Gainward GeForce GTX 660 Ti Phantom Pro Reviews

We said at the start that for the Gainward GTX 660 Ti 2GB Phantom to stand out it would need to have healthy overclocking potential and a good cooler, but it has neither. Its performance in these areas isn't bad, it's just not better than elsewhere. Overclocking figures are pretty much the same as what we've seen with other card, and the chunky cooler does not reduce noise or temperatures enough to justify its size and consequent lack of versatility compared with other cards. Mini-ITX cases, for example, tend to only have room for dual-slot cards. This leaves the £260 Gainward card in a somewhat sticky situation. For just £30 more, you'll net yourself a GTX 670, which we've always said is the preferable card. Its extra memory controller serves it well now, as it continually outperforms even heavily overclocked GTX 660 Ti 2GB cards, and will continue to be of benefit in future games too. If your budget can't stretch that far, however, there are plenty of cheaper (and smaller) GTX 660 Ti cards to consider (the £250 Zotac amp! Extreme being just one). As the AMD Radeon HD 7950 now costs around £220 for a stock version or £240 for a Boost edition, there's really no good reason to shell out for this overpriced and oversized card.

The GTX 660 Ti Phantom may do pretty well if the performance and price are right. As far as performance goes, we were pleasantly surprised. We didn’t get GTX 670’s performance at factory clocks, but it was close enough. Gaming at 1920x1080 is a joy and most games will allow maximum settings. Of course, depending on the game, higher resolutions are definitely not off limits. As far as pricing goes, it may work against the Phantom. Gainward priced the card some €15 higher than the reference GTX 660 Ti but to be fair, overclocked GPU, Phantom cooling and extra overclocking headroom may very well justify the price. However, the GTX 660 Ti starts just below €300 in Europe, and tends to go up to €350 or even €370 (for the 3GB model), whereas most gamers were expecting €250-300. Furthermore, this price range is quite popular and you’ll find many quality cards there, such as the HD 7950. If you’re looking for quiet cooling with a nice factory overclock, then the Phantom is definitely worth looking at. Note however that the card is three slots wide. Powerful Phantom cooling really helped us in our overclocking and we managed to squeeze out additional 130MHz for the GPU and 250MHz (1000MHz effectively) for the memory, which was enough to leave the GTX 670 in the dust. So, if you’re looking for an affordable card that still packs a nice punch, and then some, then Gainward’s GTX 660 Ti Phantom will be more than a worthy weapon of choice.