Manufacturer: Gigabyte Price: $ 300 US Author: Steve Date: 08/15/2012

[ Introduction ]

Today we are checking out Nvidia’s long awaited GeForce GTX 660 Ti which targets mid-range performance. Based on virtually the same design as the GeForce GTX 670, the GTX 660 Ti should deliver unseen levels of performance to the $300 price range... The GeForce GTX 660 Ti is an exciting prospect as it shares the same DNA as the GTX 670 and GTX 680 graphics cards. Yet what is really surprising about this new mid-range graphics card is that it boasts the same number of CUDA Cores and Texture Units as GTX 670. On paper the GeForce GTX 660 Ti looks to be a real weapon and really it shouldn’t be a great deal cheaper than the GTX 670. Nvidia claim to be tackling the Radeon HD 7870 with this graphics card, which suggests a $300 price tag, and if that ends up being true this could spell disaster for AMD. Particularly given we expect to see Radeon HD 7950 levels of performance in a number of games from the GTX 660 Ti. For this review we will be looking at the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card, model name GV-N66TOC-2GD. This particular card measures 21.5cm long which is quite compact. However due to the large cooler used the actual length of the graphics card is 25.0cm, which is slightly longer than the AMD reference design for the Radeon HD 7870. As the model name suggests Gigabyte has performed a little factory overclocking, but before we talk clock speeds, let's explore the GTX 660 Ti's GPU in a little more detail. The card ships with 1344 CUDA cores and 7 SMX units, 1 SMX unit and 192 CUDA cores less than the GTX 680 but the same number as the GTX 670. The amount of TAUs is the same as the GTX 670 with 112 in total, while the ROPs have been reduced from 32 to 24. The memory subsystem has been changed from the GTX 680 and GTX 670 cards which feature four 64-bit controllers for a 256-bit wide bus. The GTX 660 Ti drops one 64-bit controller leaving it with a 192-bit bus. Combine that with 2048MB GDDR5 memory clocked at 1502MHz (6008MHz DDR) and you end up with a bandwidth of 144.2GB/s, which isn’t bad, though it is 33% less than the GTX 670 and that is where the performance difference is found. Nvidia's specification for the base clock frequency is 915MHz, while the average Boost Clock speed is 980MHz. Gigabyte has increased the base clock frequency to 1032MHz and the boost clock to 1111MHz, while the memory operates at the standard 6008MHz. With that said, let’s move on to see how it performs...

Table of Contents >>> Introduction <<< Test System Specs & 3Dmark 11 Benchmarks: Aliens vs. Predator, Metro 2033 Benchmarks: Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 Benchmarks: Crysis 2, Dragon Age II Benchmarks: Deus Ex, Hard Reset Benchmarks: DiRT 3, Showdown Benchmarks: The Witcher 2, The Elder Scrolls V Benchmarks: Alan Wake, King Arthur II Benchmarks: Just Cause 2, Max Payne 3 Power Consumption & Temperatures Overclocking Performance Final Thoughts Next Page ->

ProX	Posted on: 08/16/2012 08:15 AM wow amazing value. It is hard to believe that Nvidia will release this card at $300, whats the point of the GTX 670 now?

psolord

Posted on: 08/16/2012 09:35 AM You have used the Deus Ex slide for all graphs in the overclocking section guys. Please fix. Good review. Thanks.

Steven Walton Posts: 104 Joined: 2010-02-08

Posted on: 08/16/2012 11:02 AM Thanks psolord fixed now.

musso

Posted on: 08/16/2012 11:11 AM Really hope AMD come back with some price cuts fast. I want a 7950 Anyway very nice review, loved all the testing thanks.

seth	Posted on: 08/16/2012 11:20 AM So I was going to buy a gtx 670 next week and now I am not sure. Guess I will wait for the gtx 660 ti to hit shelves.

shark976 Posts: 2 Joined: 2012-08-16

Posted on: 08/16/2012 12:05 PM Good job deleting my post. Since Legionhardware doesnt want you to know the truth, I'll just leave this chart here where the 7950 GE humiliates Nvidia's precious new baby http://www.xbitlabs.com/picture/?src=/images/graphics/geforce-gtx-660-ti/21_66vs795GE_big.png Back to the drawing board, Nvidia. Devastated again.

PUNISHER Posts: 1 Joined: 2012-08-16

Posted on: 08/16/2012 12:35 PM Posted by shark976 on 08/16/2012 01:05 PM Good job deleting my post. Since Legionhardware doesnt want you to know the truth, I'll just leave this chart here where the 7950 GE humiliates Nvidia's precious new baby http://www.xbitlabs.com/picture/?src=/images/graphics/geforce-gtx-660-ti/21_66vs795GE_big.png Back to the drawing board, Nvidia. Devastated again. Epic fail. Do you understand that HD 7950 GE is overclocked card?

shark976 Posts: 2 Joined: 2012-08-16

Posted on: 08/16/2012 12:58 PM Haha another one. Ouch. Slower than 7870 at Tom's hardware: http://media.bestofmicro.com/9/V/348979/original/Average%20Perf.png "According to the settings we chose on a per-game basis, picked to maximize visual quality at playable frame rates, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is close to, if not slightly slower than a Radeon HD 7870. We already know this runs counter to Nvidia's expectations, which put the new card between AMD's Radeon HD 7870 and 7950. However, after comparing lab results, the outcome of our testing appears tied to the way we picked settings for each game, likely taxing the 660 Ti's memory bandwidth more than less-demanding options would. Perhaps our settings favor the Radeon cards. Perhaps theirs favor the GeForce-based boards. And maybe the most real-world outcome lies somewhere in between. But, I believe the truth is that GeForce GTX 660 Ti performs within 5%, plus or minus, of the Radeon HD 7870." Damn, that had to hurt, Nvidia! And Punisher, umm no. 7950 GE is just like Nvidia's boosted cards. It simply boosts up to 925 mhz when possible. So that makes all Nvidia's cards overclocked by your own standard. 7950GE or B is just AMD's response to 660 Ti. It's just AMD using the same tricks Nvidia already does with auto-overclocking cards. The key on 7950 GE will be pricing anyway. If it's priced too high it'll fail. If it's priced well it will do well.

Kaotik

Posted on: 08/16/2012 02:48 PM Since my last post got deleted, I'll try again - what's up with the Dirt 3 numbers? They definitely aren't run on the 12.7's the review claims to be using - all the other sites which have run Dirt 3 on the 12.7's have even normal 7970 beating or matching 670, yet here both 670 and 660Ti are beating even 7970GE

Tortuga

Posted on: 08/16/2012 04:50 PM Sort of agree with shark. It is mislead to put up benches from an older standard 7950, since they are downclocked and without the new bios.

RS Posts: 3 Joined: 2011-08-17

Posted on: 08/16/2012 05:34 PM There is a reason this card is $299 and something NV won't tell you about it. The best case scenario is always going to be that the entire 192bit bus is in use by interleaving a memory operation across all 3 controllers, giving the card 144GB/sec of memory bandwidth (192bit * 6GHz / 8 ). But that can only be done at up to 1.5GB of memory; the final 512MB of memory is attached to a single memory controller. This invokes the worst case scenario, where only 1 64-bit memory controller is in use and thereby reducing memory bandwidth to a much more modest 48GB/sec. This pretty much means you won't be able to play games that use more than 1.5GB of VRAM on this card. GTX660Ti =! 2GB card. I think for overcockers, and people who want to keep the card for 2 years, 7950 is still the better option.

ProX	Posted on: 08/16/2012 11:24 PM @ shark976 - you are the biggest troll ever, hand pick your results why don't you LOL The 660 Ti smashes the 7870, there is no two ways about it.