The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte
by Ryan Smith on August 16, 2012 9:00 AM ESTPower, Temperature, & Noise
As always, we’re wrapping up our look at a video card’s stock performance with a look at power, temperature, and noise. Like we discussed in the introduction, while the official TDP of the GTX 660 Ti is 150W – 20W lower than the GTX 670 – the power target difference is only 7W. So let’s see which is more accurate, and how that compares to AMD’s cards.
| GeForce GTX 660 Ti Voltages | ||||
| Zotac GTX 660 Ti Boost Load | EVGA GTX 660 Ti Boost Load | Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti Boost Load | ||
| 1.175v | 1.162v | 1.175v | ||
Stopping to take a quick look at voltages, there aren’t any big surprises here. NVIDIA would need to maintain the same voltages as the GTX 670 because of the identical clocks and SMX count, and that’s exactly what has happened. In fact all single-GPU GK104 cards are topping out at 1.175v, NVIDIA’s defined limit for these cards. Even custom cards like the Gigabyte still only get to push 1.175v.
Up next, before we jump into our graphs let’s take a look at the average core clockspeed during our benchmarks. Because of GPU boost the boost clock alone doesn’t give us the whole picture – particularly when also taking a look at factory overclocked cards – we’ve recorded the clockspeed of our video cards during each of our benchmarks when running them at 2560x1600 and computed the average clockspeed over the duration of the benchmark. Unfortunately we then deleted the results for the factory overclocked cards, so we only have the “reference” card. Sorry about that guys.
| GeForce GTX 600 Series Average Clockspeeds | |||||||
| GTX 670 | GTX 660 Ti | Zotac GTX 660 Ti | EVGA GTX 660 Ti | Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti | |||
| Max Boost Clock | 1084MHz | 1058MHz | 1175MHz | 1150MHz | 1228MHz | ||
| Crysis | 1057MHz | 1058MHz | N/A | ||||
| Metro | 1042MHz | 1048MHz | |||||
| DiRT 3 | 1037MHz | 1058MHz | |||||
| Shogun 2 | 1064MHz | 1035MHz | |||||
| Batman | 1042MHz | 1051MHz | |||||
| Portal 2 | 988MHz | 1041MHz | |||||
| Battlefield 3 | 1055MHz | 1054MHz | |||||
| Skyrim | 1084MHz | 1045MHz | |||||
| Civilization V | 1038MHz | 1045MHz | |||||
The average clockspeeds on our “reference” GTX 660 Ti don’t end up fluctuating all that much. With a max boost of 1058 the card actually gets to run at its top bin in a few of our tests, and it isn’t too far off in the rest. The lowest is 1035 for Shogun 2, and that’s only an average difference of 22MHz. The GTX 670 on the other hand had a wider range; a boon in some games and a bane in others. If nothing else, it means that despite the identical base and boost clocks, our cards aren’t purely identical at all times thanks to the impact of GPU boost pulling back whenever we reach our power target.
There are no great surprises with idle power consumption. Given the immense similarity between the GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti, they end up drawing the same amount of power both during idle and long idle. This does leave AMD with an 8W-10W lead at the wall in this test though.
Moving on to our load power tests we start with Metro: 2033. As we mentioned previously the GTX 660 Ti and GTX 670 have very similar power targets, and this benchmark confirms that. Power consumption for the GTX 660 Ti is virtually identical to the Radeon HD 7870, an interesting matchup given the fact that this is the first time NVIDIA has had to compete with Pitcairn. Pitcairn’s weaker compute performance means it starts off in a better position, but it looks like even with a salvaged GK104 NVIDIA can still compete with it. NVIDIA drove efficiency hard this generation; to compete with a smaller chip like that is certainly a testament to that efficiency.
As for the inevitable 7950 comparison, it’s no contest. The GTX 670 was already doing well here and the GTX 660 Ti doesn’t change that. Tahiti just can’t match GK104’s gaming efficiency, which is why AMD has had to push performance over power with the new 7950B.
Meanwhile it’s fascinating to see that the GTX 660 Ti has lower power consumption than the GTX 560 Ti, even though the latter has the advantage of lower CPU power consumption due to its much lower performance in Metro. Or better yet, just compare the GTX 660 Ti to the outgoing GTX 570.
For AMD/NVIDIA comparisons we have a bit less faith in our OCCT results than we do our Metro results right now, as NVIDIA and AMD seem to clamp their power consumption differently. NVIDIA’s power consumption clamp through GPU Boost is far softer than AMD’s PowerTune. As a result the 7870 consumes 25W less than the GTX 660 Ti here, which even with AMD’s very conservative PowerTune rating seems like quite the gap. Metro seems to be much more applicable here, at least when you’re dealing with cards that have similar framerates.
In any case, compared to NVIDIA’s lineup this is another good showing for the GTX 660 Ti. Power consumption at the wall is 45W below the GTX 560 Ti, a large difference thanks to the latter’s lack of power throttling technology.
As for our factory overclocked cards, these results are consistent with our expectations. Among the Zotac and EVGA cards there’s a few watts of flutter at best, seeing as how they have the same power target of 134W. Meanwhile the Sapphire card with its higher power target is 20W greater at the wall, which indicates that our estimated power target of 141W for that card is a bit too low. However this also means that those times where the Gigabyte card was winning, it was also drawing around 20W more than its competition, which is a tradeoff in and of itself.
Moving on to temperatures, at 31C the GTX 660 Ti is once more where we’d expect it to be given the similarities to the GTX 670. Open air coolers tend to do a bit better here than blowers though, so the fact that it’s only 1C cooler than the blower-type GTX 670 is likely a reflection on Zotac’s cooler.
Speaking of factory overclocked video cards, one card stands out above the rest: the Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti. That oversized cooler does its job and does it well, keeping the GPU down to barely above room temperature.
Considering that most of our high-end cards are blowers while our “reference” GTX 660 Ti is an open air cooler, temperature benchmarks are the GTX 660 Ti’s to win, and that’s precisely what’s going on. 67C is nice and cool too, which means that the open air coolers should fare well even in poorly ventilated cases.
As usual we see a rise in temperatures when switching from Metro to OCCT, but at 73C the GTX 660 Ti is still the coolest reference (or semi-reference) card on the board. To be honest we had expected that it would beat the 7870, but as far as blowers go the 7870’s is quite good.
Moving on to our factory overclocked cards, we’re seeing the usual divisions between open air coolers and blowers. The blower-based EVGA card performs almost identically to the GTX 670, which makes sense given the similarities between the cards. Meanwhile the open air Zotac and Gigabyte cards are neck-and-neck here, indicating that both cards are shooting for roughly the same temperatures, keeping themselves below 70C. Though it’s somewhat weird to see the factory overclocked Zotac card end up being cooler than its reference-clocked self; this appears to be a product of where the fan curve is being hit.
Last but not least we have our look at noise, where we’ll hopefully be able to fully shake out our factory overclocked cards.
Right off the bat we see the blower-based EVGA struggle, which was unexpected. It’s basically the same cooler as the GTX 670, so it should do better. Then again the EVGA GTX 670 SC had the same exact problem.
As for Metro, the GTX 660 Ti once again looks good. 48.2 isn’t the best for an open air cooler, but it’s a hair quieter than the 7870 and notably quieter than the GTX 670. The only unfortunate part about these results is that it just can’t beat the GTX 560 Ti; in fact nothing can. For its power consumption the GTX 560 Ti was an almost unreal card, but it’s still a shame the GTX 660 Ti can’t be equally unreal.
Moving on to our factory overclocked cards however, the Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC gets very close thanks to its very large cooler. 43.7dB technically isn’t silent, but it just as well should be. To offer the performance of a GTX 660 Ti (and then some) in such a package is quite the accomplishment.
As for Zotac and EVGA, there’s nothing bad about either of them but there’s also nothing great. EVGA’s card is about average for a blower, while Zotac’s card seems to be suffering from its size. It’s a relatively tiny card with a relatively tiny cooler, and this has it working harder to hit its temperature targets.
Finally we have noise testing with OCCT. Our “reference” GTX 660 Ti actually fares a bit worse than the GTX 670, which is unfortunate. So much of this test comes down to the cooler though that it’s almost impossible to predict how other cards will perform. At least it’s no worse than the 7870.
Meanwhile the Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC continues to impress. 43.7dB not only means that it didn’t get any louder switching from Metro to OCCT, but it has now bested the GTX 560 Ti thanks to the 560’s lack of power throttling technology. Make no mistake, 43.7dB for this kind of performance is very, very impressive.
As for EVGA and Zotac, it’s also a rehash of Metro. EVGA’s blower is actually over 1dB quieter than Zotac’s cooler, which is an unfortunate outcome for an open air cooler.
Wrapping things up, even without a true reference sample from NVIDIA it’s clear that the GTX 660 Ti has a lot of potential when it comes to power/temp/noise. Compared to other cards it’s roughly equivalent in power consumption and noise to the 7870, which for NVIDIA is an important distinction since it’s also notably faster than the 7870, so NVIDIA is on a better place on the power/performance curve. This goes for not only the 7870, but especially the 7950, where the GTX 660 Ti continues the tradition the GTX 670 already set, which will see the GTX 660 Ti being cooler, quieter, and less power hungry than AMD’s entry-level Tahiti part.
But it must be pointed out that the lack of a reference design for the GTX 660 Ti means buyers are also facing a lot of variability. Power consumption should be consistent between cards – which is to say a hair less than the GTX 670 – but temperature and especially noise will vary on a card by card basis. Potential buyers would best be served by checking out reviews ahead of time to separate the duds from the gems.
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Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
I play on either my 1080p TV or my 3 monitors 1920*1200 monitors(mainly on the monitors now. I only had the tv before so it was ok with my 6850 crossfire but now I'll need more memory and the main game I play, almost the only one, is Skyrim. I can't use the texture pack and some high details because in some caves and some places, the memory is limiting me badly. I plan to change the tv for one of those new high resolution one when they come out. In crossfire, you don't add the memory, you ahve the same video memory of only one card, so no it's not 2gb it's 1gb, thanks.I want the 7950 OC with 950mhz core I already did my research prior to the 660 ti review. They've been out for many months, I just work too much during the summer so I wasn't in a hurry and I wanted to see the competition.
There you go, they even have thermal pictures of the whole system/card which is something I was looking for. It's not a performance review against competition it's only on overclock and power usage. I don't care about the 80 watts supplementary too much because I was ready to buy an GTX 580 at a low enough price which has stock clock power usage like 7950 overclocked power usage.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/853-18/roundup-...
Page 11 is the one I'm looking for, I just want to get 1100 mhz which seems everyone gets 1150 with this card.
Before the patch in AMD drivers, Nvidia had a clear advantage so the 660 ti was like the obvious choice when it would come out(I thought so). Then these drivers and optimized games are mixing all the stuff up... If only they would care about us and not only their product performance, thus, their profit, but I know it will never happen. Money makes wars everywhere and it will NEVER stop.
TheJian - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
In SLI/Crossfire this card will give you 2GB (double your 1GB now, in either single or sli/cross you'll get 2GB), that's what I meant. I was talking about the 660TI, or whatever upgrade you do. You get the size of 2GB (one card's worth - SLI same thing). 2GBx2GB should be fine for skyrim at 1920x1200 (no card here was punished at 2GB 1920x1200). I already pointed to an article that shows NO difference from 2gb to 4gb in ANY game they tested.:http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-geforce-gtx-68...
"But 2GB really covers 98% of the games in the highest resolutions." It even worked at 5760x1200 below :) Look @ hardocp who tested on 3 monitors@5760x1200. 30fps min, 58.6avg 104max. On a single gtx680. Two 660's should smoke this single 680.
Not quite sure I understand your gaming on 3 monitors comment...You mean 5760x1200? Or are you only gaming on ONE of them 1920x1200? or you mean something else?
So you are planning on buying 2 video cards again? I thought you were just replacing with one at 2GB, but if you're gaming at 5760x1200 that's another story. I'd just buy a GTX680 and OC.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/22/nvidia_k...
For the apples-to-apples test we lowered the AA setting down to 4X AA, just in case there were some hidden bottlenecks. Lowering the AA setting to 4X AA only made things worse for the Radeon HD 7970. The GeForce GTX 680 increased its advantage to 29% performance advantage over the HD 7970!"
Granted as shown below with anand 12.7 they got better, but still lost, so don't expect NV to become behind in the above test even if they changed drivers. It didn't help below. NV won both tests anyway in anandtech testing... :)
Anand 12.7 drivers skyrim, 7970ghz edition, slaughtered at 1920x1200
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6025/radeon-hd-7970-...
All NV cards are cpu limited at that res, gtx580/670/680. But they all win by 10fps with 4xmsaa/16af. Even at the useless 2560x1600 res 680 still wins...Thats a REF model they're comparing it to also. 680 does much better than this with what you BUY, but this is vs. ghz edition, so don't expect much more from your overclock and heat/noise will get worse. You'll only get another 15% at 1150 than they are already benching here (if that, scaling isn't perfect).
From your own quoted article voltages vary, and as I pointed to another guy needed 1.25v to hit 1150.
"Secondly, PowerTune doesn’t register increases in the GPU voltage and the big energy consumption increases that come with it. The technology is therefore incapable of fully protecting the GPU and the card. AMD says that OVP (Over Voltage Protection) and OCP (Over Current Protection) are still in place but, as we were able to observe, these technologies cut all power to the card when limits are exceeded."
YOU can damage your card as I stated before this can't happen on 600's.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-overc...
1.25v 1150. Not all cards are the same.
Look at your own chart on your link. Scroll down to where they show the chart and 1.20+ being REQUIRED to hit this statement:
"The maximum clock on the Radeon HD 7900s generally seems to be between 1125 and 1200 MHz when the GPU voltage is adjusted.". Look at the chart above that line...1.20 is REQUIRED in most cases to hit anything over 1100. That is the FIRST voltage where they all meet 1100. @1.174 two couldn't even hit 1100 (the HIS and the Reference card). ONLY 3 cards hit 1125@1.25, only ONE went above. RUSSIAN, are you listening?...LOL. There are 11 cards in the list, be careful assuming all Sapphire OC's are the same. They are not. From page 19:
"When the GPU voltage is changed this goes up to an increase of between 21 and 78%, which is enough to put the power stages of these cards under stress."
That's 78% more power draw is a lot of watts, and they'll product a lot of heat/noise. Thanks for the link, it's a good article, I look forward to the 660 TI article there to see the comparison (hopefully he'll make one, there were only radeons in this article). Also note his page 14 comments and the charts showing heat stuck inside the pc frying other components as they don't expel the heat out the rear well:"The reference HIS, MSI Twin Frozr III and Sapphire OverClock Radeon HD 7950s and Radeon HD 7970 Lightning however tend to direct more hot air towards the hard drives.". Your card is in there...Only two cards didn't do that. Another downer for the 7950 cards in my mind. The CPU in your case (your OC card) would be 5C higher as shown in the chart vs. reference model. That's a lot of C added to your CPU. Paying attention russian? All of this affects your glorious 1150 speeds.
Galidou has a better article than I used, as it is more complete regarding the "OTHER" effects a 1150mhz overclock on your radeon will get you (cpu raises, HD's, mem sticks etc), not to mention they don't expel the heat. I'm wondering if his 660TI article will show case temps sucking also now...ROFL. Thanks again Galidou. GOOD INFO. Right now my decision is the same, but after he does a 660 article I hope the issue doesn't become confused :)
Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
Lol you're so fun, people overclocked gtx 580 and it gave out more heat and still ate more current than anything this gen can ever imagine and no system died as of this yet... I gave you an example it can easily hit 1100-1150 without breaking 80w more and still you have to speak and speak and always say the same thing and try to make me beleive that if I ever buy a radeon card I will be deceived, I will eventually catch cancer and die of it.... thanks your fanaticism is appreciated. The more I speak with fanboys of both side, the more I think I'll have to stop playing computer for the risk of becoming like them.Skyrim,3 monitors is clearly ahead, I really thought you'd have sense after telling you the games I play but it seems you're as stubborn as someone can be. My wallet is speaking, my radeon 6850 crossfire made more heat in my system than this 7950 overclocked alone will do and yet I'll gain in performance.
Skyrim with mods isn'T shown anywhere, it fills over 2gb of ram as soon as you ramp up the mods in there, I'm playing with 30 and my 1gb of ram is crying at me to stop. If you don't know the game you're speaking of, just don'T comment please.
You can't damage your 660 or 670? lol fun stuff I'm a fan of reading 1 egg review on newegg and there's plenty on both side(AMD and Nvidia) claiming that their card died, for ati they died in the first week. 670 is newer than 7950 and still there are numerous cards that have 10 to 30% of 1egg-2eggs because of fried cards with and without overclock ranging from 1 days of ownership to 3 months of ownership.
I guess 28nm isn't at it's peak and that is reflected. One guy claimed he overclocked his 670 and when the boost would go past 1290 it would black screen and shut down in battlefield 3(verified owner in the forums). Why would someone own the card say stuff like that?
The articles you'Ve shown me in skyrim are before the big patch in AMD drivers, don'T get what I say, look at anandtech review of the gtx 680(4 months ago I think) and the review of the gtx 660 ti and watch the difference. You obviously didn'T do the research I did. The driver is about a month old and it gave VERY big improvements in skyrim, just watch any new review dating end of july to now and you will understand.
Seeing you had to speak again so much and seeing the lack of information you have, this is ending now, thanks anyway but your stubbornness dragged me out of myself and I'm tired to speak with someone who already has a choosen side that blinds him to the point he cannot bring arguments that are valid on every front. Been nice tho.
Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
I meant over 2gb of Vram with texture pack. I'm an overclocker, I've been overclocking things for the past 15 years and still you try to explain me some things about heat while you can'T even find articles relative the the real performance of AMD with the newer drivers.I'm the kind of enthusiast you can find on overclock.net forums, you've argued the wrong way with the wrong person sorry if my english wasn'tperfect all along but I'm a french canadian.
Still, temperatures raises on components like you said has been experienced for years, my radeon 4870 is super hot and still is working in my wife system and still nothing died, it leaves more heat in my whole system than the radeon 7950 alone will and I overclocked the darn thing.
You're speaking like you'Re trying to make a show to everyone reading you but no one is reading cauz it's too long for them to bare and it isn'T even actual. So cut the show and the ''Galidou has a better article than I used'' like if you'Re speaking to someone, we'Re arguing together and you got lost in your information and didn'T even know of the BIG perf improvements as of 12.8 catalyst drivers show your inexperience. GG
Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
Oh and I forgot, last thing then you'll NEVER ever hear from me again on this forum so free to you to speak in the emptiness, the more we add, the less people will get to read it.2560*1600 = 4 millions pixels
1920*1200 x 3 monitors = 7 millions pixels
2560*1600 is cpu limited on anadtech, meaning all video cards in the review that are stuck at 84-86fps will go higher, so the 7950 will be ahead of the 7970 and ahead of the gtx 670 which is 100$ over the price I will pay because I'll wait for the special to come back and there's never any special on Nvidia cards because they are too good.
Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
And stop showing overclocked results and damaging thing about reference lousy stupid board, my system is watercooled and the video card will surely be in the end and stop shpowing me gtx 680 results it's above what I want to pay, I'm replacing my crossfire for one 7950 and watercooled they get EASILY to 1300 core clock which is rapeage of even the gtx 680 stock clocked ANYWHERE.Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/HD_797...now look at 5760*1080(lower resolution than I'll use) and look at where the 7950(not overclocked reference lousy board) just get te picture with the new drivers now. I leave up to you to find any 5760*1080 before drivers release and in the future, learn to find results by yourself.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
enjoy nVidia 660Ti's sweet victory over your planned to buy 7950 at your triple monitor rez there buckyLOL
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/nvidia...
HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
OMG ! HAHAHA
Galidou - Monday, August 20, 2012 - link
I know you don't want any AMD cards, it'S pretty obvious while I don't care about the brand it's only the fanboys from each side seems convinced the gap is SO IMMENSE while I don't see much of a gap when you consider price/performance and as always it depends on the game.Considering I'll play Skyrim on 3 monitors, unless you're a freaking blind fanboy, it would be hard to recommend the 660 ti... The sapphire OC to 950mhz isn't even on this site, it's simply a reference 7970 board with an 6+8 pin PEG connector.Which supports the overclock with the reference voltage on 1000mhz core easily.
If I didn't have the knowledge and desire about overclocking I have now, the choice would be freaking obvious, 1080p gaming without overclocking, welcome 660 ti the card would be on it's way. But I want to overclock and everyone in the forums at overclock.net already know it, and whatever how big your doubts are, 90% of them report super overclock.
Now don't bring me some of your comparison with the 7950b and reference coolers or I just do not answer back to you, AMD has as much non reference boards than Nvidia has. WTF wake up.... guru 3d overclocking a reference board with the lousy worthless not selling reference fan when 75% of their cards have way better coolers, good way of representing the reality..... COMON.
BTW, I live in Canada, province of quebec, and where I live, the electricity is quite cheap, like really cheap.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
" Considering I'll play Skyrim on 3 monitors, unless you're a freaking blind fanboy, it would be hard to recommend the 660 ti."http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/nvidia...
EVEN THE 7970 LOSES LMAO !!!
So, you're saying your a totally freaking blind fanboy...
Cool.