The latest member of the Turing GTX family is making its debut in the form of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660. An anticipated release after the recent launch of the GTX 1660 Ti, at $280 this mid-range GPU proved to be a great buy. Now the vanilla GTX 1660 has been set at $220, and at least on paper it looks to provide great value for your money.

The standard 1660 is 21% cheaper only packs only 8% fewer CUDA cores. Going off past that lone you'd expect it to be ~5% slower on average, as the base and boost clocks are very like. However, at that place's ane other major change. Whereas the 1660 Ti features a 192-chip wide memory bus using 12Gbps GDDR6 memory for a bandwidth of 288 GB/s, the new vanilla model has been downgraded with GDDR5 retentivity.

Information technology yet sports a 192-bit memory bus, only the slower GDDR5 retention means the bandwidth has been reduced by 33% downwardly to 192 GB/s. That's going to produce some interesting results and we don't look the GTX 1660 and 1660 Ti to scale evenly.

Overall Nvidia says the GTX 1660 is thirty% faster than the GTX 1060 3GB and xv% faster than the GTX 1060 6GB at 1080p, a claim nosotros'll certainly put to the exam today.

Nvidia also told united states of america that on average the GTX 1660 is 68% faster than the GTX 970 and 113% faster than the GTX 960. Prospective upgrades for those coming from older GPUs is i of the chief targets at this cost indicate. Every bit long as you have an 8-pivot PCIe power connector you're practiced to go, though yous can get 4-pin molex adapters, as well.

On hand for testing nosotros have the MSI GTX 1660 Gaming X. This comes handy because our 1660 Ti results are based on the same MSI Gaming 10 model, and the aforementioned is truthful for the RTX 2060. Shout out to MSI for looking subsequently united states of america on these releases. Truth exist told without their support this twenty-four hour period-one content wouldn't exist possible. On that aforementioned note, Nvidia has too been helpful with these contempo Turing GTX releases, promptly providing the necessary drivers then we can get on with testing.

For this review we'll be looking at operation in a dozen gaming titles, then sometime next calendar week nosotros'll follow up with i of our mega benchmarks comprising over thirty games.

Before we begin, a few quick notes on our test system. Nosotros tested with a Cadre i9-9900K clocked at 5 GHz with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory. Nosotros used using Adrenalin 2022 Edition 19.two.three drivers for the Radeon GPUs and Game Gear up 419.35 WHQL for the GeForce GPUs. Our focus will exist on 1080p performance.

Benchmarks

Kickstarting the benchmarks we accept Shadow of the Tomb Raider and here the new GTX 1660 performs exceptionally well. It blows the GTX 1060 6GB out of the water by almost 40% and it's just four% slower than the GTX 1070 and 13% slower than the 1660 Ti.

Non only that, but with 76 fps on average at 1080p using the highest graphics settings, it provided a super shine and enjoyable gaming experience. Nosotros're off to a good commencement.

The GTX 1660 isn't quite as impressive in Forza Horizon iv, where it matched the RX 590 and was simply slightly slower than the GTX 1070. When compared to the GTX 1060 6GB it was 16% faster which is not bad, merely not bully either.

The GTX 1660 averages 65 fps in Just Crusade 4 at 1080p, placing it roughly on par with the Radeon RX 590 and placing it 18% ahead than the GTX 1060 6GB in this championship. It was ~eleven% slower than the 1660 Ti, so overall not a bad issue.

Testing with Resident Evil two we find another championship where the GTX 1660 is on par with the RX 590, though in this case it is nearly xxx% faster than the GTX 1060 6GB, a substantial improvement.

At 94 fps on average at 1080p with the game maxed out, it's zero to sneeze at.

Hitman ii is a CPU express game at 1080p when using the GTX 1660 Ti or better. We see the 1660 isn't quite at the limits of the CPU but even so it'south still 16% faster than the RX 590 and 29% faster than the GTX 1060 6GB. Hitman 2 is a somewhat odd title, but the 1660 performs well here regardless.

The GTX 1660 does OK in Fortnite, not astonishing only it certainly gets the chore washed. It was xi% faster than the GTX 1060 6GB, 16% slower than the GTX 1070, and 18% slower than the GTX 1660 Ti. With 113 fps on average using the 'Epic' quality preset at 1080p, information technology'due south not what you'd call irksome.

Functioning in Metro Exodus is good, here the GTX 1660 was just 8% slower than the Ti model. Information technology was xvi% faster than the GTX 1060 and that meant the divergence between nice smooth performance and noticeably lower frame rates.

Nosotros've seen it before that Turing loves Rainbow Six Siege, or Rainbow 6 Siege loves Turing. Either way, it's expert news for prospective GTX 1660 owners. Hither the new budget GPU spat out an incredible 118 fps on boilerplate at 1080p using 100% render scale. That'south a whopping 36% performance boost over the GTX 1060 6GB.

Testing with Battleground V sees the 1660 trailing the Ti model by a 16% margin, and it only managed to lucifer the RX 580. Radeon GPUs do perform very well in this title. When compared to the GTX 1060 6GB we're looking at a smaller 12% operation uplift.

The new GPU doesn't practise so well in World of Tanks. Here the 1660 is downwards 17% on the 1660 Ti, putting information technology essentially on par with the GTX 1060 6GB.

Testing with Apex Legends shows the GTX 1660 providing a prissy 28% operation boost over the 1060 6GB with a noteworthy 106 fps on average at 1080p. The card was 6% slower than the GTX 1070 and 14% slower than the GTX 1660 Ti which are relatively narrow margins.

When testing with Far Cry New Dawn the GTX 1660 once again matched the RX 590. With 87 fps on boilerplate, performance at 1080p was excellent though absolutely it was just fourteen% faster than the 1060 6GB. The older Pascal GPU spit out 76 fps on average, so the difference wasn't that noticeable.

Ability and Overclocking

When it comes to ability consumption we tin observe the new GTX 1660 is extremely fuel efficient, not dissimilar its Ti sibling. The carte pushed total system consumption to the same levels every bit the already very efficient GTX 1060 6GB, doing and then while delivering more performance. In terms of efficiency, in that location's no question most information technology, the GTX 1660 is excellent.

Every bit for temperatures, the MSI GTX 1660 Gaming X ran cool and quiet. Under load we couldn't hear information technology above the test organization and later an hour of the F1 2022 criterion on a loop information technology peaked at just 63 degrees in a 21 degree room. Impressive stuff from this new budget graphics card.

Overclocking the MSI GTX 1660 Gaming 10 went smoothly. Firing upward the MSI Afterburner utility we arrived at +110 for the core and +900 for the GDDR5 retentiveness. This resulted in a typical operating clock speed of 2070 MHz, though that's a mere 5% crash-land over what you go out of the box.

Past increasing the GDDR5 memory speed by 22% this helped to boost frame rates by 11% in Apex Legends. Not bad considering how small-scale the core overclock was. Clearly the GTX 1660 is retentiveness limited and squeezing the most you can out of the GDDR5 is an like shooting fish in a barrel mode to boost frame rates.

Cost per Frame and Closing Remarks

Overall Nvidia's new $220 mid-range Turing offering is an all-round fantabulous pick. We can get a amend idea of just how good the GTX 1660 in terms of value by looking at the cost per frame graph below. At a toll of $2.44 per frame based on our testing, it'southward actually 9% ameliorate value than the GTX 1660 Ti overall and impressively it even managed to edge out the Radeon RX 580.

This is a really adept value offering from Nvidia that completely wipes out the GTX 1060 series along with the Radeon RX 580 and 590, though the GTX 1660 Ti has already taken good care of the never-good RX 590.

This leaves AMD's $140 RX 570 equally the cost per frame gnaw, but as you tin can see the GTX 1660 was 36% faster on average, so paying a chip more for all that extra functioning will likely be worth it for most.

Bang for your buck the GTX 1660 tin can't be beat out. The power efficiency is at that place, and the MSI Gaming X model nosotros used for testing worked like a charm, running cool and quiet with a reasonable amount of overclocking headroom on offer.

Past the fourth dimension you read this we hope enough cards show up in stores shortly after, and so if you're set to accept the plunge you lot can practice and then at the suggested $220 retail pricing.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • GeForce GTX 1660 on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce GTX 1660 Ti on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce RTX 2060 on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce RTX 2080 on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX Vega 56 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX Vega 64 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX 570 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX 580 on Amazon, Newegg