![]() ![]() ![]() It's rare that power usage will ever reach this peak value however, and the box requirements state the card requires just 24 amps off a single +12v rail on a PSU to run. The TDP for the card is listed at 140W, the lowest of all tested here, which draws its juice through just a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. Four monitors can potentially run simultaneously through this setup, just as with the preceding cards - though power ratings have changed. The card comes complete with all the connection standards common to the GTX 660 Ti a dual link DVI-D being positioned above a DVI-I connection, with HDMI and DisplayPort 2.1 outputs to their right side. Measuring in at 241mm, the 660 also holds up well compared to the 660 Ti's length of 267mm. We've often criticised the open-shell cards for feeling too flexible during installation, but build quality here is reassuringly robust. It's strikingly similar to the reference card, though the faux-aluminium stripe and checkered texturing to the front panel helps distinguish it from the competing roster. Physically, our overclocked 660 abandons the Twin Frozr fan setup popularised by many third-party vendors, and instead offers a fully-enclosed plastic case to shield its single fan. In terms of the outlook on paper, this is set to be a hard-fought battle. Elsewhere, we see the 7870 take charge with 32 ROPS and a base core clock of 1100MHz - locked in place due to the absence of any adaptive boost feature. This allows for a throughput of up to 153.6GBps, as opposed to the 660's restricted 144.2GBps. However, bandwidth readings remain superior overall on both AMD cards due to their use of 256-bit buses. So how might this compare to AMD's Pitcairn-based cards, the HD 78? Each of these cards ship with lower memory clocks than NVIDIA's latest, and each run at 4800MHz effective. Much like its forebear, the 660 comes configured with up to 2GB of GDDR5 memory, operating at an effective clock of 6008MHz using the very same 192-bit bus. To compare the specifications directly, we see texture units drop from 112 to 80, and also CUDA cores tucked from 1344 to 960 - though ROPs fortunately remain at 24 apiece. There have been compromises compared to the 660 Ti of course. "The new GTX sees CUDA cores and texture units pared back from the 660 Ti, but ROPs, RAM and memory bus remain identical to the more expensive card." This should ensure the card has enough processing grunt to compete with the best of them in the series, and the clocks in this version even compare favourably to the GTX 680. By comparison, EVGA's "Superclocked" edition bumps this up to 1046MHz, alongside as much as an 1111MHz boost. The reference model weighs in with a core clock of 980MHz, alongside the capacity to boost up to 1033MHz if conditions are cool enough. The gap is slowly but surely being bridged over, but in terms of value and performance, does the 660 hold up?įor our tests, we have a GTX 660 operating with a respectable factory overclock. Unlike the Ti version though, this release breaks ground by being the very first Kepler-based card to retail for under £200 - likely to cause plenty of elbow-digging with AMD's 7870 in particular. ![]() On paper, this card offers all the same principle features as the rest of the 600 series, including TXAA support, hardware-based h.264 encoding capabilities, and PCIe 3.0 connectivity. The third step has at last landed though, and here we see NVIDIA turn up with its grandest riposte - the GTX 660. NVIDIA's reaction has been methodical, as always claim the tip-top end with the GTX 680, and then gradually unveil cheaper and progressively cut-down derivatives to fill out the middle range - the GTX 670 and 660 Ti being the first two steps. This has given rival firm AMD plenty of time to wedge a firm foothold in the popular £100-200 range, with its own Radeon HD 78 cards already making a big splash, at £150 and £180 respectively. Between the two, something is certainly missing. The gap remains wide, with the GTX 650 selling as a £90 entry-level solution (which we'll be reviewing in due course) and the next rung up in the series being the GTX 660 Ti at £230. This has meant the company's commitment to the higher-end range has lasted for a longer spell than usual, causing a sore neglect of any real Kepler presence in the middle. The spread of the GTX 600 series has been on the patchy side, primarily as a result of lower-than-average yields for the 28nm chips used to make each card. It's been a curious year for NVIDIA and its leading Kepler graphics core tech. ![]()
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