The next in line for our GeForce GTX 660 reviews is EVGA. A couple of weeks ago we tested their Ti model, now it's time for the 'regular' graphics card.
Yeah. We all have welcomed the GeForce GTX 660 Ti on the market a few weeks ago with a lot of positive feedback. Face it the Ti edition is good, very good .. but realistically being a mid-range product at the price in the 300 EUR/USD segment, it is still too expensive for mainstream.
That changes with the 'regular' GeForce GTX 660 that is released as we speak. The GeForce GTX 660 is based on a new chip, the GK106. The card will be one of the more anticipated dedicated graphics card series for a long time as the price performance ration of the GeForce GTX 660 should be pretty interesting. This product is going to sit in the 229 EUR/USD segment of the market, and can address pretty much any modern game at everybody's favorite monitor resolution 1920x1080/1200 with extremely acceptable framerates and image quality settings.
Being based on the Kepler GPU architecture obviously NVIDIA had to put some breaks on it in order for the 660 series of product not to compete too much with their bigger brothers. Being more cost effective to produce the GK106 silicon was designed, it really is a new chip, opposed to the GK104 being used on the 660 Ti model.
NVIDIA shaved down the the number of shader processors a little towards 960 (active) if you compare a little with high-end. To understand the positioning a little better simply keep keep in mind that the GeForce GTX 680 has 1536 of them. So that's roughly 38% less shader processors. More had to be done though, the GeForce GTX 670 and 680 all use a 256-bit memory bus, and the GTX 660 series has a 192-bit memory bus tied towards 2 GB of memory. But with the memory running at 6008 MHz in combo with the memory bandwidth gDDR5 memory these days offers, really the difference will be noticeable but certainly not by excessive standards. The last change can be found in the raster operation engine, now cut down to 24 units opposed to 32 that the 670 and 680 use. More on that latest in the technology overview of this article though.
The ever so popular clock frequencies then, the reference (baseline) products will be clocked at 980 MHz and are to boost towards 1033 MHz. Realistically though the boost feature is an average, and you'll notice that these cards will boost to roughly 1100 MHz. With a TDP of 140 Watts the GeForce GTX 660 isn't going to consume heaps of power either, in fact with your average gaming experience the card typically uses roughly 115 Watt as we have measured. Not bad, no Sir.
The GeForce GTX 660 graphics cards will be launched in the 229 USD range. For that amount of money it becomes an accessible product series for many games, and with so many PC games being released this year that will make this series a might fine offering.
Now there will be MANY of SKU's released by the board partners, we'll handle them in chronological order as the come in -- for this review we'll look at an offering from EVGA in the form of a GeForce GTX 660 SuperClocked (SC) edition, as the name implies it is already factory overclocked for you with a 1046 MHz baseclock that can boost towards 1111 MHz. We are sure you like to learn more, so head on over ...
Product Showcase
So EVGA are back at is as well with their SC edition of the GeForce GTX 660. Obviously they'll offer multiple models/SKUs as well but the one submitted comes factory overclocked.
The card comes deliverd at your doorsteps at core clock frequency of 1046 MHz and has a boost frequency of 1111 MHz. The effective memory data rate (192-bit) is 6008 MHz which follows the reference standard. The card has been equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.
When we look at the PCB we do see that EVGA follows the reference PCB design, and there is nothing wrong with that really. A clean layout with proper component selection and the a black tone PCB.
For the SuperClocked edition EVGA is using a reference model cooler which works pretty okay with the GK106 silicon. The noise levels are fairly hard to measure and the cooling performance very acceptable. We'll show you that in our tests of course.
But lets walk through the product guided by photo's.
Alright, here we have the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC (SuperClocked) edition, the 2GB SKU (stock keeping unit) and its packaging. Overall a nice looking card some dark and carbon tones. Let's look at the card from several different viewpoints.
The card is equipped with the GK106 GPU that harbors the Kepler GPU architecture. You get the basics like the graphics card, PEG converter cables, manual and a demo and driver CD, though bundles will vary with AIB/AIC partners.
EVGA clocks this card at a nice 1046 MHz baseclock, with a 1111 MHz Boost/Turbo clock and the memory is running at 6008 MHz. This factory tweak positions the card close to the performance level of a reference GeForce GTX 660 Ti. For your reference, the reference baseclock is 980 MHz.
The card will come with two GB of graphics memory, which is definitely enough if you are a hardcore gamer with a monitor resolution of 1920x1200 and plenty for a product in this price range.
EVGA gives the card two DVI connectors (dual-link), one HDMI and a DisplayPort connector (full size). We like that huge air exhaust as hot air can be vented outside the PC much better this way.
And as you can see there is little room left on the PCB, but overall a clean design. . The card is PCIe gen 3.0 compatible. Going from PCIe Gen 2 to Gen 3 doubles the bandwidth available to the add-on cards installed, from 500 MB/s per lane to 1 GB/s per lane.