GeForce GTX 660 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 660 and Radeon HD 7870 XT, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 660 stacks up against Radeon HD 7870 XT, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 660 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 140 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors One 6-pin 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7870 XT has 32% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 660.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • GeForce GTX 660 and Radeon HD 7870 XT have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 660 is build with Kepler architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - with GCN 1.0.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 660 is 55 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870 XT.
  • GeForce GTX 660 and Radeon HD 7870 XT are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7870 XT is 258 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 660.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 5994 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 660.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 20−22 35−40
ultra / 1080p 12−14 21−24
QHD / 1440p 6−7 16−18
4K / 2160p 5−6 10−11
low / 720p 40−45 60−65
medium / 1080p 24−27 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 68% more, than GeForce GTX 660.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 660 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture Kepler GCN 1.0
Code name GK106 Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 6 September 2012 19 November 2012
Pipelines 960 1536
Core clock speed 980 MHz 925 MHz
Boost Clock 1033 MHz 975 MHz
Transistor count 2,540 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 78.4 billion/sec 93.60
Floating-point performance 1,981 gflops 2,995 gflops
Length 9.5" (24.1 cm) 267 mm
Memory bus width 192-bit GDDR5 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 6.0 GB/s 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 144.2 GB/s 192.0 GB/s
DirectX 12 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.3 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 960
Bus support PCI Express 3.0
Height 4.376" (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support 4 displays
HDMI +
HDCP +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
3D Blu-Ray +
3D Gaming +
3D Vision +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 66 Mh/s 346 Mh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 14.5 Mh/s
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