The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte
by Ryan Smith on August 16, 2012 9:00 AM ESTMeet The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC
Our final GTX 660 Ti of the day is Gigabyte’s entry, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC. Unlike the other cards in our review today this is not a semi-custom card but rather a fully-custom card, which brings with it some interesting performance ramifications.
| GeForce GTX 660 Ti Partner Card Specification Comparison | ||||||
| GeForce GTX 660 Ti(Ref) | EVGA GTX 660 Ti Superclocked | Zotac GTX 660 Ti AMP! | Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC | |||
| Base Clock | 915MHz | 980MHz | 1033MHz | 1033MHz | ||
| Boost Clock | 980MHz | 1059MHz | 1111MHz | 1111MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 6008MHz | 6008MHz | 6608MHz | 6008MHz | ||
| Frame Buffer | 2GB | 2GB | 2GB | 2GB | ||
| TDP | 150W | 150W | 150W | ~170W | ||
| Width | Double Slot | Double Slot | Double Slot | Double Slot | ||
| Length | N/A | 9.5" | 7.5" | 10,5" | ||
| Warranty | N/A | 3 Year | 3 Year + Life | 3 Year | ||
| Price Point | $299 | $309 | $329 | $319 | ||
The big difference between a semi-custom and fully-custom card is of course the PCB; fully-custom cards pair a custom cooler with a custom PCB instead of a reference PCB. Partners can go in a few different directions with custom PCBs, using them to reduce the BoM, reduce the size of the card, or even to increase the capabilities of a product. For their GTX 660 Ti OC, Gigabyte has gone in the latter direction, using a custom PCB to improve the card.
On the surface the specs of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC are relatively close to our other cards, primarily the Zotac. Like Zotac Gigabyte is pushing the base clock to 1033MHz and the boost clock to 1111MHz, representing a sizable 118MHz (13%) base overclock and a 131MHz (13%) boost overclock respectively. Unlike the Zotac however there is no memory overclocking taking place, with Gigabyte shipping the card at the standard 6GHz.
What sets Gigabyte apart here in the specs is that they’ve equipped their custom PCB with better VRM circuitry, which means NVIDIA is allowing them to increase their power target from the GTX 660 Ti standard of 134W to an estimated 141W. This may not sound like much (especially since we’re working with an estimate on the Gigabyte board), but as we’ve seen time and time again GK104 is power-limited in most scenarios. A good GPU can boost to higher bins than there is power available to allow it, which means increasing the power target in a roundabout way increases performance. We’ll see how this works in detail in our benchmarks, but for now it’s good enough to say that even with the same GPU overclock as Zotac the Gigabyte card is usually clocking higher.
Moving on, Gigabyte’s custom PCB measures 8.4” long, and in terms of design it doesn’t bear a great resemblance to either the reference GTX 680 PCB nor the reference GTX 670 PCB; as near as we can tell it’s completely custom. In terms of design it’s nothing fancy – though like the reference GTX 670 the VRMs are located in the front – and as we’ve said before the real significance is the higher power target it allows. Otherwise the memory layout is the same as the reference GTX 660 Ti with 6 chips on the front and 2 on the back. Due to its length we’d normally insist on there being some kind of stiffener for an open air card, but since Gigabyte has put the GPU back far enough, the heatsink mounting alone provides enough rigidity to the card.
Sitting on top of Gigabyte’s PCB is a dual fan version of Gigabyte’s new Windforce cooler. The Windforce 2X cooler on their GTX 660 Ti is a bit of an abnormal dual fan cooler, with a relatively sparse aluminum heatsink attached to unusually large 100mm fans. This makes the card quite large and more fan than heatsink in the process, which is not something we’ve seen before.
The heatsink itself is divided up into three segments over the length of the card, with a pair of copper heatpipes connecting them. The bulk of the heatsink is over the GPU, while a smaller portion is at the rear and an even smaller portion is at the front, which is also attached to the VRMs. The frame holding the 100mm fans is then attached at the top, anchored at either end of the heatsink. Altogether this cooling contraption is both longer and taller than the PCB itself, making the final length of the card nearly 10” long.
Finishing up the card we find the usual collection of ports and connections. This means 2 PCIe power sockets and 2 SLI connectors on the top, and 1 DL-DVI-D port, 1 DL-DVI-I port, 1 full size HDMI 1.4 port, and 1 full size DisplayPort 1.2 on the front. Meanwhile toolless case users will be happy to see that the heatsink is well clear of the bracket, so toolless clips are more or less guaranteed to work here.
Rounding out the package is the usual collection of power adapters and a quick start guide. While it’s not included in the box or listed on the box, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC works with Gigabyte’s OC Guru II overclocking software, which is available on Gigabyte’s website. Gigabyte has had OC Guru for a number of years now, and with this being the first time we’ve seen OC Guru II we can say it’s greatly improved from the functional and aesthetic mess that defined the previous versions.
While it won’t be winning any gold medals, in our testing OC Guru II gets the job done. Gigabyte offers all of the usual tweaking controls (including the necessary power target control), along with card monitoring/graphing and an OSD. It’s only real sin is that Gigabyte hasn’t implemented sliders on their controls, meaning that you’ll need to press and hold down buttons in order to dial in a setting. This is less than ideal, especially when you’re trying to crank up the 6000MHz memory clock by an appreciable amount.
Wrapping things up, the Gigebyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC comes with Gigabyte’s standard 3 year warranty. Gigabyte will be releasing it at an MSRP of $319, $20 over the price of a reference-clocked GTX 660 Ti and $10 less than the most expensive card in our roundup today.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
313 Comments
View All Comments
TheJian - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
For one there are 6 superclocked 660TI cards on newegg today available at $319 or less DEFAULT. They are fully warranted at those speeds:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
1032 core/1111mhz boost.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
1019/1097 for $299.
Can you do that with a 7950?
How hot and noisy is yours. I can see what AMP speeds do here at anandtech. How many watts will yours use doing what you said? Just look at the boost edition here and scores around the web at 1920x1200 and you realize it's getting whipped. GTX680?
Lets just get who can go faster totally out of the way at ridiculous overclocks:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/07/30/msi_gefo...
GTX680 MSI Lightning $580 review at hardocp vs. Sapphire 7970 OC $460 at 1280GPU/1860memory at 1.300v! all @2560x1600 min/avg 680 1st 7970 2nd
Max Payne 3
41/86.2 vs. 42/79.7
battlefield 3
29/52.8 vs 32/50.6
Batman Arkham
42/68 vs. 29/57
Witcher 2 enhanced
22/51.5 vs 21/50.3
battlefield 3 multiplayer 1920x1200 (sorry multi isn't run at higher)
59/78.7 vs. 50/64.2
So based on avg framerate,
Batman >19% faster for gtx
Witcher2=Wash based on min/max either way
battlefield multi >22% faster for gtx
Battlefield3 singleplayer wash I guess based on min max
Maxpayne 3 >8% faster
Bottom line from hard OCP conclusion:
"The video card also one of the fastest out-of-box operating speeds. It even went head to head with one of our fastest overclocked AMD Radeon HD 7970's and swept the floor with it."
If you can find a better review of these two GPU's clocked faster let's see it. I mean any GTX 680 vs. any 7970, where both are ridiculously OC'd like these here. You mentioned 1.15 for 7970, well they got it to 1280! And it got the snot knocked out of it anyway. Sorry Russian. Note they got the mem to 7.44ghz (I'd say a bit lucky draw) vs. the GTX 680 mem hit a wall at 7.05ghz. I'm guessing there will be a few cards do quite a bit better in GTX 680 land here. IT's just a luck of the draw either way, but the sapphire came with a good mem draw for their particular samples so consider the sapphire a great score and still swept. Max scores (check the article) were worse. I tend to think avg is a better rating, you live there mostly. Min/max are rarely hit. Just4u already said it. 680 wins. It's either a wash or landslide depending on games and having cash as no obstacle I'd go gtx 680.
More regarding all 600 series:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/05/29/galaxy_g...
"Since the introduction of the GeForce GTX 680 we have seen the launch of the GeForce GTX 690 and GeForce GTX 670 all providing the best performance and value in their class."
Same article bottom line on $535 cards in SLI:
"These cards are a beast in SLI, providing us the best performance possible at 5760x1200. There is no question these also beat Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX to the punch at every turn."
Smack...As an AMD fanboy I hold little hope for AMD. They are fighting with billions in debt (junk bond status credit, think of them as Spain/Greece, hard to borrow and gets worse and worse), little to invest, lots of interest on the debt, vs. NV with 3bil in the bank in CASH, no DEBT, no Interest on NO debt. I believe the age of AMD catching Intel or Nvidia is over. Bummer. Our only hope is NV buying AMD once they plummet enough (after losing billions more no doubt), and getting back some CPU competition as NV could invest in cpu design to get this game going again. I could see IBM or Samung pulling this off too (maybe even better as I think both have far more cash, and both have fabs). IBM/Samsung could really put the hurt on Intel with AMD buyouts. It would be a fair fight on cpu for sure. NV may be able to pull off both gpu and cpu as they have no fabs to keep up (which can kill you quickly if you screw up). Interesting thoughts about all that roll around in my head...LOL. For now though, NV is on a path to get 10bil in the bank by 2014 xmas I'd say if not at least by 2015. Like NV or not, they're CEO is smarter with money and never loses it unless he hurts someone else for doing it. He never prices their products at a loss like AMD. He makes smarter moves and thinks further ahead with a bigger picture in mind.
Motleyfool.com thinks they're the next 100bil company :) The Gardner brothers are NOT STUPID. I will be piling my money in this stock until it goes over $20. They're getting close to returning to the profits of old when it was $35 in 2007 and no dilution in the stock since then, with another 1.5bil of buyback scheduled last I checked. Same cash as 2007 and much stronger company with acquisitions since 2007. AMD is going the other way and investors are scared sh1tless :( Bankruptcy or bought by 2014 xmas. You heard it here :) Unfortunately. I cringe as I say it, but at this point it may help our future cpu cheap prices to just get this over with and get them bought by someone who can help AMD before there's nothing left and they're cpu's are even worse, while gpu's are starting to show desperation too. The 7950boost is just that. A company with money in the bank would have dev'd a lower wattage/cooler less noisy version for less cost, rather than all 3 going up to try to spoil a launch. OUCH. As much as Ryan etc try to help them, there's no getting around the facts (despite page titles like "that darn memory"...LOL...Yet better performance anyway...why even title pages like that?). Despite attempting to make this a 2560 discussion when only 2% of the world uses it according to steampowered.com hardware survey. Even then, if you look at updated games you could argue it's still a no brainer. Toss out warhead (from 2008) and replace with Crysis 2 you get a 660 victory instead of a loss. Hmmm...
2GB a hindrance? 4GB do anything? :
"The 4GB -- Realistically there was not one game that we tested that could benefit from the two extra GB's of graphics memory. Even at 2560x1600 (which is a massive 4 Mpixels resolution) there was just no measurable difference."
http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-geforce-gtx-68...
Funny I thought the 4GB version sucked after reading their review but whatever :) I'd rather have a FASTER 2GB than same speed 4GB costing a lot more. I'd call the measurable difference the MONEY for nothing.
Galidou - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
Nice results there, just too bad these are almost all the games that works better on Nvidia. They forbid themselves from adding portal 2 so it doesn't look too much biased.TheJian - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
Including the useless Warhead isn't enough? Screaming the entire time about it having bad bandwidth wasn't enough?Skyrim is in there too..Just forgot to mention it
Again, 680 SLI vs. 7970sli
78fps to 62fps (avg. to avg).
Heck even the single beat it with 72fps..
"GALAXY GTX 680 GC SLI was 26% faster than AMD Radeon HD 7970 CFX at 8X MSAA + FXAA."
Skyrim not good enough too? So what game would you like me to point to? I'm sorry it's difficult to point to a winner for AMD. :)
So lets see, it's biased in your mind on Skyrim, Batman AC, Witcher2, Battlefield3, Battlefield 3 Multiplayer, Portal 2, max payne 3...That rules out HardOCP I guess. Anand added a few more, Shogun 2 (another landslide for 660 TI, even against 7970), Dirt3 used here anand - Wash (though minimums do show Nvidia as Ryan points out)...
Civ5, landslide again at 1920x1200 here anandtech...Metro2033 here anandtech, <5% win for Nvidia %1920x1200 (I call it a wash I guess)...
So which game can I point to that will be OK to you? I'm running out of games to find a victory for AMD, so just give me what you want to see...IT's kind of hard as you can see to give you the viewpoint you want which is apparently "nothing will make me happy until AMD wins"...Am I wrong, or at what point do you accept reality?
Galidou - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
Yet another result before the big driver improvements, poor fanboys, they lack on informations and they're totally uninformed about drivers enhancements. A while ago AMD said they were changing their tactics about drivers development. That was like 3-4 months ago I think. Since then, we see really big improvements from the drivers.Last 12,8 catalyst brings:
•Up to 25% in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
•Up to 3% in Battlefield 3
•Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham City
•Up to 3% in Dues Ex: Human Revolution
•Up to 6% in Crysis 2
•Up to 15% in Total War: Shogun
•Up to 8% in Crysis Warhead
•Up to 5% in Just Cause 2
•Up to 10% in Dirt 3
All in one driver realesed in august, any review prior to gtx 660 ti is then flawed. And there's probably much more to come considering Nvidias fanboys have been whining about their drivers for years. Their team focused on the good way to improve drivers, how much will they be able to improve them? They were SO bad at making drivers than anyone buying an AMD card couldn't even play the slightest game without it crashing, overheating the card and making you cry to your mother to buy an Nvidia card..... Imagine!!
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
A lot of reviewers have very recently commented on how crappy amd drivers are - and this just past release came out with - NO DRIVERS for amd...Then 5 top review sites had half the games crash on amd, and had to toss some out of the reviews.
do you have AMNESIA ? are you sick ? a little under the weather, or just a fanboy liar who plays only one game Skyrim ( ROFL) except for the other games you said you play the prior page - and you're just an overclocker...
So just an overclocker and 2x6850 and they suck for OC
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4002/amd-radeon-hd-6...
Way to go... LOL I mean the scaling is pathetic. your not a very smart Ocer.
Galidou - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
And then again with the attacks and hatred on my choice, attacking my personnal life once again.''do you have AMNESIA ? are you sick ?''
''your not a very smart Ocer. ''
I did not buy them for ocing, I got them because I had an opportunity and I paid them like, dirt cheap. But still you attack me lacking of respect not even knowing the reasons why I did that. And again with the crashing, I changed to 12,8 driver on my 6850 and it did improve my skyrim performance and none of my other games crashed. Sorry for those reviewers.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Ok, so in other words, you're the noob, that knows very little to nothing.BTW- knowing your an amd fanboy means we all KNOW you scrinched and scrunched (at least in your own stupid head) every little tiny "penny" in your purchase of the AMD videocard...LOL - THAT'S A GIVEN DUMMY.
Ok, so, in light of that STUPIDITY - you have that same crappy set in WATER COOLING,- DUAL WC...
And.... "I don't even know why you got them".
ROFL - dude, either you're lying an awful lot, or you actually needed my help back then, desperately.
So you waggled up your big water overlcock OC manness, and now we find out... LOL
This is not happening ! (x-files quote)
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
newegg verified owner most helpful 660Ti link from thejian" Pros: Runs very quiet and overclocks like a champ. My card hits 1330 core and is completely stable. "
LOL
OUCH.
Oh well, no more OC whiny whine ... tsk tsk how painful
ROFL
Galidou - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
And there's even twice Battlefield 3(single and multi) LOL @ the bias :)CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
5760x1080 you losehttp://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/nvidia...
1300+ 660Ti core, you lose again
7000+ memory, you lose a third time