# ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Direct Cu II 2 GB



## W1zzard (Sep 6, 2012)

The ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II uses the cooling solution which we love most for its low noise in both idle and load. ASUS has also overclocked their board, which provides enough extra performance to match the AMD Radeon HD 7870.

*Show full review*


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## dj-electric (Sep 13, 2012)

ohh ohhh.... i see what you did there AMD
Clever move, clever move...


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## W1zzard (Sep 13, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> ohh ohhh.... i see what you did there AMD
> Clever move, clever move...



i dont. what do you mean?


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## dj-electric (Sep 13, 2012)

I mean the price change announcement lately


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## entropy13 (Sep 13, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> i dont. what do you mean?



Probably talking about the price cuts.

Even with the price cuts all it actually did (for the reference HD 7870 for example) is make it more competitive in the price/perf ratio (to the reference GTX 660), from the previous position of "barely competitive to non-ref GTX 660".


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## W1zzard (Sep 13, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> I mean the price change announcement lately



those are not yet factored into this review. I used retail pricing from Newegg (without any MIR crap)


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## dj-electric (Sep 13, 2012)

Oh well. Still, things like this
ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2G...
look just like great deal.


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## Ozpa (Sep 13, 2012)

I wish there was a round-up of all the 4 660s in one review so I could compare the cards easier, same with 660 Ti reviews.


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## Casecutter (Sep 13, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> Oh well. Still, things like this



Well not sure where reign from but last week I could've picked-up the Asus HD7870-DC2-2GD5 7870 2GB Card for $255; working a $10 off with coupon code, and -$20 rebate [Exp 9/30].

Buy that and OC it to 1260 MHz core (15% overclock) and 1620 MHz Memory (30% overclock) Like W1zzard got and you're in the GTX670 range for like $155 less!  

The GTX660 pricing is out of bounds, from what it see they’re feeble on games at 1920x... for $250! Nvidia need the price cuts!  So what if now the price for 7870 has moved down approximately 30%, AMD has been in the market 7 months un-contested them reducing price is expected… 

The worst part, AMD is good to hold-fast now... the chance of seeing that Asus 7870 for $225 shipped… again anytime soon "for-get-a-bout-it"


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## Delta6326 (Sep 13, 2012)

Great review!

This is looks like a very good entry level gaming card this will get the job done for most people at 1080 or less. It's really almost like flipping a coin to decide on which GPU to get.


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## Jeffredo (Sep 13, 2012)

Bought a GTX 670 a few months ago to replace my GTX 460 1GB.  Probably should have waited for the GTX 660 since it would make more sense paired with my X4 980 BE (and would have saved me $150 or more).  I know I'm bottlenecked right now.  Oh well, guess I'm future proofed a bit more when I finally upgrade to an Intel platform in a year or so.


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## bacan (Sep 13, 2012)

Great review as always but I noticed something really strange at Diablo 3 test. This card and MSI model scored almost 20-50% bigger score (at different resolutions) than the reference model while Zotac and Gigabyte scored similar. Is it some kind of an error or is it really true?


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## brandonwh64 (Sep 13, 2012)

W1z, I do not know if someone has asked this yet but will the GTX 650 be reviewed as well?


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## Casecutter (Sep 13, 2012)

Delta6326 said:


> a very good entry level gaming


$250 entry level...  




brandonwh64 said:


> I do not know if someone has asked this yet but will the GTX 650 be reviewed as well?


Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!


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## Jeffredo (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!



How about we don't want to take your word for it.


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## DarkOCean (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!


 To have the possibility to achieve astronomical oc levels!


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## Delta6326 (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> $250 entry level...
> 
> 
> Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!



Yes I consider the 650 and 660 Entry level 660 TI Mid, 670, 680 High end, 690 Enthusiast.

Also this beats the 7750...The 660 compares to the 7870.


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## DarkOCean (Sep 13, 2012)

I consider the 660 a 7850 competitor, it cost more use more power and oc less.
They wolud make a very good choice for $199 but not for $230-$260 because people that want this kind of performance have already bought/have 7870,50 560ti etc so this card is not very attractive at this current price point.


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## Crap Daddy (Sep 13, 2012)

DarkOCean said:


> I consider the 660 a 7850 competitor, it cost more use more power and oc less.
> They wolud make a very good choice for $199 but not for $230-$260 because people that want this kind of performance have already bought/have 7870,50 560ti etc so this card is not very attractive at this current price point.



In fact it is a direct competition for the 7850 same as the 660Ti was for the 7870 and the 670 for the 7950. But, due to the aggressive AMD price cuts that started when the 660Ti was launched these cards are compared with respective AMD offerings for the same price.

There is one more card missing, the 650Ti or whatever, which will feature also a GK106 and it will go against the 7770 (for those who have doubts the 650 is against the 7750). Probably NV still considers that these cards can be sold at these starting price points but they will have to play the game sooner or later and bring their better performance closer to AMD counterpart prices.


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## W1zzard (Sep 13, 2012)

brandonwh64 said:


> W1z, I do not know if someone has asked this yet but will the GTX 650 be reviewed as well?



yes. msi on the 17th, getting another card tomorrow which i'll try to post asap


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 13, 2012)

Looks pretty good. performs as the GTX660 should In between the 7850 and 7870. price is lacking at this point, but Asus DirectCU cards are always expensive haha.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 13, 2012)

DarkOCean said:


> I consider the 660 a 7850 competitor, it cost more use more power and oc less.
> They wolud make a very good choice for $199 but not for $230-$260 because people that want this kind of performance have already bought/have 7870,50 560ti etc so this card is not very attractive at this current price point.



Um these GTX660s shit bricks all over the 560ti's. At this price point im pretty sure people have already gotten GTX660ti's or 670s and AMD cards so.


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## Casecutter (Sep 13, 2012)

Jeffredo said:


> How about we don't want to take your word for it.


Well Toms didn't have much to say good and they're always progressive for the green.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297.html



Delta6326 said:


> Yes I consider the 650 and 660 Entry level 660 TI Mid, 670, 680 High end, 690 Enthusiast.
> 
> Also this beats the 7750...The 660 compares to the 7870.


$230 is really stretching what I call entry... to me $140-180, $200 tops!  I would rather say a card for the cash-strapped mainstream gamer... and many of use today are.

Moving on the power/performance... looking at Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200 (I sure wish W1zzard had included the reference 660 numbers also it's hard to figure a baseline).  The Asus 660 OC shows 129W while FPS of 50.1 divide that we get 2.57.  Reference 7870 is 115W / 47.8FpS = 2.40.  I'll throw-out a watt number for what might be  reference 660 of say 110W / 45.7FpS = 2.40.  From that I'm seeing that the GTX 660 isn't actually any better in power use while running Crysis 2.  Then I look at the performance/watt at 1920x (odd now W1zzard shows the reference 660 and as the same as OC’d Asus?) and the 7870 is 16% better.  That’s significant and should have had a mention on the "thumbs down" just like not have a technology for "Long-Idle power down" aka AMD’s ZeroCore Power technology. 

I get  the impression as though Kepler has diminishing returns on small die size.


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## Delta6326 (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> Well Toms didn't have much to say good and they're always progressive for the green.
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297.html
> 
> 
> $230 is really stretching what I call entry... to me $140-180, $200 tops!



Oh yes going by price I would like to see the 660 for around $180-200 and I think they will do this some time, because look at the gap between the 650 and 660 price. 

Knowing AMD they will come out with a special 7850 GHZ Boost 3GB edition with a game and then Nvidia will just drop the price

For me personally I go by performance even if the company says for example "The GTX 780 is entry level..." But then it ends up being the fastest card I would consider it high end.


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## Casecutter (Sep 13, 2012)

Delta6326 said:


> going by price I would like to see the 660 for around $180-200


I don’t think Nvidia will budge much under $200 till AMD gets closer to release their Sea Islands in a couple of months... definitely not 7mo's away.  

Nvidia has a GTX655 on the GK106 coming (we know that) and I’d think it would need to be $160-170 making it just another wedge product.  AMD already has a 7850 *1Gb* for $180, that will come down to $150 right quick as more AIB get them out. The 7850 will be at $180-210, while 7870 $220-250.  Nvidia has now made both this 660 and 660Ti wedge offerings, and AMD is in a good spot they’ve no reason to move in the market segment.


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## Spartan805 (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> Well not sure where reign from but last week I could've picked-up the Asus HD7870-DC2-2GD5 7870 2GB Card for $255; working a $10 off with coupon code, and -$20 rebate [Exp 9/30].
> 
> Buy that and OC it to 1260 MHz core (15% overclock) and 1620 MHz Memory (30% overclock) Like W1zzard got and you're in the GTX670 range for like $155 less!
> 
> ...



1250c/1310m max, on my HIS IceQ 7870 :shadedshu


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## HumanSmoke (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> The GTX660 pricing is out of bounds, from what it see they’re feeble on games at 1920x... for $250!


Yes, very feeble. A close look at benches says the 660 beats the 7870 in four of seventeen games (stock vs stock)- but I'd also note that in another four, the difference is 2.7 fps or less...and neither card is producing playable framerates. Stock vs stock- the 660 beats the 7850 in 12 -of- 17. You could probably exaggerate the differences by making the 660 choke on its reduced bus width with higher game i.q. but I don't see benchmarks producing 20 fps or less all that relevent to real world usage.


Casecutter said:


> Moving on the power/performance... looking at Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200 (I sure wish W1zzard had included the reference 660 numbers also it's hard to figure a baseline).  The Asus 660 OC shows 129W while FPS of 50.1 divide that we get 2.57. Reference 7870 is...


And? a handful of watts/hour doesn't seem all that relevant...if it was...


Casecutter said:


> You know I went and really looked at the details, and might say it not as bad as folk here see it.


(from the PC Devil 13 review)
Using your same metric:
HD 7990: 304W / 88.9 FPS = 3.42 watts-per-frame
GTX 690: 274W / 91.3 FPS = 3.00 watts-per-frame
The fact that PC are sending out shoddily prepared product (TPU and Hexus received three cards unusable without modification), Crossfire X seems to have some significant driver woes at a popular CFX resolution (2560x1600) and I'd think the forum comments are well justified overall.


Casecutter said:


> Yep, super anti-climactic... being 7 months late and a $260 MSRP!   It’s a turd and they’d better slash it below $200 ASAP, because there’s nice 7870 for $200-220 that yes… OC like banshee’s.


Might be tad optimistic don't you think? Or are the Egg's prices not representative ?


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## Casecutter (Sep 13, 2012)

HumanSmoke said:


> And? a handful of watts/hour doesn't seem all that relevant...if it was...
> Using your same metric:


I don't worry about power for those Über Enthusiast cards they are what-they-are, and those folk have cash flow to run them... good for them, while I'm sure they use it then turn it off. 

Between a 660 and 7870 and using them to game there's no difference.  Sure it 7870 uses more, but you are getting on average a better experience, that what the point is.  Although, here's where I'm also contending that for "the cash strap mainstream folks", they’ll use it for other things and let it go to sleep.  That's where long Idle (0 watts), though small over the 5-6W pulled from a 660, means something over a few years.  

You made a good point GK104 in their superlative form do fairly good, And why I said…


Casecutter said:


> I get  the impression as though Kepler has diminishing returns on small die size.


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## HumanSmoke (Sep 13, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> Between a 660 and 7870 and using them to game there's no difference.  Sure it 7870 uses more, but you are getting on average a better experience, that what the point is.


Probably depends on how you define experience I suppose. Apart from W1zz's and TS's reviews (sheer number of games benched), I usually check out -and take stock of-Tech Report. Scott's bench method mirrors fairly accurately both gameplay-ability and the gaming 'experience'..






I'd largely agree that Nvidia likely priced the 660 ~$20-30 to high, but I'm also pretty sure that like AMD, they bet on a quick trawl of "it's new, I MUST HAVE IT!" consumers. The fact that factory OC'ed cards with a higher BoM than reference (Asus DCII, MSI TF3, Gigabyte OC, KFA EX OC etc.) are retailing at reference MSRP, and in volume would suggest that yields are pretty much OK. Bearing in mind that GK106 (221mm²) is, for all intents and purposes the same size as Pitcairn (212mm²)- then it would seem reasonable that Nvidia have much the same "wiggle room" as AMD on pricing. Nvidia has historically charged a premium over AMD - which most people generally parse as a tariff/trade off for driver support (Nvidia does tend to offer better launch day support for games in general) and eye candy - lest we forget that Borderlands 2 launches very shortly with TXAA support (as does Mech Warrior online) and what looks like a substantial PhysX component.


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## Casecutter (Sep 14, 2012)

HumanSmoke said:


> Tech Report. Scott's bench method mirrors fairly accurately both gameplay-ability and the gaming 'experience'..



Oh, I've been a fan of what Scott's been doing and it definitely has a ton of merit and provides a level of precision we haven't been privy to.  Although flip that chart to the FpS and things change... there's no perfect winner.  The real problem that scatter plot is wholly misleading *they excluded DiRT Showdown*. :shadedshu 

Showing that MSI at like $260 (it's 240 -AR at Egg) is skewed, while I would've like to have had a reference 7870 on that also.  When the 7870 are $230-240 and deals as low a $200 that I think would be a better match. A standard 7870 might have lower FpS, but in frame time per mil/sec that 99th percentile won't be all that much affected.   

It's good  to look at and honestly they had wins and loses ties all the way around.  I personally would like to see more titles like Sniper Elite V2, STALKER: COP maybe instead of Skyrim...  

IF your someone who let's your hardware dictate the titles you have, you're just sipping the Kool-aid, game should be unfettered by there hardware overlords.


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## mediasorcerer (Sep 14, 2012)

I am considering the 660 for a card for my rigg i just built[on igpu etc] but the way they are priced compared to the 7870,s-7950,s, i think i will be sticking with amd probably, even tho i wanted to give nvidia a go this time, just too pricey is all.


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## Spartan805 (Sep 14, 2012)

mediasorcerer said:


> I am considering the 660 for a card for my rigg i just built[on igpu etc] but the way they are priced compared to the 7870,s-7950,s, i think i will be sticking with amd probably, even tho i wanted to give nvidia a go this time, just too pricey is all.



Just wait, the GTX prices will adjust themselves in a few months. I got my 7870 for $200.


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## ozyap (Dec 20, 2012)

Anyone here bought this card by chance? did your PCIe power connector litterally hit the heatsink when you connected it? and sort of rest against it?

The photo in the review demonstrates just how close it is. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_660_Direct_Cu_II/images/power.jpg

Mine hit it and I can't work out why it was designed this way. why not invert the power connector 180 degrees and have the latch on the other side


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## W1zzard (Dec 20, 2012)

ozyap said:


> Anyone here bought this card by chance? did your PCIe power connector litterally hit the heatsink when you connected it? and sort of rest against it?
> 
> The photo in the review demonstrates just how close it is. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_660_Direct_Cu_II/images/power.jpg
> 
> Mine hit it and I can't work out why it was designed this way. why not invert the power connector 180 degrees and have the latch on the other side



Yeah I experienced the same. It's normal. I agree that it's not the best design choice, I reported it to ASUS back when I did the review.

It does not affect temperatures of the heatsink, it just makes unplugging a bit complicated.


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## ozyap (Dec 20, 2012)

Yes, I invisage removing it is going to be a pain. Oh well. I guess rev 1.00 on the PCB explains it 

Thanks W1zzard.


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