Seven GeForce GTX 660 Ti Cards: Exploring Memory Bandwidth

Features
By Igor Wallossek
published

Seven GeForce GTX 660 Tis landed in our lab. Today, we're benchmarking them, measuring their noise and temperatures, and conducting a more in-depth analysis of the impact a 192-bit memory interface has on performance. The results are enlightening!

Video Comparison: Noise

Asus GTX 660Ti DirectCU II

Just like Asus' interpretation of the GeForce GTX 670, its GTX 660Ti DirectCU II is by far the quietest card under full load in this round-up. This is partly a result of the competition's compulsion to push fan speeds higher than necessary in taxing workloads. Of course, compute-oriented environments apply the greatest load, and once you shift to games, Asus' advantage isn't as significant. In short, Asus' GTX 660Ti DirectCU II is a good two-slot card with a lot of cooling reserves.

Gainward GTX 660 Ti Phantom

We weren’t particularly happy with the cooler Gainward used on its GeForce GTX 670, but it's sufficient for the company's GTX 660 Ti Phantom. The 192-gram aluminum cooling block is fairly light, and this de-tuned board is pretty much the maximum it should be reasonably expected to handle.

Gainward's GTX 660 Ti Phantom is a tad quieter than Palit's GTX 660 Ti Jetstream, which is identical aside from the shape of its fan fins and plastic shroud. This card doesn’t really have any additional cooling performance to offer, so anyone who wants to overclock the GeForce GTX 660 Ti should avoid it. The card monopolizes three slots, which is one too many given its modest cooler.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti Windforce 2X OC Edition

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti Windforce 2X OC Edition posts a solid performance. It’s not as quiet as Asus' GTX 660Ti DirectCU II. However, the company took our advice and lowered its minimum fan duty cycle from 40% to 30% at idle. We had a chance to test the latest BIOS, and we're very happy with it, delivering acoustics on par with Asus' card at idle.

Under load, the 10 cm fans don’t do as well. The baseline tone is acceptable, but it's joined by a high-pitched whirring once the fans really spin up. The card could conceivably tolerate higher temperatures (and less aggressive acoustics). We manually adjusted the fan speed down under duress and took Gigabyte's card to a comparable noise level as Asus'.

Galaxy GeForce GTX 660 Ti GC 3 GB

Galaxy's GeForce GTX 660 Ti GC 3 GB is the only 3 GB card in our round-up. The company uses the same cooler seen on its GeForce GTX 670-based board. Even though the cooler does its job well, we can’t really recommend it because it’s just too loud. We don’t know why Galaxy chose such a large heat sink and then set its fans to run at such high speeds, but the profiles need some more work.

MSI N660 Ti PE 2GD5/OC

The MSI N660 Ti PE 2GD5/OC is close to Asus GTX 660Ti DirectCU II. It’s a well-rounded card that does well at idle, but exhibits a bit of high-frequency noise under load.

Palit GTX 660 Ti Jetstream

Just like we said for Gainward's GTX 660 Ti Phantom, there is really no good reason for Palit's GTX 660 Ti Jetstream to populate three expansion slots. This card's fan fins are shaped a little differently, which gives the noise a little more “grhh" and subjectively makes it louder than the Gainward implementation.

Zotac GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition

Zotac's GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition uses a short PCB and small cooler, making the two-slot card the shortest in today's piece. The resulting disadvantage is that more airflow is needed to compensate. Consequentially, the card is loud. It's the only submission in our round-up to break the 40 dB(A) barrier.

HIS HD 7870 IceQ GHz Edition

We threw in a HIS 7870 IceQ GHz Edition to give us a basis for comparison. If you're looking to compare a Radeon HD 7950, check out Radeon HD 7950 3 GB: Six Cards, Benchmarked And Reviewed.

HIS' cooler does well, ending up somewhere in the middle compared to our GeForce GTX 660 Tis.

Igor Wallossek
79 Comments Comment from the forums
  • scotthulbs
    I'd Like to know which 2GB model 660ti you used in this comparison? I would like to see how if perhaps the Zotac memory overclock has much of an effect on performance. If you used the Zotac in this comparison that may very well be the reason it outperforms the 3GB Galaxy card? Maybe run this same test overclocking the memory, it seems as though the 660ti with its memory overclocked can nearly reach GTX670 Bandwidth. I'd like to see how much that helps overcome the narrow bus.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    The problem with wider memory interface is that it exponentially increases the chip's die-size. Hence, cost per wafer and power consumption will increase a lot.

    IMO both AMD and Nvidia should use the XDR2 memory in the next series of cards. That would give the same bandwidth at half the interface size.
    Reply
  • iknowhowtofixitThis review reinforces what I have been saying for weeks. The GTX 660Ti is overpriced at $300. Since you can easily find a HD7950 for $300 or less after rebates, it makes the 660TI irrelevant. To me, the 660Ti needs to be $60-$75 cheaper before it can achieve bang for the buck status.it is because of the 660ti that the 7950 prices dropped to $300 or less with MIR: so tell me how irrelevant they are now?
    Reply
  • ahrensy
    For the Batman Arkham City tests on the 670 and 660ti, was the PhysX setting set to Off, Low or High?
    Reply
  • EzioAs
    9537131 said:
    it is because of the 660ti that the 7950 prices dropped to $300 or less with MIR: so tell me how irrelevant they are now?

    The 7950 has been our for months now compared to the 660ti and the price drop happens before the release of the 660ti. Nvidia should really have predicted that the 7950 prices should come down even more so it makes almost no sense that they release the 660ti at $300.

    The 7870 performs just slightly slower compared to the 660ti but beats it once you crank up the AA really high and it costs $50 less. On the other hand the 7950 is overall faster than the 660ti and even surpass the the $60+ 670 once you crank the AA really high as well. For the 660ti to sell, Nvidia should really lower it to $260 imo.....or they could just rely on fanboys
    Reply
  • 9537133 said:
    The 7950 has been our for months now compared to the 660ti and the price drop happens before the release of the 660ti.

    AMD cuts HD 7000 series price even furtherTuesday, 21 August 2012 08:57 (after the 660ti release)
    AMD has already dropped the HD 7970 from US $479 to US $429, HD 7950 from US $399 to US $349 and the HD 7870 down from US $349 to US $299. The new price cut skips the HD 7970 graphics card but includes the HD 7950, HD 7870 as well as the 1 and 2GB versions of the HD 7850.

    The most important is probably the price cut for the 3GB HD 7950 which battles it out with Nvidia's recently released GTX 660 Ti. The HD 7950 3GB is, according to the report, will receive a US $30 price cut placing it at US $320. The HD 7870 2GB graphics card got another US $50 price cut pushing it down to US $250 which probably makes it one of the most interesting mid-range graphics cards on the market.

    cheers! :)
    Reply
  • FormatC
    9537132 said:
    For the Batman Arkham City tests on the 670 and 660ti, was the PhysX setting set to Off, Low or High?
    PhysX was off, because it affects the overall performance. PhysX is dead - ok, not quite, but almost ;)
    Reply
  • EzioAs
    9537134 said:
    AMD cuts HD 7000 series price even furtherTuesday, 21 August 2012 08:57 (after the 660ti release)
    AMD has already dropped the HD 7970 from US $479 to US $429, HD 7950 from US $399 to US $349 and the HD 7870 down from US $349 to US $299. The new price cut skips the HD 7970 graphics card but includes the HD 7950, HD 7870 as well as the 1 and 2GB versions of the HD 7850.

    The most important is probably the price cut for the 3GB HD 7950 which battles it out with Nvidia's recently released GTX 660 Ti. The HD 7950 3GB is, according to the report, will receive a US $30 price cut placing it at US $320. The HD 7870 2GB graphics card got another US $50 price cut pushing it down to US $250 which probably makes it one of the most interesting mid-range graphics cards on the market.

    cheers! :)

    If you check the price of the 7950s before this news at most online retailer (Newegg, NCIX), you'll know that the price drop happens already although the official news from AMD was a couple of weeks later
    Reply
  • 9537136 said:
    If you check the price of the 7950s before this news at most online retailer (Newegg, NCIX), you'll know that the price drop happens already although the official news from AMD was a couple of weeks later
    now you are talking complete nonsense unless you do not understand there were two price drops and the latter of which is because of the 660ti; as the article stated.so you want to see pricing history . . :)
    Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card
    now how much sense does it make to drop prices and not tell anyone?
    :pfff:
    Reply
  • Cryio
    Tom's, I want to make a request article. Where should I post it? :D
    Reply