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
No contribution there.claysm - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
The article says that the 660 Ti is an average of 10-15% faster than the 7870, and that's true. But I feel that that average doesn't reflect how close those two cards really are in most games. If you throw out the results for Portal 2 and Battlefield 3 (since they are nVidia blowouts), the 660 Ti is only about 5% faster than the 7870.Now obviously you can't just throw those results away because you don't like them, but if you're not playing BF3 or Portal 2, then the 660 Ti and the 7870 are actually very close. And given the recent price drop of the 7870, it would definitely win the price/performance mark.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
At what resolution ?Oh, doesn't matter apparently.
claysm - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
At every resolution tested. 1680x1050, 1920x1200, and 2560x1600.CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Not true nice try though not really was patheticCeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
No PhysX, no adaptive v-sync, inferior 3D, inferior 3 panel gaming, no target frame rate, poorer IQ, the list goes on and on.you have to be a fanboy fool to buy amd, and there are a lot of fools around, you being one of them.
claysm - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
PhysX is not that great. There is only a single this year that will have PhysX support, and that is Borderlands 2. Most of the effects that PhysX adds are just smoke and more fluid and cloth dynamics. Sometimes a slightly more destructible environment.Adaptive V-Sync is cool, I saw a demonstration video of it.
Inferior 3D is true, although your next point is stupid. AMD's Eyefinity is much better than nVidia Surround.
I'm not a fanboy, Go to the bench and look at the results, do the math if you want. Barring BF3 and Portal 2, again since they are huge wins for nVidia, every other game on the list is extremely close. Of the 35 benchmarks that were run, it's the 8 from BF3 and Portal 2 that completely blow the average. The 660 Ti is more powerful, but the 7870 is a lot closer to the 660 Ti than the average would lead you to believe.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Yeah whatever - buy the slow loser without the features, say they don't matter, get the one with crappy drivers, say that doesn't matter.. throw out a few games, say they don't matter, ignore the driver support that goes back to the nVidia 6 series, that doesn't matter, ignore the pathetic release drivers of amd, say that doesn't matter... put in the screwy amd extra download junk for taskbar control in eyefinity, pretend that doesn't matter - no bezel peek pretend that doesn't matter...DUDE - WHATEVER ... you're a FOOL to buy amd.
Ambilogy - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
"Yeah whatever"Essentially when someone said that theres 5% diference you 'just forget about it, nothings here to notice I'm busy trolling'. bullshit
"- buy the slow loser"
So for you slower loser is a little dif in framerates only in the allmyghty 19XX x 1XXX res? where everything is playable with other cards also? what when new titles come and then some stuff starts to go wrong with 660ti?. you can actually ignore the difference now and future titles could go better for AMD for opencl stuff. You should have said "a little slower now, if we are lucky, still a little slower on the future". bullshit
"without the features, say they don't matter"
I don't actually notice phyxs playing... and... if 2% of people play in very high res, how many do you think plays at your marvelous nvidia 3d? bullshit. Its like saying this is bad because only 2% uses it, and this is good but the percentage is even less. bullshit
"get the one with crappy drivers"
You read that a lot of people had amd driver issues, nice, like a lot of people also has nvidia driver issues... do you know the percentage of driver failures? the failures stand out only because normal working drivers don't drive attention. Does not mean that its plagged by bugs. bullshit.
", say that doesn't matter.. throw out a few games, say they don't matter, ignore the driver support that goes back to the nVidia 6 series, that doesn't matter, ignore the pathetic release drivers of amd, say that doesn't matter... "
Hey nice! i know how to repeat stuff that I have already said without proving anything also! look: bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. The games you think matter can still be played, its future games that will tax this cards to new limits, then we will see, and if those include opencl, where will be your god? "well I could play battlefield 3 better some time ago, im sure these new games don't matter". or maybe a "yeah whatever" ? :)
And im tyred now, I think this card is a fail, what does it do that cards already didn't do? what market do they cover that was not previously covered?
OH NO BUT WE HAVE BETTER FPS FOR MAIN RESOLUTIONS
Well, good luck with that in the future... I'm sure a man will buy a good 7950 with factory oc that will go just about as well, still playable and nice, and when the future comes then what? you can cry, cry hard.
You cannot accept that your card is:
1. Easy to equalize in performance, with little performance difference in most games or actually none if OC is considered.
2. Focused on the marketing of some today games and completely forgot about future, memory bandwidth and so on.
3. Overly marketised by nvidia.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
You cannot accept (your lies) that your card is:1. Easy to equalize in performance, with little performance difference in most games or actually none if OC is considered.
I don't have a problem with that. 660Ti is hitting 1300+ on core and 7000+ on memory, and so you have a problem with that.
The general idea you state, though I'M ALL FOR IT MAN!
A FEW FPS SHOULD NOT BE THE THING YOU FOCUS ON, ESPECIALLY WHEN #1 ! ALL FOR IT ! 100% !
Thus we get down to the added features- whoops ! nVidia is about 10 ahead on that now. That settles it.
Hello ? Can YOU accept THAT ?
If FOLLOWS 100% from your #1
I'd like an answer about your acceptance level.
2. Focused on the marketing of some today games and completely forgot about future, memory bandwidth and so on.
Nope, it's already been proven it's a misnomer. Cores are gone , fps is too, before memory can be used. In the present, a bit faster now, cranked to the max, and FAILING on both sides with CURRENT GAMES - but some fantasy future is viable ? It's already been aborted.
You need to ACCEPT THAT FACT.
The other possibility would be driver enhancements, but both sides do that, and usually nvidia does it much better, and SERVICES PAST CARDS all the way back to 6 series AGP so amd loses that battle "years down the road" - dude...
Accept or not ? Those are current facts.
3. Overly marketised by nvidia. "
Okay, so whatever that means...all I see is insane amd fanboysim - that's the PR call of the loser - MARKETING to get their failure hyped - hence we see the mind infected amd fanboys everywhere, in fact, you probably said that because you have the pr pumped nVidia hatred.
Here's an example of "marketised""
http://www.verdetrol.com/
ROFL - your few and far between and dollars still hard at work.
AMD adverts your butt in CCC - install and bang - the ads start flowing right onto your CCC screen...
Is that " Overly marketised" ?
I'm sorry you're going to have to do much better than that.