The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte
by Ryan Smith on August 16, 2012 9:00 AM ESTOC: Power, Temperature, & Noise
Our final task is our look at the overclocking capabilities of our GTX 660 Ti cards. Based on what we’ve seen thus far with GTX 660 Ti, these factory overclocked parts are undoubtedly eating into overclocking headroom, so we’ll have to see just what we can get out of them. The very similar GTX 670 topped out at around 1260MHz for the max boost clock, and between 6.6GHz and 6.9GHz for the memory clock.
| GeForce 660 Ti Overclocking | |||||
| EVGA GTX 660 Ti SC | Zotac GTX 660 Ti AMP | Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC | |||
| Shipping Core Clock | 980MHz | 1033MHz | 1033MHz | ||
| Shipping Max Boost Clock | 1150MHz | 1175MHz | 1228MHz | ||
| Shipping Memory Clock | 6GHz | 6.6GHz | 6GHz | ||
| Shipping Max Boost Voltage | 1.175v | 1.175v | 1.175v | ||
| Overclock Core Clock | 1030MHz | 1033MHz | 1083MHz | ||
| Overclock Max Boost Clock | 1200MHz | 1175MHz | 1278MHz | ||
| Overclock Memory Clock | 6.5GHz | 6.8GHz | 6.6GHz | ||
| Overclock Max Boost Voltage | 1.175v | 1.175v | 1.175v | ||
As we suspected, starting with factory overclocked cards isn’t helping here. Our Zotac card wouldn’t accept any kind of meaningful GPU core overclock, so it shipped practically as fast as it could go. We were able to squeeze out another 200MHz on the memory clock though.
Meanwhile our EVGA and Gigabyte cards fared slightly better. We could push another 50MHz out of their GPU clocks, bringing us to a max boost clock of 1200MHz on the EVGA card and 1278MHz on the Gigabyte card. Memory overclocking was similarly consistent; we were able to hit 6.5GHz on the EVGA card and 6.6GHz on the Gigabyte card.
Altogether these are sub-5% GPU overclocks, and at best 10% memory overclocks, which all things considered are fairly low overclocks. The good news is that reference-clocked cards should fare better since their headroom has not already been consumed by factory overclocking, but binning also means the best cards are going to be going out as factory overclocked models.
Moving on to our performance charts, we’re going to once again start with power, temperature, and noise, before moving on to gaming performance.
Unsurprisingly, given the small power target difference between the GTX 670 and the GTX 660 Ti, any kind of overclocking that involves raising the power target quickly pushes power consumption past the GTX 670’s power consumption. How much depends on the test and the card, with the higher power target Gigabyte card starting with a particular disadvantage here as its power consumption ends up rivaling that of the GTX 680.
We also see the usual increase in load temperatures due to the increased power consumption. The Zotac and Gigabyte cards fare well enough due to their open air coolers, but the blower-type EVGA card is about as high as we want to go at 80C under OCCT.
Last but not least, looking at noise levels we can see an increase similar to the temperature increases we just saw. For the Zotac and EVGA cards noise levels are roughly equal with the reference GTX 680, which will be important to remember for when we’re looking at performance. Meanwhile the Gigabyte card continues to shine in these tests thanks to its oversized cooler; even OCCT can only push it to 46.8dB.
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CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
you LIEDhttp://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/nvidia...
Deal with it.
Galidou - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
And you think AMD is much different, 7950 on newegg, 4 out of 18 models are reference models and no overclocker will ever buy em because we're already informed of that.Seems like you're not checking both side stock, that's what it is to be an Nvidia fanboy, you speak of things without having a clue about what you say.Blah blah blah they only have 3 reference cards....
I get on newegg.ca and I see 4 reference designs 2 of them are overclocked, I see 4 stock clocked cards 2 are non reference coolers. It isn't different from amd with his 4 out of 18. Poor newbie, speaking like he knows something while he's in total darkness.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Hey dummy, the initial statement was a crybaby whine that the 660Ti was reviewed in OC models.Try to DEAL with what I said in response to some idiot not knowing why the 660Ti had a lot of OC model reviews.
The author here pointed out why, but I'm sure you crybabies didn't read, or just had a rage3d brain fart instead of any comprehension, otherwise you wouldn't have whined.
PS dummy - amd cards have been out for 9 months for OC models, so checking egg now is pretty dang stupid... amazingly stupid, but that's what fanboys do - make stupid idiotic complaints, get corrected, then make more stupid idiotic replies.
Get your head screwed on straight.
Galidou - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
You're right on that one, still, AMD AT LAUNCH had almost as much overclocked parts available to the public as they have now. How could you know, like you ever check the stock of AMD cards, you lack informations anyway.But still on almost 80% of the website they were reviewed stock clocked only. On the opposite of Nvidia having pushed for more overclocked parts to be reviewed, 80% of the 660 ti were OCed, why being so unfair if your products are FAR superior, well, because they simply are not THAT much superior.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
How could I know, and NO THEY DIDN'T.The crybaby liar attacking rage3d boy got it wrong again.
Facts are what I KNOW, bs is what you talk.
You've been corrected, AGAIN.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
LIAR " You're right on that one, still, AMD AT LAUNCH had almost as much overclocked parts available to the public as they have now."WRONG. THEY HAD EXACTLY 1.
But as it’s turning out the Radeon HD 7970 isn’t going to be a traditional launch. In a rare move AMD has loosened the leash on their partners just a bit, and as a result we’re seeing semi-custom cards planned for launch earlier than usual. XFX looks to be the first partner to take advantage of this more liberal policy, as alongside the reference cards being launched today they’re launching their first semi-custom 7970s.
Fully custom cards will come farther down the line. Of these 4 cards, 2 of them will be launching today: XFX’s Core Edition pure reference card, and their customized Black Edition Double Dissipation model, which features both a factory overclock and XFX’s custom cooler. It’s the Black Edition Double Dissipation
ANANDTECH
So... hopefully you UNDERSTAND WHY you're full of it.
Galidou - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
There's no reason for ''Hey dummy'', ''crybaby whine'', ''PS dummy'' in our discussion, the lack of respect you use there just shows even more you're not able to maintain a good level of objectivity.''Get your head screwed on straight''
You're always trying to attack... always, sad, you're just trowing your credebility out the window yourself, not others are doing it, you alone are just trowing what little dignity you could have on a forum speaking about video cards.... comon, we're better humans that that.
TheJian - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
And look at the OMG wattage used and heat given at that rate...LOL.You live in alaska maybe this is good. You live in AZ like I do, you're mentally having issues if you leave the store without a 660 TI in this battle at $299+.
Power@load 315w zotac amp vs. 353 7950 (vs 373w for 7950B)!
Nevermind what happens when you OC your beloved 7950.
NOISE? The worst 660 TI (Zotac Amp) is 49.2DB. The 7950 is already 54.9, and 7950B is even worse at 58DB (the highest card in the list!). So do you want to hear your speakers and game sounds or that fan driving you out of the room. We are talking a 9DB difference (and DB's are exponential in noise rising), not overclocked on your 7950B in these results in this article. The 7970 is less noisy than the 7950B here.
Galidou - Sunday, August 19, 2012 - link
I'm looking for the Sapphire 7950, no overclocker will buy a reference design and overclock it unless they want a jet engine..... The sapphire OC is really quiet even under load, and it gets to 1150 core on low voltage and low enough temp, if it's too hot I'll even let 50mhz go away anyway it will translate into a 40% overclock.The thing is I don't play Battlefield 3 and never will, same for portal 2, I'm a skyrim player looking for more memory than the 1gb of my 6850 crossfire ATM. I'll play other games, but the real power of Nvidia is mainly in those 2 games.
TheJian - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
You got a 30 inch monitor? Otherwise the 660TI is better in almost all games and usually by a larger than 20% margin, in some cases as I already proved, even vs. the 7970ghz edition.Already stated 660TI is less noisy even the Factory OC'd tested here and anywhere around the web. These are not HIGHLY clocked (none of the 79xx series are in the benchmarks except for the ghz edition) and all are noisy compared to 660TI.
Power of nv only in two games?...Already debunked unless you have a 30in or have multi-monitor spanned res (way over 2560x1600) and in both cases you're running something like a gtx690 or more than one card. See my other posts in this review comments section. I've done the comparison work for you (and tore ryan a new one while at it). All you have to do is read it and verify it all. Easy. You're wrong. Or prove it at 1920x1200 or below.
This card comes with 2GB :) You're welcome ;)
Show me a REVIEW site showing a 1150 core clock on 7950 that isn't pumping out an extra 80 watts to do it and I'll accept that opinion.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-overc...
1.25v, 79 watts more than 7950 default.
http://www.bls.gov/ro5/aepchi.htm
Bureau of Labor Stats, avg cost per watt in usa 13.5c.
http://www.citytrf.net/costs_calculator.htm
3hrs per day (how much do you game?) @13.5c for roughly 80watts extra to run at 1150 per year=~$12 per year...Game heavy on weekends, or more during the week too? I know people that put in 10-20 hours on a weekend easy with a hot game...LOL. I wish I had that much time. Factor that over 3yrs, or live in a higher cost (Miami FL, anywhere in CA, Chicago IL) and it goes up. So at your modified version it will at least cost you ~$36 or so, not to mention the heat it generates for 3 years which may cause you to turn up your AC if you're in AZ/TX etc... :) Assuming you own the card for a good 3years before upgrading again and are a regular gamer (you have dual cards already - safe to say SLI users game more than most?), this is going to cost you some extra cash. It's NOT just the purchase price that gets you. Also I'm only talking VS the 7950 regular speeds. I'm not talking vs an already lower watt (.987v) 660TI by default, that is already cooler too no matter where you look. So the savings in more pronounced (say $40 instead of $36 over 3yrs at 3hrs).
What can you do with a $40 savings over 3 years? Add another 8GB DDR3 module (or 2x4GB) to your machine...Buy a K chip instead of regular IVY/Sandy (really, any point in sandy now? for a $10-20 savings? Don't buy Sandy people), and get a 50PK of blank Taiyo Yuden dvdr's or some DL's, or a 25pk of blurays with that K chip. You get the point. :) It's FREE money if you choose correctly. Not to say I'm telling you to buy a 660TI...IF you have a 30in and run at 2560x1440 I'd hint at a 680 and OC it instead :) I am completely against dual cards because of heat, noise and watts...But if you couldn't care less about these things the sky is the limit for you. I will NEVER buy 2 cards when I can get ONE with a dual chip config for anywhere near the same price. It will always win on watts/not splitting mem/heat etc...Just hard to beat a card like GTX690 for all these areas vs. sli/crossfire. I want my pc silent and COLD. If you have no speakers or like my nephew game 90% with headphones, again maybe 2 cheaper cards would rock for you vs a 690 etc. Personally it's against my religion... :)
Model #: 100352OCSR
Model #: 100352FLEX
Model #: 100352SR
All newegg...Make sure you get the right one if you really want a 7950 sapphire oc. Note the connectors differences, and I'd take the top one if I was you. Not sure why the bottom one exists, as it seems a dupe of the same priced top...But you'll need to look closer, I don't want one :) Sorry.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Sub...
Nice card though, and I saw a review of the 7970 version at Hardocp (one of the best they've seen they said), it was BUILT very nice and they commented on the component level parts being better and more suited to OC. Not sure if it's the same here. Just an observation of the big brother :)