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
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 :)