Radeon HD 7850 vs GeForce GTX 660

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 660 and Radeon HD 7850, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTX 660
2012
2 GB GDDR5, 140 Watt
10.39
+3.4%

GTX 660 outperforms HD 7850 by a minimal 3% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking439451
Place by popularity76not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation3.422.94
Power efficiency5.095.30
ArchitectureKepler (2012−2018)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameGK106Pitcairn
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designno datareference
Release date6 September 2012 (12 years ago)5 March 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$229 $249

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 660 has 16% better value for money than HD 7850.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores9601024
Core clock speed980 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1033 MHz1000 MHz
Number of transistors2,540 million2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)140 Watt130 Watt
Texture fill rate82.5655.04
Floating-point processing power1.981 TFLOPS1.761 TFLOPS
ROPs2432
TMUs8064

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus supportPCI Express 3.0PCIe 2.1 x16
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length241 mm210 mm
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 6-pin
SLI options+-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB2 GB
Memory bus width192-bit GDDR5256 Bit
Memory clock speed6.0 GB/s1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth144.2 GB/s153.6 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsOne Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
Eyefinity-+
HDMI++
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

CrossFire-+
FreeSync-+
3D Blu-Ray+-
3D Gaming+-
3D Vision+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 (11_0)12
Shader Model5.15.1
OpenGL4.34.6
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan1.1.126+
CUDA+-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 660 10.39
+3.4%
HD 7850 10.05

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 660 4005
+3.5%
HD 7850 3871

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 660 5040
HD 7850 5210
+3.4%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD47
+4.4%
45−50
−4.4%

Cost per frame, $

1080p4.875.53

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 10.39 10.05
Recency 6 September 2012 5 March 2012
Power consumption (TDP) 140 Watt 130 Watt

GTX 660 has a 3.4% higher aggregate performance score, and an age advantage of 6 months.

HD 7850, on the other hand, has 7.7% lower power consumption.

Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between GeForce GTX 660 and Radeon HD 7850.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
GeForce GTX 660
AMD Radeon HD 7850
Radeon HD 7850

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.7 4300 votes

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4.1 830 votes

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.