GeForce GTX 660 vs Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

GeForce GTX 660
Memory: 2048Mb GDDR5DESKTOP
Release date: 6 Sep 2012
GeForce GTX 660
Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
Memory: 2048Mb GDDR5DESKTOP
Release date: 5 Mar 2012
Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

Summary

Synthetic performance index

  • GeForce GTX 660
    100%
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    121%

Relative performance

Gaming performance index

  • GeForce GTX 660
    100%
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    112%

Relative performance

Reasons to consider GeForce GTX 660

Supports PhysX
Supports G-Sync
Supports ShadowPlay (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
Based on an outdated architecture (Nvidia Kepler), there are less performance optimizations for current games and applications

Reasons to consider Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

12% higher gaming performance.
Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
Supports Mantle
Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications

Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

HWBench recommends Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

The Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition is the better performing card based on the game benchmark suite used (61 combinations of games and resolutions).


Specifications

Core Configuration

GeForce GTX 660Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
GPU NameGK106 (GK106-400-A1)vsPitcairn (Pitcairn XT)
Fab Process28 nmvs28 nm
Die Size221 mm²vs212 mm²
Transistors2,540 millionvs2,800 million
Shaders960vs1280
Compute Units5vs20
Core clock980 MHzvs1000 MHz
ROPs24vs32
TMUs80vs80

Memory Configuration

GeForce GTX 660Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
Memory TypeGDDR5vsGDDR5
Bus Width192 bitvs256 bit
Memory Speed1502 MHz
6008 MHz effective
vs1200 MHz
4800 MHz effective
Memory Size2048 Mbvs2048 Mb

Additional details

GeForce GTX 660Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
TDP140 wattsvs175 watts
Release Date6 Sep 2012vs5 Mar 2012

Raw Performance comparison

Pixel Rate

  • GeForce GTX 660
    19.60 GP/s
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    32.00 GP/s

GigaPixels - higher is better

Texel Rate

  • GeForce GTX 660
    78.40 GT/s
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    80.00 GT/s

GigaTexels - higher is better

Memory bandwidth

  • GeForce GTX 660
    144.00 GB/s
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    154.00 GB/s

GB/s - higher is better

Single precision performance

  • GeForce GTX 660
    1882.00 GFLOPs
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    2560.00 GFLOPs

GFLOPs - higher is better

Synthetic benchmarks

3DMark 11

  • GeForce GTX 660
    6800
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    8290

Points (higher is better)

Game benchmarks

Alan Wake

  • GeForce GTX 660
    53.7
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    62.1

FPS (higher is better)

Batman: Arkham City

  • GeForce GTX 660
    68.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    67.9

FPS (higher is better)

Battlefield 3

  • GeForce GTX 660
    49.7
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    53.8

FPS (higher is better)

Battlefield 4

DX11, Ultra Quality,2x MSAA,16x AF, HBAO

  • GeForce GTX 660
    43
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    50

FPS (higher is better)

Bioshock Infinite

DX11, Ultra Quality,DDOD, FX AA

  • GeForce GTX 660
    50
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    44

FPS (higher is better)

Borderlands 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    88.6
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    111.1

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis

  • GeForce GTX 660
    38.4
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    41.8

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    46.1
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    48.6

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis 3

DX11,Very High Quality, FXAA

  • GeForce GTX 660
    30
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    30

FPS (higher is better)

Diablo III

  • GeForce GTX 660
    111.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    102.5

FPS (higher is better)

Dragon Age II

  • GeForce GTX 660
    46.1
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    44.8

FPS (higher is better)

F1 2012

  • GeForce GTX 660
    70.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    76.6

FPS (higher is better)

Hitman Absolution

DX11, High Quality, 2x MSAA, 16x AF

  • GeForce GTX 660
    42
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    49

FPS (higher is better)

Max Payne 3

  • GeForce GTX 660
    51.1
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    58.9

FPS (higher is better)

Medal Of Honor Warfighter

DX11, Ultra Quality, 4xMSAA

  • GeForce GTX 660
    39
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    43

FPS (higher is better)

Metro 2033

  • GeForce GTX 660
    21.7
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    23.4

FPS (higher is better)

Metro Last Light

DX11, AAA standard, 16xAF, Motion Blur normal, Tesselation normal

  • GeForce GTX 660
    32
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    32

FPS (higher is better)

Sleeping Dogs

  • GeForce GTX 660
    46.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    58.2

FPS (higher is better)

Sniper Elite V2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    43.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    57.2

FPS (higher is better)

STALKER: Call of Pripyat

  • GeForce GTX 660
    65.7
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    72.2

FPS (higher is better)

StarCraft II

  • GeForce GTX 660
    166.8
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    150

FPS (higher is better)

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

  • GeForce GTX 660
    59.1
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    68.9

FPS (higher is better)

Total War: Shogun 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    41
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    38

FPS (higher is better)

Unigine Heaven 2.0

  • GeForce GTX 660
    46.4
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    53

FPS (higher is better)

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

  • GeForce GTX 660
    72
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    79

FPS (higher is better)

Alan Wake

  • GeForce GTX 660
    32.8
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    38.9

FPS (higher is better)

Batman: Arkham City

  • GeForce GTX 660
    41.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    42.3

FPS (higher is better)

Battlefield 3

  • GeForce GTX 660
    30.2
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    33.2

FPS (higher is better)

Borderlands 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    54.7
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    47.1

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis

  • GeForce GTX 660
    23.2
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    25.7

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    26.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    29.5

FPS (higher is better)

Diablo III

  • GeForce GTX 660
    75.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    75.2

FPS (higher is better)

Dragon Age II

  • GeForce GTX 660
    30.4
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    31.1

FPS (higher is better)

F1 2012

  • GeForce GTX 660
    49.7
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    55.4

FPS (higher is better)

Max Payne 3

  • GeForce GTX 660
    34.2
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    39.9

FPS (higher is better)

Metro 2033

  • GeForce GTX 660
    16.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    16.6

FPS (higher is better)

Sleeping Dogs

  • GeForce GTX 660
    26.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    35.4

FPS (higher is better)

Sniper Elite V2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    27.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    37.4

FPS (higher is better)

STALKER: Call of Pripyat

  • GeForce GTX 660
    40.6
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    46.1

FPS (higher is better)

StarCraft II

  • GeForce GTX 660
    109.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    116.3

FPS (higher is better)

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

  • GeForce GTX 660
    42.6
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    48.9

FPS (higher is better)

Total War: Shogun 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    24.6
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    22.7

FPS (higher is better)

Unigine Heaven 2.0

  • GeForce GTX 660
    30.4
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    26.1

FPS (higher is better)

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

  • GeForce GTX 660
    49.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    53.2

FPS (higher is better)

Alan Wake

  • GeForce GTX 660
    21.8
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    25.3

FPS (higher is better)

Batman: Arkham City

  • GeForce GTX 660
    26.8
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    27.6

FPS (higher is better)

Battlefield 3

  • GeForce GTX 660
    20
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    23.4

FPS (higher is better)

Borderlands 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    36.6
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    31.1

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis

  • GeForce GTX 660
    14.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    16.1

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    17.8
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    18.4

FPS (higher is better)

Dragon Age II

  • GeForce GTX 660
    25.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    25.3

FPS (higher is better)

F1 2012

  • GeForce GTX 660
    40.3
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    42.6

FPS (higher is better)

Max Payne 3

  • GeForce GTX 660
    24.5
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    30.2

FPS (higher is better)

Metro 2033

  • GeForce GTX 660
    12
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    11.9

FPS (higher is better)

Sleeping Dogs

  • GeForce GTX 660
    17.6
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    64.7

FPS (higher is better)

Sniper Elite V2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    18.1
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    24.8

FPS (higher is better)

STALKER: Call of Pripyat

  • GeForce GTX 660
    25.4
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    29.3

FPS (higher is better)

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

  • GeForce GTX 660
    32.3
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    37.2

FPS (higher is better)

Total War: Shogun 2

  • GeForce GTX 660
    14.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    13

FPS (higher is better)

Unigine Heaven 2.0

  • GeForce GTX 660
    19.8
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    22.3

FPS (higher is better)

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

  • GeForce GTX 660
    35.9
  • Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
    36.6

FPS (higher is better)