Graphics Card Recommendation

[lol1419]

Hello and Greetings from Canada,

 

Building a new computer soon. (specks are as followed below). Mainly going to be used as a workstation pc for programs such as maya and 3ds max, photoshop etc. but there will be gaming done on this machine. AAA games (BF3/4, crysis 3 etc.) will be played (a lot). I want to spend as little money as possible for a gpu but I need more prefromance to drive these applications. I'm open to suggestions other than the GTX 760 or HD 7870 but I want to be as close to the $200 mark. I understand the GTX 760 is about $249.99 right now but again I'm open to suggestions.

MAIN
i5 4670k
Asus Z87-A
Kingston HyperX Black 8GB 1600MHz
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Samsung DVD Drive
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 525
HAF 912
Western Digital Blue 500GB (AAXKS)
Hyper 212 Evo

GPU??
GTX 660 / HD 7870/ GTX 760?????
 

I want to mention that some people had trouble rending in 3d applications with AMD cards. And since Quadro cards are too expensive (with the cheaper ones delivering low on preformance) Quadro is out the of question; not to mention Quadro cards can't/ are not optimized for running games. While Nvidia may not be perfect at renering I rather have a card that can preform well at both. But back to AMD, I've been seeing some people having trouble with settings and sluggish preformance when it comes to animating/rendering with AMD cards.

Resution is currently at ~~720p (1440x900 19" monitor) but 1080p monitor (1920x1080 "__ size may vary) is a possible upgrade in the near future.

I really want to emphasize that I want to keep close to the $200 price point, as I want to save as much money as possible. If I need to spend the extra money I guess I would be willing to do so. I understand it is a long and complex question but Thanks in advance.

 

 

[JORDANonPC]

At 720p I think any of those cards will handle nearly every game you throw at them at max setting but depending on how likely to go up to 1080p you are Id say get either a 7870 or 760 not sure what the prices are like in canada if there isn't much different in price go for 760 for better performance and a few features like shadowplay and physx if you would use either of them.

[WoodenMarker]

The 7870 seems perfect in your case. Depending on the application, you might need cuda. In that case, get a 660.

Then again, I have no idea what programs you're using.

[lol1419]

Ok thanks for the help guys, gonna get a gtx 660

[WoodenMarker]

Ok thanks for the help guys, gonna get a gtx 660

You might want to rethink that. I don't think your programs need CUDA.

Consider that a 7850 outperforms the 660 and is ~$130 after rebate.

[lol1419]

You might want to rethink that. I don't think your programs need CUDA.

Consider that a 7850 outperforms the 660 and is ~$130 after rebate.

Well countering that the gtx 660 is $199.99 and after an mir its about 179.99 which as of now is a far more compelling value. In addition the gtx 660 performs on par with the hd 7870. SKIP to 5:30

And not to hate on AMD and their drivers, but I programs such as maya and 3ds max many people have reported various error and issues resulting in slow performance with amd cards. Which is why I've tried to stick with Nvidia just to be on the safe side. I don't know what do you think......

[WoodenMarker]

Well countering that the gtx 660 is $199.99 and after an mir its about 179.99 which as of now is a far more compelling value. In addition the gtx 660 performs on par with the hd 7870. SKIP to 5:30

And not to hate on AMD and their drivers, but I programs such as maya and 3ds max many people have reported various error and issues resulting in slow performance with amd card. which is why I've tried to stick with NVidia just to be on the safe side. I don't know what do you think......

The 7850/7870 are much better overclockers than the 660. That is what makes the 660's competitor the 7850 and not the 7870.

[lol1419]

Well to be honest as long as you have a sufficient cooler overclocking shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? (Anyways the gtx 660 out preforms the hd 7850 clearly even if overclocked). And with programs I'm using wouldn't be better to stick to Nvidia GPU's?

[Deleon.David]

need a penis extension, go for the 760 ;)

[lol1419]

need a penis extension, go for the 760 ;)

Sorry, gotta have a circumcision to fit in my case. ;)

[7850OC]

some 7950 are really cheap, check those just in case  :ph34r:

[Focux]

Sorry, gotta have a circumcision to fit in my case. ;)

LOLOLOL

[lol1419]

some 7950 are really cheap, check those just in case  :ph34r:

I'm not too sure if the HD 7950's fall close to a $200 price point, even after an mir.

For now I'll stick to the gtx 660...

But I'll keep my eyes open if I find a better deal.

[TechFan@ic]

The GTX 660 is a good card, probably the best Nvidia card in terms of performance for the price, the 7850 and 7870 cards are still better options though.
They're faster, consume less power, run cooler & have unlocked voltage control so you can achieve pretty insane overclocks on them with relative ease.

There is also a significant performance issue with the 660 when anti aliasing is used (or any other memory bandwidth demanding workload).


Also please remember that the Linus review was done at launch and performance right now is completely different due to driver changes.
In Linus's Graphics Showdowns, the 7870 consistently outperformed the 660 in all games tested, even though the 660 was overclocked and the 7870 was not.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/10692-video-card-showdown/
 

I have a proposition for you that is better than both the 7870 and the 660 by a significant margin and costs just about the same.
It's the HD 7870 Tahiti LE, basically a 7950 with 2GB of VRAM, this card is faster than a 660 Ti at stock and faster than a GTX 670 when overclocked.


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/tahiti-le-7870-7930-benchmark,3401-5.html