ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II Video Card Review - NVIDIA is launching the new GeForce GTX 660 GPU, codenamed GK106. We have a retail ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II custom video card fully evaluated against a plethora of competition at this price point. This brand new GPU aims for a price point just under the GTX 660 Ti but still promises to deliver exceptional 1080p gaming with AA.
 
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Nice to see a 570 review in this one. I kept tabbing between this and on of the 660TI reviews to compare them. This seems like a nice card, but AMD is really keeping the pressure on with those price drops.

If they dropped the top DVI port, it almost looks like it could be a great single slot card, though I suspect the cooler is a bit too big for that.
 
Pity there's such a cataclysmic drop in specs between the 660 and the 650--I'm really looking for something from nVidia in the sub-$200 range that can outperform the 560-series cards. Guess I either need a price drop on the 660 or a really good 650Ti to appear.
 
I'm curious about the 650. Isn't it the same as the 640 DDR5?
 
pigwalk said:
Link me and i'll buy one right now.
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For reals! Nothing up on the web yet but this review, that I can find (outliers like TweakTown excepted). There was rumor Mon. or Tues. that everything was pushed back to Thursday because of the Apple announcement. Maybe the [H] is out early?
 
darn,was so excited reading this and then BAM! this article doesn't exist :p lololol
No coil whine :( jk that was the bit that got me excited , reading the slide ....
so when can we expect for it to be up again ?
 
maboblivion said:
darn,was so excited reading this and then BAM! this article doesn't exist :p lololol
No coil whine :( jk that was the bit that got me excited , reading the slide ....
so when can we expect for it to be up again ?
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Sorry about that. I surely would have not gotten up a 4am to do final edit had I know I had an extra day....
 
For those who missed it: Cost is $235 I think. Trades blows but loses to [email protected] (factory OC) which costs $5 more. Trades blows but beats 7850@1GHz (Factory OC) which costs $15 less (although cheaper 7850s are substantially less). Crushes 560Ti and 570 at similar prices (didn't pay too much attention). Draws more power than 7850, less than 7870.

I only really skimmed but those are the main points. Most games were playable with 2-4xMSAA@1080p but FXAA@1600p was hit or miss.

DCUII Top will cost $250 apparently.
 
the GTX 660 is up against AMD's most balanced chip and puts up a fight. But the HD 7870 is just a fantastic chip with the right amount of resources - a 256 bit memory controller with 32 ROPs. Sleeping Dogs and Skyrim are clearly showing why bandwidth is important. Looking forward to the overclocking review of the GTX 660 against HD 7870. We have to see how well the GTX 660 scales with core and memory overclocking and whether it can match HD 7870.
 
Sn0_Man said:
For those who missed it: Cost is $235 I think. Trades blows but loses to [email protected] (factory OC) which costs $5 more. Trades blows but beats 7850@1GHz (Factory OC) which costs $15 less (although cheaper 7850s are substantially less). Crushes 560Ti and 570 at similar prices (didn't pay too much attention). Draws more power than 7850, less than 7870.

I only really skimmed but those are the main points. Most games were playable with 2-4xMSAA@1080p but FXAA@1600p was hit or miss.

DCUII Top will cost $250 apparently.
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I don't remember any games where the 7870 allowed higher playable settings, though its average frames were almost always faster, sometimes significantly so. The 7850, on the other hand, had a couple of games where its playable settings were one notch lower.

All that to say, looks like the 7870 is the true competitor performance-wise, and I eagerly await the overclocking article to see how that shifts the value equation for both cards.

If nVidia would just cut prices in response to AMD's cuts, we'd have some sweet deals all over the place. NewEgg's prices on 560/570 cards in light of this imminent release are a joke. Heck, they're out of whack even compared to the 660Ti.
 
maboblivion said:
darn,was so excited reading this and then BAM! this article doesn't exist :p lololol
No coil whine :( jk that was the bit that got me excited , reading the slide ....
so when can we expect for it to be up again ?
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I sent a link to a friend and he's like, "Huh dude are you $hitting me? It doesn't exist".
 
Sn0_Man said:
For those who missed it: Cost is $235 I think.
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$235 seems like a strange price. Wonder if that is because this was a DCII card. If so, maybe MSRP for the stock cards is closer to $200.

Commander Suzdal said:
I don't remember any games where the 7870 allowed higher playable settings, though its average frames were almost always faster, sometimes significantly so. The 7850, on the other hand, had a couple of games where its playable settings were one notch lower..
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Looks like it had the same playable settings as the 7870 in all games, but the frame rates were lower in Skyrim and Sleeping Dogs (to be expected I guess). But pretty much neck and neck though. Looks to match up with the GTX 570 pretty evenly as well.
 
Kyle wont/can't comment for obvious reasons, so he won't confirm, but it was somewhere like $229 or $239 or something. I know the DCUII top was gonna be $250, and I know the $5 more and $15 less figures were what he quoted. I just don't remember the exact price. Now that I think about it, I'm guessing it will be $229. Cuz he said there will ALSO be OC and TOP models after this one. This one is stock clocks but custom cooler (not even sure there will be a ref cooler at all...). MSRP is definitely not $200 for the card.
 
the review can be found mirrored on another site simply by googling geforce 660.

The price was 234.99 and 249.99
The ASUS GTX 660 DCII would cost $234.99 whereas the DirectCU II TOP would be priced around $249
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The card (both factory overclocked obviously) looked a little faster than an overclocked 7850.

Nothing too special imo.

Edit: Wait, so one or both the cards Kyle reviewed weren't overclocked?? That would make it look a fair bit better if so. I'm guessing only the lesser 660 if any wasn't OCed though. Damn could these names be any less intuitive? DirectCU II TOP? STFU. What horrendous names.
 
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Looks like a nice upgrade for people with GTX 460 and under. The AMD 7870 looks like a better deal though.
 
Shark974 said:
the review can be found mirrored on another site simply by googling geforce 660.

The price was 234.99 and 249.99

The card (both factory overclocked obviously) looked a little faster than an overclocked 7850.

Nothing too special imo.

Edit: Wait, so one or both the cards Kyle reviewed weren't overclocked?? That would make it look a fair bit better if so. I'm guessing only the lesser 660 if any wasn't OCed though. Damn could these names be any less intuitive? DirectCU II TOP? STFU. What horrendous names.
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[H] didn't review the "TOP" aka overclocked model. I believe the 660 they reviewed was stock. However, the real point of this review was bang/buck because you are in the $200-250 range where people want to SAVE MONEY. Hence the review of factory OC AMD cards vs stock 660. Anyways, ASUS has called their premier cards "TOP" for a long time now. Much like "Classified" from eVGA or "Lightning" from MSI, only in general much less premium.

Stoly said:
Looks like a nice upgrade for people with GTX 460 and under. The AMD 7870 looks like a better deal though.
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Agreed, but when offering a quick synopsis I didn't really want to put my own conclusion out there. [H] gave the 660 a silver editor's choice award, for what thats worth.
 
I think [H] is heavily Nvidia biased, but it's really not right at all to bench an OC AMD vs stock Nvidia. Or vice versa. Makes no sense. Because if you're talking bang for buck, you can overclock the 660 too.

Unless they overclocked that 660 in the Apples to Apples benches too.

Edit: In the non Apples benches vs a "Gigabyte 7870 OC" the 660 turns up competitive, a little slower, but should be priced a little less.

Either way seems like nothing special for the price.
 
They are both out of box, but I know what you are saying. I think that reference 7870s will be closer in performance, but also cost substantially less.
 
Sn0_Man said:
[H] didn't review the "TOP" aka overclocked model. I believe the 660 they reviewed was stock. However, the real point of this review was bang/buck because you are in the $200-250 range where people want to SAVE MONEY. Hence the review of factory OC AMD cards vs stock 660. Anyways, ASUS has called their premier cards "TOP" for a long time now. Much like "Classified" from eVGA or "Lightning" from MSI, only in general much less premium.



Agreed, but when offering a quick synopsis I didn't really want to put my own conclusion out there. [H] gave the 660 a silver editor's choice award, for what thats worth.
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Its not a synopsis, its a full review.
 
Yes, but I tossed out a quick synopsis once the review was down for those that missed it. Never mind.
 
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Shark974 said:
I think [H] is heavily Nvidia biased, but it's really not right at all to bench an OC AMD vs stock Nvidia. Or vice versa. Makes no sense. Because if you're talking bang for buck, you can overclock the 660 too.

Unless they overclocked that 660 in the Apples to Apples benches too.

Edit: In the non Apples benches vs a "Gigabyte 7870 OC" the 660 turns up competitive, a little slower, but should be priced a little less.

Either way seems like nothing special for the price.
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For the record, we compare cards by price, that is the number one factor for comparing cards, price must be as close as possible, that's our "benchmark" as it were. If a retail factory OC'd card is the same price as the card being evaluated, then that is just how it is. You can determine which card provides the best gameplay experience for the price.
 
I dont really get it. 7850 is at newegg for 199 so price isnt comparable. Further, the 660 wasn't overclocked (as I understand) and overclocking is always free so...

I guess I just need to see the real full review before commenting any further.
 
Shark974 said:
I dont really get it. 7850 is at newegg for 199 so price isnt comparable. Further, the 660 wasn't overclocked (as I understand) and overclocking is always free so...

I guess I just need to see the real full review before commenting any further.
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newegg also has a 7870 for $219 right now as well (might be sold out finally though).
 
looks promising, given the efficiency of kepler i am hoping for something in the 2.5b transistor range which munches 150W of power.

sounds perfect for a Silverstone FT03-mini!
 
Since it's live again: It's hard to tell exactly from the pictures but how big is the DirectCU II cooler? It almost looks like it's close to being single slot cooler.
 
Derangel said:
Since it's live again: It's hard to tell exactly from the pictures but how big is the DirectCU II cooler? It almost looks like it's close to being single slot cooler.
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I haven't played with this specific card, but the other DirectCU II's I've played with are 2 slot cards.
 
Commander Suzdal said:
Pity there's such a cataclysmic drop in specs between the 660 and the 650--I'm really looking for something from nVidia in the sub-$200 range that can outperform the 560-series cards. Guess I either need a price drop on the 660 or a really good 650Ti to appear.
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Yeah, crazy big gap between the two. 960 cores down to 384. But just as the 680 launched first as a fully enabled GK104 with the 670 and 660Ti following as partially disabled GK104s, I would imagine there will be a 650Ti coming soon with a partially disabled GK107. So lookin' like it'll be either 784 or 576 cores, depending on whether they decide to disable 1 or 2 SMs.
 
Nice card. gotta love competition... 7800 series been out for awhile , wouldn't be surprised to see a small price cut so amd edges the 660 out even more..

great review guys keep it up!!
 
Wondering.... All the 660's on NE have about 10 bucks ship... If you take the 660ti, add free shipping, and sell of your BL2 code, how much does the difference in price actually end up being?
 
Assuming you get ~$30 for your borderlands code (since some sites have been selling them for $37.50), the difference is still $30-40. Amazon prime shipping! :D
 
Sn0_Man said:
Assuming you get ~$30 for your borderlands code (since some sites have been selling them for $37.50), the difference is still $30-40. Amazon prime shipping! :D
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IV read that there is no BL2 copy with the normal 660
 
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