat12.11 driver release, hence those benchmark would show the GTX660 Ti above the HD7950, Not true now....

 

[Fluffmeister]

Just use the latest review for reference, in this case the Zotac GTX 650 Ti Boost:

 

[ueutyi]

i would recommend HD 7950, if u dont care about nVidia and ATI(AMD)