Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Twin Fan 6 GB

[W1zzard]

The most affordable Turing graphics card is also NVIDIA's most important thus far, as it replaces the GTX 1060 6 GB which sold in mountains. Zotac's cost-effective implementation of the new GeForce GTX 1660 gives you more: a twin-fan cooler at NVIDIA's baseline price.

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[dirtyferret]

Looks like the card to get for 1080p gaming

 

[dj-electric]

RX 570\80\90 should have the mother of all price drops riiiiiight about now. ASAP.

 

[AmioriK]

Thanks for the great review, W1zzard. The GTX 1660 is £199.99, from Scan.co.uk for the cheapest models. This sure is very attractive as a potential replacement for my RX 570, even though it does have less Video Memory. It would surely be a lot better with Folding @ Home, too. At the moment I am weighing up a discounted GTX 1060 3GB for £139.99 from Ebay, or a Radeon RX 570 4G brand new for £128.99 from OCUK for my dedicated 24/7 folding PC. (But if I was to get the 1660; I would surely use it in my gaming PC).

 

[jabbadap]

Fan noise table has 1660 ti twin fan dB, probably typo. No idle fan off though, bummer. Can one run it just one 6-pin connector attached? With max 133W OC TDP, it seems quite pointless to use 8-pin power connector on these.

 

[Frutika007]

I don't think it's worth the price. 3 years of wait and less than 20% improvement for the same price! Seems like generational improvement is out of the window(compared to maxwell-pascal jump).

 

[W1zzard]

Fan noise table has 1660 ti twin fan dB, probably typo

Fixed. Thanks!

 

[ppn]

1660Ti replaced 1060/6, 1660 replaced 1060/3

20% for +128 more cuda and same gddr5 is impressive

 

[dj-electric]

3 years of wait and less than 20% improvement for the same price!

20%, 2.5 years, 30$ less. Still, sure its not insane but its not bad either.

 

[ShurikN]

RX 570\80\90 should have the mother of all price drops riiiiiight about now. ASAP.

RX570 goes for $130 at Newegg, and is unmatched at that price point. And it comes with 2 games.
580 and 590 should get a price drop (580 smaller drop, 590 larger), but as far as 570 goes, I don't know how cheaper it can get... or why should it. Unless you think AMD and board partners should give them away for free.

 

[kings]

Seems like generational improvement is out of the window(compared to maxwell-pascal jump).

Maxwell to Pascal we had a shift from 28nm to 16nm, which allowed not only gains on efficiency and die space, but a good clock bump (+500Mhz).

In this generation the process is basically the same (12nm is more marketing than anything else), and the clocks also remained similar.

For performance jumps identical to Maxwell-Pascal without an relevant node shrink, it would take much larger and expensive dies, more than they already are.

 

[ppn]

12 to 7nm jump is much bigger, it is like 40nm to 12nm.

 

[xorbe]

At least this Zotac has 3xDP. The EVGA and Palit have a mind boggling 1 DP.

 

[SL2]

Here's the power consumption for the Zotac cards, in case anyone else is missing it (both stock speed):

Idle / Multi monitor / Blu-Ray / Average Gaming / Peak Gaming / Furmark

1660:    10 / 13 / 12 / 108 / 125 / 125 W
1660 Ti: 10 / 14 / 14 / 118 / 122 / 121 W

1660Ti replaced 1060/6, 1660 replaced 1060/3

20% for +128 more cuda and same gddr5 is impressive

20%, 2.5 years, 30$ less. Still, sure its not insane but its not bad either.

I have no idea how you came up with 20 %. From TPU reviews:

The 1660 is 100 / 74 = 35 % faster than 1060 3 GB, and the 1660 Ti is 113 / 83 = 36 % faster than the 1060 6 GB.

 

[W1zzard]

At least this Zotac has 3xDP. The EVGA and Palit have a mind boggling 1 DP.

I debated commenting about this internally, but we came to the conclusion that 95%+ of target audience for these cards use just a single monitor, two tops

 

[jabbadap]

I debated commenting about this internally, but we came to the conclusion that 95%+ of target audience for these cards use just a single monitor, two tops

Well yeah I would say DP,HDMI,DL-DVI is minimum but quite balanced video outputs on this tier. DP for VRR output, HDMI for TV and DL-DVI for good old >60Hz, 1440p and 1600p monitor owners.

 

[ppn]

I have no idea how you came up with 20 %. From TPU reviews:


The 1660 is 100 / 74 = 35 % faster than 1060 3 GB, and the 1660 Ti is 113 / 83 = 36 % faster than the 1060 6 GB.

1060/6 to 1660. sporting the same GDDr5.

where I live 1660Ti costs the same as 1060/6 2.5 years ago, so that gives us 35%., but this is nothing compared to 960 to 1060,

i expect 35% jump every 1,5 years. 50% every 2 years. 2,5-3 2x performance. so maybe soon we get 7nm and 2x.

 

[SL2]

1060/6 to 1660. sporting the same GDDr5.

You said the opposite in the last post.

That 35 % improvement for TWO products isn't a coincidence..
Nvidia launched two 1060 cards back then, and now they've launched two 1660. The 2060 is something else of course.

but this is nothing compared to 960 to 1060

Oh come on, that was a one off thing, more or less. The 960 on the other hand didn't bring much improvement over 660/760.

I don't understand why people keeps on expecting Nvidia to ignore the fact that there's not much competition right now?

 

[Assimilator]

*sound of AMD GPU division being curbstomped intensifies*

 

[ppn]

How is the upgrade 1060 to 1660 worth it. I used to upgrade to a 2.25 faster card every 3 years, now what. A cant go in such tiny steps and add 100% resale value for 35% improvement. That is why I opted for 2070. This card is for 1050 upgraders.

 

[SL2]

How is the upgrade 1060 to 1660 worth it.

Nobody said you should upgrade to the successor, simply based on the fact that it exists.

Just buy what you need, or can afford.

Or, like I said - I don't understand why people keeps on expecting Nvidia to ignore the fact that there's not much competition right now?

 

[Assimilator]

Or, like I said - I don't understand why people keeps on expecting Nvidia to ignore the fact that there's not much competition right now?

Because they've been spoiled in the generations past when there was competition, and they don't like that they are no longer spoiled, but they can't actually do anything about it, so instead of STFU'ing they whine incessantly on internet forums because that will apparently cause competition to happen again/NVIDIA to decide to lower prices out of the good of their hearts.

 

[champsilva]

Nice review @W1zzard, thanks for that.
Can you answer me something? How many people are involved in this review? Is just you or any sidekicks?

 

[W1zzard]

Nice review @W1zzard, thanks for that.
Can you answer me something? How many people are envolved in this review? Is just you or any sidekicks?

Just me

 

[AmioriK]

How is the upgrade 1060 to 1660 worth it. I used to upgrade to a 2.25 faster card every 3 years, now what. A cant go in such tiny steps and add 100% resale value for 35% improvement. That is why I opted for 2070. This card is for 1050 upgraders.

I agree the 1660 is not appealing for 1060 owners, honestly. It isn't terrible but not amazing either. I would say the 1660 is aimed at people on GTX 960 or earlier or maybe even 3GB 1060,s where it is around 40% faster and twice the VRAM and similar price.

The 1660 to me is the first NVIDIA GPU that has fallen under (even if only by a penny here!) the £200 mark, that I have actually felt is worth it. Even the 3GB 1060 didn't do much time sub 200 here, not until recently, and the 3GB is just a huge killer for that card. But yeah from 960 this is a beast for only 20 bucks more. admittedly it's been ages since GTX 960 but as others have pointed out; competition from Team Red isn't as fierce as it could be. I bought the 1660 to replace my RX 570, but only because of F@H. In gaming it wasnt worth it, except maybe in Metro Exodus, where it is actually 40%+ faster.

@W1zzard Any chance of Metro Exodus in future reviews? I know you have a ton of games, a great selection honestly. I was just curious as Exodus seems like a pretty heavy title and very new too^^