One of the advantages of releasing multiple graphics cards built around the same GPU is that NVIDIA’s board partners have had lots of experience with the chip. And with experience comes customization. NVIDIA’s board partners were so comfortable with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti right out of the gate that every one of the retail-ready boards were received were custom options, which were all overclocked right from the factory. Although you will likely find many GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards based strictly on NVIDIA’s reference design in the market at somewhat lower price points, a multitude of customized options will be available as well, four of which we’ll be showing you here today.
There’s also been some activity on the AMD Radeon front this past week that’s caused quite a stir. AMD has made a firmware update available for its Radeon HD 7950 that increases its based GPU clock and adds support for Boost, which was first introduced on the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. We have included numbers for the Radeon HD 7950 with and without Boost support on the pages ahead to provide as much performance data as possible and paint the clearest picture of the landscape, but be aware that our numbers come by way of a reference card flashed with the latest firmware and not one of the newer, customized cards due to hit retail shelves in the coming days.
Back on topic, we’ve got the main features of specifications of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti in the table below along with a few links to recent, related articles and some details on the changes to GK104 as it’s configured on the GTX 660 Ti. Later we’ll show you GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards from EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and ZOTAC and provide plenty of performance data for you speed freaks out there...
Custom GeForce GTX 660 Ti Cards: Different Coolers, Different PCBs, and Different Clocks. Same GPU.
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| Processing Units | |
| Graphics Processing Clusters | 4 |
| SMXs | 7 |
| CUDA Cores | 1344 |
| Texture Units | 112 |
| ROP Units | 24 |
| Clock Speeds | |
| Base Clock | 915 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 980 MHz |
| Memory Clock (Data Rate) | 6008 MHz |
| L2 Cache Size | 384KB |
| Memory | |
| Total Video Memory | 2048MB |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit |
| Total Memory Bandwidth | 144.2 GB/s |
| Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear) | 102.5 GigaTexels/sec |
| Physical & Thermal | |
| Fabrication Process | 28 nm |
| Transistor Count | 3.54 Billion |
| Connectors | 2 x Dual-Link DVI, 1 x mini-DP, 1 x HDMI |
| Form Factor | Dual Slot |
| Power Connectors | 2 x 6-pin |
| Recommended Power Supply | 450 watts |
| Thermal Design Power (TDP) | 150 watts |
| Thermal Threshold | 98° C |
From left to right: EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and ZOTAC
As the specifications in the table above show, the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti is based on the very same GK104 GPU that powers the higher-end GeForce GTX 690, GTX 680 and GTX 670 cards. On the GeForce GTX 680, the GK104 is fully-equipped, with all of its cores and memory partitions enabled (The GeForce GTX 680 has four Graphics Processing Clusters, with eight SMXes, 1536 CUDA cores, 128 texture units, and 32 ROPs). On the GeForce GTX 670, one of the GK104's SMX units is disabled, reducing the number of active cores to 1344 and bringing the number of texture units down to 112, but memory bus width and other features remain unchanged. With the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, NVIDIA takes things a step further and disables one of the GK104's memory partitions. As such, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti has the same core and texture unit configuration as the GeForce GTX 670, bit with a narrower192-bit memory bus and only 24 ROPs. Memory capacity remains at 2GB on reference cards, but the narrower bus results in 144.2GB/s of peak memory bandwidth, down from 192.2GB/s on the GTX 670 and 680.
GK104 "Kepler" GPU Die Shot
Before we give you the rest of the scoop on the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, we want to direct your attention to a few other HotHardware articles related today's launch...
- NVIDIA TXAA Brings Movie CGI Rendering To PC Games
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Reviews, EVGA and Gigabyte
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Review: Kepler Debuts
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Review: Dual NVIDIA GK104 GPUs
- NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 and The Asus VG278H LCD Review
- NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround is Here
We've already covered the details of the GK104 GPU powering the GeForce GTX 660 Ti in our GeForce GTX 680 launch article, including things like GPU Boost, NVENC (NVIDIA Encoding Engine), and TXAA, so we won't go over them again here. If you'd like a deeper look into the technologies employed in the GK104, we'd definitely suggest taking a gander at that piece. The details of NVIDIA's brand new dual-GPU flagship are covered in our GeForce GTX 690 article, and our 3D Vision 2 and 3D Vision Surround articles cover those two NVIDIA technologies, which are obviously supported in a card like the GeForce GTX 660 Ti.
First up, we’ve got a couple of GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards to show you, the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC (Super Clocked) Edition and the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition with Twin Frozr IV cooler.
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC (Super Clocked) Edition
Physically, the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC is very similar to NVIDIA’s reference design. The cards use the same PCB and dual-slot cooler, and both have the same output configuration. EVGA, however, has incorporated a few customizations. The EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC sports a custom fan shroud with a carbon-fiber look, and its GPU and memory clocks have been increased slightly. Whereas stock GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards have base / boost GPU clocks of 915MHz and 980MHz, the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC has base / boost GPU clocks of 980MHz and 1059MHz. EVGA’s card does not have higher clocked memory than reference models, however. The frame buffers on both run at 1502MHz (6008MHz effective).
Other than its clocks, the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC’s features and specifications are similar to the reference design. This particular card has 2GB of GDDR5 RAM and its outputs consist of the same dual DVI connectors, and HDMI and DP connectors. The EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC only requires two 6-pin supplemental power connectors as well.
EVGA’s bundle with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC includes a couple of cool “Enthusiast Built” stickers, a large EVGA Gaming poster, a case badge, a quick installation guide and a driver / utility disc, which includes a copy of EVGA’s excellent Precision X overclocking / monitoring utility. In addition, a couple of dual-peripheral to 6-pin power adapters and a DVI to VGA adapter are included.
Other than its clocks, the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC’s features and specifications are similar to the reference design. This particular card has 2GB of GDDR5 RAM and its outputs consist of the same dual DVI connectors, and HDMI and DP connectors. The EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC only requires two 6-pin supplemental power connectors as well.
EVGA’s bundle with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC includes a couple of cool “Enthusiast Built” stickers, a large EVGA Gaming poster, a case badge, a quick installation guide and a driver / utility disc, which includes a copy of EVGA’s excellent Precision X overclocking / monitoring utility. In addition, a couple of dual-peripheral to 6-pin power adapters and a DVI to VGA adapter are included.
MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition with Twin Frozr IV cooler
Next up, we have the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition with Twin Frozr IV cooler. Although overclocked and fully custom, the slick Twin Frozr IV cooler is the standout feature on the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition. The dual-slot Twin Frozr IV sports high-density heatsinks, with dual 80mm cooling fans, and thick copper heatpipes that run from the cooler’s base up through the heatsink fins. We should also point out that the cooler’s base is made of pure copper and the entire assembly is nickel-plated. The Twin Frozr IV’s cooler has also been outfitted with custom “propeller blade” fans that reportedly push 20% more air than previous designs. In a move unique to MSI (at least in this round-up), the cooler also features dust removal technology. The card’s fans will actually spin in the opposite direction (pulling air through up the heatsinks) for 30 seconds upon boot to expel any dust that may have built up within the heatsink assembly. When the 30 seconds is up, the fans will then spin in their normal direction, blowing air down onto the heatsinks.
The customizations on the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition don’t stop at the cooler. MSI has also overclocked the card, with 1020MHz (base) and 1098MHz (boost) clocks for the GPU. The memory runs at the same speed as reference models, however, at 1502MHz (6008MHz effective). The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition also has a custom PWM that can handle more current than reference designs and it’s outfitted with MSI’s “Military Class” components, which is to say it has solid caps and supper ferrite chokes on-board. Supplemental power is handled by a pair of 6-pin connectors and the outputs on the card consist of a pair of DVI outputs and single DP and HDMI outputs.
Bundled with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition are a quick installation guide and user’s manual, dual peripheral to PCI Express 6-pin power adapters, a DVI to VGA adapter, and of course a driver / utility disc. Also available for the card is a copy of MSI’s Afterburner performing tuning and monitoring tool, which is available for download right from MSI’s website and allows for triple over-voltage adjustments for the card’s GPU, PLL, and memory.
The customizations on the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition don’t stop at the cooler. MSI has also overclocked the card, with 1020MHz (base) and 1098MHz (boost) clocks for the GPU. The memory runs at the same speed as reference models, however, at 1502MHz (6008MHz effective). The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition also has a custom PWM that can handle more current than reference designs and it’s outfitted with MSI’s “Military Class” components, which is to say it has solid caps and supper ferrite chokes on-board. Supplemental power is handled by a pair of 6-pin connectors and the outputs on the card consist of a pair of DVI outputs and single DP and HDMI outputs.
Bundled with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition are a quick installation guide and user’s manual, dual peripheral to PCI Express 6-pin power adapters, a DVI to VGA adapter, and of course a driver / utility disc. Also available for the card is a copy of MSI’s Afterburner performing tuning and monitoring tool, which is available for download right from MSI’s website and allows for triple over-voltage adjustments for the card’s GPU, PLL, and memory.
Next up we have the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC Version with Windforce “Triangle-Cool” cooling and the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC Version with Windforce "Triangle-Cool" Cooler
Although the card’s GPU is overclocked, the real attraction with Gigabyte’s offering is the Windforce “Triangle-Cool” cooler. Underneath a pair of oversized fans sits an array of aluminum heatsink fins, linked to a copper base via copper heat-pipes. The cooler’s dual fans blows air directly onto the heatsinks, where some is diverted into the case and some exhausted outside through the vents in the case bracket. The base of the cooler has a triangular shape that reportedly helps minimize turbulence and better direct the airflow. As you’ll see a little later, the Windforce cooler also does an excellent job of keeping temperatures in check, and it’s nice and quiet too.
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC with Windforce cooler ships with its 2GB of memory clocked at the same 6008MHz (effective data rate) of reference cards, but with a base GPU clock of 1033MHz and a boost clock of 1111MHz. Outputs on the card are the same as the reference version as well (dual DVI, HDMI, DP), and Gigabyte’s offering requires the same dual 6-pin supplemental power connectors of stock GTX 660 Ti cards.
Included with the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC with Windforce cooler were a quick installation guide, driver / utility CD, and a couple of power adapters. Nothing fancy in terms of the bundle, but the essentials are there.
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC with Windforce cooler ships with its 2GB of memory clocked at the same 6008MHz (effective data rate) of reference cards, but with a base GPU clock of 1033MHz and a boost clock of 1111MHz. Outputs on the card are the same as the reference version as well (dual DVI, HDMI, DP), and Gigabyte’s offering requires the same dual 6-pin supplemental power connectors of stock GTX 660 Ti cards.
Included with the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC with Windforce cooler were a quick installation guide, driver / utility CD, and a couple of power adapters. Nothing fancy in terms of the bundle, but the essentials are there.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition
Here we have the small-fry of the group, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition. Make no mistake though; while the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition may be physically smaller than the other cards we’re featuring here, its clocks are the highest overall.
Although the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition actually utilizes a PCB similar in size to NVIDIA’s reference design (and the EVGA card); its cooler doesn’t protrude past the end of the card, giving the illusion that it is larger. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition instead has a relatively petite array of heatsinks that sit just above the card’s components. The cooler is comprised of large aluminum heatsinks, linked together by an array of thick copper heat-pipes. Two large fans sit above the heatsinks in an angular shroud, blowing air down on the heatsinks and PCB. The cooler does its job fairly well and it’s relatively quiet too.
Like the other cards featured here, ZOTAC has done some factory overclocking as well. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition’s base and boost GPU frequencies are 1033MHz and 1111MHz, respectively, and its memory is pushed way above NVIDIA’s reference specifications--1652MHz (6608MHz effective) to be exact. With those frequencies, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition should be the fastest of the bunch, especially in situations where memory bandwidth comes into play, like in AvP for example. Despite its higher clocks (and hence higher power requirements over reference cards), ZOTAC still outfitted the card with only a pair of 6-pin power connectors. It's got the same display output configuration of the other cards too.
ZOTAC went a step further than the other manufacturers feature here with their 660 Ti’s bundle as well. Included with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition, we found a user’s manual and quick installation guide, a coupon for the game TrackMania 2 Canyon, a driver utility disc, a ZOTAC case badge, a few peripheral to 6-pin adapters and a DVI to VGA adapter.
Although the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition actually utilizes a PCB similar in size to NVIDIA’s reference design (and the EVGA card); its cooler doesn’t protrude past the end of the card, giving the illusion that it is larger. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition instead has a relatively petite array of heatsinks that sit just above the card’s components. The cooler is comprised of large aluminum heatsinks, linked together by an array of thick copper heat-pipes. Two large fans sit above the heatsinks in an angular shroud, blowing air down on the heatsinks and PCB. The cooler does its job fairly well and it’s relatively quiet too.
Like the other cards featured here, ZOTAC has done some factory overclocking as well. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition’s base and boost GPU frequencies are 1033MHz and 1111MHz, respectively, and its memory is pushed way above NVIDIA’s reference specifications--1652MHz (6608MHz effective) to be exact. With those frequencies, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition should be the fastest of the bunch, especially in situations where memory bandwidth comes into play, like in AvP for example. Despite its higher clocks (and hence higher power requirements over reference cards), ZOTAC still outfitted the card with only a pair of 6-pin power connectors. It's got the same display output configuration of the other cards too.
ZOTAC went a step further than the other manufacturers feature here with their 660 Ti’s bundle as well. Included with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition, we found a user’s manual and quick installation guide, a coupon for the game TrackMania 2 Canyon, a driver utility disc, a ZOTAC case badge, a few peripheral to 6-pin adapters and a DVI to VGA adapter.
How We Configured Our Test Systems: We tested the graphics cards in this article on an Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard powered by a Core i7-3960X six-core processor and 16GB of G.SKILL DDR3-1866 RAM. The first thing we did when configuring the test system was enter the system UEFI and set all values to their "optimized" or "high performance" default settings and disabled any integrated peripherals that wouldn't be put to use. The memory's X.M.P. profile was enabled to ensure better-than-stock performance and the hard drive was then formatted and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 was installed. When the installation was complete we fully updated the OS and installed the latest DirectX redist, along with the drivers, games, and benchmark tools necessary to complete our tests.
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Hardware Used:Intel Core i7-3960X
(3.3GHz, Six-Core) Asus P9X79 Deluxe (Intel X79 Express) Radeon HD 7950 (w/ Boost) Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition GeForce GTX 680 GeForce GTX 670 MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition Zotac GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti Windforce OC 16GB GSKILL DDR3-1866 Western Digital Raptor 150GB Integrated Audio Integrated Network | Relevant Software: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 DirectX April 2011 Redist ATI Catalyst v12.7B NVIDIA GeForce Drivers v304.48 Benchmarks Used: Unigine Heaven v3 3DMark 11 Batman: Arkham City Just Cause 2 Alien vs. Predator Metro 2033 Lost Planet 2 Dirt: Showdown |
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 Unigine Heaven v3.0 | Unigine's Heaven Benchmark v3.0 is built around the Unigine game engine. Unigine is a cross-platform, real-time 3D engine, with support for DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL. The Heaven benchmark--when run in DX11 mode--also makes comprehensive use of tessellation technology and advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) It also features volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm and a dynamic sky with light scattering. |
The new GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards we tested performed well in the Unigine Heaven benchmark. With the extreme settings we use for testing, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards have no trouble outpacing the Radeon HD 7950 (with or without Boost) and flirt with the numbers put up by the Radeon HD 7970.
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 Futuremark 3DMark11 | The latest version of Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark11, is specifically bound to Windows Vista and WIndows 7-based systems due to its DirectX 11 requirement, which isn't available on previous versions of Windows. 3DMark11 isn't simply a port of 3DMark Vantage to DirectX 11, though. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated four new graphics tests, a physics tests, and a new combined test. We tested the graphics cards here with 3DMark11's Extreme preset option, which uses a resolution of 1920x1080 with 4x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering. |
3DMark11 tells essentially the same story as the Unigine Heaven benchmark from the previous page. According the 3DMark11's Extreme preset, the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards perform about on par with the Radeon HD 7970, and have no trouble pulling ahead of the Radeon HD 7950, including the upcoming Radeon HD 7950 with Boost.
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 Lost Planet 2 |
A follow-up to Capcom’s Lost Planet : Extreme Condition, Lost Planet 2 is a third person shooter that takes place again on E.D.N. III ten years after the story line of the first title. We ran the game’s DX11 mode which makes heavy use of DX11 Tessellation and Displacement mapping and soft shadows. There are also areas of the game that make use of DX11 DirectCompute for things like wave simulation in areas with water. This is one game engine that looks significantly different in DX11 mode when you compare certain environmental elements and character rendering in its DX9 mode versus DX11. We used the Test B option built into the benchmark tool with all graphics options set to their High Quality values.
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The Lost Planet 2 benchmark has always been a strong suit for NVIDIA's DX11-class GPUs, so it's no surprise that the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards once again had no trouble pulling ahead of the Radeons, with the sole exception being the flagship Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.
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 Just Cause 2 |
Just Cause 2 was released in March '10, from developers Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive. The game makes use of the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the similarly named original. It is set on the fictional island of Panau in southeast Asia, and you play the role of Rico Rodriquez. We benchmarked the graphics cards in this article using one of the built-in demo runs called Concrete Jungle. The test results shown here were run at various resolutions and settings. This game also supports a few CUDA-enabled features, but they were left disabled to keep the playing field level, since AMD's cards can't use them.
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The performance trend in the Just Cause 2 benchmark is similar to Lost Planet 2's. In this test, the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards are able to outrun the Radeon HD 7950 again, but they trail the Radeon HD 7970 by a small margin.
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 Metro 2033 |
Metro 2033 is your basic post-apocalyptic first person shooter game with a few rather unconventional twists. Unlike most FPS titles, there is no health meter to measure your level of ailment, but rather you’re left to deal with life, or lack thereof, more akin to the real world with blood spatter on your visor and your heart rate and respiration level as indicators. The game is loosely based on a novel by Russian Author Dmitry Glukhovsky. Metro 2003 boasts some of the best 3D visuals on the PC platform and includes a DX11 rendering mode that makes use of advanced depth of field effects and character model tessellation for increased realism. This title also supports NVIDIA PhysX technology for impressive in-game physics effects. We tested the game at resolutions of 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 with adaptive anti-aliasing and in-game image quality options set to their High Quality mode, with DOF effects disabled.
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The new GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards are fairly evenly matched again the Radeon HD 7950 in the Metro 2033 benchmark. At the lower resolution (1920x1200), the 660 Ti cards nudge passed the original Radeon HD 7950, but the upcoming Radoen HD 7950 with Boost performs right on par with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti.
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 Batman: Arkham City | Batman: Arkham City is a sequel to 2009’s Game of the Year winning Batman: Arkham Asylum. This recently released sequel, however, lives up to and even surpasses the original in many ways. The story takes place 18 months after the original game. Quincy Sharp, the onetime administrator of Arkham Asylum, has become mayor and convinced Gotham to create "Arkham City" by walling off the worst, most crime-ridden areas of the city and turning the area into a giant open-air prison. The game has DirectX 9 and 11 rendering paths, with support for tessellation, multi-view soft shadows, and ambient occlusion. We tested in DX11 mode with all in-game graphical options set to their maximum values, at various resolutions. |
According to the Batman: Arkham City benchmark, the Radeon HD 7950 (with our without Boost) and the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti are evenly matched. Only a couple of frames per second separate the cards, but they all perform in the same ballpark. We should point out, however, that the memory bandwidth advantage the ZOTAC card holds over the other GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards gives it an obvious edge here.
Before bringing this article to a close, we'd like to cover a few final data points--namely power consumption, temperatures and noise. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored acoustics and tracked how much power our test system was consuming using a power meter. Our goal was to give you an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling and also while under a heavy workload. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not just the power being drawn by the graphics cards alone.
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The new GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards are relatively power friendly in comparison to the other high-end graphics cards we tested. Despite having different GPU and memory clocks, coolers, and PCBs, the four GTX 660 Ti cards we tested all consumed about the same amount of power, give or take a few watts. Idle power consumption was similar across the board, but generally speaking, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards (and the stock 7950) were the least power hungry under load.
Due to their relatively low power consumption (in comparison to the higher-end cards), the GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards we tested didn't pump out exorbitant amounts of heat. However, we still spent some time monitoring temperatures and comparing the performance of the various coolers used on the cards. As you can see in the chart above, the Gigabyte offering ran the coolest, under both idle and load conditions, followed by the MSI card. ZOTAC's AMP! Edition came next and EVGA's card, with its reference NVIDIA cooler, trailed.
In terms of their noise output, we'd consider all four of the cards we tested to be relatively quiet. At idle, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards could not be heard over our test system's PSU fan and CPU cooler. Under load, the fans on each card do spin up and generate and audible whir, but they were by no means loud.
Although the numbers aren't comparable due to the differences in the fans and coolers used on all of the cards, we checked to see how fast the fans would ultimately spin with the GPUs under load. The EVGA and Gigabyte cards' fans peaked at the 52% mark, ZOTAC's hit 59%, and MSI's only 41%. It appears MSI was very conservative with the fan speed profile on their card.
In terms of their noise output, we'd consider all four of the cards we tested to be relatively quiet. At idle, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards could not be heard over our test system's PSU fan and CPU cooler. Under load, the fans on each card do spin up and generate and audible whir, but they were by no means loud.
Although the numbers aren't comparable due to the differences in the fans and coolers used on all of the cards, we checked to see how fast the fans would ultimately spin with the GPUs under load. The EVGA and Gigabyte cards' fans peaked at the 52% mark, ZOTAC's hit 59%, and MSI's only 41%. It appears MSI was very conservative with the fan speed profile on their card.
Performance Summary: The GeForce GTX 660 Ti performed well throughout our testing. Despite being overclocked, the performance of the four GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards we tested just missed the mark set by the reference GeForce GTX 670, but in every cases the performance deltas separating the 660 Ti cards from their higher-end counterpart were minimal. In comparison to the original Radeon HD 7950, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is somewhat faster overall. A couple of tests leaned in AMD’s favor, but more often than not the GeForce GTX 660 Ti pulled ahead. Versus the refreshed Radeon HD 7950 with Boost, which increases the Radeon’s base GPU clock from 800MHz to 850MHz and adds a peak Boost clock up to 925MHz, the competition is a bit more intense. The higher-clocked Radeon HD 7950 competes much better with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti to the point where they’re evenly matched in terms of performance. The edge in power consumption and price, however, goes to NVIDIA.
GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards should be available immediately from system builders and your favorite retailers. Expected pricing for reference cards should be just under the $300 mark. The factory overclocked models we looked at here are all priced somewhat higher, but not by much. EVGA’s and MSI’s offerings come in at $309, with ZOTAC’s and Gigabyte’s cards at $329. Considering the GeForce GTX 660 Ti’s performance in light of the Radeon HD 7950, which is currently selling for around $329 (give or take a few bucks), pricing on these cards is very competitive, as they equal or better the Radeon’s performance at somewhat lower price points. It appears that even with the newer “Boost capable” 7950 cards due to hit store shelves soon, AMD will have to cut prices somewhat to better compete.
Of the four GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards we looked at, it’s difficult to point to a clear winner. Each card performed well and remained quiet throughout testing. We really like MSI’s GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition due to its competitive price and excellent cooler and we have to give ZOTAC props for including a game coupon with their card, clocking it the highest, and keeping its form factor as svelte as possible. Gigabyte’s card ran the coolest, however, and EVGA offers the best warranty coverage, so each card stands out in one way or another. Ultimately though, we think anyone looking for a graphics card in the $300 price range would be well served by the GeForce GTX 600 Ti. NVIDIA’s got another winner on their hands and continues to push the price/performance envelope with Kepler.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
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From : www.hothardware.com
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