EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti Pro Reviews

Bringing the review to a close, it should come as no surprise that the launch of the GTX 660 Ti has ended up being a lot like the launches before it. Yet at the same time it’s not truly identical, as there’s a lot going on that makes it nothing like the launches before it. Distilled to its essence, the GTX 660 Ti is yet another fine addition to the GTX 600 series thanks to the GK104 GPU. Compared to the GTX 670 it’s a bit slower, a lot cheaper, and still brutally efficient. For buyers who have wanted to pick up a Kepler card but have found the high-end GTX 670 and GTX 680 out of their price range, at $300 the GTX 660 Ti is at a much more approachable point on the price-performance curve, offering about 88% of the GTX 670’s performance for 75% of the price. Given the price of Kepler cards so far this is definitely a better deal, though it’s still by no means cheap. So in that respect the launch of the GTX 660 Ti is quite a lot like the launches before it. What’s different about this launch compared to the launches before it is that AMD was finally prepared; this isn’t going to be another NVIDIA blow-out. While the GTX 680 marginalized the Radeon HD 7970 virtually overnight, and then the GTX 670 did the same thing to the Radeon HD 7950, the same will not be happening to AMD with the GTX 660 Ti. AMD has already bracketed the GTX 660 Ti by positioning the 7870 below it and the 7950 above it, putting them in a good position to fend off NVIDIA.

Echoing our sentiments in the original review of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, NVIDIA's decision to release a £250 graphics board based on the potent Kepler GK104 architecture gives the gaming enthusiast even more choice for their next premium card. NVIDIA stalwart EVGA uses a reference-like design for its GTX 660 Ti SuperClocked 2GB card, priced at £260, that performs, on average, some 15-20 per cent slower than the GeForce GTX 670. This means it has solid performance at 1080p, the common resolution on most monitors, but tails off when required to run multiple screens or super-high-res panels. Quiet, small and well-constructed, while carrying all of the gaming goodies present on the Kepler line, our main reservation in recommending the SuperClocked this side of the pond rests solely with price. £260 is too close to the GTX 670, which is currently available in pre-overclocked form for £290, and the bigger brother is fundamentally better in the one metric gamers care about: speed. What's more, the asking price is above a Radeon HD 7950's, so NVIDIA/EVGA need to revisit the current UK GeForce pricing structure.

Of the four GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards we looked at, it’s difficult to point to a clear winner. Each card performed well and remained quiet throughout testing. We really like MSI’s GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition due to its competitive price and excellent cooler and we have to give ZOTAC props for including a game coupon with their card, clocking it the highest, and keeping its form factor as svelte as possible. Gigabyte’s card ran the coolest, however, and EVGA offers the best warranty coverage, so each card stands out in one way or another. Ultimately though, we think anyone looking for a graphics card in the $300 price range would be well served by the GeForce GTX 600 Ti. NVIDIA’s got another winner on their hands and continues to push the price/performance envelope with Kepler.

Priced at $310, the eVGA GTX 660 Ti SC is aimed at gamers who want to get very good performance without spending $400 or more for a high-end card. Such users tend to hold on to their cards for two or three years, so they're probably upgrading from an older GTX 260 card. In those cases, the GTX 660 Ti offers reasonably substantial performance gains, as well as the ability to run DirectX 11 titles. The card is surprisingly compact for its performance, and should fit in most midsize-tower cases—even those lacking the depth to handle more-robust cards. Power supply requirements should be modest, too: A good 500W PSU should do the trick. The eVGA GTX 660 Ti is efficient and compact, and it offers very good performance at its price. If you’re a serious PC gamer with a limited budget, and if you have been making do with a two-year-old card, it’s time to think seriously about upgrading.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti is a great GPU, and as such we found all four of these retails cards to be worthy of purchases. If you already bought one and it's on the way you really don't need to worry about any kind of returns. You'll be happy with the performance. That being said, the Zotac AMP! Edition gets my nod as the best of the bunch with its higher GPU clock speeds, and overclocked memory speeds resulting in an out-of-box experience that is a little better than the rest. Both Galaxy and MSI GTX 660 Ti cards offer outstanding cooling with low noise levels, and should be overclockable to the same settings as the Zotac card if you are willing to do it manually. EVGA's $309 version just feels a bit lacking with the "stock" cooler, higher temps and low overclocked settings. Still, EVGA is known to have one of the best communities and support groups (and warranties) in the graphics card world, not to mention supporting the gaming world with Precision X.

In a market that’s currently dominated by upgraded versions of the GTX 660 Ti, EVGA’s SC edition may not stand out as being unique but it combines good performance with a meager $10 premium over a bone stock card. Granted, gamers likely won’t notice the meager in-game framerate improvement but for $10 we really can’t complain. We also appreciate EVGA’s efforts disguise an upgraded heatsink inside of a reference shroud that exhausts hot air outside of the case. Every other design in this roundup dumps hot air into its immediate surroundings, increasing in-case temperatures.

With a lower entry price and performance similar to much more expensive cards, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is set to shake up the graphics card market. Combined with ample overclocking headroom, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is absolutely the sweet spot for performance per dollar.

Ever since the launch of the mighty GTX 680 Kepler core we knew a toned-down version was waiting in the wings, and while the GTX 670 is surely a fantastic graphics card the price was still a bit out of reach for some folks. With the GTX 660Ti, Nvidia delivered a card aimed exactly at that mainstream crowd that wants the latest technology without having to take out a second mortgage on their house to get it. They will be very happy with this card, as the GTX 660Ti hits all the right notes in terms of price, performance and power consumption. Again, this is all very familiar because when the GTX 680 came out we wondered aloud why anyone would bother with a GTX 680 given how close the GTX 670 was to it in specs and performance. Now we're left to wonder the same thing in regards to the GTX 660Ti and the GTX 670 - they are close enough that with a bit of over clocking it'd be easy to achieve a very similar level of performance. The cards are so close we have to wonder why Nvidia didn't sit on the GTX 660Ti for just a bit longer to give the GTX a little more breathing room.

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti was between 7% and 49% faster than the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, and up to 32% faster than the GeForce GTX 570 (except on FarCry 2 at 2560x1600, where the GeForce GTX 570 was 11% faster than the GeForce GTX 660 Ti), which is found at the same price range. Therefore, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is, today, the best option if you have USD 300 to spend on a video card. The SuperClocked version from EVGA was up to 6% faster than the standard GeForce GTX 660 Ti. Although the performance difference seems small, the price difference between the two models is only 3.33%, making it a savvy investment if you want to spend an additional USD 10 to get slightly higher performance.

The Geforce GTX 660 Ti is Nvidia’s new graphics card that aims to cater to wider masses of gamers. The GTX 660 Ti Superclocked 2GB launched at €273 + VAT, while the reference card launched at €259. The price difference isn’t that significant, especially if you like EVGA’s gear. Note that not only does the card come with a factory overclock, EVGA also ships a free game, i.e. a voucher for Borderlands 2. We’ve seen that the GTX 660 Ti SC offers quality performance at 1920x1080. At this resolution, it’s even capable of beating the HD 7950. EVGA uses cooling similar to the reference solution, meaning blower style cooling. This should not concern you unless you’re planning on more serious overclocking. Luckily, the cooler is almost inaudible, even when the card is under load. Those who want more straight out of the box should perhaps wait for the FTW version. EVGA has also announced a GTX 660 Ti with 3GB of memory, which is yet another alternative if you don’t want to jump the gun. However, choosing the GTX 660 Ti Superclocked is definitely not a wrong choice either and the card will reward you with a nice fusion of power, performance and affordability.

Nvidia takes the same chip as the GTX 670, clocks it down a bit, disables one feature and calls it something At this price the eVGA GTX 660 Ti is aimed at gamers who want very good performance without spending the £400 or more for higher end cards. These users tend to hold onto their cards for 2-3 years, so are likely upgrading from an older GTX 260 card. If so, the GTX 660 offers pretty substantial performance gains, as well as the ability to run DirectX 11 titles. The card is surprisingly compact for its performance, and should fit in most mid-tower cases – even those lacking the depth to handle some higher end cards. Power supply requirements should be modest – a good 500W PSU should do the trick. The eVGA GTX 660 Ti is efficient, compact and offers very good performance at its price. If you're a serious PC gamer without an unlimited budget, and have been making do with that two year old card, it's time to think seriously about upgrading.

It certainly took Nvidia a while to fill out its lineup (and we’re still waiting on a desktop equivalent of the lower-end GeForce 650m card found in notebooks), but the GTX 660 Ti puts the company back in the game at the $300 price/performance sweet spot. When compared against Nvidia’s more expensive GeForce GTX 670, the choice comes down to the monitor resolution you’re using now—and the possible resolution you're future-proofing your system for. On a display with a 1,920x1,200 native resolution, we got silky-smooth performance with all the games we tested on the GeForce 660 Ti, even with the detail settings cranked to the maximum. In that case, why spend the extra $100 on the GTX 670? If that's the resolution you're committed to, the 660 Ti is probably the better choice.