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

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC Video Card Review - ASUS has delivered a factory overclocked GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC to our doorstep to run through the wringer. We match this ASUS video card up against AMD's Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition and Radeon HD 7850 to see which will prevail in the battle of the mainstream cards. There are good values at this price point.
 
Very good review..I just got 2 of these for SLI and I could not be happier..
 
Great review as always.

Can someone knowledgeable please explain where 16X AF is set and what the effect is on image quality / performance on these cards / game titles?

Thanks!
 
Great review as always.

Can someone knowledgeable please explain where 16X AF is set and what the effect is on image quality / performance on these cards / game titles?

Thanks!

In most cases it can be set within the game. If that option isn't available as a game option, then it is set within the driver (i.e. within Catalyst Control Center).
 
Overall, a good article, but the price breakdowns at the end are pretty misleading. A 2GB 7850 is $164 after rebate right now, while 7870's can be had for $219 with no rebate at all (and the Tahiti version is $234 after rebate).
 
Overall, a good article, but the price breakdowns at the end are pretty misleading. A 2GB 7850 is $164 after rebate right now, while 7870's can be had for $219 with no rebate at all (and the Tahiti version is $234 after rebate).

This last weekend sale I got mine for 199.99 plus a $20 rebate..
 
This last weekend sale I got mine for 199.99 plus a $20 rebate..

And it's back. Decisions I want to support AMD (I like under dogs :/) but this performance is too hard to beat at these prices. It's too bad it doesn't come with Tomb Raider cause that is the only game I want right now.
 
The ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II turned in a performance that was 11.8% faster than the GALAXY GTX 660 GC. We did not sense a difference in gameplay between the two cards.
This is what I love about Hard reviews. I tend to look at the latest reviews on TPU because they have a nice relative-performance summary graph that helps me gauge if it's worth shelling out another $XX for the next step up. But so what if Card A is 10% faster than Card B if it doesn't make a difference in gameplay? +1 to Hard and its staff!

Couple things I'd like to see on reviews going forward, though:

1) It seems there is always performance data presented for the card being reviewed in its overclocked form, yet it is compared to a stock rival card. Any chance we could get the rival card benched in its OC form as well? Honestly, the main thing I care about is max OC performance for each card.

2) Maybe a "value" rating? Perhaps use the card being reviewed as the index for performance, and then calculate and display a price-to-performance ratio for each card referenced in the review. I realize that somewhat goes against what I mentioned in my first paragraph above, but it's still something I'd like to see! :)
 
And it's back. Decisions I want to support AMD (I like under dogs :/) but this performance is too hard to beat at these prices. It's too bad it doesn't come with Tomb Raider cause that is the only game I want right now.

Hmm...$200 for the card + $50 for the game you want, or $235 for a noticeably better card (7870XT), that comes with the game you want and another to give away/sell/play.
 
Or buy a pair of Asus 660's from Fry's and potentially get both the Nvidia promos and the AMD promos x2. YMMV. :p
 
Great review. I snagged one from Amazon last week which, coupled with selling the F2P codes, only set me back about $150. Total steal for that price.

Just installed it in the case tonight and haven't had a chance to do much. But I did run a couple benchmarks that cranked it up and I've gotta say, this thing is DAMN quiet, even at full load. I can't even hear it over my case fans - which aren't loud. Nor is my cooler (Noctua NH-D14).

Needless to say, my early impressions are very positive.
 
Think you guys would review the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini? :D

I'd like to see how it compares to its larger GTX 670.
 
Just installed it in the case tonight and haven't had a chance to do much. But I did run a couple benchmarks that cranked it up and I've gotta say, this thing is DAMN quiet, even at full load.

Full load w/ fan set to auto or 100%. IM (silent.pc.aficionado) O, 100% fan is loud.
 
I don't have the luxury of a Sandy Bridge chip or a wind tunnel case so I run them @ 100% which, while loud, is not enough of a distraction when gaming.

I also refuse to turn them down cause I don't wanna see my 2 minute overclock fall to pieces, lol!

Edit: I have an auto profile for 2D and they're definitely below the noise floor of 4 SFLEX E's @ 1200 RPM. Even @ 100%, the noise made by the fans seems "high quality" if that makes sense?
 
I just bought one of these from.... umm... that eggish place we aren't supposed to buy from anymore... based on the awesome review. For under $170 after coupon code and MIR you just can't ask for a better deal.
 
I second that question. Why aren't we supposed to buy from Thad eggish place no more. Who says? I can zee not mentioning them by name(seen it elsewhere). Does it have something to do nnwith the Tiger Direct ads I'm seeing on the site now?

Anyway, just want to point out that y'all released 2 articles regarding this same GPU and cooler with the same trim back in September (then starting with reference clocks, now with a smallish factory over clock). First article was launch review for gtx660, the second was about how nth is chip sucks at overclocking. At least then a somewhat over clocked hd7850 was used for comparison. Folks complained then that the amd card could go higher still pretty easily. You can find the 2GB models fairly cheap( a lot cheaper still with a good rebate) and new games to either play or sell for profit. Supposedly, a hd7850 will perform as well as hd7870 without too crazy of an over clock. If that's the case, I still see hd7850 as a good deal.
 
I second that question. Why aren't we supposed to buy from Thad eggish place no more. Who says? I can zee not mentioning them by name(seen it elsewhere). Does it have something to do nnwith the Tiger Direct ads I'm seeing on the site now?

Anyway, just want to point out that y'all released 2 articles regarding this same GPU and cooler with the same trim back in September (then starting with reference clocks, now with a smallish factory over clock). First article was launch review for gtx660, the second was about how nth is chip sucks at overclocking. At least then a somewhat over clocked hd7850 was used for comparison. Folks complained then that the amd card could go higher still pretty easily. You can find the 2GB models fairly cheap( a lot cheaper still with a good rebate) and new games to either play or sell for profit. Supposedly, a hd7850 will perform as well as hd7870 without too crazy of an over clock. If that's the case, I still see hd7850 as a good deal.

I still love NewEgg and no one will change that for me..
NewEgg will have to mess up pretty bad for me to stop using them..And I can say it has been a great 10 years so far with them.
 
If your going spend $200 buxs then why would you not take a long hard look at the HIS HD7950 with 2 free games for $279.

AMD is dropping the prices on the HD 7950 to mop the floor with anything Nvidia has right now in this price range .. i mean who the heck would not want a card with 384bit bruffer and 3Gb's ram and 2 killer games for $70 buxs more and they had an openbox one the other day for $169.. In todays world it's about getting the most per dollar and that card is a bad deal to me.. even if 10buxs really matters then have the Sapphire HD7950 for $269
 
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Where is the latest 7870 Tahiti core review?

This is the only one that we've done.. If you can find them in the low $200's, then it is certainly the best bang for the buck, however, we were told that they would have limited availability and lifespan on the market, so we have not included it as a comparison card on a regular basis. They are often out of stock and seem to be selling like hotcakes though...

I second that question. Why aren't we supposed to buy from Thad eggish place no more. Who says? I can zee not mentioning them by name(seen it elsewhere). Does it have something to do nnwith the Tiger Direct ads I'm seeing on the site now?

There's a more detailed account in the Genmay subforum, but in short, the Egg woke up one day (specifically, just before Thanksgiving last year) and decided that they would cut [H]'s referral commission by 2/3rds with no notice because they wanted to spend more money on marketing to new customers rather than to repeat customers (and has subsequently been dropped to 0). The push towards Amazon is about letting folks know which company values business coming from communities like ours (and of course, helping keep the lights on around here).

Anyway, just want to point out that y'all released 2 articles regarding this same GPU and cooler with the same trim back in September (then starting with reference clocks, now with a smallish factory over clock). First article was launch review for gtx660, the second was about how nth is chip sucks at overclocking. At least then a somewhat over clocked hd7850 was used for comparison. Folks complained then that the amd card could go higher still pretty easily. You can find the 2GB models fairly cheap( a lot cheaper still with a good rebate) and new games to either play or sell for profit. Supposedly, a hd7850 will perform as well as hd7870 without too crazy of an over clock. If that's the case, I still see hd7850 as a good deal.

I should probably go back and re-read that September article - I probably read it at the time but I honestly haven't revisited it since then (that can happen when there's 3 of us cranking out reviews).

There's always a debate on whether to compare against stock cards or against OC'ed cards. Typically for an individual card review, we compare against stock cards as a reference, and as we have extra time, an OC shoot out is assembled that puts those elements together. From an out-of-box experience, the 660 kicks the 7850 in the nuts (which is what a portion of our readers want to know) however, the game changes when you compare max OC to max OC on each card (which is what the other portion of our readers want to know). Another note on factoring OC on comparison cards - finding the max gaming OC of a card can take a significant amount of time - having to do that for each comparison card within a review (as some tweaking might be needed even for ones we know the max OC on) would add a good bit of time to each review which would then make the folks that want the most current drivers on everything upset....

The next two reviews in my pipeline should help paint a better picture of the current performance of the 7850 and 7870, so stay tuned for that :).
 
Mine are on auto and the fans never goes more than 15% so far when playing games..

Yup, same here.

I did crank them up to 100% manually though - and it's they're not totally obnoxious. Quite audible, of course, but not terrible.
 
I see about 35 to 40% fan usage and 72C max in BF3, that's w/ vsync off. You guys must have some nice airflow...oh wait, nm, I see the ivy bridge in there, lol!

Max boost is 1180 on top card and 1160 on the other. I'm afraid/too lazy to go for more.
 
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