MSI N660Ti PE 2GD5 Pro Reviews

If you have $300 to spend on a new graphics card today, the MSI GTX 660 Ti PE should be on your short list as it provides near GTX 670 class performance at a significant discount. When compared to the recently adjusted AMD pricing, the Radeon HD 7950 is rather tempting when you can get factory overclocked Radeon HD 7950 cards right at the price of this video card. The recent AMD price drops have put a lot of pressure on the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti just days after its launch. For the first time we are seeing the Radeon HD 7950 and Radeon HD 7870 compete with pricing. At the end of the day, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti performs faster than a reference clocked Radeon HD 7950. However, the HD 7950's true potential isn't realized unless you get a factory overclocked card and even take it further by manually overclocking. When you do that, a different picture is painted between the GTX 660 Ti and the Radeon HD 7950. MSI has put together a solid video card in the N660Ti PE 2GD5/OC, we experienced a high level of gameplay experience out-of-the-box. We were able to play at 2560x1600 in most games, and had a wonderful experience at 1920x1200 with this video card, able to use high AA settings. We achieved a good overclock that yielded 1275MHz of pure clock speed goodness in games, and this was just 23MHz shy of our highest overclock on a GTX 660 Ti to date. This overclock gave us more performance and even let us use higher settings in a game. The Twin Frozr IV cooling system does its job well and kept our video card cool and quiet. The fact that this video card isn't massively overpriced is a blessing, there is a $10 rebate that puts this video card right at the MSRP for GTX 660 Ti's so you can get a custom factory overclocked model at MSRP pricing. Then you will also get Borderlands 2 which is a $60 savings if you planned to purchase this game. MSI has put together a solid bundle that should give anyone looking for a card at the $299 price point a great place to start.

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.

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.

Much like Galaxy’s GTX 660 Ti GC, MSI’s Power Edition doesn’t stride within the upper or lower performance rungs within this roundup but it provides a consistent gaming experience. Its average framerates were within spitting distance of more expensive cards from Gigabyte and ASUS without drastic clock speed variations or flimsy heatsinks. Speaking of cooling ability, once again the Twin Frozr design has proven why it is one of the most highly regarded thermal solutions around. It went about its job quietly and provided enough capacity that the Power Edition’s fans remained at their default speed throughout our overclocking tests.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 660 Ti will be a hit of that I am sure. The card delivers excellent performance levels at reasonable power consumption, which enables board partners to create low-noise custom designs. The new GTX 660 Ti is almost twice as fast as the last-generation GTX 560 Ti, but comes at a $50 higher introductory cost. MSI's GTX 660 Ti Power Edition uses the company's TwinFrozr cooler that we have seen on many cards before, and it works well. The card achieves a 6% performance improvement over the reference design thanks to the overclock out of the box. What I find surprising is that MSI's card is faster than many other GTX 660 Ti cards reviewed today even though it's running lower base and boost clocks. As you probably know, base and boost clocks on Kepler are marketing values - the actual card will run different clock speeds due to NVIDIA's Boost Clock Algorithm. It seems that MSI has added some secret sauce, no other board partner has, to their card's BIOS. One indicator of this is that they raised the card's default power limit from 130 W to 175 W, which will certainly help in many situations. During normal gaming, we see no increased power consumption due to this change. The card essentially uses the same power as other cards, but is faster - leading to improved performance per Watt.< br />Overclocking works great as well and reaches the highest real-life performance, despite not reaching the lowest GPU clock. This is certainly an interesting development. We will, hopefully, see more board partners pick up this change. MSI's cooler works great as it is a well-established and proven solution. Fan noise of the card is very low in both idle and load, and temperatures are fine as well.

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.

Having the ability to look at several cards at one time puts some real perspective on what you are seeing and the performance delivered by the video cards. MSI has put together a solid offering as well that delivers excellent performance both in stock and overclocked trim. It uses MSI’s own Military Class III power delivery system and component selection to increase efficiencies, reduce temperatures, and increase stability long term. The enhanced 5+2 phase design uses solid aluminum caps, Super Ferrite chokes and Tantulum infused Hi-C Caps that meet MIL-STD 810G. Cooling duties are handled by the latest revision of the Twin Frozr cooling solution the Twin Frozr IV. What's special about this revision is that a pair of Propeller blade 80mm fans deliver the airflow needs of the card but turn backwards upon start up to to help keep the heat sink free of dust. An innovation I see in use at work as a way to keep down maintenance costs long term. Cooling performance matches the gaming performance keeping temperatures below 70 °C even when overclocked and over volted. The only concern I have with the cooling solution is that it will keep a hard SLI brdge from connecting due to the height of the shroud.

I'm used to high-performance video cards falling down at the value proposition. To get that last few FPS often requires that you pay a substantial premium. But the N660Ti provides exceptional performance, very close to that of the reference GTX670, for $90 less, and that's a huge win in anyone's book. Overclocking unlocked some extra performance, but let's face it: you're probably not going to need it. Of all the games I tested, the card fell below 30FPS at the highest resolution only in Metro 2033 at stock settings. Two of these babies in SLI might provide performance superior to that of MSI's own $600 N680GTX Lightning for only $20 more, and that's something to think about.

The GTX 660 Ti is a force to be reckoned with and we have seen many cards from many manufacturers. Most cards arrived as the top model of the 660 Ti line, but MSI chose a more modest approach with a card that is clocked below the others. We knew it wouldn’t wipe the floor with the other combatants, but the possibility of a 660 Ti HAWK Edition might level the playing field a bit more. At the card’s price point, it is only $10 more than the reference standard model, and $20 less than the top performing Zotac model in this go around. While it is slightly slower out-of-box, it overclocks damn well, with a memory clock at 7020MHz QDR (a 1GHz overclock over the out of the box clock). One slight issue we have with this card is the fans, as they are definitely noisy, and its seems like the extra airflow from the propeller style fan blades has an adverse side effect. This is not really loud during game tests but in a hot chassis or when pushing the card at max fan speed, the noise is definitely audible.

Like our game setting choices, there are no right or wrong answers other than to say the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is priced appropriately at $300, just like AMD's Radeon HD 7870. Time to sit back and wait for both companies to push each other on pricing (and indeed, 7870s are already starting to appear around $280).