The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte
by Ryan Smith on August 16, 2012 9:00 AM ESTCompute Performance
Shifting gears, as always our final set of real-world benchmarks is a look at compute performance. As we have seen with GTX 680 and GTX 670, GK104 appears to be significantly less balanced between rendering and compute performance than GF110 or GF114 were, and as a result compute performance suffers. Cache and register file pressure in particular seem to give GK104 grief, which means that GK104 can still do well in certain scenarios, but falls well short in others. For GTX 660 Ti in particular, this is going to be a battle between the importance of shader performance – something it has just as much of as the GTX 670 – and cache/memory pressure from losing that ROP cluster and cache.
Our first compute benchmark comes from Civilization V, which uses DirectCompute to decompress textures on the fly. Civ V includes a sub-benchmark that exclusively tests the speed of their texture decompression algorithm by repeatedly decompressing the textures required for one of the game’s leader scenes. Note that this is a DX11 DirectCompute benchmark.
For Civilization V memory bandwidth and cache are clearly more important than raw compute performance in this test. Although this isn’t a worst case scenario outcome for the GTX 660 Ti, it drops substantially from the GTX 670. As a result its compute performance is barely better than the GTX 560 Ti, which wasn’t a strong performer at compute in the first place.
Our next benchmark is SmallLuxGPU, the GPU ray tracing branch of the open source LuxRender renderer. We’re now using a development build from the version 2.0 branch, and we’ve moved on to a more complex scene that hopefully will provide a greater challenge to our GPUs.
Ray tracing likes memory bandwidth and cache, which means another tough run for the GTX 660 Ti. In fact it’s now slower than the GTX 560 Ti. Compared to the 7950 this isn’t even a contest. GK104 is generally bad at compute, and GTX 660 Ti is turning out to be especially bad.
For our next benchmark we’re looking at AESEncryptDecrypt, an OpenCL AES encryption routine that AES encrypts/decrypts an 8K x 8K pixel square image file. The results of this benchmark are the average time to encrypt the image over a number of iterations of the AES cypher.
The GTX 660 Ti does finally turn things around on our AES benchmark, thanks to the fact that it generally favors NVIDIA. At the same time the gap between the GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti is virtually non-existent.
Our fourth benchmark is once again looking at compute shader performance, this time through the Fluid simulation sample in the DirectX SDK. This program simulates the motion and interactions of a 16k particle fluid using a compute shader, with a choice of several different algorithms. In this case we’re using an (O)n^2 nearest neighbor method that is optimized by using shared memory to cache data.
The compute shader fluid simulation provides the GTX 660 Ti another bit of reprieve, although like other GK104 cards it’s still relatively weak. Here it’s virtually tied with the GTX 670 so it’s clear that it isn’t being impacted by cache or memory bandwidth losses, but it needs about 10% more to catch the 7950.
Finally, we’re adding one last benchmark to our compute run. NVIDIA and the Folding@Home group have sent over a benchmarkable version of the client with preliminary optimizations for GK104. Folding@Home and similar initiatives are still one of the most popular consumer compute workloads, so it’s something NVIDIA wants their GPUs to do well at.
Interestingly Folding @ Home proves to be rather insensitive to the differences between the GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti, which is not what we would have expected. The GTX 660 Ti isn’t doing all that much better than the GTX 570, once more reflecting that GK104 is generally struggling with compute performance, but it’s not a bad result.
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claysm - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
I absolutely will ignore driver support for the 6 series cards. If you are using an AGP card, it's really REALLY time to upgrade.You are just as bad a fanboy for nVidia as any AMD guy here, moron. You are completely ignoring anything good about AMD just because it has AMD attached to it.
I'm completely confident that if AMD had introduced adaptive v-sync and PhysX, you would still say they suck, just because they came from AMD. If you read my post, it says that 660 Ti IS more powerful than the 7870. I was just pointing out that they are closer than they seem. I have no nVidia hatred, they have a lot of cool stuff.
And about the 660 Ti beating the 7950 at 5760x1080, look at the other three benchmarks, moron. The 7950 wins all of them, meaning BF3, Dirt 3, and Crysis 2. It only looses in Skyrim by and average of 2 FPS. Why didn't you include those games in your response.
And when I left the games out, I said that they merely blew the average out of proportion, but that you can't leave them out because you want to. You still have to calculate them in the total. Moron.
And for the record, I'm running a GTX 570, moron.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
Look, the amd crew, you, talk your crap of lies, then I correct you.That's why.
Now, whatever you have that is "good by amd" go ahead and state it. Don't tell lies, don't spin, don't talk crap.
I'm waiting...
My guess is I'll have to correct your lies again, and your STUPID play dumb amnesia.
The reason one game was given with 660Ti in that highest resolution winning is very obvious, isn't it, the endless your bud giradou or geradil or geritol whatever his name is was claiming that's the game he was buying the 7950 for...
LOL
ROFL
MHO
Whatever - do your worst.
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
" Fan noise of the card is very low in both idle and load, and temperatures are fine as well.Overall, MSI did an excellent job improving on the NVIDIA reference design, resulting in a significantly better card. The card's price of $330 is the same as all other GTX 660 Ti cards we reviewed today. At that price the card easily beats AMD's HD 7950 in all important criteria: performance, power, noise, heat, performance per Dollar, performance per Watt. "
LOL
power target 175W LOL
" It seems that MSI has added some secret sauce, no other board partner has, to their card's BIOS. One indicator of this is that they raised the card's default power limit from 130 W to 175 W, which will certainly help in many situations. During normal gaming, we see no increased power consumption due to this change. The card essentially uses the same power as other cards, but is faster - leading to improved performance per Watt.< br />Overclocking works great as well and reaches the highest real-life performance, despite not reaching the lowest GPU clock. This is certainly an interesting development. We will, hopefully, see more board partners pick up this change. "
Uh OH
bad news for you amd fanboys.....
HAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The MSI 660Ti is uncorked from the bios !
roflmao
Ambilogy - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
"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% !"
So you have not a problem with performance? good, because actually that means its a competitive card, not a omfg card. And if you want to oc a 660 you would just oc a 7950 so I don't see the omfg nvidia is so much better.
"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 ?"
So essentially when i ask how many people do actually 3D because you seem to think 2% is unimportant in resolution your answer is "well nvidia is 10 ahead because it has features ACCEPT BLINDLY". Not smart.
"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."
FPS are gone and future is fantasy? amd cards still perfom, they are very gpgpu focused and they do excellent for that, and still they don't have bad gaming performance while doing it because you just buy a pre OC version or something and you get still awesome performance (very similar to your 660ti god), say to me what is not enjoyable while playing with an AMD card mr fanboy.
And the future, well, future is gpgpu because allows big improvements to computing, yet is "fantasy". It's only non important because nvidia had good gpgpu in the past and not now?
"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.."
Yeah, calling fan-boy before actually noticing that nvidia told the reviewers how to review the card so it looked better, because get realist, if they include a horrible AA technique with no reason at all something is behind the table hiding you know. Haven't you noticed? theres a lot of discrepancy in 660ti's benchmarks around the web, from sites where the 660 loses to 870's radeons and where it wins to 970's, there is not a single liable review now, do you want to see the truth? buy a 660ti a 870 and a 950, and compare the 3, you will have the truth, thay they perform like they are priced and AMD cards are not shit.
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
Hey, I answered the guys 3 questions. I made my points. I didn't say half of what you're talking about, but who cares.
The guy killed himself with point #1, so that's the end of it.
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
Oh stop the crap. nVidia is 10 features ahead, I'm not the one who talked about resolution usage, so you've got the wrong fellow there.3D isn't the only feature... but then you know that, but will blabber like an idiot anyway.
Go away.
claysm - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
"I'm not the one who talked about resolution usage". You can't fault him for mixing up his trolls. Since almost everything you and TheJian have said is complete shit it's hard to keep track of who said what.And if you can objectively prove that I've lied about anything, I really would like to see it. And I mean objectively, not your usual response of entirely subjective 'AMD suckz lololol' presented in almost unreadably bad grammar.
I take that back, I won't read it anyways, since I know already know it'll be an nVidia love fest regardless of what the facts state. And I'll reiterate that I'm using an nVidia card. Moron.
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
Oh it is not, he showed it all to be true and so does the review man.Get out of your freaking goggled amd fanboy gourd.
Look, I just realized another thing that doesn't bode well for you..
What nVidia did here was make a very good move, and the losses of amd on the Steam Hardware Survey at the top end are going to increase....
The amd fanboy is constantly crying about price - they're going to look at $299 with the excellent new game for free and PASS on the more expensive 7950 Russian is promoting EVEN MORE now.
Here let me get you the little info you're now curious about. ( I hope but maybe you're just a scowling amd fanboy liar still completely uninterested because you never got 1 fact according to you LOL sad what you are it's sad)
Aug 15th 2012 prdola0
" Looking at Steam Survey, it is clear why AMD is so desperate. GTX680 has 0.90% share, while even the 7850 lineup has less, just 0.62%. If you look at the GTX670, it has 0.99%. The HD7970 has only 0.54%, about half of what GTX680 has, which is funny considering that the GTX680 is selling only half the time compared to HD7970. It means that GTX680 is selling 4 times faster."
ROFL...
No one is listening to you fools, Russian included... now it's going to GET WORSE for amd....
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
forgot link, sorry, page 2 commenthttp://www.anandtech.com/show/6152/amd-announces-n...
Okay, and that stupid 7950 boost REALLY IS CRAPPY CHIPS from the low end loser harvest they had to OVER VOLT to get to their boost...
LOL
LOL\
OLO
I mean there it is man - the same JUNK amd fanboys always use to attack nVida talking about rejected chips for lower clocked down the line variants has NOW COME TRUE IN FULL BLOWN REALITY FOR AMD....~!
HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
AHHAHAHAHAHAA
omg !
hahahahahahhahaha
ahhahaha
ahaha
Holy moly. hahahahahhahahha
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
plus here the 660Ti wins in 5760x1080, beating the 7950 the 7950 boost, and the 7970...http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/nvidia...
Skyrim. So, throw that out too - add skyrim to your too short shortlist. Throw out your future mem whine. throw out your OC whine readied for 660Ti...
Yep. So the argument left is " I wuv amd ! " - or the more usual " I OWS nVidia ! " ( angry face )