The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA XC GAMING: Turing Sheds RTX for the Mainstream Market
by Ryan Smith & Nate Oh on February 22, 2019 9:00 AM ESTMeet The EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC Black GAMING
As a pure virtual launch, the release of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti does not bring any Founders Edition model, and so everything is in the hands of NVIDIA’s add-in board partners. For today, we look at EVGA’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC Black, a 2.75-slot single-fan card with reference clocks and a slightly increased TDP of 130W.
| GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Card Comparison | ||||
| GTX 1660 Ti Ref Spec | EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC Black GAMING | |||
| Base Clock | 1500MHz | 1500MHz | ||
| Boost Clock | 1770MHz | 1770MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 12Gbps GDDR6 | 12Gbps GDDR6 | ||
| VRAM | 6GB | 6GB | ||
| TDP | 120W | 130W | ||
| Length | N/A | 7.48" | ||
| Width | N/A | 2.75-Slot | ||
| Cooler Type | N/A | Open Air | ||
| Price | $279 | $279 | ||
Seeing as the GTX 1660 Ti is intended to replace the GTX 1060 6GB, EVGA’s cooler and card design is new and improved compared to their Pascal cards, and was first introduced with the RTX 20-series as they rolled out the iCX2 cooling design and new “XC” card branding, complementing their existing SC and Gaming series. As we’ve seen before, the iCX platform is comprised of a medley of features, and some of the core technology is utilized even when the full iCX suite isn’t. For one, EVGA reworked their cooler design with hydraulic dynamic bearing (HDB) fans, offering lower noise and higher lifespan than sleeve and ball bearing types, and this is present in the EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC Black.
In general, the card essentially shares the design of the RTX 2060 XC, complete with those new raised EVGA ‘E’s on the fans, intended to improve slipstream. The single-fan RTX 2060 XC was paired with a thinner dual-fan XC Ultra variant, and in the same vein the GTX 1660 Ti XC Black is a one-fan design that essentially occupies three slots due to the thick heatsink and correspondingly taller fan hub. Being so short, though, makes the size a natural fit for mini-ITX form factors.
As one of the cards lower down the RTX 20 and now GTX 16 series stack, the GTX 1660 Ti XC Black also lacks LEDs and zero-dB fan capability, where fans turn off completely at low idle temperatures. The former is an eternal matter of taste, as opposed to the practicality of the latter, but both tend to be perks of premium models and/or higher-end GPUs. Putting price aside for the moment, the reference-clocked GTX 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 XC Black editions are the more mainstream variant anyhow.
Otherwise, the GTX 1660 Ti XC Black unsurprisingly lacks a USB-C/VirtualLink output, offering up the mainstream-friendly 1x DisplayPort/1x HDMI/1x DVI setup. Although the TU116 GPU still supports VirtualLink, the decision to implement it is up to partners; the feature is less applicable for cards further down the stack, where cards are more sensitive to cost and are less likely to be used for VR. Additionally, the 30W USB-C controller power budget could be significant amount relative to the overall TDP.
And on the topic of power, the GTX 1660 Ti XC Black’s power limit is actually capped at the default 130W, though theoretically the card’s single 8-pin PCIe power connector could supply 150W on its own.
The rest of the other GPU-tweaking knobs are there for your overclocking needs, and for EVGA this goes hand-in-hand with Precision, their overclocking utility. For NVIDIA’s Turing cards, EVGA released Precision X1, which allows modifying the voltage-frequency curve and scanning for auto-overclocking as part of Turing’s GPU Boost 4. Of course, NVIDIA’s restriction of actual overvolting is still in place, and for Turing there is a cap at 1.068v.
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Korguz - Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - link
and again.. WHERE do you get your info from ??they can remove parts of IC's, or disable them, have you not been reading the articles on here about the disabled IGPs in intels cpus, but still charging the SAME price as the fully enabled ones ?
you refuse post links, OR mention your sources, simply because YOU DONT HAVE ANY.. IMO.. most of what you most.. is probable made up, or rumor, if AT posted things like you do, with no sources, you probably would be all over them asking for links, proof and the like... and by YOUR previous posts, all of your info is made up and false..
there is no point talking to a CHILD any more... when are you going to resort to name calling and insults again ?
Hrel - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
Last page, I don't think comparing the 1660ti to the 1060 6Gb is appropriate, either the 3GB or 1050Ti. Comparing it to the 1060 makes it look like Nivdia isn't raising prices as much as they really are.I'm basically out of the GPU market unless and until pricing changes. Not that any good games have come out in the last few years, or are scheduled to. But I should be able to run 3 monitors at 1080p with 60fps minimum in any modern game for $200. Based on the numbers here, I don't think this $300 1660Ti could even do that, and we're already over the threshold by $100.
You are right about not caring about RTX. Basically the timing was just really bad for it, global economy is in contraction. Moore's law is dead, I guess that's why they're trying some other form of value add, but charging consumers isn't the way to do it. Labor participation rate is barely above 60%, over 1/3rd of the country is unemployed. Wages have stagnated for 70 years! We don't have any more to give!
crazyforsurprise - Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - link
<a href="https://www.crazyforsurprise.com/nvidia-gtx-1660-t... review </a>Questor - Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - link
Does anyone think EVGA could add just a bit more depth to that card? What is it? A 3 slot? At least 2.5. It's either a portable furnace or idiotic overkill.zazzn - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
Why is PUBG never tested as one of the test games? It's notoriously badly optimized showing true raw performance?rothayato - Monday, August 5, 2019 - link
As a SFFPC (mITX) user, I'm enjoying the thicker, but shorter, card as it makes for easier packaging.Additionally, I'm enjoying the performance of a 1070 at reduced power consumption (20-30w) and therefore noise and heat! https://rottenhayato.com/_udata/gsnn/tenor-369.gif
bobhumplick - Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - link
if somebody hasnt upgraded in a while (9 series or older or 300 series or older for amd) then one of these cards is ok. not great but adequate. if you can last with what you have or if you would be happy with used or a refurb then go that route or wait for real nextgen(zotac has refurbed 1070 tis for 269 and they overclock to 1080 level performance).nvidia wanted to put these on 7nm or at least 10nm. 10nm isnt worth it in terms of performance and density (its more of a cell phone node) and 7nm needs EUV ot make large dies. its the waiting game. once EUV comes (if it does) the we will see a spurt of card gens coming quicker like they used to and then another slow down after about 5nm maybe