NVIDIA GTX 1660 Review - The Best GTX 960 Replacement Yet?
NVIDIA GTX 1660 Review - The Best GTX 960 Replacement Yet?
2019-03-14
so a few weeks ago we were all
introduced to Nvidia's first non rtx
GPU for 2019 gtx 1660 TI i said that
right this time by the way now even
though this thing can't run AI or
ray-tracing
operations it still offers some great
value for gamers who don't see a point
in paying a premium for the features
that aren't just being used yet so that
brings us to today's review which was
almost late because of ups damn and I
hate UPS I just I just I just really do
but anyways it's finally here this my
friends is the gtx 1660 non TI that is
and it's starting price is at $220 which
is pretty affordable if you think about
it considering the gtx 1060 was launched
at around $200 and the older gtx 960 was
launched at $200 since its release day
it's also interesting to note that
Nvidia's GTX 1060 and cards around this
price point are the most popular right
now on steams Hardware serwe so this is
a very important launch so why don't we
get into the review but first a quick
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down below now before I get to the
benchmarks let's actually get into what
the gtx 1660 is but at the same time if
you just want to skip directly into
performance I'll actually leave
timestamps down in the comments also if
you want to check out our GTX 1660
TI review and learn a little bit more
about the architecture you can actually
check that up right over here like I
said in the GTX 1660 and 1660 TI video these
new gtx cards use the 1290 meter tu1 1:6
core which incorporates all of the turin
architectures improvements except the RT
and tensor units that means RTX has
been crossed out the spec sheet but
performance in standard games gets a big
post and media did this because AI and
ray-tracing operations
to be backed up by a huge amount of
rendering power and that's something
these lower price options just don't
have so if you want rtx you'll need to
spend a little bit more money and buy an
RTX 2060 or a higher-end GPU the GTX
1660 specs are pretty interesting too
it uses a cut-down version of the gtx
1660 ti score with a little over 1400 cuda
cores and slightly higher clock speeds
while the TDP remains at 120 watts
the real difference here is with memory
the 1660 still has six gigabytes and 192
bit wide interface but it uses gddr5
modules operating at 8 gigahertz instead
of 12 gigahertz of GDD are 6 well that
could cause memory bandwidth bottlenecks
in some games
I wouldn't be surprised if a bit of
overclocking brings a stock GTX 1660
close to a GTX 1660 Ti unfortunately due
to some other shipping issues I wasn't
able to get a stock GTX 1660 in time
for this video but EVGA ended up sending
their XE ultra version personally I have
mixed feelings about this card in terms
of design but it's a lot better than the
triple slot version that I looked at in
our GTX 1660 and 1660 TI video even though
the length is about 10.5 inches or 268
millimeters it'll fit into more small
form factor cases - other than that
turning the card over shows that EVGA
has used a shorter PCB and then attached
a massive cooler the overhang is
protected by a small backplate but the
design also means the power connector
gets popped into an interesting location
the rear i/o area is pretty
straightforward with single outputs for
DVI HDMI and DisplayPort it's nice to
see DVI here since a lot of gamers
looking for more affordable cards might
not have a newer monitor and the last
thing anyone wants to buy is another
adapter the XC ultra version has also
been pre overclocked by EVGA and its
core runs about 60 mega is higher than
the stock version that likely won't
result in all that much performance
especially since the memory sticks to a
gigahertz the price is what might rip a
few people up since this card will hit
$250 but EVGA will be offering a limited
$10 rebate at large
bringing it to 240
one thing I did notice during testing
was that the boos clock constantly sat
at nineteen sixty-five megahertz
that's almost 100 megahertz higher than
what a reference back 1660 TI
hit so let's cut this short right here
and get right on to the benchmarks as we
run through these charts you'll
basically see the same thing repeated
over and over again the gtx 1660
outperforms the gtx ten succeed by a
pretty big margin at both resolutions
sometimes by over 25% but does that mean
that he should be replacing the 1060 if
you have one absolutely not
but if you have a gtx 960 or an earlier
GPU this will be a huge step up at a
price that's really close to what you
paid a few years ago another thing
that's important to mention again is the
EVGA card I'm using over here is pre
overclocked but not by a huge amount I'm
going to say that the increased clock
speeds add between two or three percent
at most to the scores versus a stock
1660 now when you compared to the 1660
TI performance is really variable at
times they're pretty close with this new
card in some other times it even comes
close to the gtx 1070 performance levels
but frame rates really aren't consistent
across and retail in a few games the non
TI models falls way too behind but that
actually happens a lot more often at
1440p so the gap is likely due to the
1660s lower memory clock speeds you can
actually see that situation pretty
clearly in hell-blade rainbow 6 and
witcher at 1080p then again at 1440p
games like far cry 5 battlefield and
even overwatch can be added to that list
too particularly with the lower 1% of
frame times against AMD cards the GTX
1660 is roughly equal to performance of
an Rx 590 but that card almost consumes
a ton more power and even costs a bit
more right now I would be surprised if
AMD further lowers prices on the RX 580
and rx 590 quickly moving on to power
consumption this pre overclocked
EVGA gtx 1660 XC ultra actually consumes
a bit less than the gtx 1060
superclocked and that just goes to show
you how much Nvidia's new architecture
and the 1290 meter manufacturing process
are able to improve performance per watt
so I guess it's time to wrap things up
and I have to say I'm pretty impressed
with Nvidia's new GTX series
even though almost every one of the rtx
cards felt overpriced the gtx 1660 ti and
now the gtx 1660 really do feel like
good values for their price points I
wouldn't run out to replace a 10 series
card with them but if you're coming from
an older generation GPU they could be an
awesome choice however I can say that
the 1660 is perfect I mean if you look
at the XE Ultra from EVGA in this case
it's a $30 premium over these stock GPU
and that almost gets closer to what you
would pay for a reference SPECT gtx
1660 ti also the gddr5 memory modules may
cause some bottlenecks in some
situations but from an overall
perspective I think this is a pretty
solid choice for the price so that
pretty much wraps us up guys so let me
know what you guys think about the gtx
1660 I mean if you're rocking a gtx 960
or perhaps a 760 would this be an
upgrade in the pipeline for you guys let
me know in the comments down below an e
bar with harbor connects thank you so
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I'm signing off and I'll see you guys in
the next one
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