NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti Shootout - Clash of the Titans

Ti is Back

The release of NVIDIA's latest graphics card, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, has been highly anticipated due to its upper mid-range positioning, which makes it the first sub-US$300 Kepler architecture card NVIDIA has made. At a relatively affordable launch price of US$299, and utilizing the same GK104 core found in NVIDIA's flagship GTX 680, it offers value while still retaining enough heavy firepower for most gaming needs.

It's also well overdue because there has been a void between their existing mid-range series (consisting of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti / 560 / 560 Ti) and their newer enthusiast cards which are the GeForce GTX 670 and GTX 680 launched in Q2 2012. This meant that NVIDIA was losing potential customers who would have otherwise opted for the AMD Radeon HD 7800 series that has been available since Q2 2012! Better late than never, and this dilemma should end from today's official launch and availability of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti series of cards.

As NVIDIA did with the previous generation 560 series, the 660 cards will come in a few different configurations: The Ti - short for Titanium - will be the best in the line-up, with more shader processors (or CUDA processors to be more exact) and the highest default clockspeeds. The regular version 660, which is expected to be a September release, is likely to have lower clock speeds, while the SE version, which is rumored, but has yet to be confirmed by NVIDIA for the 660, will be the most affordable, with the lowest clockspeeds and likely less processing units and reduced memory bus width.

Meet the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti is based on the same GK104 core that powers both NVIDIA's flagship GTX 680 and the GTX 670. Obviously the only reason the GTX 660 Ti debuted so late in the game despite using the same core is \because NVIDIA was using the cores that didn't quite make the grade for the more premium GPUs. This could probably also contribute to other factors such as overclockability, which we'll find out soon.

The GTX 660 Ti GPU is actually very close specs-wise to the GTX 670. Both utilize 3.54 billion transistors (since it's the same GK104 core), but interestingly it still boasts 1344 CUDA cores and 112 texture mapping units. Both also share the same default clock speeds of 915MHz on the core, with memory running at 6008MHz DDR. However, it loses eight raster operating units, going down from 32 to 24, and memory bus width has also been cut back from 256 bits to 192 bits. Consequently, memory bandwidth is also lower at 144.2GB/s compared to 192.3GB/s as listed for the GTX 670. Nevertheless, you can see that the GTX 660 Ti is positioned just a tad behind the high-end enthusiast cards. Collectively speaking, the GTX 660 Ti seems to be a much more powerful mid-range GPU than its GTX 560 Ti predecessor was in its heyday.

Pricing on the GTX 660 Ti is set at US$299 , which makes it US$100 cheaper than the GTX 670 and US$200 less than the GTX 680 - great value, especially when you consider that it only takes a slight hit in hardware specifications. At this price, it also goes head-to-head with AMD's upper mid-range Radeon HD 7870, which has a newly reduced SRP of US$299; we'll be very interested to see how the two compete as well as the performance differential between itself and the almost similar GTX 670.

Here’s a quick look at how the GeForce GTX 660 Ti compares against its competitors.

Meet the Custom Cards

As the GTX 660 Ti is expected to be one of NVIDIA's most popular cards, almost all of its add-in partners will be producing their own custom versions. We've manged to get our hands on three of the earliest to launch custom models from ASUS, Gigabyte and Palit. will follow suit and we'll bring you coverage of those in the near future.

ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti DirectCU II TOP 2GB GDDR5

** Updated as of 16/08/2012, 11pm ** - ASUS has informed us of the revised SRP of S$549 and is no longer S$599.

ASUS' GeForce GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II TOP has been given a very generous core overclock, raised from 915MHz all the way up to 1059MHz. Memory speeds, on the other hand, have been left at the default 6008MHz. Like most of ASUS' custom cards, it uses the popular dual-fan DirectCU II cooling system. This particular model utilizes three copper heatsink pipes in direct contact with the GPU, connected to an array of cooling fins, and ventilated by two fans.

ASUS actually makes three variants of the GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II. The TOP model we're reviewing retails for a hefty S$549. ASUS defends the premium pricing by telling us that the TOP is the highest factory overclocked GTX 660 Ti currently available.

For those looking for something a bit more affordable, a DirectCU II OC edition, which has a more moderate core overclock of 967MHz, but is otherwise identical, retails for S$519. All versions come with a 3-year replacement warranty period.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti Windforce OC 2GB GDDR5

Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 660 Ti has been overclocked to 1033MHz on the core, with memory remaining at the default 6008MHz DDR. 

Gigabyte's model features an almost 'open design', with a very minimal fan shroud. A good fan shroud is usually designed to improve air flow direction, however, it may not always be necessary and, in fact, combined with good chassis air flow, GPU temperatures may actually be lower without one. Additionally, Gigabyte's model compensates somewhat by having slightly larger fans than our other two custom models. We'll find out later in the review if this design helped it garner better operating temperatures.

Under the fans, two copper heatpipes are connected to two heatsinks, one directly over the GPU, and one elevated to the side. The heatsink directly over the GPU uses Gigabyte's Triangle Cool technology, which consists of a triangular internal structure, with the downward slopes designed to direct airflow from the fans towards the top and bottom of the video card for better heat dissipation. 

This model will retail for S$509. Like ASUS, Gigabyte's model is issued with a 3-year warranty period.

Palit GeForce GTX 660 Ti JetStream OC 2GB GDDR5

Palit's GeForce GTX 660 Ti JetStream has the lowest core clock speed out of our three custom cards, but is still given a fairly significant overclock, up to 1006MHz. Palit's model is also the only card with overclocked memory speeds, up to 6108MHz DDR. Because of the higher memory clock speeds, compared to the other two cards, memory bandwidth is marginally better, at 146.6GB/s compared to 144.2 GB/s for ASUS and Gigabyte.

Palit's JetStream cooling system consists of three copper heatpipes connected to a single, large array of cooling fins, ventilated by dual fans. However, due to the cooler's thicker design, the card eats up a little more than two expansion card slots. In contrast, the other two cards only require two expansion card slots of space. This could mean if you prefer a to leave more room around your graphics card for better air flow, you'll need to give the Palit card a little more clearance than you would otherwise require.

This model retails for a very affordable S$469, however, do note that unlike ASUS and Gigabyte, the warranty period is only two years. The use of a reference PCB also means lower design costs than its competitors. Palit also has a standard edition of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti which retails for S$439 and uses a blower type cooler with reference clock speeds.

Test Setup

As usual, the following are the specs of our trusty graphics card test bed system:

• Intel Core i7-975 (3.33GHz)
• Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard
• 3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill memory in triple channel mode
• Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

The list of benchmarks used:

• Futuremark 3DMark 11
• Unigine v2.1 "Heaven"
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Far Cry 2
• Crysis Warhead
• Crysis 2
• Batman: Arkham City
• Dirt 3
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Unfortunately, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti reference card was not available for this review, but we were able to obtain the reference card's core and memory clock speeds. As such, we have downclocked one of our custom cards to reference spec, which should give you an idea for how it would perform if you were to get a more regular GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card.

The list of cards tested and drivers used:

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 305.37)
• ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti DirectCU II TOP 2GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 305.37)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti Windforce OC 2GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 305.37)
• Palit GeForce GTX 660 Ti JetStream 2GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 305.37)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 301.33)
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 (AMD Catalyst 12.3)
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 2GB GDDR5 (AMD Catalyst 12.2 Preview Version)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 2GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 280.26)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 305.37)

For summary, here's a comparison of the GTX 660 Ti cards tested, showing core and memory clock speeds, as well as current pricing.

Updated (as of 16/08/2012, 11pm): ASUS headquarters informed us of the updated retail price which is now set at S$549 and the table reflects this:-

3DMark 11 Results

3DMark 11 is a synthetic benchmark designed to test a GPU's performance at various aspects of DirectX 11 such as tessellation and DirectCompute.

The GTX 660 Ti performed well, easily outgunning AMD's competing Radeon HD 7870, and even beating the higher-end HD 7950. Against NVIDIA's GTX 670, it was behind by only 4%, which is quite impressive. 

The previous generation GTX 560 Ti was no match for the GTX 660 Ti, with the 660 Ti outperforming it by a massive 72% at the Extreme preset, Even the GTX 580, NVIDIA's previous flagship GPU was unable to keep up, falling behind by 26% at Extreme.

If we take a look at GPU Boost performance, we can see that the reference GTX 660 Ti was able to achieve a maximum boosted clockspeed of 1058MHz, an impressive 15.6% better than the default clock speed, which explains its solid performance.

Among the custom cards, surprisingly, it was Gigabyte that performed best, showing a 7% performance increase on the reference design. This was despite ASUS having higher default clock speeds. If we examine each card's individual GPU Boost charts, we can see that Gigabyte was able to achieve a maximum boosted clockspeed of 1215MHz, whereas ASUS maxed out at 1202MHz, thus explaining its higher scores. It's likely that Gigabyte has set a higher maximum voltage control on its card, which gives it more overhead and allows for the higher boost speeds. This increase in results from Gigabyte continues on for almost all of our tests, so we'll not be showcasing the monitoring graphs on other pages other than the reference card to check out its standard boost clock in our various tests for this new SKU.

Unigine 2.1 "Heaven" Results

The GTX 660 Ti was not as impressive in the synthetic Unigine 2.1 "Heaven" benchmark, falling behind the GTX 670 by approximately 40%. However, it still outperformed both its rival from AMD, the HD 7870, as well as the higher-end HD 7950. 

Against the previous generation GTX 560 Ti, the GTX 660 Ti again performed well, although the performance gain was not quite as substantial this time. Note that the GTX 560 Ti vastly underperformed at the 2560x1600 pixel resolution due to a lack of VRAM (1GB GDDR5 versus 2GB GDDR5 for the rest of the cards). 

The custom cards again showed a roughly 7-9% performance increase against the reference card, with Gigabyte slightly outperforming both ASUS and Palit again.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Results

Battlefield: Bad Company 2's DX11 Frostbite 1.5 engine is old but still a good test of a GPU’s geometry shading power. The GTX 660 Ti handled the game with ease, scoring near 100FPS at the 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution, with all three custom cards surpassing 100FPS.

At the resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, it was still fairly impressive, scoring about 14% behind the more powerful GTX 670. At both resolutions, the GTX 660 Ti was much better than both the Radeon HD 7870 and the HD 7950, outperforming the former by about 35% and the latter by nearly 20%. 

Looking at GPU Boost performance, the GTX 660 Ti wasn't able to peak as high as it did before, achieving only 1045MHz, however, this was still 15% higher than the default clock speed.

Far Cry 2 Results

Far Cry 2 uses a DX10 engine and as such, isn't as taxing on newer cards. Nevertheless, even at the highest resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, with 8x AA turned on, the GTX 660 Ti was once again able to outperform both the HD 7870 and the HD 7950. It was however about 25% behind the GTX 670.

The custom cards weren't too impressive on Far Cry, averaging only about 4-5% better than the reference specced card.

Crysis Warhead Results

While Crysis Warhead is running on a DX10 engine, it is still fairly taxing and features heavy tessellation. This was the first benchmark in which the GTX 660 Ti lost to AMD's Radeon HD 7950 and was instead very close to the Radeon HD 7870 in performance.

The gap between the GTX 660 Ti and the HD 7950 became more pronounced as we increased the resolution and turned up the AA settings. Having said that, while both the GTX 670 and HD 7950 performed about 20% better than the GTX 660 Ti, there wasn't a huge difference in terms of actual average frame rates.

GPU boost once again peaked at 1045MHz for the reference GTX 660 Ti, while the Gigabyte graphics card again maintained a small lead over the rest of its kind.

Crysis 2 Results

Much like its predecessor, Crysis 2 requires a beast of a machine to run smoothly at the highest resolutions. Its Ultra High setting puts GPUs through their paces with a grueling test of tessellation, Parallax Occlusion Mapping, water rendering, and particle motion blur and shadowing.

At the resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, there wasn't much to separate the cards, which is probably a result of our test rig bottlenecking performance (which we'll soon be upgrading). However at the resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, we saw the GTX 660 Ti slightly outperforming the AMD HD 7870, while slightly trailing the HD 7950. The GTX 670 was the clear winner, leading the GTX 660 Ti by about 25%. 

For the custom cards, we saw the same results as before, with Gigabyte slightly outperforming the other two. Notably, all custom 660 Ti' cards were able to outperform the Radeon HD 7950.

Batman: Arkham City Results

Arkham City is optimized for NVIDIA PhysX optimization and as expected, all NVIDIA cards outperformed AMD. The GTX 660 Ti performed extremely well here, however we suspect this is largely due to newer ForceWare drivers. In comparison to last year's GTX 560 Ti, which was also updated to the newer 305.37 drivers, we saw a 35% increase in performance. So disregard the GTX 670 underperforming in this benchmark as we've yet to update its result set.

All three custom cards performed identically, outperforming the reference design by 5%.

Dirt 3 Results

Despite Dirt 3 being better optimized for AMD cards, NVIDIA once again led the way, with the GTX 660 Ti posting excellent scores, this time beating the Radeon HD 7950 by a massive 30%, while trailing behind the GTX 670 by only 11%. The custom edition GTX 660 Ti cards came even closer to matching the GTX 670 with the Gigabyte card still maintaining its slight lead over ASUS and Palit at both resolutions.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Results

On the Day Run, with AA turned off, the GTX 660 Ti was able to outperform AMD's Radeon HD 7950, falling slightly behind only when AA was set to 4x. It was however some 26% behind the GTX 670 with AA enabled.

On the more challenging Sun Shafts run, with AA turned off, we again saw the GTX 660 Ti outperform the HD 7950, however it fell behind with AA set to 4x. 

Compared to the AMD Radeon HD 7870, the GTX 660 Ti was able to outperform it at all settings and resolutions, outperforming it by as much as 47% on the Day Run with AA turned off at the 1920x1200 pixels resolution. At 2560x1600 resolution, with 4x AA, this gap closed to about 7%, but it was still an impressive victory for NVIDIA. 

Surprisingly, Gigabyte failed to achieve top scores in this benchmark, however, all three custom cards scored within 0.5% of each other.

Overclocking Results

Our overclocking efforts were reasonable but not impressive. For both ASUS and Palit, we were able to achieve similar final core and memory clock speeds, with the core bumped up to 1150MHz and 1146MHz respectively, and memory for both pushed to 6380MHz. However, this only translated into a 5% performance increase at 3DMark 11's Performance preset, and a 7% increase at the Extreme preset.

We had more trouble overclocking Gigabyte's GTX 660 Ti, and our maximum stable overclock was only 1089MHz with memory at 6060MHz, far lower than the other cards. Despite this, at both the Performance and Extreme presets, we saw very similar results with Gigabyte scoring less than 0.5% lower. 

Our conclusion is that the GTX 660 Ti is already performing close to its maximum potential, and raising the clock speeds further or overvolting to try to achieve higher GPU Boost speeds may be ineffective. This is what we suspected on the onset when we knew the GTX 660 Ti isn't using a new GPU core designed for the mid-range, bur rather, it's using the same GK104 core used in the GTX 670 and GTX 680 cards that didn't make the grade. As such, the potential of these GPUs are naturally lower. Perhaps when NVIDIA attempts a more purpose-built mainstream GPU in the future, it will deliver the OC potential that some users seek.

Compared to the overclocked GTX 670, our custom cards were not far behind, trailing behind by about 15% at the Performance preset, and 11% at Extreme.

Against AMD, our custom GTX 660 Ti cards were very impressive. Compared to the overclocked HD 7950, they were all 7-10% better at both presets, and compared to the overclocked HD 7870, they scored 20% better at Performance, and a whopping 25% better at Extreme.

Temperature Results

Unfortunately we do not have a reference design cooler to compare our custom card coolers to, however as you can see, none of them were particularly impressive, with both ASUS and Palit scoring in the high 60s and Gigabyte hitting 70 degrees. As mentioned earlier, Gigabyte may have fared slightly worse due to its minimalistic fan shroud design to better direct airflow, and it's also probably running hotter due to its higher power consumption.

If you're wondering how a non overclocked GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card with a standard cooler would fare, in the worst case scenario, it would register just a little lower than the GeForce GTX 670. The huge GK104 core used on the GTX 660 Ti would ensure that power and temperature results won't actually differ a whole lot from the GTX 670.

Power Consumption Results

As expected, Gigabyte had the highest power consumption, some 13% higher than ASUS' model. This let it achieve its higher GPU Boost scores, which is why it was able to outperform ASUS, despite having lower clock speeds throughout our testing. It's worth noting though that its performance lead against ASUS was only about 1%, which is probably not worth the extra 13% power it draws to achieve that.

Worth The Wait?

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 660 Ti is an impressive contender, which packs great performance into an affordable package. At US$100 cheaper than the GTX 670, you aren't losing that much performance, and it has more than enough juice for most gaming needs. Of course, if you intend to run games in 3D or three-screen 3D Vision Surround you'll probably want to pay more and get the higher end card to ensure better processing throughput; in fact, you might even need two cards to satiate your performance needs.

Compared to AMD camp, the GTX 660 Ti has claimed a resounding victory over its rival, the Radeon HD 7870, and it actually surpasses the higher-end (and more expensive) Radeon HD 7950 on most tests. AMD will definitely have some re-thinking to do, and don't be surprised if there are further price cuts in store from the red camp.

To Upgrade or Not?

If you've currently got a GTX 560 Ti or better, honestly you probably don't need to upgrade; not because the GTX 660 Ti isn't a great card (it is), but because the GTX 560 Ti is still sufficient for most single-screen gaming needs, and with updated drivers, performs quite well. While the performance gain of the newcomer is quite significant, the actual tangible frame rate improvement is not so massive that it will let you start playing 3D games on multiple monitors. However, if you really need to get your hands on something new, the GTX 660 Ti is a great choice (the gains are actually bigger than going from a GTX 560 Ti to a GTX 580). Plus, if you consider that the GTX 660 Ti is actually faster than last year's king, the GTX 580, that says quite a lot of what today's performance mid-range graphics card can deliver.

If you're using anything older or less powerful than a GTX 560 Ti, upgrading to the GTX 660 Ti is a no brainer. At this pricepoint, there's simply nothing better. You're getting close to the performance of an enthusiast card at a reasonable price point.

The Custom-Edition Mexican Standoff

Our three-way shootout was very competitive, with none of our cards able to gain a significant lead on its opponents. Overall performance compared to the reference design was decent, but not amazing, which reinforces our belief that the GTX 660 Ti is already performing at close to its maximum output potential. Temperature and power consumption scores were also average for all three models (and perhaps a little disappointing). However such an outcome is only because the same GK104 chip found on the enthusiast cards, is also used on the GTX 660 Ti. This lead to naturally higher temperature and power consumption once you take into consideration the highly overclocked nature of the custom edition cards. As such, we can't really fault the partner vendors. Fortunately, all the three tested cards are rather quiet in operation.

ASUS was an overall decent performer, if slightly underwhelming considering its high default clock speed. It did have the highest (if only slightly) overclocked scores, and was also slightly cooler with the lowest power consumption, however it is also extremely expensive, at a jaw dropping S$599. That's S$130 more than Palit's model, for very little gain in performance. While this does include a three-year warranty, it's not worth the extra price. Realistically, you would be better off paying an extra S$20 and getting an ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II, which can be had for about S$620. If you are set on getting an ASUS GTX 660 Ti, we would recommend the far more affordable non-TOP ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II OC, priced at S$514, which is functionally identical, but with a lower default clock speed of 967MHz - you could then overclock it yourself to TOP speeds if you so desire. So basically, you're paying for the assurance of the TOP edition to work at those high clock speeds except that it didn't seem worthwhile on any account.

Gigabyte was our best performer in our game tests and was able to consistently post marginally higher scores, but it was also running a bit warmer than the other models, and had the highest power consumption. It also had the lowest overclocking potential, which seems to stem from the tweaked nature of the card to deliver higher boosted clock speeds at normal operation. Aesthetically, we felt that it doesn't look as good as ASUS or Palit's models, due to the lack of a good fan shroud, which makes it resemble an entry-level card. At $509, it sits in the middle of the pricing bracket of extreme custom edition cards and also comes with a three-year warranty.

Despite lower clock speeds, Palit was able to keep up with both ASUS and Gigabyte, and also posted a respectable overclock score. We liked the build, and both temperature and power consumption were reasonable. The blue LED lighting is also a nice extra, although your personal taste may vary. At S$469 it represents great value, and there's very little else out there around this price range. Do remember though that Palit cards only come with a two-year warranty period. It's only downside is its thicker cooler which requires you to have more clearance for better air flow as it sort of occupies up to 2.5 expansion card slots. If you're on an even tighter budget, Palit also has a standard edition of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti which retails for S$439 and uses a blower type cooler with reference clock speeds.

** Updated as of 16/08/2012, 11pm **

ASUS has informed us of the revised SRP of S$549 and is no longer S$599. At this price point, it's still expensive, but it's no longer overly pricey. If only the TOP edition had more tangible benefits, it would have been easier to recommend, but unfortunately, our findings, don’t reflect that. Well, other than wanting to own a GTX 660 Ti card that has the most premium build, specs and price. Unfortunately, there are GTX 670 cards available within striking range of this card, even with the revised prices. Taking all factors into consideration, the card's corresponding breakdown ratings have been slightly revised.

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