GTX 660 reviewed early

Well, this is interesting. I wonder what price can we expect, compared to 660ti. It's not that far behind the ti model...
Really, this probably puts quite a few people (including myself) in a pickle - what to upgrade to? The GTX680 is a strong card, the 670 is close and a lot cheaper, the 660ti is also close and also a lot cheaper, 660ti SLI is a good option vs a single 680 just because of price/performance. Now this (gtx660) in SLI should provide enough power to run most of the games at high IQ settings at good FPS...
 
Looks like solid competition for the 7870. I wonder how it's going power/noies-wise.
 
Tweaktown still sucks , their game suite is worthless.

Mafia 2? Lost planet 2? Really?
 
How is it pricewise? The TI is nice, but just overpriced. Need something closer to 200-250 that'll be a good upgrade from a 460.
 
It would be much more helpful if they used more current games, but my guess is that they just rush it out to tick NVIDIA off. No real focus on getting it right.
 
xoleras said:
Tweaktown still sucks , their game suite is worthless.

Mafia 2? Lost planet 2? Really?
Click to expand...

Heh, pretty much all the games are retarded choices. Maybe Metro 2033, since it's still a damn good looking game, and takes some serious hardware to run. The rest of the games are old and not very demanding. Where is BF3? Crysis 2? Witcher 2? Skyrim? What a stupid review...
 
only thing i want to know: is this the legendary GK106 or yet another GK104 crippled die?
 
Could be an interesting card. Looking forward to some real reviews though. Coming from a GTX460, what would be best? The 660, HD7870, or 660-Ti? They are all about twice as fast as the 460.
I must say I really like the price/performance of the 7870, but there are just too many black-screen reports on the forums. Especially after the trouble with freezing games I had on my old HD3870, I'm almost afraid to go Radeon again. Are these HD7xxx cards stable now?
 
3dfx_zombie said:
Could be an interesting card. Looking forward to some real reviews though. Coming from a GTX460, what would be best? The 660, HD7870, or 660-Ti? They are all about twice as fast as the 460.
I must say I really like the price/performance of the 7870, but there are just too many black-screen reports on the forums. Especially after the trouble with freezing games I had on my old HD3870, I'm almost afraid to go Radeon again. Are these HD7xxx cards stable now?
Click to expand...

I have the same problem. Want to replace a GTX460 and with this gtx660 on the horizon it's even more difficult to choose. Although I'm not even contemplating going to the read team - had too many problems with ATI drivers not even recognizing ATI hardware, let alone functioning. I'd rather lose 5% performance and have the same control panel etc. that I'm used to.
 
Just one 6-pin power-connector for a 140W card sounds a bit tight: can't be good for overclocking. Oh well, I never overclock my GPU anyway. Maybe the factory-OC'd cards will come with two 6-pins.

BTW: Koween, I'm not saying all ATI-cards are bad. That 3870 was one of the best cards I ever owned. In 95% of the games it was great, but when I wanted to play a game in the other 5% it was a horrible experience. MOHAA would freeze every few minutes. Thief-DS was the same. I've never had serious problems with this GTX460. That's why I'm leaning towards nvidia. That and FXAA. I know AMD has MLAA, but according to the benchmarks it takes a bigger hit than FXAA.
 
Last edited:
I decided to give the 660Ti a try from galaxy (3G) model.
Hopefully i wont have the same problems that i had with ATI.
And its not like its a problem that i have with changing drivers with ATI, its the simple fact that i have to do it so often. Its ANNOYING!!!!

Hopefully no problems with Nvidia and with SLI
 
3dfx_zombie said:
Just one 6-pin power-connector for a 140W card sounds a bit tight: can't be good for overclocking. Oh well, I never overclock my GPU anyway. Maybe the factory-OC'd cards will come with two 6-pins.
Click to expand...

140 Watts O_O looks like Nvidia is clumping power usage together.

GTX680 - 195W
GTX670 - 170W
GTX660 TI - 150W
GTX660 - 140W
GT640 - 65W

that leaves a massive 75 watt jump from the anaemic GT640 to the GTX660.

I just ordered a 7850 on sale fearing the 130 Watts would be matched or beaten by Nvidia with the same power envelope once the GTX660 hit the market.
Based on those benchmarks, horrible as they may be, it looks like Nvidia is targeting the performance above the 7850 and I should start wondering if the GTX650 would have been a better purchase for my needs.

Depending on retail price, the 7870 may get a run for it's money.

BTW Nvidia drivers aren't perfect either, I am currently enjoying pink pants terrorist and random green screen sniper zoom in CS GO, all thanks to the latest driver >.<
 
Last edited:
The 650 is based on the GK107 (same as the 640) so don't bother with that card. The 650ti is supposed to use the GK106 so that would be a better match for the 7850. The 650ti won't come until October.

If the 660 comes in at $230 or less then I would lean towards this one. If it is $250 then the 660ti looks better at $50 more.
 
Last edited:
runs2far said:
GT640 - 65W
that leaves a massive 75 watt jump from the anaemic GT640 to the GTX660.
Click to expand...

Random info, but the GT640 is a nifty card for cheap 3D accelerated triple screen Linux. It's much better than even the high-end 500 series which often chugged at 50MHz until the card would decide to spool up after basically completing a window move or whatever 2-second animation. It drags in dead last in 3D gaming performance ... at least it also sweeps the low power charts.

There is no 550 non-Ti right now ... so there's going to be a 650Ti and 650 non-Ti?
 
3dfx_zombie said:
Could be an interesting card. Looking forward to some real reviews though. Coming from a GTX460, what would be best? The 660, HD7870, or 660-Ti? They are all about twice as fast as the 460.
I must say I really like the price/performance of the 7870, but there are just too many black-screen reports on the forums. Especially after the trouble with freezing games I had on my old HD3870, I'm almost afraid to go Radeon again. Are these HD7xxx cards stable now?
Click to expand...

As of two weeks ago for me, no I was still having the black screens, but I never had an issue with my 7950, other than it being an XFX card and dying.
 
xorbe said:
Random info, but the GT640 is a nifty card for cheap 3D accelerated triple screen Linux. It's much better than even the high-end 500 series which often chugged at 50MHz until the card would decide to spool up after basically completing a window move or whatever 2-second animation. It drags in dead last in 3D gaming performance ... at least it also sweeps the low power charts.

There is no 550 non-Ti right now ... so there's going to be a 650Ti and 650 non-Ti?
Click to expand...

The GT640 is a great option, but Nvidia really should have released a DDR5 version.
I am sure a GT640 DDR5 would have mediocre driver support just like my GT240, but it would still be a great card.

hoodlum said:
The 650 is based on the GK107 (same as the 640) so don't bother with that card. The 650ti is supposed to use the GK106 so that would be a better match for the 7850. The 650ti won't come until October.

If the 660 comes in at $230 or less then I would lean towards this one. If it is $250 then the 660ti looks better at $50 more.
Click to expand...

No official documents have specified the die used for the expected 650/650TI model.

Sodapopjones said:
As of two weeks ago for me, no I was still having the black screens, but I never had an issue with my 7950, other than it being an XFX card and dying.
Click to expand...

Talk about bad luck :(
 
runs2far said:
The GT640 is a great option, but Nvidia really should have released a DDR5 version.
I am sure a GT640 DDR5 would have mediocre driver support just like my GT240, but it would still be a great card.



No official documents have specified the die used for the expected 650/650TI model.



Talk about bad luck :(
Click to expand...

It gets better, there's a potential problem with my 660Ti, I'm apparently not the only one experiencing problems with the fans rattling; so far I'm impressed with the speed Andrew has talked to me.
 
runs2far said:
The GT640 is a great option, but Nvidia really should have released a DDR5 version.
I am sure a GT640 DDR5 would have mediocre driver support just like my GT240, but it would still be a great card.
Click to expand...

Yesterday's posts at TechPowerUp suggest the GT640 gddr5 is now called "GTX 650"! :eek: if so, gtx lol
 
I have a feeling 660Ti prices will be coming down now that AMD has applied pressure, moving their 7950s & 7870s cheaper and tweaking clocks. Early adopters of this 660 may be screwed. I believe some states allow you to get a price drop difference refunded within a certain time frame, hopefully people take advantage of that if they pay launch price and quickly find that Nvidia lowers prices quickly thereafter.

I'm going to gamble that within the next 45 days the 660Ti will undergo a price drop and this card will follow. I'm just wondering if their price point on this GTX 660 will start high and drop later or start low and apply pressure to AMD, I guess we'll know soon enough.

I've felt these prices were too high since launch.
 
Who cares?! if you want the 660Ti then buy one, if you can wait then wait for a drop, but how much do you think it will drop? my guess is 25-35 bucks by the end of october. Even so, who cares its worth its price tag now. If you want an AMD cause its cheaper then grab one of those, shut up, and start gaming :D
 
Lord_Exodia said:
I have a feeling 660Ti prices will be coming down now that AMD has applied pressure, moving their 7950s & 7870s cheaper and tweaking clocks. Early adopters of this 660 may be screwed. I believe some states allow you to get a price drop difference refunded within a certain time frame, hopefully people take advantage of that if they pay launch price and quickly find that Nvidia lowers prices quickly thereafter.

I'm going to gamble that within the next 45 days the 660Ti will undergo a price drop and this card will follow. I'm just wondering if their price point on this GTX 660 will start high and drop later or start low and apply pressure to AMD, I guess we'll know soon enough.

I've felt these prices were too high since launch.
Click to expand...

The 670 has been out how long, and the baseline price is about the same.... There's always going to be deals, and at the rate nVidia is selling cards, they really don't need too...

Even if the prices do go down, that's life, especially when it comes to computers.
 
xorbe said:
I'm holding out to see what and how much the 650Ti will be. 7850 would slaughter a GT640(ddr3):
http://www.hwcompare.com/12820/geforce-gt-640-ddr3-vs-radeon-hd-7850/
Not sure how much the gddr5 is going to help, we'll see next week. You could look at a 7750 also if you're looking at htpc low power stuff.
Click to expand...

Mostly looking for low noise,
I have finally decided to try a card that pulls more than 75 watts and the HD7850 seemed like the best compromise, if it turns out it is to loud I'll return it and go for something around or below 100 watts.

I was expecting the GTX660 to be closer to 100 watts, but if I have to get a GTX650 that's ok with me, but first the 130 watt HD7850.
 
More details leaked from nvidia document about the GK106 skus.

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-launch-gk106-skus-including-workstation-board/

NVIDIA-GK106-SKUs.jpg


The GTX650ti will only have 128-bit memory and 576 cudas so I expect a bigger drop in performance and surprised they didn't just go to 1gb/1.5gb memory for a lower price. I don't think it will compete well against the 7850.

If the $229 MSRP for the GTX660 is correct then that would give good performance/$.

The mystery card in between the 660 and 650TI will likely be the competitor for the 7850. This card still has the 192bit memory and with a price around $200 could be interesting depending on the rest of the specs. But for only $30 more the GTX660 still looks like the better option for a low mid-range card.
 
Last edited:
pigwalk said:
How is it pricewise? The TI is nice, but just overpriced. Need something closer to 200-250 that'll be a good upgrade from a 460.
Click to expand...

Price cuts from AMD should help encourage this. I wonder if anyone knows exactly what a video card actually costs to produce? What kinds of profit margins are in the video card industry?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top