GTX 660 w/ 3GB or GTX 760 w/ 2GB

[Guest Tyler510]

I am planning to build my gaming/video editing/Hackintosh soon and it looks like this right now:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1umjJ

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1umjJ/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1umjJ/benchmarks/

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Microcenter) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  (Purchased) 

Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (Purchased) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 3GB Video Card  ($228.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: BitFenix Shinobi Window XL (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  ($159.99 @ NCIX US) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Microcenter) 

Total: $1242.05

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-20 23:11 EDT-0400)

 

Right now I have a 660 with 3GB of VRAM listed. The 760 with 2GB of VRAM is ~$30 more. Is the next gen worth losing the extra RAM? I don't plan on ever running SLI but I do plan on water-cooling (not for a long while, though). I plan on running 2 1080p monitors, if that matters.

[TheSLSAMG]

Neither. 7950 with 3GB of VRAM. Otherwise, the 760.

[Coombzy]

one monitor at 1080p 760 anything more I would go for the 3GB 660 ti or save a little more for a 4GB 760 if you plan to play at more than 1080p in the future or as @CoolBeans

would say wait for 9XXX series from AMD :3 

[CoolBeans]

7970/7950

[Locke290]

I am planning to build my gaming/video editing/Hackintosh soon and it looks like this right now:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1umjJ

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1umjJ/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1umjJ/benchmarks/

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Microcenter) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  (Purchased) 

Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (Purchased) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 3GB Video Card  ($228.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: BitFenix Shinobi Window XL (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  ($159.99 @ NCIX US) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Microcenter) 

Total: $1242.05

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-20 23:11 EDT-0400)

 

Right now I have a 660 with 3GB of VRAM listed. The 760 with 2GB of VRAM is ~$30 more. Is the next gen worth losing the extra RAM? I don't plan on ever running SLI but I do plan on water-cooling (not for a long while, though). I plan on running 2 1080p monitors, if that matters.

Out of those the GTX 760 performs much better.

Don't let VRAM be a deciding factor in choosing a card. Most single cards are not powerful enough to benefit from anymore then 2GB VRAM.  

 

Go read some reviews at places like AnandTech, Toms Hardware, TechPowerUp instead of getting the standard AMD Fanboy responses you get here like the guy comparing a GTX 770 to a 7950 which are not even comparable.

[IvanSnipedYu]

If you were only choosing those cards I would go with the 760.

[mgsstar]

I would change the cpu to a 3770K since you do video editing which will utilize the hyperthreading in order to get better performance. +1 on getting the 7950. I would recommend the Sapphire Dual-X 7950/ MSI Twin Frozr 3 7950/ HIS IceQ X2 7950. They all have great coolers and are great cards for overclocking so I would go with the cheapest one out of those. I would go with a XFX Core 550W because the CX series imo is not that good.

[Guest Tyler510]

Neither. 7950 with 3GB of VRAM. Otherwise, the 760.

I thought 7xxx series isn't Hackintosh compatible?

[TheSLSAMG]

I thought 7xxx series isn't Hackintosh compatible?

It actually works fine now.

http://www.macbreaker.com/2013/03/radeon-7000-hackintosh.html

[Guest Tyler510]

I would change the cpu to a 3770K since you do video editing which will utilize the hyperthreading in order to get better performance. +1 on getting the 7950. I would recommend the Sapphire Dual-X 7950/ MSI Twin Frozr 3 7950/ HIS IceQ X2 7950. They all have great coolers and are great cards for overclocking so I would go with the cheapest one out of those. I would go with a XFX Core 550W because the CX series imo is not that good.

About the CPU, it's really just Final Cut Pro X. Will it matter that much? If it's hours difference, I can understand the extra $60. If it's only minutes, I'll stick with i5. About graphics, nVIDIA works a LOT better with Hackintoshes than AMD

[Guest Tyler510]

It actually works fine now.

http://www.macbreaker.com/2013/03/radeon-7000-hackintosh.html

Yeah, I know but Nvidia works OTB. Plus, (I know this is a terrible excuse to buy hardware) I am trying to get a black/gray with green theme going on (I would get a Gigabyte Sniper M1 but it causes difficulty for OS X audio).

[TheSLSAMG]

Yeah, I know but Nvidia works OTB. Plus, (I know this is a terrible excuse to buy hardware) I am trying to get a black/gray with green theme going on (I would get a Gigabyte Sniper M1 but it causes difficulty for OS X audio).

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150590

 

Gray/Black cooler, black PCB, $269.99.

[Guest Tyler510]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150590

 

Gray/Black cooler, black PCB, $269.99.

Bright red stripe facing outwards :( But is there really any reason I can't get nVidia? Just about everyone said 7950. Is there any specific reason? And does clock speed matter more or less than VRAM?

[TheSLSAMG]

Bright red stripe facing outwards :( But is there really any reason I can't get nVidia? Just about everyone said 7950. Is there any specific reason? And does clock speed matter more or less than VRAM?

 

We're telling you to go 7950 because for the money, it is the best performer. The 760 is an awesome card, but the 7950 is better. You can get nVidia, it will be great, but AMD just offers more bang for the buck.

[Guest Tyler510]

We're telling you to go 7950 because for the money, it is the best performer. The 760 is an awesome card, but the 7950 is better. You can get nVidia, it will be great, but AMD just offers more bang for the buck.

Ok I'll look into it Hopefully there is a way to get it to work with Hackintoshes better than black boot screen until OS X boots up fully.

[Analog]

7950, performs on par with a 770 and has 3GB of VRAM

Really?! A stock GTX 770 performs on par with a HD7970 GHz Edition. What you are saying is just not true.

Either way I would if I had your budget I would go for the HD7950, because it has more RAM and also overclocks quite well.

[Locke290]

Bright red stripe facing outwards :( But is there really any reason I can't get nVidia? Just about everyone said 7950. Is there any specific reason? And does clock speed matter more or less than VRAM?

No, just no.  Don't even think about buying an XFX card, they are just about the worse manufacturer right now.

 

Clock speeds are irrelevant unless you're comparing the same architecture.  VRAM means little above 2GB with mid-range GPUs which the AMD 7950 and GTX 760 are (some people will try to argue this point, but in reality the cards are not fast enough to drive ultra-high resolution.  If you were to SLI/Crossfire, sure more VRAM would be nice.)

 

At Stock speeds (without overclocking) the GTX 760 is faster then the 7950, there is no way around this and its been pointed out in most reviews out there.

When both are overclocked, they do perform quite similar with the 7950 edging out maybe on average 5% better performance because it is voltage unlocked.  Although you're playing silicon lottery, you could get a GTX 760 that overclocks and performs better then a AMD 7950 and vice verse.

 

Stock clocks, the GTX 760 on average is ~10% better performance going by TechPowerUp reviews.  Going by HARDOCP Overclock reviews, the 7950 will be ~5% better when bother overclocked to a decent amount.

[TERAFLOP]

No, when both are overclocked the 7950 is significantly faster than the 760 not just by 5%.

At stock both perform about the same depending on the game and the anti aliasing setting, however the 7950 comes with 3GB of VRAM, is less expensive and comes with 3 games for free.
 

[mgsstar]

About the CPU, it's really just Final Cut Pro X. Will it matter that much? If it's hours difference, I can understand the extra $60. If it's only minutes, I'll stick with i5. About graphics, nVIDIA works a LOT better with Hackintoshes than AMD

By looking at these, there isn't a huge difference in rendering times imo. So I guess you could go with a 3570k and Final Cut Pro X supports OpenCL so I would get an AMD gpu as it is better at OpenCL than Nvidia.

 

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-3770k-i5-3570k_7.html

http://www.behardware.com/articles/863-16/ivy-bridge-22nm-review-intel-core-i7-3770k-and-i5-3570k.html

[Locke290]

No, when both are overclocked the 7950 is significantly faster than the 760 not just by 5%.

At stock both perform about the same depending on the game and the anti aliasing setting, however the 7950 comes with 3GB of VRAM, is less expensive and comes with 3 games for free.

You post that video without any knowledge. He is comparing a reference low OC GTX 760 against non-reference decently OC cards. The hardocp one is a much better one to go by.

Wish you guys would stop being ignorant and understand that performance review he posted is a joke and completely irrelevant to anyone who actually dug into the cards he tested and at what clocks. My GTX 760 with its OC beats his horrible OC by 12 percent. I ran his numbers then mine. Linus should stick to unboxing videos.

Also an average overclock for a 7950 is not 1200 plus on the core. Out of 2200 cards the average is around 1150.

[Bicko96]

go 760....it is always better to go with a newer generation card if you can

[Locke290]

go 760....it is always better to go with a newer generation card if you can

Its the same generation as the 600 series and 7000 series cards. The only cards you could call a newer generation would be the GTX 780 or Titan. All still based on 28nm, the 600/700 series basically use the same architecture. The 760 is a mix between a GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti. Lower end cards off the same batch as the GTX 680/770.

[Bicko96]

Its the same generation as the 600 series and 7000 series cards. The only cards you could call a newer generation would be the GTX 780 or Titan. All still based on 28nm, the 600/700 series basically use the same architecture. The 760 is a mix between a GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti. Lower end cards off the same batch as the GTX 680/770.

i mean "newer generation" in a way that the 700 series cards are probably going o get more driver support than the 600 series cards

[TechSilver13]

Go with a GTX 760 Hawk. Its a 289.99 (a little expensive) BUT you get Splinter Cell Blacklist free which is an awesome game. It also performs on par with a GTX 770 and a 7970 non GHz edition. (Tech Power Up review). I bought two and my clocks are 1287/1800MHz. Its an absolute beast setup.

[ltguy]

Next gen and more ram, 760 4gb.. winning duh. Then next time you stumble across a couple hundred bucks, another 760 4gb. Better than titan performance for 600 bucks. I dont do video editing though so cant comment on that.