GTX 660ti, thoughts and prices

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pleb12

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With the release of the GTX660ti which most of us were waiting for, for upgrades or in hopes AMD would drop their prices even further of some cards to compete with the card. I just want to know your thoughts on it and whether it is worth getting or if something else is better.

From reading all the reviews and looking at pricing, I'm not very sure what to make of it as some reviews place it as a contender against the 7870 while others even show it beats a 7950.

What do you guys make of the card? I am looking to get a new card and I know many of you have been waiting for this to decide what to do.

Currently the only prices of the GTX660ti, I know of locally are by landmarkpc @ around R3500 for the normal and around R3900 for an OC edition.

From the same store a 7870 goes for R3974 and a 7950 @ R4308

If you look at the reviews, Tomshardware places it on par with a 7870 but on Tweaktown it comes close to or even beats the 7950 in some tests.

So with all these confusing benchmarks and the pricing, is the 660ti worth getting or is a 7870 or even 7950 a better choice?

Here are a list of reviews Tweaktown compiled.
 
I just bought the KFA2 660Ti, shall unpack it all in the morrow and then find out if its making me happy or not :-)
 
The 660ti is actually in a place of it's own.. I feel it offers better value than the 7870.

Depending on the games you play it's better than the 7950.

I recommend you read the AnandTech conclusion. They sum it up very nicely..

As it stands, AMD’s position correctly reflects their performance; the GTX 660 Ti is a solid and relatively consistent 10-15% faster than the 7870, while the 7950 is anywhere between a bit faster to a bit slower depending on what benchmarks you favor. Of course when talking about the 7950 the “anything but equal” maxim still applies here, if not more so than with the GTX 670. The GTX 660 Ti is anywhere between 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it, and everywhere in between.

Coupled with the tight pricing between all of these cards, this makes it very hard to make any kind of meaningful recommendation here for potential buyers. Compared to the 7870 the GTX 660 Ti is a solid buy if you can spare the extra $20, though it’s not going to be a massive difference. The performance difference is going to be just enough that AMD is going to need to trim prices a bit more to secure the 7870’s position.
Click to expand...
 
Lets hope mid august is correct, as with AMD's 7970GHz edition. I believe it was quite a wait although it is only a bios update of the 7950. Updating at "own risk" with a new card is not very appealing

Techpowerup performance summary, 660ti and 7950 ROM update
 
I honestly expected it to be at least a couple of hundred bucks cheaper. I'm not convinced it justifies the high price tag, especially here in ZA.
 
dotnerd said:
I just bought the KFA2 660Ti, shall unpack it all in the morrow and then find out if its making me happy or not :-)
Click to expand...

The 2GB version or 3GB? I see the 3GB version and its very enticing for the price and I cant help but wonder if that extra GB will give it a solid lead over a 7950 and not the
between 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it
Click to expand...
as said by Anandtech
 
Anand points out that the 192bit width bus makes an odd configuration to split the ram between. So an extra gig could make a difference depending how it was allocated.
 
Price is a lot more than expected especially for mid range. Guess it can be like that due to its performance and where it stands compared to other cards.
 
Why is the GTX660Ti so darn expensive?! I was banking on this card
when I built up my new machine, but it was supposed to be priced in
line with the GTX560Ti @ ~R2800.

In the US it goes for around $299/R2469, which means it shouldn't cost
more than R3000 here.

Does anyone think the prices will come down soon?
 
Totempole said:
Why is the GTX660Ti so darn expensive?! I was banking on this card
when I built up my new machine, but it was supposed to be priced in
line with the GTX560Ti @ ~R2800.

In the US it goes for around $299/R2469, which means it shouldn't cost
more than R3000 here.

Does anyone think the prices will come down soon?
Click to expand...

That's an expensive 560Ti you have there.

Here's a 570 for cheaper:
http://www.prophecy.co.za/inno3d-nvidia-geforce-gtx570-1280mb-gddr5-320bit-pcie-p-113633.html

Here's a 560Ti for R2400 and I only checked two shops:

http://www.wootware.co.za/asus-engt...-2gb-256-bit-pci-e-desktop-graphics-card.html

560Ti are usually around the 2grand mark if you know where to look.
 
Qwikslver said:
That's an expensive 560Ti you have there.

Here's a 570 for cheaper:
http://www.prophecy.co.za/inno3d-nvidia-geforce-gtx570-1280mb-gddr5-320bit-pcie-p-113633.html

Here's a 560Ti for R2400 and I only checked two shops:

http://www.wootware.co.za/asus-engt...-2gb-256-bit-pci-e-desktop-graphics-card.html

560Ti are usually around the 2grand mark if you know where to look.
Click to expand...

Yes, the 560Ti can be found for around R2400 without having to look too far, but I've only seen the 560 (Non-Ti) reach the R2000 mark. At any rate, that just fuels my point that the 660Ti is way overpriced in SA.

Agreed, the 660Ti is about 25% more powerful than the 560Ti, but it's 60% more expensive. It's totally not worth it.

Oh, and the thing about the Inno 570 is the brand. Not convinced they're the same quality as say an MSI or ASUS card. In fact I'm quite convinced they're not, but the 2-year warranty is fair enough.
 
I had a sapphire 6950 . . .it broke

then I had a MSI 570 . . .broke as well

Now I have a inno3d 670 and have had no problems so far. Very happy with the card
 
pleb12 said:
The 2GB version or 3GB? I see the 3GB version and its very enticing for the price and I cant help but wonder if that extra GB will give it a solid lead over a 7950 and not the as said by Anandtech
Click to expand...

The 3GB version will simply have all the memory interleaved, meaning that the card will then use twelve 2Gb chips for a total of 3072MB with bandwidth hovering around 96GB/s. Although, given that there aren't any reviews of the 3GB versions up yet, that might change and the interleaving might not negatively affect performance. In any case, I don't yet advise getting the 3GB version seeing as there'll be no chance to use that extra RAM beyond trying to add in more levels of SSAA and FXAA in games that have been patched to support it.

Totempole said:
Agreed, the 660Ti is about 25% more powerful than the 560Ti, but it's 60% more expensive. It's totally not worth it.

Oh, and the thing about the Inno 570 is the brand. Not convinced they're the same quality as say an MSI or ASUS card. In fact I'm quite convinced they're not, but the 2-year warranty is fair enough.
Click to expand...

Remember that the only cards out now are non-reference versions and the reference cards will be cheaper once Nvidia gets over the initial "OMG we're so winrars" phase and starts being involved in the price wars with AMD. I've also had an Inno3D branded card several times and even when I sold them to customers it wasn't a troublesome name at all. That and VTX3D are the only cheap brands that I'd trust with my money.
 
Last edited:
IIRC VTX3D has quite a good reputation when I last checked.

I had to return my 2nd Inno3D GTX460 768MB card because it had incredibly a noisy fan, where as my first Inno3D GTX460 768MB was dead silent. It took me quite a long time to convince Inno3D that there was indeed something wrong with the 2nd card's fan.

I also had an Asus HD6970 which I had to sell because it's Dual-Link DVI didn't work with my screen, and it was also pretty darn noisy with stock fan profiles.
Currently my 2x MSI GTX460 OC cyclone's are going strong.

You can probably just ask the retail shop on how many returns they had on those entry level brands, because they handle a lot more graphics cards than the few of us who just use it for personal use!
 
tp3to said:
I had a sapphire 6950 . . .it broke

then I had a MSI 570 . . .broke as well

Now I have a inno3d 670 and have had no problems so far. Very happy with the card
Click to expand...

The Inno3D GTX670 hasn't been out long enough to have stood the test of time. ;)

I've come across quite a few dead Inno3D cards in my time (doing repairs for people), but to
their defense, most of them were 2 or 3 years old. I guess if you don't plan on keeping a card
for longer than 2 years, Inno3D is a good option for the price.
 
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