Subscores
With the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, Nvidia has created a near-replica of the GTX 670. The chip is the same, as are the number of cores and clock rates. Even visually it's a carbon copy. Nvidia has made two minor changes, but nothing that will lower our verdict compared to its higher-end counterpart. On both cards the performance is outstanding!
The memory bus has also dropped from 256 bits on the GTX 670 to 192 bits. The 2 GB of RAM have stayed at 1,502 MHz and the GPU still has a base clock of 915 MHz and a boost clock of at least 980 MHz using GPU Boost (see our GTX 670 and GTX 680 reviews). During our tests, our card's clock rate would vary between 1,058 and 1,097 MHz, depending which game we played.
Size, Noise, Heat
The GeForce GTX 660 Ti has the same overall design as the GTX 670. The PCB is still 17 cm, but the heatsink extends past the card for a total of 24 cm. And the heat dissipation system is just as terrible as before: whether at rest or, even worse, during a game, the noise is noticeably distracting. When you go to buy one, think about getting a model with an alternate heatsink.
Power Use
As you'd expect, the power consumption is similar to the previous models. At rest our testing configuration never went past 55 watts and during games it was between 205 and 217 watts.
That's a bit better than the GTX 670, which consumed between 227 and 240 watts during games, but it isn't quite as good as the AMD Radeon HD 7950, which used between 218 and 174 [sic] watts under the same testing conditions.
Performance in Games
As mentioned above, the technical differences between the GeForce GTX 660 Ti and the GTX 670 are minor. The performance has dropped 11%, but it still gives Nvidia a slight advantage over the Radeon HD 7950, which is 4% slower on average.
At the end of the day this is a worthwhile product, given the lower recommended sale price, which gives it a lot of bang for your buck. A number of modified versions are also available that should be able to make up for this card's greatest shortcoming, which is its noisy dissipation system.
Please note: As always at DigitalVersus, the sales price doesn't count in our overall rating, which is solely a function of the results and measurements we observed during testing.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti: The Specs
As we just mentioned, the GTX 660 Ti reprises the GPU from previous models. It's a Kepler GK104, the same one that's on the GTX 670, GTX 680 and even the GTX 690. There are still 1,344 stream processors, just like on the 670, but the rendering output units have dropped slightly from 32 to 24.The memory bus has also dropped from 256 bits on the GTX 670 to 192 bits. The 2 GB of RAM have stayed at 1,502 MHz and the GPU still has a base clock of 915 MHz and a boost clock of at least 980 MHz using GPU Boost (see our GTX 670 and GTX 680 reviews). During our tests, our card's clock rate would vary between 1,058 and 1,097 MHz, depending which game we played.
Size, Noise, Heat
The GeForce GTX 660 Ti has the same overall design as the GTX 670. The PCB is still 17 cm, but the heatsink extends past the card for a total of 24 cm. And the heat dissipation system is just as terrible as before: whether at rest or, even worse, during a game, the noise is noticeably distracting. When you go to buy one, think about getting a model with an alternate heatsink.
Power Use
As you'd expect, the power consumption is similar to the previous models. At rest our testing configuration never went past 55 watts and during games it was between 205 and 217 watts.
That's a bit better than the GTX 670, which consumed between 227 and 240 watts during games, but it isn't quite as good as the AMD Radeon HD 7950, which used between 218 and 174 [sic] watts under the same testing conditions.
Performance in Games
As mentioned above, the technical differences between the GeForce GTX 660 Ti and the GTX 670 are minor. The performance has dropped 11%, but it still gives Nvidia a slight advantage over the Radeon HD 7950, which is 4% slower on average.
Overall average performance.
(Click on the graph to see all our measurements
and compare this model to others.)
(Click on the graph to see all our measurements
and compare this model to others.)
Please note: As always at DigitalVersus, the sales price doesn't count in our overall rating, which is solely a function of the results and measurements we observed during testing.
| Compare this card's performance with competing models here |
Pros
- Gaming performance
- Power consumption on par with the competition
- Additional features: frame rate limit, advanced vertical sync, etc.
Cons
- Very noisy fan, even when at rest
- GPU Boost: there's a risk of slight differences in performance between different models
Conclusion
Nvidia has continued to intelligently expand its Kepler graphics card series with this high-performance card. However, you'll want to avoid the regular models, which make a lot of noise, and go with a branded version.
OUR SCORE
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