GIGABYTE GV-N660OC-2GD Pro Reviews

When we first reviewed the GTX 670, we deemed it the best value high-end graphics card money could buy. Likewise, last month we found that the GTX 660 Ti exceeded the GTX 670's price-to-performance ratio, making it the biggest bang for your buck. Having tested the GTX 660, we're inclined to conclude that Nvidia has done it again -- sort of. While the new GK106-based card is a solid value at its price, AMD has already slashed prices where necessary, so its lineup isn't quite as displaced as with previous Kepler launches. The GTX 660 provides a surprisingly high level of performance for its MSRP of $230. It's roughly 23% cheaper than last month's GTX 660 Ti while being only 14% slower when running games at 1920x1200. Additionally, the GTX 660 is about $30 (11%) cheaper than the HD 7870 and runs about 5% slower, giving the former a slight edge in bargain points. Interestingly, however, the GTX 660 and HD 7850 share an identical price-to-performance ratio. The former is 10% more expensive but offers 10% more speed. Unfortunately, that means we have no clear advice if you're debating between the HD 7850 and GTX 660. Your decision will have to hinge on the games you want to play or brand-exclusive features.

We've seen our fair share of monstrously powerful GPUs in 2012, but Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 660 OC is in many ways our kind of graphics card. Priced the right side of £200, it offers excellent performance in many of today's latest games, it keeps power consumption down to a more-favourable level, and it runs extremely cool at all times. Choosing between AMD red and NVIDIA green isn't getting any easier - the Radeon HD 7870 and GeForce GTX 660 are closely matched - but if you're leaning toward the Kepler feature set, Gigabyte's GTX 660 OC is a tidy fit for any mid-range gaming PC. It should have no problem playing the most taxing DX11 titles at a 1080p resolution, though, you may in some cases want to knock down image quality from extreme to high, to maintain a lock at 60 frames per second.

In the end, the new GeForce GTX 660 is another strong product in its category, from NVIDIA. The GPU offers great performance in its segment, it's relatively quiet, power consumption is in-line and the GeForce GTX 660 is priced competitively. You can't ask for much more than that.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 660 adds to the company's product stack by providing a fully featured gaming solution at the crucial price point of around $200. The reference design sits right between AMD Radeon HD 7850 and HD 7870 in terms of performance. Thanks to its overclock out of the box, the GIGABYTE GTX 660 Windforce OC gains 6% over the NVIDIA reference design, ending up just 2% behind the HD reference 7870. This is enough gaming power for most titles at full HD (1920 x 1080), with maximum details and anti-aliasing enabled. Compared to the GK104 based cards, like GTX 680, 670, and 660 Ti, the new GK106 graphics processor offers significantly improved non-gaming power draw, which beats anything similar AMD has to offer, especially while running multiple monitors or Blu-ray. HD 7800 series is the winner when it comes to gaming power consumption despite NVIDIA having the better boost clock technology to improve performance per Watt. AMD also has ZeroCore power, which turns the card off while the screen is off, during, for example, overnight download sessions.

It's clear that a $110 GeForce GTX 650 and $230 GeForce GTX 660 are strong additions to Nvidia's portfolio. Based on the company's track record with 600-series cards so far (aside from the GeForce GTX 680, that is), we have no reason to believe supply will be problematic. We're happy to see Kepler-based mainstream cards, both of which are able to game at 1920x1080, fill in more of the pricing band.