GeForce GTX 660 vs Radeon HD 7950

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 7950 and GeForce GTX 660, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 7950
2012
3 GB GDDR5, 200 Watt
12.37
+18.9%

HD 7950 outperforms GTX 660 by a moderate 19% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking403439
Place by popularitynot in top-10076
Cost-effectiveness evaluation2.473.42
Power efficiency4.245.09
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)Kepler (2012−2018)
GPU code nameTahitiGK106
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date31 January 2012 (12 years ago)6 September 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$449 $229

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 660 has 38% better value for money than HD 7950.

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 cores1792960
Compute units28no data
Core clock speedno data980 MHz
Boost clock speed1250 MHz1033 MHz
Number of transistors4,313 million2,540 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Watt140 Watt
Texture fill rate89.6082.56
Floating-point processing power2.867 TFLOPS1.981 TFLOPS
ROPs3224
TMUs11280

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 supportPCIe 3.0 x16PCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length267 mm241 mm
Heightno data4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 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 amount3 GB2 GB
Memory bus width384 Bit192-bit GDDR5
Memory clock speed1250 MHz6.0 GB/s
Memory bandwidth240 GB/s144.2 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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortOne Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPort
Multi monitor supportno data4 displays
Eyefinity+-
Number of Eyefinity displays6no data
HDMI++
HDCP-+
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536
Audio input for HDMIno dataInternal

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration+-
CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
PowerTune+-
ZeroCore+-
3D Blu-Ray-+
3D Gaming-+
3D Vision-+

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 (11_0)
Shader Model5.15.1
OpenGL4.64.3
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan-1.1.126
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.

HD 7950 12.37
+18.9%
GTX 660 10.40

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.

HD 7950 4764
+19%
GTX 660 4005

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.

HD 7950 7500
+48.8%
GTX 660 5040

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 HD55−60
+17%
47
−17%

Cost per frame, $

1080p8.164.87

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 12.37 10.40
Recency 31 January 2012 6 September 2012
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt 140 Watt

HD 7950 has a 18.9% higher aggregate performance score, and a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount.

GTX 660, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 7 months, and 42.9% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 7950 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 660 in performance tests.


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

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AMD Radeon HD 7950
Radeon HD 7950
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
GeForce GTX 660

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.


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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.