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Based on the specifications alone we can surmise that the most powerful of the three cards is the RTX 2060, followed by the gtx 1090 Ti, then GTX 1660 Super, with the GTX 1660 trailing in the rear. While clock speeds are relatively comparable across all four cards (and actually a little higher on the lower-end cards), the drop in CUDA cores from the RTX 2060 to the 1660 Ti is the main differentiating factor in performance. While the 1660 does take a step down in CUDA cores too, its use of GDDR5 memory leads to a 33 percent reduction in memory bandwidth. What we have in the GTX 1660 is a very welcome, if somewhat predictable graphics card which slots in almost perfectly in amongst other mid-range cards out there.
Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature seemingly made of lava. Using 1920×1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic enough graphics and is quite taxing on hardware. GeForce GTX 1660’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 1660’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.
However this means it’s outgunned by the gtx 1080 8gb Super by around 20% , which is why AMD is instead using the card to stake their claim to the $199 price point. So for buyers who absolutely can’t go above $200, it’s an option; but at this point GTX 1660 Super doesn’t face any major competition. It’s also worth noting here that NVIDIA isn’t doing any bundles or other promotional offers for any of the GTX 16 series cards, so what you see is what you get with the new cards. Otherwise, coming from the other direction the vanilla GTX 1660 is still regularly found for around $219.
In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, for example, there was an average of just four frames separating the GTX 1660 and GTX 1060 on Ultra High on 1080p, with the former managing 48fps in its internal benchmark over the latter’s average of 44fps. The GTX 1660 averaged 56fps when Noctis and his boy band lads were running up and down the lush hillsides of Duscae with all of Nvidia’s fancy effects turned off, which to my eyes is pretty much the same as the GTX 1060’s average of 52fps. When compared to the AMD competition, the GTX 1660 Super is a good bit faster than the Radeon RX 590, beating it overall by a 13% margin.
The RX 590 and GTX 1660 were practically identical while the latter offered a 21% boost over the GTX GB’s minimum frame rate and 19% over the average frame rate. Another relatively easy game to run if you have a mid-range graphics card, AMD’s RX 590 was particularly strong here, bettering even the GTX 1660 Ti. The latter wasn’t that much quicker than the GTX 1660 either, with the lower three Nvidia cards bunching up at the bottom of the graph.
For desktop video cards it’s interface and bus , additional power connectors . Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 229 mm. 1x 8-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 120 Watt. At this price the Nvidia GTX 1660 is the card someone coming in fresh, or upgrading from a three year-old mainstream GPU, should be looking at.
It also has a 6GB VRAM buffer, but it’s here where the changes have been made. Nvidia has upgraded the 8 Gb/s GDDR5 memory of the standard 1660 to 14 Gb/s GDDR6 memory and this sees a massive 75% increase in memory bandwidth. In fact, this provides the 1660 Super with even more memory bandwidth than the Ti model. Gigabyte’s Windforce 3X cooler gtx 1090 features three 80mm fans, with ribbed fan blades to add rigidity and reduce noise. And those fans spin in alternate directions to minimize turbulence and maximize air-flow through the heatsink’s fins. The overall design is only 2-slots wide, which is nice to see in era where more and more cards essentially require 3 slots locations.
And there’s a large chunk of PC gamers running far less capable hardware, so anyone with a GTX 960 or lower may finally be tempted to make the switch. Or not, since it’s still only a minor bump in performance relative to the GTX GB for only a slightly better price. If the 1060 didn’t convince you to upgrade over two years ago for $250, I can’t imagine percent more performance for $30 less being the tipping point. Moving to 1080p ultra doesn’t change things much, though the 1660 tends to do slightly better by a few percent in each of the above comparisons . There are a few games where the GTX 1660 isn’t able to average 60fps or more, but that’s only in notoriously punishing games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Metro Exodus. Overall, it’s a very capable 1080p gaming card—better than the GB that launched a couple of years back, but not tremendously so.