MSI 6950 2GB vs Any 660Ti - Page 2

Originally Posted by HeadlessKnight 

Maybe your card is defective. it is possible to encounter a bad card from either side AMD or Nvidia.
As the post above get the HD7950 if you plan to upgrade. GTX 660 TI with its bandwidth limitations and high price doesn't worth it.

Originally Posted by doscape 

Clean drivers using driver fusion (former driver sweeper) http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

Originally Posted by sidewaykill 

No sir, DO NOT get the 560Ti 448. $300 AU is not dirt cheap at all. Get either this (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1311&products_id=20827) or this (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1311&products_id=19285) Radeon 7950. Each sell for lower than $300, and PCCG is running some dirt cheap bargains with the 7950 ATM.
If you can't fix the drivers, do a full Windows re-install. My NVIDIA drivers have not been trouble free, either.

Originally Posted by willibj 

I'm inclined to agree with above posters that perhaps you have a bad card. Honestly, a large majority of these AMD issues are the fault of the user. You may have a bad card, or might not have been (un)installing drivers correctly. The reality is that there are/can-be many problems with nVidia drivers too, and most of the forum posts of people complaining about AMD drivers are from people who have not correctly uninstalled previous drivers, cleaned their registry, or have installed AMD cards straight over the top of nVidia and expected it to work, which is just nonsense. It's the same basic situation as people who complain that PC's get more virus' than Apple when they've never run an anti-virus let alone anti-spyware, and these are the same people who click every link on every porno and warez page without thinking. I've never had an issue with AMD drivers (nor nVidia to be fair - including corssfire 3870/4850/6850 and soon to be 7950, but I never used SLI), and I haven't had a "real" virus in over 10years of heavy, deep PC use. It's end-user error in like 95% of cases.
Point being, don't discount AMD too soon, as they have the bang for the buck segment of the market totally under wraps at this point.
HOWEVER
at your stated 1080p resolution, and with no interest in AA, the GTX660ti will be a decent upgrade for you. In some games/settings it performs only slightly better than a GTX580, which ends up being only a small performance increase from an overclocked TFIII 6950. But in many other settings, at 1080p with no AA it pushes much closer to a GTX670 which will be a solid ~60% increase in performance.
The negative point with the GTX660ti's bandwidth limitations is that as future games come out, requiring more GPU horsepower, the 660ti will age much faster and struggle to keep up. Sure it is performing well now in games without AA,.but what about in a couple years time when the horsepower required to push games is comparable to current gen games with maxed AA? The HD7950 with 3gb of RAM and the 384-bit memory-bus is just going to destroy the 660ti in those future games.
So is the GTX660ti going to be an upgrade for you? Yes. No doubt about it. But is it a WORTHY upgrade? For the price, and longterm view of performance, I say no. Either stretch your budget to a GTX670 if you must go nVidia, or get yourself a nice HD7950/7970, prepare your PC by formatting and fresh-installing Windows, and take the best value for money & top tier performance.
Here's a relevant article (but don't forget to read between the lines, as the GTX660ti does have some strong showings at 1080p without AA - but these numbers are not forward thinking as games get more hardware dependent):
http://hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_gtx_660_ti_gc_oc_vs_670_hd_7950/1