The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte
by Ryan Smith on August 16, 2012 9:00 AM ESTFinal Words
Bringing the review to a close, it should come as no surprise that the launch of the GTX 660 Ti has ended up being a lot like the launches before it. Yet at the same time it’s not truly identical, as there’s a lot going on that makes it nothing like the launches before it.
Distilled to its essence, the GTX 660 Ti is yet another fine addition to the GTX 600 series thanks to the GK104 GPU. Compared to the GTX 670 it’s a bit slower, a lot cheaper, and still brutally efficient. For buyers who have wanted to pick up a Kepler card but have found the high-end GTX 670 and GTX 680 out of their price range, at $300 the GTX 660 Ti is at a much more approachable point on the price-performance curve, offering about 88% of the GTX 670’s performance for 75% of the price. Given the price of Kepler cards so far this is definitely a better deal, though it’s still by no means cheap. So in that respect the launch of the GTX 660 Ti is quite a lot like the launches before it.
What’s different about this launch compared to the launches before it is that AMD was finally prepared; this isn’t going to be another NVIDIA blow-out. While the GTX 680 marginalized the Radeon HD 7970 virtually overnight, and then the GTX 670 did the same thing to the Radeon HD 7950, the same will not be happening to AMD with the GTX 660 Ti. AMD has already bracketed the GTX 660 Ti by positioning the 7870 below it and the 7950 above it, putting them in a good position to fend off NVIDIA.
As it stands, AMD’s position correctly reflects their performance; the GTX 660 Ti is a solid and relatively consistent 10-15% faster than the 7870, while the 7950 is anywhere between a bit faster to a bit slower depending on what benchmarks you favor. Of course when talking about the 7950 the “anything but equal” maxim still applies here, if not more so than with the GTX 670. The GTX 660 Ti is anywhere between 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it, and everywhere in between.
Coupled with the tight pricing between all of these cards, this makes it very hard to make any kind of meaningful recommendation here for potential buyers. Compared to the 7870 the GTX 660 Ti is a solid buy if you can spare the extra $20, though it’s not going to be a massive difference. The performance difference is going to be just enough that AMD is going to need to trim prices a bit more to secure the 7870’s position.
On the other hand due to the constant flip-flopping of the GTX 660 Ti and 7950 on our benchmarks there is no sure-fire recommendation to hand down there. If we had to pick something, on a pure performance-per-dollar basis the 7950 looks good both now and in the future; in particular we suspect it’s going to weather newer games better than the GTX 660 Ti and its relatively narrow memory bus. But the moment efficiency and power consumption start being important the GTX 660 Ti is unrivaled, and this is a position that is only going to improve in the future when 7950B cards start replacing 7950 cards. For reasons like that there are a couple of niches one card or another serves particularly well, such as overclocking with the 7950, but ultimately unless you have a specific need either card will serve you well enough.
But enough about competition, let’s talk about upgrades for a moment. As we mentioned in our discussion on pricing, performance cards are where we see the market shift from rich enthusiasts who buy cards virtually every generation to more practical buyers who only buy every couple of generations. For these groups it’s a mixed bag. The GTX 660 Ti is actually a great upgrade for the GTX 560 Ti (and similar cards) from a performance standpoint, but despite the similar name it can’t match the GTX 560 Ti’s affordability. This entire generation has seen a smaller than normal performance increase at the standard price points, and the GTX 660 Ti doesn’t change this. If you’re frugal and on Fermi, you’re probably going to want to wait for whatever comes next. On the other hand performance is finally reaching a point where it’s getting very hard to hold on to GTX 200 series cards, especially as the lack of memory on those sub-1GB products becomes more and more prominent. The GTX 660 Ti can clobber any GTX 200, and it can do so with far less power and noise.
Finally, let’s discuss the factory overclocked cards we’ve seen today. Thanks to the fact that this is a virtual launch there’s an incredible variety of cards to pick from, with all of the major partners launching multiple cards with both the reference clocks and with factory overclocks. We’ve only been able to take a look at 3 of those cards today, but so far we like what we’re seeing.
Right now the partner card most likely to turn heads is Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC. Even if you ignore the overclock for a second it’s a GTX 660 Ti with an oversized cooler, which ends up being used to great effect. Thanks to Gigabyte’s Windforce 2X cooler it’s both cool and silent, which is always a great combination. Meanwhile the factory overclock alongside the higher power target is icing on the cake, although the lack of a memory bandwidth overclock means that the cooler is more valuable than the overclock.
But if you want something quite a bit smaller and generally a bit faster still, Zotac’s GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP is no slouch. The memory overclock really makes up for GTX 660 Ti’s memory bandwidth shortcomings, and the size means it will fit into even small cases rather well. Its only downsides are that the $329 price tag puts it solidly in 7950 territory, and that the cooler is very average, especially when held up against what Gigabyte has done.
Finally there’s EVGA’s GeForce GTX 660 Ti Superclocked. The overclock is nothing to write home about – being just enough to justify the $10 price increase – but it’s otherwise a solid card. Even for 150W cards there’s still a need for blower type coolers, and EVGA will do a good job of filling that niche with their card.
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CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
660Ti is hitting over 1300 core.amd loses in oc this time
Get used to changing your whistling in the dark tune
TheJian - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-overc..."We do need to warn you, increasing GPU voltages remains dangerous."
From page 2. Also note he says you can't go over 1ghz or so without hitting raising volts (he hit 1020 default). Raise your hand if you like to spend $300 only to blow it up a few days or months later. Never mind the Heat, noise, watts this condition will FORCE you into. His card hit a full 10c and 6db noisier than defaults. He hit 1150/1250boost max. Only 50mhz more than the 660ti. Nice try. From page 11 7950 BOOST review at gurud3:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-with-...
"In AMD's briefing we notice that the R7950 BOOST cards will be available from August 16 and onwards, what an incredibly coincidental date that is. It's now one day later August 17, just one AIC partner has 'announced' this product and there is NIL availability. Well, at least you now have an idea of where the competition will be in terms of performance. But that's all we can say about that really."
Note you can BUY a 660TI for $299 or $309 that is clocked by default only 14mhz less than the zotac AMP in this review. If Ryan is to note what you want in the article, he should also note it will possibly light on fire, or drive you out the room due to heat or noise while doing it. AMD isn't willing to BACK your speeds. Heck the DEFAULT noise/heat alone would drive me out of the room, never mind the extra cost of running it at your amazing numbers...LOL. A quick look at the 7950B already tells the story above it's ref speeds/volts. RIDICULOUS NOISE/HEAT/COST.
From guru3d article above:
Measured power consumption default card=138 Watts
Measured power consumption OC at 1150 MHz (1.25 Volts)=217w!! Note the one in Ryan's review is clocked at 850mhz and already 6.5db's higher than 660TI AMP. I want a silent (or as close as poosible) PC that won't heat the room or every component in my PC.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_c...
1122mhz CORE on 660TI. The gpu boost hit 1200! That's 31% above stock (and I only googled one oc review), and I don't think this is as HOT as your 1150 would be, nor as noisy. Scratch that, I KNOW yours will be worse in BOTH cases. Just look at this review at anandtech with zotac at 1033mhz already. The zotac Amp is also 5c cooler already and you haven't got over 850mhz on the 7950 boost here. Try as you might, you can't make AMD better than they are here. Sorry. Even Anand's 7950 boost review 4 days ago says it's hard to argue for the heat/noise problem added to the already worse 7950 regular vs 660 ti. Not to mention both 7950's are more expensive than 660ti. It's all a loss, whether or not I like AMD. Heat/temp/watts are WORSE this time around on AMD. Raising to higher clocks/volts only makes it worse.
I already pointed out in another post Ryan should have posted 900mhz scores, but not to help AMD, rather that's what I'd buy if I was looking for a card from AMD for the going market cards on newegg. You just wouldn't purchase an 800mhz version (or even 850mhz), but AMD would have paid the price in the heat/watts/noise scores if Ryan did it. I would still rather have had it in there. Anandtech reviews seem to always reflect "suggested retail prices and speeds" rather than reality for buyers. That still doesn't help your case though.
It's not ridiculously easy to OC a 7950boost to 35-45% higher...Which loses a lot at 1920x1200, by huge margins, and warhead is useless as shown in my other posts, it's a loser in crysis2 now for boost vs. 660ti's of any flavor above ref.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-with-...
Crysis 2 ultra uber dx 11 patches everything on high. WASH for 7950 boost vs. REF 660ti! Why did Anandtech choose 2008 version?
Ref 660TI which nobody would buy given pricing of high clocked versions at $299/309 for 660 TI, default no fiddling necessary and no voiding warranty or early deaths of hardware. You seem to ignore what happens when you OC things past reasonable specs (already done by AMD with heat/noise/watts above zotac Amp here). I suspect AMD didn't want their chip to look even worse in reviews.
Argument over. I win... :)...So does your wallet if you put your fanboyism away for a bit. Note I provided a google search to my RADEON 5850 XFX purchased card complaints (regarding backorder) at amazon in another post here. I love AMD but, c'mon...They lost this round, get over it. You may have had an argument for a 7950 boost at $299 that was actually COOLER than the 7950 regular and less noisy. But with both being worse, & price being higher...It's over this round. Note the cool features of the 600 series cards in the above oc article. It's safe at 1122/1200! It's safe no matter the card, though they vary you can't hurt them (per card settings are different...Ultimate OC without damage). Nice feature.
I'd argue blow by blow over 2560x1600 (as you can prove NV victories depending on games) but I think it's pointless as I already proved in other posts, only 2% actually use that or above. Meaning 98% are using a res where the 660TI pretty much TRASHES the 7950 in all but a few games I could find (1920x1200 and below).
(hit post but didn't post...sorry if I'm about to double post this).
Galidou - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
It's fun to see that Nvidia as reached a very good power consumption and heat level compared to the generation before. How they mention it, but when AMD fanboys were mentioning it, coparing 6xxx against gtx5xx, they were just denied and being told it wasn't important.''Measured power consumption OC at 1150 MHz (1.25 Volts)=217w''
Wow it's amazing, 217 watts, almost as much as a gtx 580 stock.....
Comparing the 7950b noise and temperature with the very bad reference cooler against a very quiet aftermarket cooler on the 660 ti, very nice apples to apples comparison. The 7950b is for the average users, we all know the 7950 models that are overclocked and got VERY nice coolers already, thanks for the refresh.
TheJian - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
This AMD fanboy bought a radeon 5850. Not sure what your point is?The ref design was in there too...Check the green bar card.
Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
Well, the reference design works wonders on 660 ti because it has alot better power consumption and temperatues, the 7xxx reference coolers are just plain crap, good thing there's not much around, else the opinion of the 7xxx series would be uber bad.Overclockers tend to love the radeons and I'm an overclocker, not an AMD fanboy, I just can't support all the hate when there'S no reason for it.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
radeon 6000 series was losing the benches as it "saved power"580 was referred to as housefire and worse, nVidia was attacked for abandoning gamers w/compute
ROFL - abandoning the gamers
green earth became more important than gaming
losing frame rates was a-okay because you saved power and money
Compare that to now - nVidia is faster, quieter, smoother, and uses less power
amd loses frames, and sucks down the juice, and choppier
The 580 had a HUGE lead at the top of the charts....
So, that's the same how ?
It would be the same if amd hadn't completely failed on frame rates and had a giant lead stretching out in disbelief at the top of the charts - then one can say "the power doesn't matter" because you get something for it
It's really simple. So simple, simpletons should be able to understand. I don't think fanboys will though.
RussianSensation - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link
Well in fairness AnandTech did test reference clocked 660Ti cards, which is a fair review. They also could have included factory pre-overclocked 660Ti cards and just commented on the price difference (i.e., up to $339). This was also mentioned in the review.But what I find the most amusing is that after how much talk was around the amazing overclocking capabilities of GTX460, NV users want to ignore that HD7950 can overclock to 1.1-1.15ghz and match a $500 GTX680. Can a GTX660Ti do that? At the end of the day an overclocked 7950 will beat an overclocked 660Ti with AA. Overclockers will go for the 7950 and people who want a quiet and efficient card will pick the 660Ti.
just4U - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link
Does a 1.1-1.5GHZ 7950 actually match up well against a GTX680? While AMD and NVidia perform better on different games I'd still think the 680 would be somewhat ahead..CeriseCogburn - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
No the 7950 does not, it takes a 1200-1250 core 7970 to "match up".Even then, it can only match up in just "fps".
It still doesn't have: PhysX, adaptive v-sync, automatic OC, target frame rate, TXAA, good 3D, Surround center taskbar by default without having driver addons, STABILITY, smoothest gaming.
I could go on.
Hey here's a theory worthy of what we hear here against nVidia, but we'll make it against the real loser amd.
It appears amd has problems with smooth gameplay because they added a strange and unable to use extra G of ram on their card. Their mem controller has to try to manage access to more ram chips, more ram, and winds up stuttering and jittering in game, because even though the extra ram is there it can't make use of it, and winds up glitching trying to mange it.
There we go ! A great theory worthy of the reviewers kind he so often lofts solely toward nVida.
Galidou - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
Look at all the big words: ''PhysX, adaptive v-sync, automatic OC, target frame rate, TXAA, good 3D, Surround center''. Stability is my preffered, I owned so many video cards and had so little problems with them, Nvidia ATI or AMD but still Nvidia fanboys still have to make us feel that everytime you buy a video card from AMD, you gotta have to face the ''inevitable'' hangups, drivers problems, the hulk is gonna come at your home and destroy everything you OWN!!!! Beware if you buy an AMD video card, you might even catch.... ''CANCER''. oohhh cancer, beware....I had none of that and still has none of that and ALL my games played very good, memory is the problem now, not the lack of adaptive crapsync, physixx and such. You just made me remember why I do not listen to TV anymore, the adds always try to make you feel like everything you own should be changed for the new stuff, but then you change it and you feel almost nothing has been gained.
I call for ''planned obsolescence'' for the last message.